They don’t say HOW that causes the hair loss.

And, if you follow the link to the study in the post above and read deeply into it, you’ll find instructions for making a simple extract using only water and soybean flour.

Also, the study did not suggest that shaving was any less effective than waxing the areas to be treated. When studying humans, they shaved male faces before applying the solution daily, and they waxed legs that were tested.

The soy solution produced noticeable results within four weeks with both methods and in a doubleblind where no one knew which area was being treated with the real solution and which with the dummy solution.

I also noted upon re-reading the study, that the researchers solved the “bean odor” problem that I encountered by using only certain varieties of soybean.

What I recall is the mechanism by which it works (if it really does). It slowly inflames and shrinks the follicle, which causes an ever thinner hair to grow until finally no hair grows from the follicle.

That’s the same process that takes place in typical male pattern baldness hairloss. In typical balding hairloss, it is believed that dehydrotestosterone is a factor in causing the inflammation that leads to the tightening of the follicle. (Although probably much more is at play — the science of baldness is in its infancy.)

I don’t recall whether the studies identified what it is about soy in topical application that causes eventual hairloss. It might be an enzyme. I’ll have to dig into this again to see if researchers have definitively answered your question.

Ultimately I didn’t have the patience to find out.

As I vaguely recall, after about a month of slathering soy milk on myself after a shower, I got tired of the ritual and of smelling like soybeans all day.

I’ll look at it.