While research concerning hair loss has focused primarily on the involvement of hormones, there is a good deal of discussion about another concept, especially on Web sites selling products claiming to regrow hair. According to these sources, the status of the hair involves the issue of blood supply to the hair follicle. Some hair-care companies want you to believe that reduced or impeded blood flow is the primary factor affecting hair growth. Improve the blood flow, they say, and you should be able to improve hair growth. As logical as that sounds, it doesn’t work that way in reality.
Although an adequate oxygenated blood supply is necessary for any and all of the tissues of the body to function properly, not all disorders of the body (including hair loss) are related to decreased blood flow. Consider this: When hair follicles are transplanted from the back of the head to the front they do not become thin and they do not fall out. There seems to be plenty of blood flow in the same bald areas where the newly transplanted hair thrives. If the areas that became bald were damaged as a result of poor blood flow, then the transplanted hair follicles should suffer the same fate—yet they don’t. If anything, the new hair becomes beautifully thick and healthy. Plus when your scalp suffers a wound, it bleeds, and profusely; if that weren’t the case then perhaps there would be a more solid argument about blood flow and hair loss (Source: British Journal of Dermatology, February 2004, pages 186-194). Needless to say, this is one example of a hair-loss solution that sounds plausible, but the facts paint a different picture.