“It’s like a mini tanning bed for your fingers. ”

Artifical nails are a $6.3 billion dollar industry. There are nearly 60,000 nail salons in the US — 5 times as many Starbucks! Many of these nail salons use UV light, which might increase the risk of skin cancer on your fingers.

Researchers from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas noticed that some of their patients with skin cancer on their fingers (an uncommon place to get skin cancer) reported having had UV light for artificial nails. Such UV light has been shown to damage cells’ DNA (the genetic code in all cells) and to cause mutations that lead to skin cancer.

There are several types of nails. The most popular is acrylic, a two part process where a liquid monomer is combined with a powder polymer. It hardens in seconds, but takes an hour for the final hardness to set. Ultraviolet light is used to speed up the hardening.

A second type of artificial nail is the UV-gel. These are more flexible and have a high-gloss finish than acrylics. As their name suggests, ultraviolet light is used to harden the nails.

UV light is also used for a topcoat sealant. Because artificial nails yellow from UV light (especially tanning booths), a top coat can be used to protect the nail. This topcoat is cured (or set) using UV light.

The amount of radiation that your fingers get from the nail treatment is comparable to what you would get in a tanning booth. Because nails are done every 2-4 weeks (one would hope), that can add up to a significant amount of UV exposure over years.

No large scale studies have been done to examine the danger of using UV light for nails, but these patients suggest that there is likely a risk, especially if you have fair skin or have a history of skin cancer.

Photo: Monibela (flickr)

Mr. Obama has handled many difficult issues with aplomb, but is all this stress causing him to go gray?

A New York Times article highlighted (pun intended) Mr. Obama’s overnight graying. It is widely believed that stress causes you to go gray prematurely. In fact, it does not.

Hair turns gray because the pigment cells stop making pigment. The color in your hair is made by melanocytes (the same cell responsible for the deadly skin cancer, melanoma). We aren’t sure what makes the melanocytes stop making pigment.

Every hair on your body goes through three phases: 1. a growing phase, 2. a resting phase, and 3. a falling out phase. The longer your growing phase, the longer your hair will grow. Women have longer growing phases than men, which is why women can grow hair that is several feet long, but men cannot.

It might be that as we age, shortened stages of hair growth lead to less pigment. When only a little pigment is produced, we have gray hair. When no pigment is produced, we have white hair, which can appear faintly blue (hence the term blue-haired ladies).

Another factor in graying hair is hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is a natural oxidant; we produce an enzyme called catalase that breaks down hydrogen peroxide turning it into water and oxygen. As catalase function decreases, the levels of hydrogen peroxide increase. High levels of hydrogen peroxide block the production of pigment, leading to gray hair.

Most men and women start getting gray hairs in their 30’s and 40’s. How much gray hair you have depends on your race (white people gray faster than Asians or blacks) and your genetics (some people turn gray in their 20’s). On average, half of people aged 50 are at least 50% gray.

So how do I explain how Mr. Obama went gray in less than 100 days?  Perhaps it’s the same reason why Paul McCartney at nearly 67 years old does not have a gray hair on his head:  it’s a natural color, but it ain’t natural. Maybe Mr. Obama’s new gray hair is job stress after all — now that he is president he has had time for a cut but not a color.

Photos: Paul McCartney John Packer I Blank Slate Photography. President Obama by Jurvetson (flickr)

What makes a hair day a really bad hair day? Static electricity. What causes it and how can you stop it?

As a kid, during the winter, I would love to shuffle my feet across the carpeted living room and wait for my little brothers’ to come by. When they came around the corner — Zap!– I’d touch them, and a jolt of electricity would snap from my finger to their arms. It is this same static electricity that causes hair to float away or to resist your styling like it has a mind of its own. What causes this static buildup, and what can you do to prevent it?

Static is when you (or your clothes) become charged. That is, they develop a net positive or negative charge. Scuffing your feet across the rug causes you to accumulate negative charges from it. During the winter the air is dry. This acts as an insulator, helping you keep charged. When you touch something that is not charged, the negative charges jump from you to the object, causing a spark. When you comb your hair, the negative charges move from your hair to the plastic comb or brush. This leaves your hair positively charged and the brush negatively charged. Because all of your hairs have a positive charge, they repel each other, flying away. This can also be seen when kids slide down a plastic playground slide. Their hair loses negative charges and becomes positively charged. The hairs repel each other and the stand on end.

A common reason for y0ur hair to be susceptible is that it becomes dried out. This happens when your hair is washed excessively or treated with hair color or straighteners. All of these strip the natural oil off your hair. In particular, 18-methyl eicosanoic acid (18-MEC) is a natural oil that your hair follicles secrete to protect the hair. Once 18-MEC is stripped off your hair, it cannot be replaced for the lifetime of that hair (which can be years for women or men with long hair).

To prevent this, try to minimize chemical treatments to your hair. Do not scrub your hair daily with oil-stripping, sudsy shampoos. Keeping the natural oils on your hair prevents the buildup of static charge and can prevent fly-away hair, even after taking off that wool hat you had on all day at the ski slopes.

Other tips to prevent fly-away hair in the winter include the following:

Apply a conditioner to your hair after every wash.

Use an ion hair dryer: there are no good studies to show that these work, but they might help add negative ions to your hair, preventing the positive charge fly-away.

Wipe your hair with a fabric softener. They are designed to neturalize static buildup and can instantly counter a charge buildup before your hair begins flying away from your head.

Photo: Kretyen, Flickr.com

There are many causes of hair loss including medications, thyroid disease, iron deficiency, even having a baby. Most of these causes result in temporary hair loss — the hair eventually grows back. Some types of hair loss, however, are permanent; this is called scarring or cicatrical alopecia. A common scarring hair loss in women is traction alopecia.

Traction alopecia occurs when hair is pulled too tightly for long periods of time. It occurs often in girls and women who braid their hair, but can also be seen in women who pull their hair back tightly in a pony-tail or a bun. Over months and years the hair loss becomes permanent, and cannot regrow. It can be seen in men, but is more common in women. It can also affect children as well as in adults.

In traction alopecia the worst hair loss is in areas where the hair is pulled the tightest, usually the forehead and temples. It can be subtle at first, but becomes apparent over years as the hair line recedes from ear to ear starting farther and farther back on the head.

The hair is lost because the tension from pulling damages the hair follicles beneath the skin. The hair follicle is like a little factory working constantly to make hair. Each follicle is in an active state for years before it takes a short rest, sheds the hair, then starts all over again. Over time, pulling the follicle damages it and eventually the damaged follicle can no longer make hair. Because you cannot develop new follicles, as more and more follicles are damaged, more and more permanent hair loss results.

Unfortunately, traction alopecia is a scarring alopecia, so lost hair will not grow back. The best treatment is to release the tension on your hair as much as possible as soon as possible. This is often difficult because it requires adopting a different hairstyle (which can be distressing in itself).

Sometimes hair can be surgically transplanted from areas on your scalp with good growth to the scarred areas. This procedure can be expensive however, and is not covered by health insurance.

Using minoxidil or Rogaine might help promote new hair growth. The drug is meant for male pattern alopeica, not for scarring hair loss however, and using it might not help much.

If you have hair loss, then see your dermatologist. He or she can examine your scalp and can often prescribe medications, perform hair transplant surgery, or make suggestions on changing your hairstyle that can save your hair.

Post written by Jeffrey Benabio, MD. You might also like:

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Photo credit: Nilja Mumin

OK boys. Face it, women sometimes like a manly beard. But do you have what it takes? It requires patience, persistence, (and just enough testosterone) to pull it off.

• The first step in growing a beard is deciding to grow one. This is no trifling matter. Growing a beard takes at least 4 weeks including enduring an uncomfortable itchy period and having to answer ridiculous questions like: “Are you trying to grow a beard?” from your friends and colleagues.

• Don’t shave. Despite the popularly held belief, shaving will not make your beard grow faster or thicker.

• Pick a time when you can get a running start like at the beginning of a vacation or even a long weekend.

• Resist the urge to trim or shape the beard. Let it grow as much as possible before shaving, even if you are going for the “goatee” look. The hairs on your face will be in various stages of growth; not all are actively growing at the same time, so you have to be patient to see where it will fill in and where it won’t.

• What if your beard is spotty? Unlike your scalp, the hair on your face will not cover every inch. Some men will have hair from their eyeballs to their neck. If you’re this guy, then feel free to shave areas to shape it. Most men will have some areas that are spotty or thin, like on their cheeks and chin. This is determined by genetic and hormonal factors. There is little you can do about it, so work with what you’ve got.

• What about applying Rogaine (minoxidil) to your face? Minoxidil is a drug that was used to lower blood pressure until it was found it also grows hair. In topical form, it causes hair growth on the scalp of men and women with hereditary hair loss. Why it works is not really known. In theory, Rogaine could help you grow a beard, but this is never been shown in studies, nor is it FDA approved for facial hair. Applying Rogaine (minoxidil) to your face would likely be irritating and can also cause acne. If ingested or if applied in excessive amounts, it could cause serious side effects like a drop in your blood pressure.

• Biotin is a dietary supplement known to help with hair and nail growth. Consider taking 2.5 mg of biotin each day.

• You might find that growing a beard gives you an itchy, red, scaly rash on your face. Try using a little dandruff shampoo like Head and Shoulders on your beard two or three times each week. You can also apply a mild over the counter steroid cream like hydrocortisone 1% once a day.

• When your beard starts growing, the hairs are often stiff at first; they will soften over time. Consider using a mild steroid like hydrocortisone 1% everyday to help with the itching.

• After 4 to 6 weeks you should have a good idea what your beard will look like. If after 6 weeks you find people saying: “Oh, are you trying to grow a beard?” consider the clean-shaven look.

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