ENI GÓMEZ^1*, EVA TORIBIO², MONTSERRAT DELOR², JUDIT MORLÀ-FOLCH^3*
1. Centro de Tecnología Capilar (CTC), Barcelona, Spain
2. Symrise, Parets del Vallès, Spain
3. Beauty Cluster Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

The concept “exposome” refers to the total sum of multiple exposure factors humans face throughout their lives. Since the publication of such concept, the research on this field and how it relates to the predisposition to develop certain diseases has aroused great interest among the scientific community. Factors such as pollution exposure, food and nutrition, lifestyle or radiation are under constant study to characterize their effects in human health and quantify risk factors related with environmental factors. However, the study of human exposome factors from another point of view such as the skin exposome or the hair exposome have not received major attention. Herein, we propose a definition of the hair exposome, based on published scientific evidences.

INTRODUCTION

In 2005, Dr Christopher P. Wild, current director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) described the concept “exposome” as the totality of human environmental (i.e. non-genetic) exposures from conception onwards, complementing the genome (1). While more is known about the relationship between the exposome and human health or certain pathologies, the effects on the skin or hair have not received the same attention. Nonetheless, it should be noted that both are fully exposed to a variety of environmental factors throughout a lifespan. Although several attempts have been made in order to define the skin aging exposome (2) or its interrelation with skin acne appearance (3), scientific studies of the exposome concept related to human hair care are extremely scarce. Figure 1 underlines the number of scientific publications per year related with the term “Exposome”.

DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPT “HAIR EXPOSOME” 

Based on our consensus meetings in 2017 and the existing literature, the concept “Hair Exposome” (HE) is defined as ...