Boundaries are always being pushed in health care by people wanting to try random alternatives that may help alleviate a condition.
Surprisingly, injecting botox to help in treating androgenetic hair loss is one of those treatments that some patients have tried. But the question arises that are there any studies done?
English and Luiz carried out a systematic review of the use of botunilum toxin in androgenic hair loss in 2022 which included 5 studies. Although the studies looked encouraging with the outcome, there were no control groups of patients and the total number of people in the studies was small. The frequency of injections spanned from 3 weeks to 5 months.
The exact reason for the encouraging outcome is not clear. It was postulated that perhaps the botox relaxed the muscle tissues within the area injected in scalp which lead to easing of pressure and hence improved blood flow. It is thought that it could be due to botox reducing the secretion of a local mediator TGF.
This is untested territory and until strong, large scale studies are done to prove that botox may help with hair loss, it is sensible to avoid botox injections to treat female or male pattern alopecia.