446 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTSX MR. A. W. PoN•) ß Did you carry out any biopsies of femal•e-balding scalps ? Do the vascular and histological changes parallel those which• occur on bald male scalps ? T•E L•C?URER ß We performed a few histological examinations,of female • scalps, but we were unable to find any significant deviations-, in their- vascularization. M•. L. DF.t•DMA• ' IS scalp massage a good or a bad thing ?' T•E LECTURER' It will by no means be harmful, anti may be useful,. but the extent of its being useful is questionable. MR. A. FOSTER ß Is the onset of the alopecia characterized by an acceler- ated loss of hair, or is it just a failure of the replacement of the, usual shedder hair ? Is there a relationship between the two ? ThE LECTURER' There is no doubt that there are patients with an: accelerated hair cycle, who shed their hair early, but replace it completely• and there are patients who do not complain of hair loss, bul where the- sparseness of their hair is permanently increasing. Even pronounced daily loss of hair should never be confused with alopecia, and increased • 10ss of hair should not necessarily be considered as a symptom which inevitably leads to alopecia. MR. B. N. B•ocH ß Did any of your female patients suffer from vitamive deficiency, such as vitamin A ? THE LECtUReR ' We never looked for vitamin deficiency because it is our belief that today, at least in Europe and in our own co'ua•y,. vitamin, deficiency based on malnutrition may be excluded. In addition,, prior to visiting our clinic these patients were usually treated by their' •octors,. albeit unsuccessfully, with high doses of all kinds of vitamins. This appears to provide the evidence that there is no underlying vitamin deficiency. DR. H. W. H•oTT ß We heard that this hair condition is irreversible, but you would probably agree that the condition improves in the sense that the fall-out stops. Has any work, such as urinary analysis, been done oa patients in whom the hair fall has stopped in order to determine, if there is some other factor which has perhaps not yet been recognized as, a reason for this condition ? T•E LECTURER: The only abnormal finding which we etetected' was an increased excretion of androgens, and we know from the hirsute patients, in whom increased urinary androgen values were found, that this increased excretion can be influenced and diminished. If similarly increased values of urinary androgens will be found constantly in female patients with diffuse alopecia, there will also be some hope of therapeutically intt.uencing this disorder.

J. $oc. Cosmetic Chemists 15 447-457 (1964) ¸ 1964 :Society of Cos,,•tic Che,n•sts of Great Britain THE ACTIVITY OF THE HAIR FOLLICLE F. J. EBLING, M.Sc., Ph.D., M.I.Biol.* _Presented at the Symposium on "Hair", at Brighton, Sussex, on 16th April 11164. The activity oi the hair lollicle is cyclic, and the t¾1•e ot hair protluced 'may change during ageing or as a result ot hormonal stimulation. Cyclic activity is controlled l•artly by intrinsic and l•artly by systemic •actors such as hormones, and the l•roduction ot these can be influenced by environmental or l•sychological changes. The evidence •om animal experimenkq is reviewed and its relevance to hair growth in man is discussed. Hair loss in man is described in relation to l•hysiological and anatomical changes in the hair follicle. Hair is no more than an ephemeral glory dyed, waved and groomed, locus of the cosmetictans' art and cynosure of admiring eyes, it is soon shed or ,cut off, a disarranged, unwanted cylinder of dead keratin. No apology is made, therefore, for confining this contribution to the living root which, young and healthy so faithfully repairs the cosmetic mistake, ageing and infirm so stubbornly resists therapeutic attack. The follicle which produces the hair is a stocking-like inpushing of the surface epidermis, ensheathing at its base, like a press-stud, the dermal papilla. This papilla is surrounded by a matrix of actively dividing cells, and thus a tube-like mass of kerati- nizing cells is pushed outwards to form the hair. This crude description does not do justice to the fine intricacies of follicular architecture or hair structure, but I am not concerned with these I propose to describe the ,behaviour of the follicle, to discuss what controls its activity and to try to assess what may be learned from experimental research. THE HAIR MOULT CYCLE The activity of individual hair follicles does not continue throughout life. It is intermittent hairs reach a maximum length, fall out, and are replaced by new ones. At the end of the active phase (anagen) the middle region of the hair bulb starts to become restricted and above this restriction the base of the hair becomes expanded and keratinized to form a "club" .*Department of Zoology, The University, Sheffield 10, Yorks. 447