The whiff of sandalwood makes the human head sprout more hair

18 September 2018

By Yvaine Ye

There are all sorts of potential treatments for hair loss, including pills, injections, and even the suggestion of plucking the hairs that remain. Now comes a new idea: the odour of synthetic sandalwood may promote hair growth.

The nose is the obvious place to look for the olfactory receptors that detect odours, but researchers now know that similar receptors are found in many parts of the body. This includes the skin around hair follicles, where cells produce an olfactory receptor called OR2AT4 that plays a role in various physiological responses, such as fixing a cut.

Ralf Paus at the University of Manchester, UK, and his colleagues say there is already good evidence that forming a new hair uses a similar set of molecular tools as forming a patch of new skin after a wound. This made them wonder whether activating OR2AT4 could promote hair growth.

To test the idea, the team used samples of human scalp donated by volunteers who had undergone facelift procedures, and immersed them in synthetic sandalwood odorant for six days. They chose the synthetic sandalwood scent because it is an odour molecule particularly likely to bind to the OR2AT4 receptor.

More:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2179973-the-whiff-of-sandalwood-makes-the-human-head-sprout-more-hair/