Name Ingredients:
Green tea extract is an ingredient found in many natural topicals and supplements. Marketers claim that one of green tea's polyphenols – epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) – helps to lower levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and thereby improve androgenic hair loss.
Key insights:
- Cell culture studies suggest that green tea extract might lower DHT levels in hair follicle sites. However, there is no clinical data to see if these effects also occur in vivo, or if green tea by itself can improve hair loss outcomes.
- Green tea extract has been evaluated in some hair loss clinical studies – albeit alongside many other ingredients in a topical or supplement. This makes it impossible to discern the hair growth-promoting effects of green tea versus any other ingredient.
- Our experience with members: by itself, oral and/or topical green tea extract is not enough to regrow hair.
Additional links:
- Green Tea: Evidence Quality (Rubric)
- An Uncontrolled Case Series Using a Botanically Derived, β-Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complex in Two Androgenetic Alopecia-Affected Male Subjects (Study)
- Human hair growth enhancement in vitro by green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) (Study)
- Redensyl: Product Review (Guide)
- Advanced Trichology DHT Blocker (Guide)
- Green Tea and Soy Isoflavones (Forum)