Hair Loss

Last year I suggested that it would take about 10 years before hair multiplication (or hair cloning) becomes a viable alternative or adjunct to conventional hair transplants. I still think it’ll take about that much time, even with announcements like the one from Intercytex in this recent hair multiplication news article.

While the news in this article is exciting, as is the research being done by Ken Washenik of Bosley and others, one has to keep ones enthusiasm in check as there are a number of difficult hurdles that have to be jumped before hair multiplication goes mainstream.

Hair multiplication is the process of taking the dermal papilla (hair producing cells) from healthy hair that is not susceptible to androgenetic alopecia and using these cells to culture many more such cells that can be implanted into the scalp with the intent of producing new hair. There is a difference between hair transplants and hair implants. Hair transplants refer to hair that has been removed from the back and/or sides of the scalp and moved to balding areas like the frontal hair line and vertex. It is essentially just a rearranging of the hair from the areas that have plenty to the areas that do not. Hair multiplication produces new hair cells to be implanted into the balding areas. The great thing about it, the promise that it holds, is a sort of holy grail for hair loss sufferers–unlimited donor hair.

There are some barriers to be overcome before it becomes truly viable. There is no guarantee that the hairs will align correctly (research is being done to create little tiny tubes for the cells to be placed in before being implanted into the scalp to deal with this problem), or that they’ll even grow at all. Even the exciting news from Intercytex that I talked about earlier only showed results in five of the seven volunteers of the Phase 1 clinical trial. There is no guarantee that the process is even safe over the long term. What if the cultured cells are prone to developing into cancerous cells? Obviously tons of research and testing still needs to be done to prove the safety long-term. Even if you get a full head of hair from a hair multiplication procedure there’s no guarantee that the hair will be permanent. What if all the hair falls out after 5 years or so because of some inherent property of the cultured cells that nobody yet knows about? I’m not trying to rain on anybody’s parade. I’m just trying to be realistic in my expectations for HM.

Obviously, just like hair transplants evolved over several decades to the types of quality hair transplants that we see today using follicular units, hair multiplication techniques–both in terms of the culturing of the cells, and the procedures to implant them into the scalp–will improve over the next several decades. Initially, once HM is approved, HM procedures will probably be combined with conventional hair transplant techniques to give density when there is limited donor hair. Over time as doctors and researchers observe the results of such procedures and refine their techniques it should get better and better. Eventually HM may replace conventional hair transplants altogether.

How does this all effect you and me? Well depending on how old we are and how fast we’re losing our hair it may effect our individual decisions on whether to get a conventional hair transplant done by a skilled surgeon in the near future, or to wait for HM to become commonly available. For the vast majority of us waiting for HM to replace todays hair transplant techniques may be disappointing. Who wants to wait 10 or more years to improve their appearance? I think if I were to get to the point of wanting a hair transplant, I would get one at that time and not wait. Today’s procedures can produce amazing results (as you can see in our Community Galleries section). So why wait for HM? If you don’t like a strip of hair-bearing skin being removed from the back of your scalp you can get a follicular unit extraction hair transplant. Once HM becomes available you can still get an HM procedure done in the future when it has proven itself to improve your density, or even to lower your hair line. This is the route that I would personally take if my hair loss got to the point where I couldn’t stand it any longer.