Are we sure we need whole new follicles?

[nameless]

How do we even know for sure that we need new follicles?

Why can't injected cells simply make the follicles that are already in the skin produce hairs again?

For all we know the only reason injected cells do not regrow full heads of hair on bald heads is because those cells have lost their trichogenicity. For all we know once they find a way to protect trichogenicity we may not need new follicles to have full heads of hair because merely injecting the cells into the skin could revive the follicles that are already in the skin.

I think that in Aderans phase 1 and phase 2 human studies they grew a little hair by injecting cells that had lost trichogenicity so for all we know if those cells had not lost their trichogenicity they would have grown a lot more hair and new follicles might not even be needed.

[Vox]

How do we even know for sure that we need new follicles?

We know nothing for sure. I think specialists in this domain move into directions that seem to work best, based on a combination of theoretical background and observational evidence from experimentation. Perhaps in a, I am afraid distant, future what you describe may be reality.

[hellouser]

I've raised this question before but if cells were injected into the scalp and follicles grew from scratch, what is the guarantee that their growth would occur in the proper angle and direction? Is it possible for the follicle to grow upside down and grow hair downwards thus creating an ingrown hair?

[baldozer]

The best treatment would be to grow a whole scalp with hair, perhaps by making a clone of your scalp that starts to grow hair as if you were newly born, and transplant that whole scalp. Growing and transplanting individual follicles seems to be too laborious and time consuming and wouldn't apparently even give you a full head of hair.

[bigentries]

I've raised this question before but if cells were injected into the scalp and follicles grew from scratch, what is the guarantee that their growth would occur in the proper angle and direction? Is it possible for the follicle to grow upside down and grow hair downwards thus creating an ingrown hair?

The issues of aesthetics have been raised before, it's pretty clear that all those situations are very likely to happen

That's why I'm always cautiously optimistic, just growing hair is not enough, it has to look good, otherwise it's practically worthless

We've seen enough cases that show that bad hair is worse than no hair at all

[hellouser]

I think that in Aderans phase 1 and phase 2 human studies they grew a little hair by injecting cells that had lost trichogenicity so for all we know if those cells had not lost their trichogenicity they would have grown a lot more hair and new follicles might not even be needed.

I have my doubt on Aderans' approach. The only follicles that grew as desired were ones that we're close to existing follicles that grew terminal hairs. None of injections were able to grow SO much hair in slick bald areas... look below:



Notice that most of the regrowth is at near the area where there is hair already? That's gotta give some insight as to why things didn't work out better in the slick bald area... something weird is happening in that follicle desolated area.

[baldozer]

The issues of aesthetics have been raised before, it's pretty clear that all those situations are very likely to happen

That's why I'm always cautiously optimistic, just growing hair is not enough, it has to look good, otherwise it's practically worthless

We've seen enough cases that show that bad hair is worse than no hair at all

True, if only having hair was important, than an average bald guy has enough beard and chest hair to recreate a full head of hair.

[hellouser]

True, if only having hair was important, than an average bald guy has enough beard and chest hair to recreate a full head of hair.

Those hairs are very different from scalp hair... my beard hair is ridiculously scarce, I can pretty much ONLY grow a goatee and my sides have like a total of 200 hairs, neck included.

Leg hair would suit me much better

[HairlossAt15]

We still have all our hairs, we just lack the progenitor cells to make grow to full length. This is what Garza's research has proven already. People dont seem to be able to grasp it though. Growing new follicles is for burn vicitims etc who have lost there follicles. People are supporting the wrong cause, we should be supporting MPB related research.

[nameless]

I have my doubt on Aderans' approach. The only follicles that grew as desired were ones that we're close to existing follicles that grew terminal hairs. None of injections were able to grow SO much hair in slick bald areas... look below:



Notice that most of the regrowth is at near the area where there is hair already? That's gotta give some insight as to why things didn't work out better in the slick bald area... something weird is happening in that follicle desolated area.

Yes I see that most of the regrowth is where there is hair already but that could just be because the cells injected had lost almost all, if not all, of their trichogencity. For all we know that guys bald scalp would have completely filled in simply by protecting the trichogenicity of the cells that are to be injected.

My point is that they're trying to create whole new follicles but it not even be necessary because by simply protecting the trichogenicity of the cells that could suffice to get ALL of the already existing shrunken follicles to start growing hair again just like the follicles near the already existing hair are doing.

[hellouser]

We still have all our hairs, we just lack the progenitor cells to make grow to full length. This is what Garza's research has proven already. People dont seem to be able to grasp it though. Growing new follicles is for burn vicitims etc who have lost there follicles. People are supporting the wrong cause, we should be supporting MPB related research.

But nothing has ever worked to restore progenitor cells and make follicles grow terminal hairs. You may as well kill two birds with one stone via stem cell route and creating brand new follicles.

[nameless]

But nothing has ever worked to restore progenitor cells and make follicles grow terminal hairs. You may as well kill two birds with one stone via stem cell route and creating brand new follicles.

And if you do whole follicles you get back to the old issue of direction and stuff like that. Your hair may not look natural when all is said and done.

[nameless]

You know what it is...why I started this thread - the suspense of what is going to come out of the 2014 Hair Loss Congress is really eating at me. Is anyone else sitting on pins-and-needles...wishing the darn thing would happen so we can find out if they have overcome the trichogenicity issue or not? This waiting is like some kind of trichogenicity water-torture. And we have 7 white-knuckle weeks to go.

[HairlossAt15]

There has been other situations where progenitor cells has been restored in other diseases. If they were able to restore function then we would get our hair back to the way it was before the disease and cycling as normal. New follicles could be different color/length/curly/straight and inconsistent etc.