An extraordinary new technique that could reverse the effects of hair loss has recently been unveiled in the laboratory.

The innovative new method is knows as "follicular cell implantation" and has been shown to yield positive effects on humans suffering from hair loss. It works by cloning the remaining hair of those suffering from hair loss, enabling a full head of hair to be restored.

The company responsible for developing this technique is British company Intercytex, who are one of several competing companies looking to find a solution to hair loss. Their work on developing this technology is being funded by the British Government who has provided a £1.9 million grant.

This revolutionary new approach to tackling hair loss can purportedly be used to create an unlimited supply of hair, and will be suitable for hair lost through cancer treatments, burns, or simply the ageing process. Male-pattern baldness, or androgenetic alopecia, is the most common cause of hair loss, and affects 40 per cent of men over 50.



The work has now completed the Phase II stage of trials, the results of which were recently announced at a conference of leading hair replacement surgeons in Rome. Their findings suggest that the new technique can increase the hair count in at least two-thirds of patients after six months of treatment.

Further, if the scalp is gently stimulated through abrasions that encourage hair growth, up to eighty per cent of patients will see a significant increase in hair count.
Scientists have been able to develop this technique by extracting dermal papilla cells from the back of the head. The dermal papilla cells are the basic cells responsible for hair growth, and generally continue to grow at the back of the head, despite losses in other areas.

The follicular cell implantation technique works by marinating the hairs in a special patented culture where they are multiplied many millions of times.  They are then injected back into the scalp, stimulating the formation of new hair follicles or reinvigorating those that have stopped being productive.

The treatment is likely to require thousands of individual tiny injections to generate the appropriate number of hairs, particularly in patients who have very extensive hair loss, but this procedure will nevertheless be more rapid and less invasive than current hair loss treatments.

The success of the recent trials suggests that follicular cell implantation will be fully available to all patients and hair loss sufferers within five years.