http://www.truthinaging.com/hair/hair-g ... e-booster/
It takes longer – at least three weeks – to see results with Folligen. But, in my experience, the new hair Folligen stimulates is thicker and, well, like proper hair. I will have to give Nioxin longer to see what ultimately happens. In the meantime, it is worth noting that they work in very different ways.
Folligen’s active ingredient is copper peptides. Copper is a wound healer and its ability to assist in hair growth was discovered when it was noticed that the hair follicles around treated wounds were exceptionally large. It seems to work on the follicle in two ways: increasing follicle cell proliferation increased follicle size; and copper also decreases programmed follicle cell death, which results in smaller follicles. Nioxin, on the hand, uses a panoply of different ingredients, most of which are vitamins. Nioxin’s vitamins are all coenzymes, which means that the vitamin has been bound to a protein. I believe that this makes the vitamins easier for the body absorb – important in the case of the B vitamins because usually they do not do a good job of penetrating the skin.
For Nioxin, the real star of the show is the first ingredient after water, phospholipids. Fairly recently, scientists discovered that they play an important role in cellular regulation. A Japanese study shows that phosphatidic acid has an “intensive” effect on hair growth by targeting the epithelial cells and epidermal keratinocytes. Furthermore, it induces the anagen (growth) phase of the hair cycle, perhaps by having a protective action on transforming-growth-factor-beta1-induced apoptosis.