Cloning Hair Cells

Aug 2004

There are few body parts we lavish as much attention on as our hair, innumerable shampoos, conditioners, straighteners, dryers, coloring, and considering it's just a tangle of dead cells, most of us have a surprising amount of self-esteem attached to our hair.

"I think it has enhanced my, you know, level of confidence, my presence, perception that others have of me."

Jeff's talking about the way he, and his hair, look now, but not long ago, he had classic male-pattern baldness, which started when he was in college.

And while that's what most people think of when you mention balding, hair loss affects women too.

Walter Unger, M.D./ Dermatologist said, "Women on the other hand usually go thin in the top of their head but do not go completely bald and sometimes thin out on their temples here and occasionally in the back of their head as well. "

Assuming its garden-variety balding, the first step is medications: minoxidil, brand name Rogaine, and Finasteride, brand name Proscar or Propecia, are the only drugs approved by the FDA as effective against hair loss, a dilute estrogen solution may help female hair loss, but as soon as you stop using the drugs, the hair loss accelerates.

Hair researcher, George Cotsarelis, Univ of Pennsylvania said, "They're not as effective as most people would like. They don't regenerate new hairs, but they are useful in a lot of people. The only definitive treatment for balding now available is a hair transplant. You have to have some donor hair elsewhere on your head but today, results can be nothing short of astounding."

The key is dividing up the donor follicles into 1, 2 or 3 hair units that produce a natural hairline. Density comes from larger grafts.

"It can even be once. You can just do the frontal area one time and be done, you framed your face, you look your age, you leave the other areas alone."

The future of hair restoration may come form a lab where researchers are cloning the cells in the follicle that actually grow hair. They've already done in mice.

Cotsarelis said, "I don't think it's really that far off in the future it's hard to know for sure, but I'd imagine over the next 5 to 10 years someone's going to be studying this in humans."

The cloned cells could be inserted into the scalp wherever you wanted to grow more hair.

Transplants work, but they're expensive $5 to $16,000 per session and many people go for several sessions.

Because there's so much art involved in transplants, go to an experienced dermatologist.