Is Dr. Gho's HST the real deal?

[RichardDawkins]

Hmmm Follicle is right i never thought this through

With Propecia you will lose your hair anyway and you got other problems as well so in the end everyone who is taking propecia well is just paying for i dont know nothing useful at all

[Follicle Death Row]

Yeah just look at the worst case scenarios. Forgo finasteride and you'll lose your hair. Take it and you might lose your hair, develop gyno and/or suffer some serious malfunction let's say in the trouser department. Not worth it imo.

Back to Gho's method; I knew Bernstein was looking at autocloning but it appears he's also investigating the partial longitudinal follicular unit extraction method that Gho has pioneered. That's what I'm taking from the article that says "transected follicular units are induced to generate new hair-producing follicles."

I had completely missed this until now.

http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/hairtransplantblog/hair-transplant-pioneer-studies-hair-cloning-hair-restoration-procedures-using-acell-extracellular-matrix/

Now this 'plucking' method that Cooley and Bernstein are investigating has the drawback of only being able to utilise single hairs. That's where Dr. Cole's proposed method may have a significant advantage. However to circumvent this problem Bernstein has proposed that 2 or 3 single hairs could be placed into the one lateral slit or sagital slit to create an artificial 2 or 3 hair FU. All very interesting. I wonder if an artificial 2 hair FU could spawn a third hair due to Acell. Perhaps if one of those plucked hairs was taken from a 2 or 3 hair FU is what I'm thinking but that could be wishful thinking too.

[UK_]

Thats why I wont be touching Propecia - not worth it lol

[RichardDawkins]

Yeah i agree when it comes to FIn. Because its not stopping hair loss in genereal its slowing it down, and also there is a high chance for impotence as well.

And i can only speak for myself but if i would be impotent for the rest of my life i would wish for hair loss be my major problem you know. The truth is, hair loss can be reversed and further improvement you could also choose to take the surgical route with donor regrowth. But impotence on the other hand, well you stick with that for the effin rest of your life and this is hard.

Risk vs benefit is clearly not equal

[Follicle Death Row]

What consequences will the "industry" suffer if they don't accede to our demands?

If they don't meet our demands then we'll gun down all of the Merck hierarchy.

In all seriousness though, in fairness the industry has come along way and many of the top docs will be open and honest out the effects of 5AR inhibitors. I think it's well established that there's a desire for a better topical treatment and hopefully one will come to market. I suppose I'm just unhappy with the pharmaceutical side of the industry. The thing is with a cosmetic issue like hairloss, we're not dealing with a health issue at all so any treatment in development is really only to make some good coin. Now of course all pharmaceutical companies are looking to develop profitable drugs for many different ailments but let's be honest it's better to actually invest in drugs that solve real health issues because there's more noble causes to pursue we're kind of stuck with a second rate drug for hairloss in finasteride that wasn't developed originally for combatting this problem. Of course if someone thought they had a really effective product they'd make huge money.

It's tough dealing with the choice of taking finasteride or not taking it. On one hand you keep your hair for longer but have the hormonal profile of a pseudohermaphrodite whereas on the other hand you lose your hair but have a healthy male hormonal profile. Sometimes when the choice isn't there people are happier. I think since I'm not happy to take finasteride I do expect more from the pharamceutical side of the industry so to speak. It's good to hear there's people happily taking finasteride and benefitting from it but there's plenty that expect an alternative.

[gmonasco]

We should demand better from the industry.

What consequences will the "industry" suffer if they don't accede to our demands?

[CVAZBAR]

Completely agree. Finasteride is a desperate measure and indeed an archaic one. In reality, even if someone doesn't suffer the side effects they will still lose there hair eventually. It only delays the inevitable, albeit for some by 5 years others by 10, some not at all mind. I have real problems with how finasteride is marketed for hair loss. Even when they say that it's actually good for your prostate I feel it's a bit of a cop out.

The truth is that the balance of DHT and androstenedione should be 1:1. You can have very high DHT levels but most young males will then also have very high androstenedione levels and thus a healthy prostate. Actually then lowering DHT could be problematic for prostate health. I'd urge all to do their due diligence in researching finasteride and DHT if they're considering using it. It should be no different than the thought and research one should give surgical measures.

For me the cost benefit ratio was way off so I'm not using it. We should demand better from the industry.

Exactly! We should demand more from this shitty industry. We need something unique for hair loss. Propecia was never meant for Hair loss or any crap that's out right now.

[Follicle Death Row]

Completely agree. Finasteride is a desperate measure and indeed an archaic one. In reality, even if someone doesn't suffer the side effects they will still lose there hair eventually. It only delays the inevitable, albeit for some by 5 years others by 10, some not at all mind. I have real problems with how finasteride is marketed for hair loss. Even when they say that it's actually good for your prostate I feel it's a bit of a cop out.

The truth is that the balance of DHT and androstenedione should be 1:1. You can have very high DHT levels but most young males will then also have very high androstenedione levels and thus a healthy prostate. Actually then lowering DHT could be problematic for prostate health. I'd urge all to do their due diligence in researching finasteride and DHT if they're considering using it. It should be no different than the thought and research one should give surgical measures.

For me the cost benefit ratio was way off so I'm not using it. We should demand better from the industry.

[UK_]

DHT is not the real culprit. Sure if you had none of it you wouldn't go bald but if you had proper working progenitor cells like non balding people it wouldn't matter a damn how high our DHT levels are. We don't suffer from male pattern baldness because we have higher DHT levels that a non balding person therefore I'm not content to reduce a hormone which has many benefits. It's far from the ideal solution and I won't risk my health or well being for hair.

Good comment, I have always viewed Finasteride as an archaic solution to hair loss, kind of like severing a limb to treat chronic joint pain, or a birth control pill that works by reducing your interest in sex.

It is also good to see researchers following up on this pathway by looking rather at the deeper genetic aspects of hair loss, gene therapy like Histogen/Follica looks very effective as too does the HM of Aderans and Replicel, both concepts address the need to target genes or generate and multiply hairs with the 'correct' genes.

I too binned the idea of taking finasteride, after reading all of the hormonal therapy forums - and I believe more and more people are ditching this drug, Merck are facing many lawsuits and will lose their license in 2014, to me, it seems the beginning of a kind of renaissance for the hair loss industry, the end of a 20 year long dark age of hair loss.

[Follicle Death Row]

Yeah I don't believe topical anti-androgens alone will be the solution but if it's more effective than finasteride it's an infinitely better option for those just beginning to thin.

It would be fantastic if one day you could buy an over the counter shampoo that had the ant-androgenic effect of a treatment like CB 03-01 and also wnt7a proteins and the right growth factors. I wonder if it would be possible to develop a shampoo based vehicle that could deliver such results in the future.

[CVAZBAR]

I'm with you bro, Im just not sure how well an anti-androgen like cb 03-01 would work. I mean for many people drugs like Fin and Dut do absolutely nothing and I wonder how this would be different even if it's stronger. Let's hope the future is good to all of us.

[Follicle Death Row]

I don't know whether or not I'll go down the surgical route of hair restoration. Ideally I'd just get over the whole hair loss thing and it becomes a non issue but at this stage I'm really hoping something comes of Acell+PRP or Histogen. Tried finasteride for 3 weeks, didn't feel great on it and did a lot of research on it. For me it's not worth the risk so I binned them. DHT is not the real culprit. Sure if you had none of it you wouldn't go bald but if you had proper working progenitor cells like non balding people it wouldn't matter a damn how high our DHT levels are. We don't suffer from male pattern baldness because we have higher DHT levels that a non balding person therefore I'm not content to reduce a hormone which has many benefits. It's far from the ideal solution and I won't risk my health or well being for hair. Well that's how I see it.

Also just because someone is not suffering noticeable side effects does not mean it's not having a negative effect. Studies have shown that low levels of DHT have been linked with Alzheimers and can inhibit hippocampal neurogenesis, i.e. the area of your brain devoted to memory, hence the possible so called brain fog. It's long term safety profile worries me. It's a huge committment to decide to take it.

CB 03-01 will hopefully make finasteride redundant. It's in trials and will probably hit the market in 2015 if all goes well. It's an anti-androgen topical which is reportedly twice as effective as finasteride. Fingers crossed for future hair loss sufferers. Also current finasteride users could transfer to it which would be great.

Now if hair multiplication became a reality I'd consider the surgical route. As it stands I do not believe my donor or hair characteristics would give me the result I want. Plus I consider it quite a risk. Sub optimal growth in just one procedure and you could be left with a shoddy long term result as we currently cannot get over the donor issue. Limited paint and an ever expanding canvas and all that. Also I wouldn't go the down the surgical route banking on future developments. That would be an awful idea. Yes, I realise I'm quite conservative.

I do use minoxidil and nizoral to try and slow the loss for the time being. If they crack HM and CB 03-01 comes along in 2015 I could reconsider things then. Histogen may also be around and we could have Aderans nearing the end of phase 3. Of course I realise nothing make come of all this and I can wave my hair goodbye as disappears down the drain but as a young man of 25 I'm not going to avail of a questionable drug for long term use. Having said all this I understand perfectly well that people see finasteride as a viable option and I respect that. If it works for them great. It's just not for me.

Right now I'm just trying to keep abrest of cutting edge developments in the field that might help me out in the future. I find regenerative medicine and tissue engineering fascinating.

[CVAZBAR]

Yeah and one FUE only clinic springs to mind. They'll be up shit creek if the problem isn't solved. Things will get really ugly if the finasteride stops working and they come back looking for another 4000 grafts after spunking 4000 on the hairline.

Off topic, but what's your view on finasteride? I'm dead set against its use for hair loss.

So you're thinking of this without Fin? What about the people who continue to progress and thin? It would be great to have something better than Fin to stop hair loss and have the chance to restore as much as you want, at least for the people who already lost most hair.

[Follicle Death Row]

Oh you can bet your ass it will, because if not, a lot of clinics will have bad times heading their way :-)

Yeah and one FUE only clinic springs to mind. They'll be up shit creek if the problem isn't solved. Things will get really ugly if the finasteride stops working and they come back looking for another 4000 grafts after spunking 4000 on the hairline.

Off topic, but what's your view on finasteride? I'm dead set against its use for hair loss.

[RichardDawkins]

Oh you can bet your ass it will, because if not, a lot of clinics will have bad times heading their way :-)