My theory on retrograde
Keen to get some feedback/ thoughts
I’ve come up with this by large part as a result of my own experience/ the presentation of my hairloss, let me know if you guys have similar symptoms or if some things are not the same.
In ophiasis alopecia the nape and sides are the only things to go, fundamentally this is because for different reasons, those follicles are more vulnerable to cytokine attacks. With aga comes a different mix of the products in sebum, a study tracking scalp microbiomes and lipid profiles (PMC8536999) discovered that sebum triglyceride and palmitic acid contents are significantly higher in the AGA group compared to healthy controls. These are the precursors for cytokines. My theory is that the reason retrograde happens is because the follicles on the sides and nape are for us more vulnerable to these cytokines and respond very differently then for example on the top of our scalp. So the difference in density between the sides and the top can be explained by greater vulnerability to cytokines. As far as I can tell, there is no reason why in a few highly vulnerable people, this response to cytokines can be much much worse then for most people and if we can fix that, we can fix our retrograde. This is where an amazing new product: topical roflumilast comes in. This shuts down inflammation ie cytokine attacks. I see it possible that this could be the reason for retrograde. I personally have a crazy itch, an itch that improves on finasteride and an itch that goes away after a shampoo of the scalp (which shampoo doesn’t matter). All of these fit with my little hypothesis.
Let me know what you guys think!