Study: Licorice, peppermint DECREASE sebum secretion

[aussiedavid]

I'm giving the peppermint a go. Have been applying a peppermint hyrodsol solution with 1% clove oil for the past 9 days. I'll update if my hair starts to fall out. I was initially getting a stinging sensation when I applied the solution, but that is not happening now (I'm waiting longer after I shower to apply it). I've been sleeping on white pillowcases and inspecting the pillow case every morning......not a single hair today, and very few (<5) every day. I think that's normal though for my current hair phase. I have just come out of a shedding phase and have a heap of regrowth happening. I'll monitor the regrowth closely to see if any of that falls out with the peppermint solution.

At the moment i"m more concerned as to the reason why the hair on my legs and arms is falling out! I'm getting a heap of tests done to try and determine what's going on with my body.

 

[CCS]

CCS,

Peppermint oil is in the following hairloss products:

Paul Mitchell LemonSage "Thickening" Shampoo
Paul Mitchell Tea Tree shampoo
American Crew Thickening (as mentha piperta--or
peppermint's latin name)
Tricomin Shampoo
Tricomin Conditioner
HairCycle Shampoo (Dr. John Cole's hairloss
shampoo, he's a hair transplant-surgeon)
Jason's Shampoo line has peppermint oil
Alpecin SHampoo has "menthol" which can be
synthetic.
I think Nioxin has peppermint or spearmint in it, but dont remember after all these years.



I really doubt there would be any negative effect on hair that would have eluded all the researchers formultaing those concoctions. But whatever.................

would you rotate those with nizoral?

 

[CCS]

MB, do you think there is a therapudic amount of these oils in the shampoos? And since so many essential oils seem to work, what makes you so sure they are not just in there for the smell?

 

[Jkkezh]

I believe menthol also acts as a penetration enhancer, which could be a good reason to put it in a topical....I doubt they put it in there for it's anti-androgenic effects, since it is not a well known and well studied effect.

 

[CCS]

Would the 'Essential Oil Licorice' be alright to use?

where do you buy it?

 

[michael barry]

Aussie Dave,
What does the clove oil smell like? Good, bad, nothing? Its interesting........



CCS,
My point with the peppermint oil in shampoo post was that it is hard to imagine it being "bad" for hair when its in all that stuff. Especially thickening and hairloss shampoos like tricomin. People could and should rotate whatever floats their boat with nizoral.

..........As far is "is there therapuetic levels of the oils in shampoos", I dont know, but if one feels that cooling sting there probably is enough to help. One could always add a smigen of the oil to the shampoo. By the way.............one the coal tar,,,,the patent said that it inhibits a co-factor enzyme that produces the extra hydrogen atom that alpha five reductase uses to make DHT from testosterone with. Couple of times a week couldn't hurt, and you could even mix it up with nizoral in your hand and use both together on your nizoral days (which for me is twice a week). If one percent nizoral is enough to help, if you can "feel" the mint, there is probably enough peppermint oil to be helpful to some extent also. However, the nizoral cream pics were more impressive than any shampoo pics Ive ever seen...................so of course a topical would be better.

 

[CCS]

yeah, the peppermint would also be good for covering up the diesel smell. Do you have a link to the coal tar shampoo study?

 

[aussiedavid]

Aussie Dave,
What does the clove oil smell like? Good, bad, nothing? Its interesting........

My solution has a definite peppermint smell, so the clove oil isn't noticeable. In any case, I don't mind the smell of clove oil on it's own. I've simply bought 'peppermint hydrosol' from an essential oils company and added 1% Clove Oil. I'm away from home at the moment, but when I get back I'm going to add some Lavendar as well.

 

[GlasgowCelt]

Valid point CCStudent. You could have handled it better but point taken none-the-less. Best to keep this thread on topic so... (nothing worse than an informative thread going off-topic)

I've always thought there was a natural remedy awaiting out there! How bad is your hairloss MB? And is there anyone out there that would be willing to use a peppermint/licorice only topical on a bald spot on their head and assess the results after say 4 months?

TheCelt

 

[CCS]

No one reply to that guy. He needs to use the edit button and delete his off topic post from this thread. He needs to put it in the experimental section. This thread is for people who want to buy licorice and other stuff.

 

[bcapop]

Don't be such a wiseass collegechemistrystudent :thumbdown2:

 

[HARM1]

Does H&S have peppemint in it ?

 

[CCS]

you can put it in there if you want. H&S was not synergistic with minoxidil, and it did increase sebum production. So I'd avoid it.

 

[michael barry]

Head and Shoulders used to not have menthol in it when it was studied for hairloss. Menthol is a fairly recent addition to Head and Shoulders.



The T-gel was used in one finasteride study thats been talked about on hairloss-chat sites for a few years. It was used with the placebo group that had a strange effect of not losing hair, but staying around baseline for a time, even after its discontinuance. I dont have a link, but have merely read about it being spoken of. I haven't seen it personally. Bryan might be able to link it or discuss it.

 

[CCS]

I read on a rosacea site that licorice reduces rosacea by reducing the excess blood vessels in the skin. I heard EGCG and curcumin both inhibit angiogenesis. I'm starting to think all anti-oxidants do, at least in cancer cases. I remember Bryan or Doctor addressing this issue before, and saying it does not affect normal blood vessels, just the cancer ones. So I'm going to give the EGCG and curcumin a go, at least until I get that licorice. I'll also put ascorbyl palmitate in my shampoo. Dr Proctor says 0.5-3% is the best for most topicals.

 

[chris55]

I was just searching around the internet and found this on licochalcone (a flavonoid from licorice root).

Modulation of bcl-2 and cytotoxicity by licochalcone-A, a novel estrogenic flavonoid:

"Herbal therapies are commonly used by patients with cancer, despite little understanding about their clinical and biological activity. We recently demonstrated that the herbal combination PC-SPES, which contains licorice root, had potent estrogenic activity in vitro, in animals, and in patients with prostate cancer. Licochalcone-A (LA) is one flavonoid extracted from licorice root with antiparasitic and anti-tumor activity, but the effect on the human estrogen receptor and mechanism of anti-tumor activity is unknown. Recent studies demonstrated that the mechanism of cytotoxic effect by some estrogens may involve modulation of the anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2. In the present study, we determined if LA had estrogenic activity, anti-tumor activity, and modulated the apoptotic protein bcl-2 in human cell lines derived from acute leukemia, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. A yeast growth-based assay under the control of the human estrogen receptor (hER) demonstrated that LA was a phytoestrogen. A cell viability assay demonstrated that LA had anti-tumor activity in all cell lines tested and enhanced the effect of paclitaxel and vinblastine chemotherapy. LA induced apoptosis in MCF-7 and hair loss-60 cell lines, as demonstrated by cleavage of PARP, the substrate of ICE-like proteases. Immunoblot analysis demonstrated that LA decreased the anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2 and altered the bcl-2/bax ratio in favor of apoptosis. In contrast, the parent compound chalcone or estradiol did not decrease bc1-2 expression. Therefore, these data demonstrate that LA is a phytoestrogen with anti-tumor activity and is capable of modulating bcl-2 protein expression. The modulation of bcl-2 may be dependent on specific structural differences between LA and the parent compound chalcone and independent of LA estrogenicity."

It seems licorice could possibly decrease bcl-2 (increase in bcl-2 shuts down hair growth by putting the hair follicle into catagen/telogen phase). Who knows if this modulation of bcl-2/bax ratio has the same effect on hair follicles, but thought it was interesting.

 

[chris55]

but it also says it puts it in favor of apoptosis, which i believe is bad for hair. Anyone care to comment?

 

[mulder]

Hey guys, mint and licorice tea taste pretty damn good...try mixing it with green tea too.

 

[CCS]

but it also says it puts it in favor of apoptosis, which i believe is bad for hair. Anyone care to comment?

Most anti-oxidants seem to inhibit angiogenesis, yet they grow hair. Grapeseed extract inhibits aromatase, but still grows hair. Gamma linoleic acid kills cancer cells, but not normal cells. I think a lot of these bad affects don't happen to healthy cells.

If licorice is estrogenic, that means I don't need lavendar. The only reason I'd also want mint is just because it is fat soluble and may penetrate the skin better than the licorice.

 

[Armando Jose]

I was just searching around the internet and found this on licochalcone (a flavonoid from licorice root).

Natural products have a lot of principles, including controversias among them. It is good and normal, the key is its concentration, and possibly all are necessary in order to obtain good results. Synergy & Inhibition

Armando