HAIR LOSS FROM SEBUM

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Abstract
IN PREVIOUS publications my colleagues and I have described a group of unsaturated compounds which cause temporary loss of hair in laboratory animals, with disappearance of the hair shafts and of most of the follicles, marked acanthosis, and anomalies in keratinization. The new depilatory compounds included the synthetic dimers (intermediary polymers) of chloroprene,1 allyl laurate, allyl benzoate, allyl diphenyl acetate, and the naturally occurring vitamin A2 and squalene.3 With the exception of vitamin A, all these substances inhibited the free sulfhydryl groups of tissue proteins. We ascribed the depilatory effect to the -C=C-groups in the molecules which combine with free sulfhydryl groups. Two types of representatives of these compounds, namely the chloroprene dimers4 and vitamin A5 previously have been shown to cause loss of hair in human subjects as well. Among these compounds squalene occupies a special position. Squalene, an unsaturated hydrocarbon, is