Category: Hair Cloning

Snippet from the article:

Unihair of Japan, the world’s biggest wigmaker, is hoping for a big increase in sales through what might be regarded as the ultimate cutting-edge technology – a method to “grow” luxuriant displays of new hair on a person’s scalp.

The method uses cell-generation processes derived from pharmaceuticals research. “We see a tremendous number of possibilities [from the new process],” said Tadao Otsuki, Unihair’s chief executive. “It adds up to a fundamental shift in how the world can combat problems of baldness.”

With the help of the new techniques, based on ideas developed in the US and which are now undergoing clinical trials, Unihair is hoping to increase its annual sales roughly three-fold, from Y57.3bn ($706m) in the year to February 2010, to about Y150bn in 2017.

Read the full story from the Financial Times — Unihair gets a grip on baldness

There is a big difference between what we hope to achieve with using ACell in hair transplantation to multiply hairs in an ‘auto-cloning’ manner and what Unihair (formerly Aderans prior to September of this year) is trying to do with cloning hair outside of the head in a lab.

It’s in the best interest of patients that these technologies work, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Snippet from the article:

Cloning will represent a major advance in hair transplantation when it is ready for prime time. It remains elusive for now, but new clinical therapies — along with older standbys — are helping hair loss patients in the meantime, according to a leading specialist in hair transplantation.

One of the factors limiting hair transplantation is donor density. Individuals without good donor density can be less-than-ideal candidates for hair transplantation, notes Nicole Rogers, M.D., F.A.A.D., dermatologist and hair transplant surgeon and clinical professor, Tulane University, New Orleans. The potential for cloning leaves physicians hopeful for now.

“That would be the Holy Grail,” Dr. Rogers says. “It would be great if we could harvest a single hair from the back (of the head) and create thousands of copycat hairs from that. There is significant research ongoing in that area, but we are not there yet. It’s still going to be a while before it is ready for Food and Drug Administration approval.”

Read the full text at Dermatology Times

I just wanted to post this to show that I’m not just some curmudgeon when it comes to advancements in hair cloning. I still get emails from some readers with an accusatory tone when it comes to my opinion on hair cloning, and I suppose they’d rather me post false hope instead of the actual truth. The article points out the same things I’ve been saying for years — hair cloning is not ready for prime time and although there are companies working on it, there’s no chance this will be ready for the public soon.

When hair cloning finally does become a reality, you can be sure that we’ll be writing about it here. Right now though, it’s still far too early to get overly excited.

Hey Doc. Thanks again for your blog. Last night I was pondering the future and was wondering whether or not you could help me with something that has been niggling away at me for a couple of weeks now.

Can you please give us a history on the failed ideas and companies that made promises for a hair loss cure 20 – 50 years ago. Just the ones that had any scientific merit would suffice, well of course the others might provide some good comic relief so its your call

My own thoughts are as follows, food for thought?

It is my understanding that the failed promises of 50 years ago did not include stem cell research, regenerative medicine, and whatever modern approach to ‘hair cloning’, companies like Histogen and Aderans use today. They simply could not have had today’s recent scientific break through technology to back them up.

In which case what where the promises back in the day? Or were the doctors of 50 years ago merely just saying that ‘there will be a cure in 3-5 years’ to spread hope. Very kind of them.

What about Propecia people may say? I agree that Propecia has been around for a long time but that was an accidental find by researchers hunting out a cure for mens prostate problems. In other words exactly like your recent article on how researchers discovered they could change human cells from one type of cell to a skin cell complete with hair follicles. In that article you state why would they change their research. Well I’d say for exactly the same reason that Propecia did when they accidentally became a billion dollar company.

Today we see companies like Histogen, Aderans, and a few others that are actually showing positive results and backing them up with photographs. If they are legitimate images then the future looks promising. By promising who couldn’t do with just a little more transplant hair – maybe if we’re lucky Histogen will be able to simply increase the yield in our donor areas. That alone would be fantastic.

50 years ago things were different. Nobody had heard of, or at least practised, things like Nano Technology or Stem Cell research. I wasn’t even born. We didn’t have cellphones and the US military were not growing peoples limbs back!

With all the modern changes going on I’m just not sure if it is helpful to compare today’s tech with the tech of 50 years ago. All I hear is that 20-50 years ago they promised us that there will be a cure in 3-5 years. Well what were they promising – I’d love to know

Yours with love to all my balding brethren.

In regards to the accidental stem cell follicle discovery, I suppose it depends on the priorities of the researchers on whether they want to switch gears or start another study. It could be that the news of their accidental discovery was made public to garner interest in the project and to take on investors. I’m just guessing here, though.

Propecia is made by Merck, a large pharmaceutical company that didn’t become a billion dollar company by accident and makes more medication than just Propecia… but I see what you’re getting at and agree that money talks.

I do thank you for the input, but I am not a cloning expert nor a historian on cloning of hair. I could spend weeks or more researching the paths taken in hair loss cures over the past 50 years, and while it would likely make for interesting reading, it is beyond my scope at this time. What I do know is that doctors have been stating and vaguely projecting that cloning of hair is on the horizon within most of our lifetimes. I certainly hope that is the case, but the timelines have been moving with such frequency that it’s easy for people to grow skeptical until there’s an actual working model in place.

The following post is by UK-based physician Dr. Bessam Farjo:

Written by: Dr Bessam Farjo United Kingdom

I’m often asked about the ICX-TRC Cell Therapy Human Clinical Trial and whether or not it was successful. For those of you who don’t know, the trial was (in very simple terms) the development of a therapy whereby cells are sourced from an individual, multiplied, and then returned to that same individual. Take a look at the Farjo website for a more detailed account.

For anyone who has experienced any form of hair loss, the idea that your own existing hair follicles can be multiplied and re-implanted is a huge breakthrough.

Initial results were very encouraging, with an excellent percentage success rate seen within the test areas of the trial subjects.

Unfortunately, whilst the ICX-TRC trial results appeared positive, another unrelated Intercytex project was having less success. As a result of this and Intercytex being listed on the stock market (to make a long story short) the project’s funding was cut, putting an end to the activity – for the time being. The global credit crunch exacerbated matters further.

In 2010, the different divisions of the company were broken down and sold off to different interested parties. The ICX-TRC trial was acquired by Aderans Research (ARI) in the USA, who are continuing to do trials on this subject.

Cell therapy is still an exciting and promising area for the future; however it has proved to be a complicated study that still holds lots of unanswered questions. We’re still very much committed to the concept as well as other exciting areas, and hope to have the opportunity to discover the answers to some of these questions soon – watch this space!

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Learn more about the author of this article, Dr. Bessam Farjo, on his BaldingBlog profile or at his website.

Hi Doctor,

I was speaking with my grandfather the other day about our family history concerning hairloss. He’s been at about a 6 on the Norwood Scale for as long as I can remember. I am 19 years old and I’m starting to see the first signs of recession at the temples. He mentioned something he heard about hair cloning. What is your opinion on the technique, and do you think it will be a viable alternative to finasteride and hair transplantation in the near future? Thanks for your time.

We have written about hair cloning (or lack thereof) many times before. There are groups that are working on it, but people have been flocking to message boards to show their excitement prematurely. Hair cloning is in the very early stages, and while there have been some promising advances it is still far too early to suggest this is a winner. There are still many more years of testing to go.

I would like to hope that hair cloning will be a reality in our lifetime, but I really do not have a guess as to when.