TLDR - Alternate day fasting leads to hair follicle damage in mice.
- Common intermittent fasting regimens inhibit hair follicle regeneration in mice
- Fasting selectively eliminates activated HFSCs, but not EpiSCs that maintain epidermis
- Activated adrenal gland-dermal adipocyte crosstalk mediates HFSC apoptosis
- Intermittent fasting inhibits human hair growth in a randomized clinical trial
https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01311-4
Nick Norwitz did a great writeup https://staycuriousmetabolism.substack.com/p/fasting-will-make-you-bald-and-how
I haven’t found the full paper in the usual places. So I’m relying on the writeup
In both mice and humans topical vitamin E proved to provide enough antioxidant protection to prevent the hair loss.
Interesting that the locality of FFAs was the main problem, causing too much oxidative stress.