Niacinamide Inhibits Hair Growth

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So topical and not oral? I get my B vitamins usually through vitamin waters or supplements and occasionally fruits/more natural sources.

If it really affects hair topically, maybe I'd best stick with just vitamin waters and such? Can get 100-200% RDA through those easily with 2, 3, 5, 6 and 12.
 

haidut

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According to this study from 2018, topical niacinamide inhibits hair growth. I find it really interesting because there are tons of shampoos and lotions with niacinamide (like Alpecin) which offer hair growth.

Here is the study: https://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022-202X(17)33355-9/fulltext

What are your thoughts on this, @haidut ?

I am pretty sure we have discussed this study on the forum before. They used 2 concentrations, 200 uM/L and 10 mmol/L. Both of these are high but the latter is absurdly high. To achieve that concentration inside the scalp you'd need to ingest 50g - 60g nicotinamide in a single dose! Maintaining this concentration for 6 days is even more absurd and likely not achievable in practice for any human. Even then, it was only the absurdly high millimolar concentration that inhibited hair growth. The lower concentration did not.

"...Microdissected human scalp HFs were obtained with institutional approval and written informed patient consent (Langan et al., 2015). These were cultured in the presence of 200 μmol/L or 10 mmol/L (see Supplementary Materials online) nicotinamide for 6 days, and key human hair biology read-out parameters were assessed (Kloepper et al., 2010, Ramot et al., 2014). HFs treated with nicotinamide (10 mmol/L) showed significantly decreased hair shaft production (Figure 1a) and entered catagen more rapidly than vehicle control HFs (Figure 1b, and for example staging see Supplementary Figure S1)."

The study title is incorrect and I can't help but think that the title was twisted on purpose. The title says "Topically applied nicotinamide..." but the study was actually about culturing cells in a petri dish. So, it is an in-vitro study and not a topical study. Big difference because in an vitro study the concentrations of B3 used have to be interpreted as intracellular/systemic concentrations. Hence the massive doses of nicotinamide needed to achieve 10 mmol/L concentrations, and, again, maintaining these absurd concentrations for 6 days begs the question of what exactly is this study trying to show. If it is trying to show that a toxic concentration of nicotinamide maintained for almost a week will hinder hair growth then it is valid study, albeit pointless as we can guess those results ourselves. But if it claims to show real-world implications of nicotinamide treatment that have relevance for every-day use and are actually achievable by topical treatment, then the study is bogus and likely done on purpose to make nicotinamide look bad.
 

ebs

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I've been using niacinamide as skincare for years now and haven't noticed the slightest decrease in facial hair and I have lots of it growing well up my cheeks.

I just started with a 10% serum. Time will tell whether I lose the beard.
 
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Batbat

Batbat

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I am pretty sure we have discussed this study on the forum before. They used 2 concentrations, 200 uM/L and 10 mmol/L. Both of these are high but the latter is absurdly high. To achieve that concentration inside the scalp you'd need to ingest 50g - 60g nicotinamide in a single dose! Maintaining this concentration for 6 days is even more absurd and likely not achievable in practice for any human. Even then, it was only the absurdly high millimolar concentration that inhibited hair growth. The lower concentration did not.

"...Microdissected human scalp HFs were obtained with institutional approval and written informed patient consent (Langan et al., 2015). These were cultured in the presence of 200 μmol/L or 10 mmol/L (see Supplementary Materials online) nicotinamide for 6 days, and key human hair biology read-out parameters were assessed (Kloepper et al., 2010, Ramot et al., 2014). HFs treated with nicotinamide (10 mmol/L) showed significantly decreased hair shaft production (Figure 1a) and entered catagen more rapidly than vehicle control HFs (Figure 1b, and for example staging see Supplementary Figure S1)."

The study title is incorrect and I can't help but think that the title was twisted on purpose. The title says "Topically applied nicotinamide..." but the study was actually about culturing cells in a petri dish. So, it is an in-vitro study and not a topical study. Big difference because in an vitro study the concentrations of B3 used have to be interpreted as intracellular/systemic concentrations. Hence the massive doses of nicotinamide needed to achieve 10 mmol/L concentrations, and, again, maintaining these absurd concentrations for 6 days begs the question of what exactly is this study trying to show. If it is trying to show that a toxic concentration of nicotinamide maintained for almost a week will hinder hair growth then it is valid study, albeit pointless as we can guess those results ourselves. But if it claims to show real-world implications of nicotinamide treatment that have relevance for every-day use and are actually achievable by topical treatment, then the study is bogus and likely done on purpose to make nicotinamide look bad.

Thanks for your response, @haidut ! I find these lines very interesting:

"... Results showed that HFs treated with topical nicotinamide (10 mmol/L) entered and progressed through catagen faster than vehicle-treated skin"
"...we tested a modified topical nicotinamide formulation (i.e., 1%, matching 10 mmol/L nicotinamide or 4%, the common cosmetic concentration, using a hydrosome-based vehicle, which is a clinical grade vehicle that promotes skin penetration" "...the nicotinamide-hydrosome preparations (1% and 4%) significantly increased the number of catagen-like HFs in organ-cultured human scalp skin" "Moreover, topical nicotinamide (4%) also decreased the intrafollicular protein immunoreactivity for keratin 85, a surrogate marker for hair shaft production, showing that hair growth inhibition was maintained using this vehicle."

I'm really bad at understanding these units of measurement, so, have the topical formulations (1% and 4%) big niacinamide doses, or are they normal. The study says that 4% is the common cosmetic concentration. How many drops should I take, for example, with Energin to achieve these concetrations?
 

haidut

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Thanks for your response, @haidut ! I find these lines very interesting:

"... Results showed that HFs treated with topical nicotinamide (10 mmol/L) entered and progressed through catagen faster than vehicle-treated skin"
"...we tested a modified topical nicotinamide formulation (i.e., 1%, matching 10 mmol/L nicotinamide or 4%, the common cosmetic concentration, using a hydrosome-based vehicle, which is a clinical grade vehicle that promotes skin penetration" "...the nicotinamide-hydrosome preparations (1% and 4%) significantly increased the number of catagen-like HFs in organ-cultured human scalp skin" "Moreover, topical nicotinamide (4%) also decreased the intrafollicular protein immunoreactivity for keratin 85, a surrogate marker for hair shaft production, showing that hair growth inhibition was maintained using this vehicle."

I'm really bad at understanding these units of measurement, so, have the topical formulations (1% and 4%) big niacinamide doses, or are they normal. The study says that 4% is the common cosmetic concentration. How many drops should I take, for example, with Energin to achieve these concetrations?

The study was ex vivo, which is very similar to in-vitro. This is quite different from in-vivo study whee they would take alive animals and place the solution on their skin. Here is an in-vivo study, and in humans too, that shows topical application of niacin solution may treat female-pattern alopecia, which is very similar to the male type with the horse-shoe pattern and considered to be driven by the same factors.
A pilot study evaluating the efficacy of topically applied niacin derivatives for treatment of female pattern alopecia. - PubMed - NCBI
 

jackson1

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So, unlike the first poster @Batbat 's title, it was 'NICOTINAMIDE' but not 'NIACINAMIDE' that was used in the study, huh?
As far as I can tell, they are obviously two different substances.

Then it means 'NIACINAMIDE', at this point, has nothing to do with worsening hair loss, right?
 

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