Hair: Worth Its Weight in Gold

The editorial discusses the cultural and economic value of hair, referencing historical and contemporary examples of its significance. It mentions the biblical story of Absalom, who had to cut his heavy hair, and the modern practice at Indian pilgrimage centers where hair is sacrificed, weighed, and exported globally, generating significant revenue. The article also highlights the criminal activity of hair theft in an Asian country, where women's hair was cut and sold on the grey market. In the context of hair loss treatment, the editorial notes that hair keratins are a valuable source of L-Cysteine for the food and pharmaceutical industries. It describes how dermatotrichologists evaluate hair fall, including the hair pull test, hair counts, and measuring hair shaft diameter. The editorial emphasizes the importance of hair volume, which is proportional to weight, and mentions that hair biologists are now weighing hair to assess the efficacy of hair growth drugs like finasteride. This method has shown that finasteride significantly increases scalp hair weight in men with androgenetic alopecia, suggesting that hair weighing could become a standard in trichological research.