azelaic acid works in the test tube at certain concentrations. They do not say if these concentrations are safe or even attainable in living scalp cells, and you follicles are down deep, though near the pore highway.
i think bryan said that tests have shown it does not work in vivo, but I don't remember. maybe he just said no tests show it works in vivio. he has and is familiar with every study on every drug about hair loss, as well as other experiments.
many chemicals stop the production of DHT. powerful acids and bases and cianide probably do too. The quesition is whether they do it at a concentration that is perfectly safe for the cells, meaning it does not stop other cellular processes. I really hate these studies that say "at high enough concentrations, this drug inhibits DHT". We already know that is true of every chemical.
Then there are hair growth studies that graft balding scalp onto mice that don't have immune systems. They apply a drug topically, don't use a control, and then point out that it grew hair on smooth bald scalp. All this proves is that bald scalp smooth as long as this case is not permenantly hairless. it does not prove the hair treatment works, since these mice have no immune system, and we know that suppressing the immune system in organ donation recipients grows more hair on their head than any other treatments.
