A new study has discovered that the same protein that either stimulates hair follicle growth or causes hair loss, also slows down or speeds up fat production.

The joint study, carried out at the University of Melbourne in Australia and King’s College in the UK, found that the protein that activates hair follicle growth also inhibits fat production in the skin under the hair follicle and vice versa.

The researchers, whose findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2014, say that their findings are the first to confirm that changes in the hair growth cycle lead to fluctuations in the thickness of the underlying fat layer of the skin.

[quote]The scientists say that their discovery could lead to the development of a simple synthetic skin cream that could effectively dissolve or trim  localised areas of spot fat by pausing the production of factors involved in fat cell growth.[/quote]