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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Cloning: The future in hair transplants

Cloning: The future in hair transplants

Date: Visited September 7th, 2013
Source: ilterclinic.com

At the Ilter Clinic, we pay constant attention to new scientific and technical advancements in hair transplantation. We are also active in researching new progress in the field so that ever-better techniques may be developed in the future.



High-tech research is providing new hope. These methods are still far from becoming commercially available, but gene therapy and cloning may one day reduce limitations we face in the donor area.

Gene therapy

The idea behind gene therapy is to introduce new DNA into a patient’s hair cells. The new DNA would prevent cells from being affected by the DHT (dihydrotestosteron) hormone that causes Male Pattern Baldness.



However, the research is still in its infancy. Some genes have already been identified as the cause behind hair loss, but there are still many other factors to be considered. With this in mind, a great deal of research needs to be done before gene therapy becomes a reality.

Hair cloning

Cloning hair follicles is a new technology. Even though it is considered something of a Holy Grail for people suffering from hair loss because of the potential for an unlimited supply of hair from a single strand, cloning hair follicles is keenly debated. There have been exciting breakthroughs, but the method needs another ten years of research before it is commercially available.

There are two organizations seriously researching a commercially viable way to multiply hair loss-resistant donor follicles. They are Aderans, headquartered in Japan, and Intercytex, based in England.

Hair cloning is a lay term for tissue-developed hair growth. The approach being pursued involves extracting single hair cells from the hair loss-resistant donor area and attempting to replicate them in the laboratory. These "dermal papilla" cells mature into hair follicles in a process known as follicular neogenesis. If they can be stimulated to multiply, then theoretically there is no limit to the number of hair follicles that could be grown in the laboratory and transplanted onto a person’s scalp.



However, controlling the direction of new hair growth from cloned follicles has been problematic. Many people believe hair cell implants will initially be used as filler hair, primarily on the top and crown areas, while critical areas such as the hairline will continue to receive transplants using conventional FUE grafts. Also, the cost of this laboratory-intensive procedure is expected to exceed conventional hair transplantation when it is introduced.

At this point in time, it is not recommended that patients wait for cloning. If and when hair cell implants arrive in the future, they could well be used to create even greater levels of density and fullness behind the transplanted hairline.

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The New Science of Hair Growth

The New Science of Hair Growth

Robot folliculr surgeons, invisible micrografts, in vitro hair cloning . . . scientists have a wider array of weapons than ever before in the war on baldness. Many believe we're finally on the verge of banishing it forever 

By: Michael Behar
Source: menshealth.com

Training Hair Cells to Grow

Nude mice are the foot soldiers for the war on balding. These dainty pink-hued rodents have been bred or genetically altered to remain hairless throughout their lives. They can be ordered by the mischief-load from medical suppliers and endure poking and prodding and other unspeakable horrors for the sake of balding men everywhere.

In Philadelphia, Ken Washenik, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president of scientific and medical development for Aderans Research Institute and a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at New York University's Langone Medical Center, shows me slides of nude mice on his laptop. They have undergone a new type of hair-cloning procedure that Dr. Washenik has been developing for Aderans. The company, which has its headquarters in Tokyo, is the world's largest manufacturer of wigs. It also owns Bosley, which operates 88 hair-transplant clinics in North America.

When I arrive at Aderans, Dr. Washenik hastily ushers me past several labs, perhaps wary I might glimpse some sort of trade secret, and into an empty conference room. What he does reveal is that his approach to hair cloning (he calls it follicular neogenesis) doesn't rely solely on dermal papillae. "We are using a two-cell construct, growing not just dermal papillae, but also another type of cell from the follicle," he explains.

As the thinking goes, disparate cell types already communicate with one another in the follicle to regenerate hair. Dr. Washenik believes that if he can re-create that environment in the lab, cultured cells won't get dementia and forget how to make hair. "The different cells in the follicle are smarter than we are," Dr. Washenik says. "They already know they are supposed to be hairy. In 8 days, we grew a ball of hair that never existed before on the back of a mouse."

Dr. Washenik clicks an image file on his computer: The photo shows what looks like Piglet with a sable Mohawk. But there is a caveat: "These were hair cells from a mouse that were injected into a mouse. When researchers injected human cells into a mouse, they didn't get the same results."

This disappointed Dr. Washenik and other researchers, because unlike other organs, follicles are supposed to be immune privileged: When transplanted across or between species, they're expected to grow normally, without being rejected or provoking infection. He hopes to have better luck in clinical trials, when he will transplant human cells into humans. Aderans is in the second phase of a human trial, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The company is pouring serious cash (Dr. Washenik won't say how much) into its hair-cloning effort. Dr. Washenik is also intrigued by other researchers who are pursuing another pathway. They're cultivating in vitro microscopic hairs, or "proto-hairs," as Dr. Washenik dubs them. "These are early follicular structures that you can place in the scalp with the same technology that's used for a hair transplant," he says. "The big hurdle so far is getting the cells to multiply to make enough hair. Once we culture them, they sometimes die or de-differentiate."

But Dr. Washenik remains confident. "The sooner we figure this out, the better," he says. "So many people are waiting for this technology. I know that with every medical advance, the first one to market becomes the leader, and everyone else plays catch-up." Like many of the scientists I meet, his passion for a cure is personal. "I started going bald at 25," he says, tussling his hair to flaunt his 2,200-graft transplant. "While I was working on my Ph.D., I was mixing up homemade minoxidil [the active ingredient in Rogaine] in my lab."

A few blocks away is a start-up called Follica. One of its cofounders, George Cotsarelis, M.D., is a cutaneous biologist and associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1990, Dr. Cotsarelis was investigating the biological mechanisms of skin regeneration. "I was studying stem cells and found a population of them in the hair follicle, in a strange area called 'the bulge,'" he tells me when I stop by his office at U. Penn's School of Medicine. "We didn't know the function of the area, and we almost blew it off."

From then on, Dr. Cotsarelis started paying more attention to hair follicles. After a series of more recent experiments on mice, he made two important discoveries. First, he found that bulge cells aid in the formation of new hair follicles, suggesting that these cells influence hair growth during embryonic development, when we were bobbing around in the womb. He also learned that, throughout our lives, these same stem cells awaken to mend minor cuts and burns, as well as deeper wounds in the skin. What baffled Dr. Cotsarelis is why, if a healing wound is populated with bulge stem cells, new follicles don't form. The answer would at least explain why hair doesn't grow from scars.

Dr. Cotsarelis conducted further studies designed to reveal what kinds of molecular compounds (e.g., hormones and proteins) are present during hair-follicle development in mice embryos and are also present in adult mice. A major one, which he wrote about in a 2007 Nature article, was something called Wnt (pronounced wint), a network of proteins first identified in fruit flies.

Curious, Dr. Cotsarelis applied Wnt to small lesions purposely cut into nude mice (such gracious, noble critters). To his shock, follicles formed and sprouted hair. So if a person is bald, the obvious strategy would seem to be to douse his scalp with Wnt and wait for hair to grow. "The problem is that Wnt is involved in a lot of other things, one of which is skin cancer," Dr. Cotsarelis says. "It's very tricky business."

The idea behind Follica is to develop a procedure in which a surgeon would lightly wound the scalp—something akin to microdermabrasion, an antiaging treatment—to disrupt the skin and then apply a compound that would influence hair development in the area. This would trick the cells into reverting to an embryonic state, one in which they are genetically pre-programmed to make hair rather than simply repair skin, as they're predisposed to do after we're born. "Just when cells are deciding, 'Do I make a hair follicle? Or do I make an epidermis?' we can influence them with a protein to go down a hair-follicle pathway."

Testing the Science on Humans

My hair started thinning when I was 32. I'm now 40, and my shedding has eased up. Dr. Harris informs me I have plenty left for a follicular unit transplant. But after watching Scott's procedure, I'm a little freaked out. Yet, all the specialists I speak with urge anyone dealing with hair loss to act fast, because once the hairs are gone, they're gone for good.

"Absolutely no one concerned about hair loss should wait," Dr. Washenik says. He started taking Propecia when he was in his thirties (he's now 50), and he uses Rogaine religiously. He is a big advocate of drug therapies, and readily champions surgical options such as follicular unit grafting.

Dr. Washenik examines my scalp and announces, "Rogaine is made for you. You're not bald; your hairs are just miniaturized." I'm a chemical-phobe, so I'd rather save my dough and wait for a viable hair-cloning procedure, which many of the experts I talked to claim is less than 5 years away.

Intercytex, a public company based in London, may be closest to a marketable product, says Jerry Cooley, M.D., a transplant surgeon who has been consulting for the firm since 2001. Nobody directly employed by Intercytex would speak to me for this story. "We do not feel that exposure of our research is helpful," wrote Jeff Teumer, Intercytex's director of research, in a curt e-mail. But Dr. Cooley, who works closely with Teumer, tells me that Intercytex scientists have successfully grown large batches of cloned proto-hairs similar to those that other researchers have been struggling to keep alive.

What's more, in animal experiments, the Intercytex team has observed cloned hair follicles growing hair again after the original hairs were plucked. This suggests that their cloned follicles cycle through the entire life span of hair—three phases known as anagen (growth), catagen (transitional), and telogen (resting)—something no other researchers have been able to do.

A key to the team's success has been growing proto-hairs in a special medium, licensed from a Japanese inventor, which contains cultured skin cells known as keratinocytes. "I'm very excited about this technology," Dr. Cooley says. "It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."

Bessam Farjo, M.D., a hair-restoration surgeon contracted by Intercytex to run its ongoing clinical trials, says, "All I can tell you is that we've grown a significant number of hairs on animals through this technique." It sounds encouraging, and Dr. Farjo expects to complete clinical trials this year.

Hair cloning will be pricey initially, so early adopters may be men who are not only wealthy, but also desperate because they don't have enough hair left to do a follicular unit transplant. Cloning could also be ideal for younger men who aren't good candidates for follicular grafting. "Younger guys aren't suitable for current surgical techniques because we don't know how much hair they are going to lose," Dr. Farjo says.

Imagine if the receded hairline of a 25-year-old male were replaced with a follicular unit transplant. If the rest of his hair were to fall out—and going bald at an early age generally means it will—he wouldn't have enough hair to complete a second or third follicular unit transplant, so he'd end up with a solitary plume sprouting from his forehead. "It would look like unfinished business, which is why we typically avoid working on young guys," Dr. Farjo says. "But if I know I'll never run out of hair, thanks to the new cell therapy, I can treat anyone."

Nobody is sure how the actual cloning process will be implemented. Most surgeons speculate that they'll use boring tools similar to the existing ones used for harvesting follicular units. The follicular units will be sent to centralized labs, where industrial incubators will mass-produce millions of follicle cells for a relatively low cost.

Another question is how will the cloned cells be transplanted? Instead of transplanting follicular units, your surgeon may inject cloned cells into micro-incisions, or he may implant lab-grown hair follicles. It could be fast, clean, and painless. Or it might entail something closer to Dr. Cotsarelis's method at Follica. At Intercytex, technicians are tinkering with sundry techniques. "We're experimenting with varying the number of cells in each injection, and whether we have to inject the cells into the skin as it is, or if we have to pre-stimulate the skin," Dr. Farjo says.

Whatever the outcome, choices will abound. In the future, hair cloning will coexist alongside follicular unit transplants, drug therapies, and emerging technologies still incubating in the labs. For his part, Dr. Harris is also part of a team designing the world's first follicular extraction robot: It will fully automate the procedure, making it magnitudes faster and less expensive.

While Scott was being prepped for surgery, Dr. Harris took me into his office to show me a photo of the $25 million speed surgeon (the actual machine was locked in a storage closet a few floors above us). At about 6 feet tall with a fixed base and a mechanical arm with multiple joints, it resembles one of those space-age automatons you might see on a vehicle assembly line at a Toyota plant. Dr. Harris has already tested it on a couple of willing volunteers (with no alarming mishaps) and is preparing to apply for FDA approval under the name Restoration Robotics.

"We think the robot might be able to extract a thousand grafts an hour," Dr. Harris says. "That's more than triple what can be done by hand. This will broaden the market so that more people can afford the procedure. There may be a time soon when hair-transplant surgery will be available to everyone."

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Aderans Research – advancing hair regeneration™

Aderans Research – advancing hair regeneration™

Source: aderansresearch.com

 Aderans Research Institute (ARI)

A Cell-Based Alternative
Aderans Research Institute (ARI) is a leading commercial force in the field of hair regeneration, pioneering innovative cell-based solutions to the problems of pattern hair loss that affect millions of people around the world. Historically, hair transplantation has been limited by the number of available hairs on the head in question, but cellular regeneration may make it possible to multiply hairs, providing a potentially unlimited supply of hair growth for up to 80 million Americans suffering from pattern hair loss. With rejuvenated hair follicles producing healthy hair, people can get back to the business of leading confident, productive lives.

We invite anyone facing the challenge of hair loss to consider participating in our clinical study clinical study.

 

Hailed as a breakthrough in the science of hair loss, cellular hair regeneration is a cutting-edge technique that promises to address the riddle of the finite number of hair follicles. In the past, hair loss treatments, including surgical transplantation or medication, faced a troublesome problem: the finite number of hairs on an individual's head limited the degree of redistribution possible. Once a person begins to lose hair, his or her supply of hair-generating follicles necessarily diminishes. For clients who are considerably bald, there often isn't enough hair on the back of the head to make up for the loss on top, leaving the client with a make-do patchwork of thinly implanted follicles.



Cellular hair regeneration offers a remarkable solution to the problem. By encouraging follicular cells to reproduce themselves via a method ARI calls the Ji Gami™ process, practically an unlimited number of hair-generating cellular units can be produced. During this process, often called hair multiplication or hair cloning, a small piece of tissue is removed from the neckline. Cells are cultivated in controlled conditions where they are encouraged to multiply by the addition of proprietary growth media. When enough new cells are formed, they are returned to the scalp, where they are injected and elicit new hair growth and thickness, ultimately producing more hair than the client had before. Candidates for hair regeneration may no longer be limited by the number of hairs on their head. ARI envisions a time when crowns (vertex) can be covered with full, natural hair regardless of the degree of hair loss.



It should be noted that ARI treatments are entirely autologous. That means ARI only attempts to generate hair growth using the participant's own hair. No foreign growth media, such as plant- or animal-derived growth factors, are involved. When the cultivated hair cells are restored to the participant's scalp, he or she is only receiving his or her hair cells. This serum–free process delivers a degree of safety from complications unique to the field.

Please view the short video that explains the procedure in detail:

Source: aderansresearch.com

 

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The Future of Hair Restoration

The Future of Hair Restoration

By Dody Gasparik M.Sc.
Source: worldwidehealth.com

Restoring the hair lost due to hereditary factors is the dream of many hair loss sufferers. Until not too long ago, the only effective and authentic-looking methods of reversing hair loss were non-surgical cover-ups. It was only with the advent of follicular unit transplantation and the discovery of the true cause of baldness - the harmful effects of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) on our hair follicles - that the hair-loss sufferer's chances of reversing hair loss naturally have greatly improved.

The three best weapons in the fight against baldness today are the two FDA-approved medicinal drugs - finasteride (Propecia) and minoxidil (Rogaine) and hair surgery, the follicular unit transplantation and, especially, the follicular unit extraction technique. However, no ultimate cure exists yet as each of the three aforementioned hair restoration methods has its limitations. Minoxidil and finasteride work well only in the vertex area of the scalp, and finasteride cannot be used by women. Hair transplant surgery is suitable only for people who have sufficient hair density in the donor area, and many women, who typically suffer from diffuse thinning, do not make good candidates for hair transplantation.

Therefore, scientists around the world are relentlessly searching for new approaches to treating hair loss. There are presently several promising medications and new techniques under development listed below but progress seems to have slowed down a bit due to the global financial crisis, as some projects are finding it increasingly difficult to raise financing to further their research.

The greatest progress has been achieved on dutasteride. Dutasteride is an antiandrogen, in its chemical structure and mode of action it is similar to finasteride. It is used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia and since it is a dual 5-alpha reductase inhibitor, it should be a more potent DHT blocker than finasteride. Therefore, it is thought to be more effective in treating hair loss, especially in the frontal area of the scalp. Dutasteride completed Phase III clinical testing this year and the study results are expected to be published soon.

NEOSH101 was originally developed by the US medical research firm Neosil and was until recently undergoing phase IIb clinical testing. At the end of 2008, Neosil was taken over by Peplin, Inc., a development stage specialty pharmaceuticals company and since then no information on the further progress of the clinical trials has been released. In previous clinical trials, NEOSH101 was shown to be a more powerful and faster-acting, hair growth stimulant than minoxidil and it only needs applying once daily. Though significantly improving the current hair-loss treatment options, NEOSH101 is not going to become the ultimate cure for baldness. The clinical trials seem to be advancing slower than most hair-loss sufferers would like and, hence, do not hold your breath waiting for it to hit the market anytime soon.

Another promising area of development is the telomerase research. Telomerase is an enzyme that is able to put natural caps on telomeres and thus protect them from shortening. Telomerase thereby maintains the genomic integrity. Shortened telomeres are associated with premature aging processes. However, the uncontrolled activation of telomerase can cause cancer. Cancer research is the main focus of the telomerase studies but scientists are also looking for other applications, such as anti-aging drugs and drugs against baldness and premature grey hair. Telomerase research could really change the world of medicine but its commercial application might be a good 15 years away.

Hair multiplication, often called hair regeneration or hair cloning, is the next hopeful treatment option being developed. This technique involves extracting hair follicles from the back of the patient's scalp, culturing and multiplying them and injecting the newly-grown hair cells into the bald scalp area. The UK healthcare firm Intercytex appears to be the frontrunner in hair multiplication research. Intercytex has already completed phase II clinical study of ICX-TRC (a suspension of a patient's own dermal papilla cells). The main benefit of hair multiplication would be solving the shortage of donor hair that is the main limiting factor in hair transplant surgery. However, Intercytex is currently facing financial difficulties and after failing to find an investor, it will have to continue operating on its own. Aderans, the main competitor of Intercytex, has also recently launched a Phase II clinical study on cell-based hair regeneration for men and women.

Generating new hair follicles in hair-free skin wounds is an entirely new approach to regrowing hair. It was discovered accidentally when wounded skin in mice started producing new hair. This technology is currently being developed by the US medical device company, Follica, which has licensed this technology from the University of Pennsylvania. Though this method may sound a bit weird, it is said to only use common instruments and drugs that have already been medically approved and thus it might not take too long for it to become commercially available.

This list of the undergoing R&D projects in the field of hair-loss research includes the most promising lines of development but it is not exhaustive. However, none of the new therapies, with the exception of dutasteride's approval for treating hair loss, is expected to hit the market before 2013 and the immediate future of hair restoration lies in improving the surgical techniques, increasing the yields of the follicular unit extraction method and making it more affordable to a larger portion of the population. For more information on novel as well as existing treatments for hair loss and grey hair please visit the author's website dedicated to educating the public on treating genetically-determined hair conditions.

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Future Balding Treatments

Future Balding Treatments

By Andrew Chomik
(Source: uk.askmen.com)

It’s not hard to find horror stories on the internet or television about men who reach for the stars to get their mop back.



Wayne Rooney hair before and after

Manchester United player Wayne Rooney recently (and infamously) spent $50,000 on a hair transplant. Since he's been back on the pitch with his new hair, he's been an unstoppable force, most recently scoring five goals over two games. Observers are remarking that Rooney's hair seems to have given him a major confidence boost, and that's translating into amazing on-field performance that nobody could have predicted.

Sure, most of us can't afford $50,000 to treat our male-pattern baldness. But hope for the balding regular Joe could be just around the corner, with these future balding treatments. Who knows? One of these treatments could help you bag that promotion that's been eluding you the past three years.

While it’s not hard to find horror stories on the internet or television about men who reach for the stars to get their mop back (including anything from toupees to toxic spray-ons), they’re all looking for the same thing: a “cure” of sorts to baldness. And while there is no cure for male-pattern baldness now, there are some promising treatments to be released in the near future that just might bring that idea to life. What's the best part? These future balding treatments are already in development and on their way.

Here are a few future balding treatments you’ll likely see in the coming years with the advancement of science and technology regarding men and hair loss.

Hair cloning (hair multiplication)

Hair multiplication (or follicular cell implantation) involves reproducing healthy hair follicles and distributing them in numbers large enough to completely eliminate male-pattern baldness. It is the modern, up-to-date version of your traditional hair transplant in the sense that they borrow from existing spots on your head to fill in the gaps. However, rather than simply move the hairs around to new spots, new hairs are created making the possibility of thick, wavy hair more attainable.

Hair follicles have a property similar to plants when the “cutting” method of reproducing is used: If a follicle is split in two, it can essentially take the form of two new hairs if cultured and grown correctly. The hair can then be replicated thousands (or millions) of times over, and then either injected back into the scalp and grown from scratch to rejuvenate current hair follicles or transplanted back onto the head.

This future balding treatment is still in the development stages and that’s why you haven’t seen any products on the shelf just yet. However, companies like the Aderans Research Institute Inc. are developing a cell therapy process for male-pattern baldness, and are currently running clinical trials in the U.S. There are also clinical trials in the works using stem cells to grow artificial follicles at Berlin Technical University in Germany.

Genetic testing

One of the best ways to guarantee luxurious locks of hair is to avoid losing them in the first place -- sorry for all those who have a shine on their scalp already. Genetic testing is the way of the future for preventative male-pattern baldness treatments.

Don't wig out just yet, there are more future balding treatments to check out...

Men who inherit two particular genetic variants are seven times more likely to become bald.

Male-pattern baldness is a common problem in males: About two-thirds of men experience some degree of baldness by the time they reach their 60s. Of course, baldness can start anywhere from a man’s teenage years all the way to retirement and beyond. Therefore, getting to the root of the problem (no pun intended) might be your safest bet to keeping your hair.

Men who inherit two particular genetic variants are seven times more likely to become bald, according to researchers who analyzed the human genome for the DNA strain that causes male-pattern baldness.

deCODE Genetics, an Icelandic company, has developed a personal genotyping service. If it is noted that you are susceptible to the genes that cause baldness, preventative treatments can follow such as Rogaine, Propecia or Dutasteride. Understanding male-pattern baldness and its hereditary patterns will be critical to solving androgenic alopecia and better, less-invasive treatments.

Baldness be gone: Baldness diagnostics are available through deCODE.

Natural regeneration

Prior to 2007, science revealed that regeneration was a possibility in only select animals, such as salamanders and newts. It wasn’t until scientists at the University of Pennsylvania were studying wound reparation on mice that they discovered that hair follicles could regenerate by “re-awakening” genes that were once active only in developing embryos. Amazingly, when the wound begins the healing stage, it triggers an “embryonic stage” in which non-hair-follicle (epidermal) stem cells are sent to the wound area to repair the injury. The skin becomes receptive to wnt (wingless) proteins that are essential for hair follicle development. This window of opportunity allows scientists to manipulate the amount of wnt and other protein types to stimulate hair follicle growth (or conversely, stymie it if hair growth is not wanted). Another interesting conclusion they came to was that this can be achieved with little to no scarring. This process to treating male-pattern baldness also has the potential to treat other hair disorders and forms of alopecia.

A patent is now out for this process of follicle neogenesis, and a company called Follica Inc., which includes scientists in the original wounding experiment, is heading up the project. While the treatment is still years away, and may cross paths with the idea of hair multiplication, pre-clinical trials are already underway.

Baldness be gone: There is no determinable date as to when this might be available given that trials can last years. As soon as 2015 or 2018 could be a possibility, but that’s being generous.

ban baldness

A “cure” for baldness in both men and women may not be an accurate word to use in the case of these technologically driven treatments. However, treatments are what they are: They are forms of therapy that can be used to help keep the hair you have or grow a new 'do. There are plenty of hair-regenerating products out on the market designed to fool the consumer, but real progress is being made to find safe, lasting and fulfilling solutions to male-pattern baldness. In the meantime, appreciate the Bruce Willises and Jason Stathams of the world and embrace your look no matter how full-headed or sparse it is.

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Cloned hair follicles to cure baldness

Cloned hair follicles to cure baldness

PTI May 2, 2011, 06.35am IST

MELBOURNE: Coming soon: Cloned hair follicles to cure baldness , say scientists. In what might become the most effective permanent treatment for the condition, several research teams around the world have successfully cloned human hair follicles — though only in limited amounts.

Though human trials are yet to be held, the cloned follicles have been successfully implanted into soles of feet of lab rodents, giving hair-loss sufferers a ray of hope that a cure is within reach.

Now, the challenge for the scientists at University of Melbourne and St Vincent's Hospital, and for research teams at Berlin Technical University and British company Intercytex, is to increase the number of follicles that can be cloned from a single hair taken from a patient's scalp. At the moment, one hair produces only one or two clones.

"We've got to find a way of increasing the yield," Rod Sinclair, head of the research team at St Vincent's , said.

"We've got to find a way of multiplying one hair extracted into 1000 hairs — what commonly happens in the expansion process is that they lose their ability to induce new hair follicles," he said.

He said cloning hair was difficult because each strand, including its follicle, was a complete organ like a kidney or liver. "Human stem cells are actually pretty weak and that's one of the problems that we've got."

To clone hair, the scientists have to extract stem cells from the hair follicle, multiply them in a culture dish, and then implant them into the scalp. "They have to produce hair that is the right thickness, the right length, the right angle as it leaves the scalp and right degree of curliness."

The scientists have been encouraged by the success of the trials involving mice, says Sinclair , adding that human trials are expected within two years.

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