P.A.B.A. Vitamin

[Esprit]

If anyone has read about this relating to hair, and it's reversal of grey hair, don't believe it. I've been on it for several months and can tell you it's not true. It's original use, I can't tell you, but there was a lot on the net a while back about this reversing grey hair to your natural colour. It doesn't!

 

[Cassin]

Using something like PABA would take a long time to notice it working. I wouldn't expect it to reverse gray hair but it can certainly help slow things down over time. Even propecia takes more than 4 months!

 

[Esprit]

I've been on it for about 7 or 8 months, and take it every day. Looking at the roots of the greys, there is no change. Do many others take it and had any results? I wonder what good it does for other things if at all, ie the real use it's intended for?

 

[vauxall]

No. it won't reverse gray hair becasue the latter is due to methionine oxidation, not loss of melanine:

Senile hair graying: H2O2-mediated oxidative stress affects human hair color by blunting methionine sulfoxide repair.
Wood JM, Decker H, Hartmann H, Chavan B, Rokos H, Spencer JD, Hasse S, Thornton MJ, Shalbaf M, Paus R, Schallreuter KU.
Clinical and Experimental Dermatology/Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1DP, West Yorkshire, UK.
Senile graying of human hair has been the subject of intense research since ancient times. Reactive oxygen species have been implicated in hair follicle melanocyte apoptosis and DNA damage. Here we show for the first time by FT-Raman spectroscopy in vivo that human gray/white scalp hair shafts accumulate hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) in millimolar concentrations. Moreover, we demonstrate almost absent catalase and methionine sulfoxide reductase A and B protein expression via immunofluorescence and Western blot in association with a functional loss of methionine sulfoxide (Met-S=O) repair in the entire gray hair follicle. Accordingly, Met-S=O formation of Met residues, including Met 374 in the active site of tyrosinase, the key enzyme in melanogenesis, limits enzyme functionality, as evidenced by FT-Raman spectroscopy, computer simulation, and enzyme kinetics, which leads to gradual loss of hair color. Notably, under in vitro conditions, Met oxidation can be prevented by L-methionine. In summary, our data feed the long-voiced, but insufficiently proven, concept of H(2)O(2)-induced oxidative damage in the entire human hair follicle, inclusive of the hair shaft, as a key element in senile hair graying, which does not exclusively affect follicle melanocytes. This new insight could open new strategies for intervention and reversal of the hair graying process.
PMID: 19237503 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

[Esprit]

There are plenty of stories about mice on PABA who get darker hair, reverses gray etc, but I'm inclined to agree with you..

 

[vauxall]

There are plenty of stories about mice on PABA who get darker hair, reverses gray etc, but I'm inclined to agree with you..

PABA + copper + tyrosine are supposed to increase melamin content and incidentally darken your (white) skin. Now probably for a young dude with good hair and no evident over-oxidation (read: ageing) the above mentioned vitamins and amino acid can improve skin and hair color, but for a middle aged guy like me with some gray hair and loose skin I think this can only give me black spots an my skin and no thank you very much.

I think the only thing we can do is to restore and improve catalase (but how?) and glutathione peroxidase. Than should shunt methionine oxidation.