Top Hair Loss Treatments Make a Futuristic Fight for Your Follicles

Top Hair Loss Treatments Make a Futuristic Fight for Your Follicles

By Mark Ellwood 2014-12-24 T17:09:56Z

Source: bloomberg.com

Photographer: Marton Perlaki/Bloomberg

There were five of us at the bar that night—all old friends—when I absent-mindedly raked a hand through my hair. Like my father before me, I’ve always had plenty on top. My coarse, thick hair is graying at the temples, sure, but it isn’t yet receding. One friend warned me not to tug too hard. “Even those pills have limits,” he said.

“Who needs pills?” I asked. “We’ve all got a full head of hair.” At which point, conversation screeched to a halt, as though I’d just asked the size of everyone’s bonus. It fell to another friend to break the silence and admit he was celebrating his 10th anniversary with the 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor known as Propecia (now available in generic form as finasteride). The three others followed suit with similar confessions.

Gradually, it emerged that by the time we’d finished college, mine was the only hairline that hadn’t benefited from a doctor’s prescription. Should my good genes one day fail me, however, all is far from lost. A survey of dermatologists, inventors, scientists and surgeons reveals a comforting truth: There has never been a better time to find too much hair on your brush. Here are the top treatments from the rapidly advancing front (hair)lines.

The Magic Pill: Finasteride

The new generic form of Propecia carries warnings of unpleasant side effects (one of which is treatable with that other little blue pill, Viagra). But in terms of success stories—88 percent of men experience no additional hair loss; 58 percent experience regrowth—no other treatment comes close.

Laserlike Focus: iGrow

This helmut full of lasers looks like something out of SkyMall but was nevertheless approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The lasers act like a shot of Red Bull, forcing follicles to step up their productivity. Although the over-the- counter device is just $695, treatment involves six straight months of daily 25-minute sessions (hence the built-in headphones). The return, according to Dr. Abraham Armani, a Dallas-based hair-transplant surgeon, is a not-quite- market-beating 7 percent increase in hair density. igrowlaser.com

HAL for Hair: Artas Robotic Hair Transplant

The problem with so-called strip hair transplants—in which sections of scalp are harvested from the follicle-rich rear of the head in order to replenish the hairline at the front—is that they often result in Frankenstein-like scarring. The Artas system, on the other hand, employs a robotic arm that extracts and transplants individual follicles, minimizing discernible damage. “You’re removing 30 to 45 percent less skin, which means much more rapid recovery,” says Dr. Barry Goldman of New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “Within a day or two, you’ll feel like nothing ever happened.” artashair.com

True Blood: Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy

During this post-transplant procedure, your own blood is extracted, centrifuged and then slathered onto the scalp, increasing the survival rate of new follicles and speeding the proliferation of new strands. “You will get results about six months faster,” Armani says. “And the hairs that do survive will be thicker and healthier.”

The Holy Grail: Hair Cloning

Inside each follicle, certain cells act like traffic cops, greenlighting the production of more hair, explains Colin Jahoda, a professor of stem-cell sciences at the U.K.’s Durham University. Regeneration involves tricking those cells into growing your own hair in a petri dish for transplant. Although the cells have thus far failed to cooperate outside the human body, Jahoda remains optimistic. How far off are viable clinical trials? “About five years,” he says, with the confident air of a man with all his own hair.

Article originally appeared in the Holiday 2014 issue of Bloomberg Pursuits.

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New Hair-Loss Treatments in the Pipeline

New Hair-Loss Treatments in the Pipeline

By Denise Mann
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD
Source: WebMD Health News

March 31, 2014 -- New hair loss treatments on the not-too-distant horizon may be game-changers.

“The development of new treatments, including drugs and cell-based approaches for hair loss, is at an all-time high,” says Kenneth J. Washenik, MD, PhD. He's a clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Medical Center and the medical director at Bosley Medical. “We have never had this many provocative treatments in the pipeline.”

Washenik spoke about advances in treating hair loss during March’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in Denver. Treatments discussed include:

Cell-Based Hair Follicle Regeneration: This treatment takes cells found around hair follicles and grows them in a lab. The cells are then re-injected into the scalp to help grow hair, Washenik says.

In a study by his group, 60% of participants had more hair 1 year after the cell-based treatment. “It’s promising, and there are a number of groups looking at this,” he says.

Latisse: Rebooting hair follicles with cells is not the only avenue of research, Washenik says. Latisse, the drug that is FDA-approved for eyelash growth, may also help regrow hair on the scalp.

Still, he says, there have been some hiccups along the way. “It’s proving a little more difficult to get the medication to penetrate the scalp, but studies are under way,” he says.

Combination Therapy: The true Holy Grail may come from combining a drug like Latisse with a certain type of medication commonly used to treat allergies and asthma. The medication blocks a hormone-like substance that prevents hair from growing. A treatment like this might help with hair growth.

“Using these drugs in combination is like taking your foot off-break and stepping on gas at the same time,” Washenik says.

FDA-Approved Medications: Many medications available today treat hair loss, says Nicole E. Rogers, MD, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

Options include minoxidil (Rogaine), an over-the-counter lotion that is applied to the scalp, and finasteride (Propecia), a prescription that is taken once daily as a pill. Certain hormonal treatments can also help treat hair loss.

At-Home Treatments: Low-level laser light combs and helmets do work, but the devil is in the details, Washenik says. There is not enough evidence to say which product works better. “Convenience and ease of use seem to be the two most important factors,” he says. “The ones that people like best are those where you just sit on the couch and read while wearing a helmet.”

Hair Transplants : These may be the only feasible treatment for some people. The good news: Hair transplant techniques are improving, says Michael S. Kaminer, MD, a Boston-based dermatologist.

“The old pluggy, noticeable hair transplant is a thing of the past.” He says today they are more natural looking, as they use smaller pieces of scalp during the transplants, as opposed to large clumps.

These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.

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Study: Male Pattern Baldness Drug May Lower Alcohol Tolerance

Study: Male Pattern Baldness Drug May Lower Alcohol Tolerance

June 16, 2013 10:30 PM
Source: washington.cbslocal.com

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – A new study shows that a drug used to treat male pattern baldness could diminish one’s tolerance for alcohol in those who take it.

Researchers at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. discovered during their study that those taking Propecia for their male pattern hair loss also experienced a lower tolerance for consuming alcoholic beverages.

One author of the study, Dr. Michael S. Irwig, said that two-thirds of the 63 men who participated in the study who were also taking the drug, known also as finasteride, acknowledged the symptom.

“Although not formally assessed, some of the men volunteered that they had more problems tolerating alcohol following finasteride treatment, including increased anxiety, tiredness, and dizziness,” he was quoted as saying in an e-mail obtained by Med Page Today. “They said they got intoxicated more quickly, with fewer drinks, and experienced less euphoria.”

Of those who experienced a decrease in the ability to handle alcohol, an average drop of three drinks per week was reportedly observed.

Researchers involved in the study acknowledged that their findings were not subject to a comparison group, and that their participants were “men with persistent sexual side effects associated with finasteride.”

According to LiveScience, the study was published earlier this month in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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'Hedgehog' may cure baldness

'Hedgehog' may cure baldness

by PAT HAGAN, Daily Mail
Source: dailymail.co.uk



Sonic the Hedgehog

A gene that 'switches on' hair growth when it's injected into the skin could one day offer hope to thousands of bald men. Scientists have discovered that the gene - which goes by the unlikely name of Sonic Hedgehog - can stir dormant hair follicles back to life.

The first tests on humans are being planned after laboratory studies on mice showed they grew thick tufts of new hair within two weeks of the treatment. If this success is repeated in human trials, a cure for baldness could be developed within the next few years.

The breakthrough treatment is potentially far more effective than the Propecia regrowth pills about to be launched in Britain.

Doctors who discovered the genetic therapy believe it will work best on sick patients who, for example, may have lost their hair through chemotherapy. But they are also confident it could trigger new hair growth in men who have 'pattern baldness' - where their hair has receded for no obvious reason.

Up to half of men over 40 and a significant number of women - may be affected by hair loss, and although new drugs are coming on the market, they have had mixed results and are not suitable for everybody.

The genetic breakthrough by scientists at the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Cornell University, New York, came after they decided to apply technology already being used to repair diseased hearts to the problem of hair loss. This involves identifying genes known to play an important part in the development of the body and deploying them to kick-start growth in organs that are giving up.

In the case of hair, scientists pinpointed the Sonic Hedgehog gene as the ideal candidate for the job. So-called because the researcher who first identified it thought its shape resembled the computer-game character, the gene plays a key role in the embryonic development of the brain, heart, lungs, skeleton, skin and hair.

It was injected into the mice to see if it could speed up the natural process of producing hair. To measure if hair around the site of the injection was growing, the black-haired mice were dyed blonde. After seven days, hair follicles around the patch being treated had sprung back into action and were showing signs of thickening. After just 14 days, shafts of black hair 1/2 cm long had emerged on the backs of the mice.

Everybody has this gene. And, as it seems to be involved in hair growth, we thought that if we turned up expression of the gene for a few days we could wake up sleeping hair follicles and make them grow,' says Dr Ronald Crystal, who led the research team.

'There are 100,000 hair follicles in your head when you are born and you don't get any more - that's it. 'But if you look at someone who has lost their hair through chemotherapy, they still have those follicles. It's the same for a man who is bald. He has hair follicles too, but they are sleeping.

'We don't have the slightest idea if this would work in bald men - humans are not just big mice. But we are hopeful.' Dr Crystal and his team are considering trying out the therapy on humans, and several leading drug companies have already expressed an interest in the technique.

But one of the biggest problems they face is that over-expression of the Sonic Hedgehog gene is directly linked to a type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma. This is the most common form of skin cancer in the UK with at least 30,000 new cases every year. During laboratory tests, none of the mice developed the condition. 'The mice are six months old now and so far as we can tell they look normal,' says Dr Crystal. 'There are no adverse effects and what we are essentially doing is accelerating the normal process.

There are 100,000 genes so you have to choose your gene carefully but it's not rocket science. 'It's the same technique we are using to grow new blood vessels in people with severe cardiovascular disease, though we use different genes.'

John Mason, president of the UK Institute of Trichologists experts in hair loss - said it was too early to judge whether the treatment could be the answer to baldness. 'I am rather negative about this. I doubt if there is anything in it, and if there is, then it's a long way away,' he said.

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