Stress of any kind, including childbirth, emotional trauma, and surgery, can trigger telogen effluvium, the medical name for stress-induced hair loss. difficultand it’s especially difficult for women. “Women these days have so much going for them: they’re juggling careers, family, relationships, and more. This stress can take a toll,” Hardik Doshi, M.D., head surgeon at Ample, a hair restoration clinic in New York City, tells SELF.
While SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, does not specifically cause hair loss, infections are well known to trigger telogen effluvium. “Any time the body is under stress, whether physiological or not, this can affect hair growth, from the number, thickness, quality, and strands,” explains Natasha Atanaskova-Mesinkowska, MD, vice chair for clinical research in the Department of Dermatology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine.
Naturally, the hair industry responded. Today, drugstore shelves are filled with bottles and gadgets that promise to increase hair density, reduce hair loss, and make your Rapunzel dreams come true. Sephora has an entire section dedicated to tackling thinning hair, and the hashtag #HairLoss has racked up millions of views on TikTok. Even Jennifer Lopez has jumped on the trend: the singer partnered with telehealth company Hers to launch a hair treatment kit in 2019.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had this many options. Unlike the skin-care market, which encompasses prescription drugs, injectables, and in-office treatments (in addition to the things that have long existed in the beauty aisle), there hasn’t been much on the market for hair that can improve your appearance as you age. “Hair is the next frontier,” Dr. Mesinkowska tells SELF.
So far, the FDA has approved only one topical hair loss treatment for male pattern baldness, the most common form of hair loss in women: minoxidil (popularized under the brand name Rogaine). But now your Instagram feed is awash with competing products, many of which may seem a bit shady. “It’s a very emotive issue, which is why it’s so easy to promote products that purportedly help reverse hair loss,” Kelly Dobos, a cosmetic chemist and adjunct professor of cosmetic science at the University of Cincinnati, tells SELF. Further complicating the issue is the fact that there are a multitude of potential causes for hair loss, from nutritional deficiencies to genetics, making effective treatment even more difficult.
Beware of “scientific cleaning”
Many of today’s most heavily promoted products use catchy terms like “science-based,” “clinically proven” and “scientifically formulated” in their marketing copy. But Romanowski says any brand can conduct a study and make a catchy claim regardless of the content. “Whether the results are positive or negative doesn’t really matter — you can just say ‘clinically tested.'” Terms like “research-backed” can also simply mean that the product was formulated by a cosmetic chemist with research experience, Romanowski says.
Over-the-counter supplements are a glaring example of this misleading tactic. As SELF previously reported, the FDA doesn’t regulate the efficacy of dietary supplements, so it’s surprisingly easy for manufacturers to slap these buzzwords on bottles. That means brands don’t have to prove their products work as advertised before they can be sold. Some popular hair growth supplements, which cost nearly $100 a month, are touted as “clinically proven,” but there’s no standard definition for making such claims, and it’s up to brands’ interpretation. That’s why it’s so important to keep this big caveat in mind: supplements (including biotin gummies, for example) “are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease,” according to the FDA. In other words, no matter how grandiose promises they make or imply, they can’t promise to treat severe hair loss because they haven’t gone through the rigorous research and extensive approval process that the FDA requires for pharmaceutical treatments.
