Book review

ARTICLE

Hair Science and Technology 

Ed. D. Van Neste, Tournai, Belgium, 2003; Skinterface sprl. (ISBN: 2-9600376-0-X.) 

Edited by Dominique Van Neste, the proceedings of the “European Hair Research Society” conference 2002 are published as a book entitled “Hair Science and Technology”. As with any proceedings, this is not a textbook providing a comprehensive presentation of current knowledge about hair and hair disease. It rather gives an update on the latest data in hair research investigated by scientists involved in hair research. The articles are not restricted to European authors, there are also American, Japanese and Korean contributions. In this spirit, “Hair Science and Technology” provides a variety of interesting new aspects in research and clinics of hair disease.
Clinicians will be interested in the chapter “Clinical approaches of hair loss” which presents plans of how to manage androgenetic alopecia, provided by two of the most experienced clinicians in this field, David Whiting and Dominique van Neste. Present-day studies on the effectiveness and side effects of finasteride and topical minoxidil in the treatment of androgenetic alopecia complete the advice for the management of this disease. In “Genetic disorders” some interesting cases of rare genetic hair and scalp diseases are presented.
A rather long chapter is dedicated to “hair evaluation”. Some interesting new approaches to measure hair density, hair diameter and hair cycle stages as well as hair loss are presented. However, some of the studies end with inadmissible conclusions. In one study, for example, parietal and occipital phototrichograms of 5 cases with postfebrile acute telogen effluvium, 6 cases of postpartal effluvium, 2 cases of drug reactions and 1 case of weight loss were compared. The authors took all the data of these pathogenetically heterogeneous diseases together and concluded that in telogen effluvium hair follicles of the anterior scalp are more vulnerable than those of the posterior scalp.
Hair researchers will find highlights in the chapters “biological investigation”, “hair color” and “alopecia areata and trichotillomania”. “Biological investigation” includes two excellent reviews, one of them about the role of neurotrophins in hair follicle morphogenesis and cycling and another one about experimental approaches to study the biological effects of androgens on the hair follicle. On the other hand there are high-quality original articles about the influence of aromatase and 3 a -hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase on androgenetic alopecia and about the expression of estrogen receptor beta in dermal papilla cells. Furthermore this chapter includes interesting original articles about unusual animal models in hair research, which may provide new clues for human hair research: the role of prolactin in the hair cycle of the mink and the antler of the red deer as an androgen target organ. “Hair color” is predominated by comprehensive but comfortably readable summaries of the latest research data on the role of pterins and Kit/SCF-signaling in hair follicle cycling and pigmentation. Furthermore it includes an excellent review about the aging pigmentary unit of the hair follicle. “Alopecia areata and trichotillomania” includes a very comprehensive review about “alopecia areata in rodent models”. This article provides an excellent introduction to the pathogenesis of the disease which is complemented by two original articles on the role of cytokines in alopecia areata.
One cannot review this book without emphasizing a particular aspect: hair in history and art. Every clinician and scientist will enjoy these papers presented by the editor himself because they make us see our daily work from a different point of view.
Taken together, “Hair Science and Technology” is a rather heterogeneous book both regarding its topics and the quality of the contributions. But it includes a great number of excellent reviews in the field of hair research and clinical management of hair diseases and therefore it is worth reading for everybody who is interested in this field. n

Reviewer 

Pia Freyschmidt-Paul,  
Department of Dermatology, Philipp University Deutschhausstraße 9, 35033 Marburg Germany 
Fax: (+ 49)-6421-286 28 98 
E-mail: freyschm@mailer.uni-marburg.de