Hair restoration is an $8 billion-per-year industry worldwide. So it makes sense that companies are all trying to break into this industry with the latest medical or technological innovations to restore hair or even “cure” baldness.
The most exciting is probably the cell-based hair follicle regeneration treatments that are currently being developed and studied and are seeking a third quarter launch in 2018 in some Asian countries. Replicel is a company in British Columbia that has partnered with the Japanese bio-technology company Shiseido. They have created a hair regrowth treatment called RCH-01. A person’s own hair follicle cells are cultured and then re-injected into the scalp. This treatment is very similar to a popular and already great treatment called PRP, or platelet-rich plasma therapy. PRP uses a patient’s own blood and spins it in a centrifuge until the red blood cells have been extracted from the platelet-rich blood that holds all of the growth hormones and proteins. With RCH-01, however, a small punch biopsy is removed from the donor area or the back of the head where the follicles that are not affected by DHT (dihydrotestosterone) are. Once a specific cell is removed, it is dissected from the follicle and cultured in a growth medium. The cells are than replicated into millions of new cells. After they have reached maturity, they are then injected into the patient’s scalp. These cells will rapidly increase hair growth, not only for healthy hairs, but also for hairs that are near the end stages of miniaturization and inevitable doom. The theory also exists that this treatment may possibly regenerate hair follicles and therefore grow hair in areas that are already bald as well as in the areas that are thinning.
Hair cloning, or hair multiplication, is also a very promising and cutting-edge treatment that could possibly be the “cure” for hair loss. As of today, all methods of hair transplant are restricted by the amount of suitable hair follicles that can be taken from one area and then implanted into the areas of baldness that we want to treat. With this breakthrough, the theory is that there will no longer be any limitations as to how many hairs can be replaced with a hair transplant. So ultimately, a person who is completely bald will be able to restore an entire full head of hair again. This procedure is still in its early infancy, and I wouldn’t expect to see this available to the general public as a hair restoration treatment for at least 10 years.
A simple treatment that has been discovered very recently is Latisse. Latisse is currently used to help the growth of eyelashes, but it has also been shown to grow hair on the scalp. Other studies have shown that Latisse in combination with allergy medication can block DHT and therefore help slow down hair loss and help hair growth.
As of today, the most advanced treatments that are proven to be the most effective are, of course, hair transplants to replace lost hair, PRP, LLLT (low-level laser therapy), minoxidil (Rogaine), and/or finasteride (Propecia).
