Is Hair Cloning The Future Of Trichology?

The evolution of medical knowledge has over the years made so many difficult parts of the human experience no longer an inevitability, and it may be possible that hair loss could be ended for good.

The field of trichology has made many great steps forward towards preserving people’s hair, starting with the accidental discovery of minoxidil’s hair regrowth effect, as well as determining the causes, genetic and environmental, for pattern baldness and more effective ways to transplant hair.

The greater range of solutions has proven beneficial, since whilst minoxidil and other hair regrowth and preservation solutions such as platelet-rich plasma therapy work very well, every case of hair loss needs to be carefully examined to find a suitable treatment.

However, a solution that sounds like it comes from science fiction might be closer than many people realise, where people can freeze hair cells, multiply them through cloning and reinject them back into the scalp to produce a new head of healthy hair. 

The first company to attempt hair cloning was Manchester-based startup Intercytex in 2008, but due to the effects of the global financial crisis were forced to abandon their research early.

Whilst their efforts would prove fruitless, they paved the way for greater research and understanding of the processes and causes of pattern baldness.

The biggest discovery was that people lose their hair entirely not due to a loss of hair follicles but due to the death of progenitor cells. The stem cells that are the effective root are still found on the scalp and if they could be activated by injecting healthy follicle cells could regrow hair.

The process for hair cloning, therefore, involves taking dermal papilla cells from parts of the body still growing hair, cloning them and reinjecting the cells back into the scalp, as a more efficient form of hair transplant.

There have been some major breakthroughs in the last few years, but it will likely be at least a decade before hair cloning becomes a viable, widespread treatment.