What Can Saw Palmetto Do For Hair Regrowth?
Saw palmetto can make a big difference in your fight against hair loss. Here’s how.
Thinning hair is a problem that millions of men and women struggle with, especially later in life. However, even if you are younger, you may start to notice certain sections of the hair on your head beginning to thin out.
Premature pattern hair loss is a condition that many men and women experience, and it can definitely feel like a shot to your confidence. Don’t let hair loss discourage you, though – there are treatments that can help.
One ingredient that can be extremely effective in helping to prevent hair loss and promote hair regrowth is saw palmetto. The fruit of the saw palmetto tree acts as a natural blocker for the hormone that is the primary culprit behind male and female pattern baldness.
In this post, we’ll get into the key details about how saw palmetto can inhibit your body’s production of the hormone DHT, allowing your hair to grow longer, fuller and faster.
DHT: A Hormone That Can Turn Against You
DHT is short for dihydrotestosterone. DHT is an androgen, part of the same class of hormones as testosterone. Androgens are responsible for the development of masculine physical attributes in the bodies of both men and women.
When a young man hits puberty, the changes he experiences are triggered by DHT – it’s the hormone responsible for the growth of facial hair and pubic hair. In addition, DHT prompts the deepening of the voice.
The role of DHT in the female body is not as significant as the role of the hormone in male development. For women, DHT may play a role in the growth of pubic hair, and can also contribute to other physical changes that occur for females during puberty. However, DHT is a male sex hormone, and consequently it is found in higher amounts in the male body.
Excessive conversion of testosterone into DHT in the body of a man or woman can cause numerous problems, but for the most part the androgen serves a beneficial purpose in your body throughout your earlier few decades of life. However, as you age, production of DHT can cause the hair in certain parts of your head to thin out.
Androgenic Alopecia: The Most Common Form of Hair Loss
As you get older, your body’s conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone can negatively affect your hair’s growth rate. Your hair is always in one of the three stages of its growth cycle – the anagen, catagen and telogen stages. In the anagen stage, your hair gets longer.
However, DHT can limit the length of the anagen stage in your hair’s growth cycle, inhibiting your hair’s ability to grow.
DHT can also shrink and constrict your hair follicles, thinning out your hair in vulnerable parts of your head. This hair loss does not cause you to go completely bald – some parts of your head continue to grow hair normally.
This type of hair loss, where certain parts of your hair get thinned out while others continue to grow is known as androgenic alopecia (AGA).
Androgenic alopecia is more commonly known as pattern hair loss, sometimes called male pattern baldness or female pattern baldness. The condition affects 50% of men over the age of 50 and 25% of women in the same age range. This makes it the most common form of hair loss for adults, one that genetically prone individuals are highly likely to deal with, especially males.
Reading these facts and statistics about AGA might be discouraging, but don’t let the prevalence of hair loss get you down.
DHT is the primary cause of androgenic alopecia, and, luckily, there are ingredients that can naturally inhibit your body’s production of DHT when you include them in your hair care regimen. These ingredients are called DHT blockers, and saw palmetto is one of them.
What is Saw Palmetto?
Saw palmetto is a type of tree, and its fruit has natural DHT-blocking properties. The extract of saw palmetto fruit can have major benefits for your hair and scalp if you are dealing with androgenic alopecia.
One of the most notable pros of using saw palmetto on thinning hair is that the ingredient can reduce the shrinkage of follicles caused by DHT. As your follicles expand to their normal size, your hair can return to its natural growth cycle. This means your hair will spend more time in the anagen (growth) stage of its growth cycle and less time in the telogen (rest) stage.
How To Use Saw Palmetto For Hair Loss
Saw palmetto is best used to treat hair loss as an ingredient in a topical hair treatment. This topical treatment can be a shampoo, conditioner, or spray. Because saw palmetto is a powerful DHT blocker, we included it in our proprietary blend of DHT-blocking ingredients that serves as the basis for our shampoo and conditioner, as well as our follicle activator spray.
A growth-promoting shampoo that includes saw palmetto is most effective when it is used to wash your hair on a daily basis. Shampoo with saw palmetto and other DHT-blocking ingredients can take some time to yield visible results. However, the results that do finally come your way are well worth the wait.
Saw palmetto’s positive impact on hair growth is well-backed by science and evidence, and it can be even more effective when paired with other DHT blockers.
What Are The Best Ingredients To Pair With Saw Palmetto?
Saw palmetto is far from the only natural DHT blocker out there. Our blend of DHT-blocking ingredients also includes the powerful combination listed below.
All of these ingredients can work wonders for your hair:
- Caffeine is a natural DHT blocker that works to boost your hair’s cellular metabolism.
- Pumpkin seed extract can inhibit your body’s conversion of testosterone into DHT, stopping the effects of androgenic alopecia before they can begin.
- Hairgenyl is made from an extract of the azalea flower. It’s an incredibly beneficial ingredient for your hair follicles that helps to activate the dermal papilla cells in your scalp for improved hair growth.
- Planoxia, also known as Korean red ginseng, helps to move your hair from its rest phase into its growth phase, getting your growth cycle back on track after it has been disrupted by DHT.
- Capixyl is a DHT blocker that can boost your body’s production of the protein collagen, which strengthens the skin cells in your scalp, leading to a healthier head of hair.
- Redensyl is another DHT-blocking ingredient that directly impacts your hair’s growth cycle, helping to increase the length of your hair’s anagen phase and decrease the length of its telogen phase.
Combining saw palmetto with other helpful DHT blockers is one of the best things you can do for your hair when you start to notice it thinning. The sooner you start working to counteract your hair loss, the better.
Don’t let hair loss rule your life, steal your confidence, or make you feel discouraged. Diligently using the right ingredients can make a huge difference in your hair’s ability to grow, and there is always hope for improving your hair’s health.
To learn more about saw palmetto and the other DHT-blocking, growth-promoting ingredients mentioned in this post, head to the groMD blog for more articles, info and tips related to hair loss prevention and regrowth.
Dr. Amir Yazdan, MD, is an internationally renowned hair transplant surgeon, expert guest on Dr. Phil and The Doctors, creator of the GroMD hair restoration product line, ISHRS member, accredited member of the IAHRS and a visceral advocate for patient care. Learn more about Dr. Yazdan or read rave reviews from his patients.
Sources:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/039463201202500435