How will Replicel or Aderans technique be used?

[Follicle Death Row]

2 things:

1. The effects are not expected to be transient. The follicles and hair that are grown are anticipated to last forever since they should be DHT resistant.
   
2. There could be an exception to that with women who may not have a stable permanent donor zone. Hence that could be reinjection every x number of years. 3? 5? 10? Who knows.

Not sure how the hairline will be tackled but I' assuming a FUE session may be appropriate for the first 2 or 3cm (seems sensible to me). I guess it may also be possible to thicken out moth eaten donors for those few FUE patients who have pushed it too far.

[Follicle Death Row]

I poked around Replicel's website and it all looks wonderful - but this is still years away from being available to help women (or anyone else) with hair loss. * Sigh *

2015 at the earliest for us all...And that's if everything goes according to plan which it never does to be honest.

Still, I think they're on the right track.

[TxRockClimber]

Only thing that could shorten the timeline (outside of advancements/delays during the safey and efficacy trials) is whether or not the FDA is successfully sued with regards to autogolous therapies. As the RepliCel CEO mentioned during the interview - a company in Colorado has taken the FDA to court to argue that the autologous therapies should not have to undergo the same trials as medicinal/pharma products as the cells have not been changed or altered. Similar in terms as to what is required for Fertility Clinics - they have not had to undergo any trials to prove that harvesting eggs (from a female) and reintroducing them (after fertilization) was not hazardous to the patients health.

[Bronson]

2015 at the earliest for us all...And that's if everything goes according to plan which it never does to be honest.

Still, I think they're on the right track.

2015 in the west, it may be released elsewhere in 2014 but yeah we all have to wait out 2012-13 at least.

[Follicle Death Row]

Only thing that could shorten the timeline (outside of advancements/delays during the safey and efficacy trials) is whether or not the FDA is successfully sued with regards to autogolous therapies. As the RepliCel CEO mentioned during the interview - a company in Colorado has taken the FDA to court to argue that the autologous therapies should not have to undergo the same trials as medicinal/pharma products as the cells have not been changed or altered. Similar in terms as to what is required for Fertility Clinics - they have not had to undergo any trials to prove that harvesting eggs (from a female) and reintroducing them (after fertilization) was not hazardous to the patients health.

I was talking to a college friend of mine the other day about autologous stem cells and the FDA and he was saying that their intervention makes sense because he said there's a real concern with contamination of autologous stem cells when multiplied, cultured and stored ex vivo/in vitro.

I was more along your line of thought but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[TxRockClimber]

I wonder if the FDA required that the Univ. of Pittsburgh and Wake Forest to take the process used to generate new bladders, esophagus, etc. via the same approach i.e., take stem cells from the patients body, culture (multiply), insert them into a matrix and re-insert the new organ. Need to research this to see if they had to go through the same approval process or if they were given a waiver (experimental).

[Pate]

Basically there are three things standing between Replicel and a cure, as opposed to a treatment.

1. Whether the results are permanent. Replicel hope they will be because the original cells were DHT resistant (in men at least, maybe not in women because women may not have a permanent donor zone), so the multiplied cells should in theory be as well.

2. Whether the results are compoundable. Again, there is hope because not all follicles may be in a state to regenerate at the same time, but we will have to wait and see. Nobody has yet performed multiple procedures on the same area yet - Histogen is in the process of doing so. This is IMO the deciding factor in whether it'll be a filler or not. If the results are compoundable it should be able to be used as many times as necessary to restore full density.

3. Whether new follicles can be generated or only damaged follicles rejuvenated.

If all three are "yes" then they should have a baldness cure. If any are "no" they may still have a very effective treatment for some people but not a universal cure. If they are all "no" then I guess it's back to the drawing board for them, and another ten years at least of balding for us!

[Tracy C]

If all three are "yes" then they should have a baldness cure. If any are "no" they may still have a very effective treatment for some people but not a universal cure.

A more effective treatment would be O.K. with me - if that's all this turns out to be... It's the waiting that is so hard... I mean, I've grown a lot of hair back with non-surgical treatments - and adding transplants to that made it possible for me to go out in public without wearing a wig - but I would really like more density.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Tracy C: Just out of curiosity, how long have you been struggling with baldness? And at what point did you start to do something about it? In other words, how many years did you suffer from hair loss before you sought out treatments? I've been suffering from noticeable hair loss for about 1.5 years and it's already driving me crazy.

[Tracy C]

I noticed it many years ago. I was about the same age that my mother was when she started losing her hair. Her sisters started losing their hair at about the same age as well. I felt cursed and doomed. My mother and my aunts are almost completely bald... I sank into a deep depression that lasted many many years. There was a ten year stretch that I wouldn't even leave my home except to go to work and get supplies I needed... Obviously, I never married. So hair loss absolutely ruined my life. I just wanted to die, but I couldn't do that to the people who love me. Hair loss cost me more than you will ever understand.

I did try Rogaine when it first became available, but it gave me chest pains so my doctor at the time told me to stop using it and deal with my hair loss some other way. I couldn't deal so I became a hermit.

I started treating my hair loss four years ago when my primary care doctor at that time told me about the laser comb. I bought one, I used it as directed and it worked! My hair looked better. So after six months of using the laser comb I tried Rogaine again. The second time I tried it I didn't have chest pains. So I have been using both the laser comb and Minoxidil ever since. I grew some more hair back, but not enough. So I sought out a specialist. I do have a stable zone so I went through with two transplant surgeries.

I know the hair that was transplanted will not fall out. I also know that if I stop using Minoxidil the hair that grew back from the medicine will likely fall out. I have no intention of stopping the use of my laser comb. It's too easy to use, it's convenient and it makes my hair look better. There is no reason to stop. But I would really like to be able to stop using Minoxidil.

I've been suffering from noticeable hair loss for about 1.5 years and it's already driving me crazy.

What is really crazy is to not treat it when it's only been a year and a half. I learned too late to matter that treating hair loss as soon as you notice it is unbelievably important... Knowing what I know now, I would be attacking the problem with everything available if I were you.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Hey Tracy, that really is a sad story and I totally feel for you. After all, as we all know, you cannot really know how bad hair loss really is until you've experienced it for yourself, and I'm very unfortunately experiencing it in a very terrible way. That really sucks that baldness runs in your family to that high of a degree. I especially feel for you when you say that you spent about 10 years not going out at all, unless it was for work or to go shopping for necessary things. A lot of times, I just sit in my room with the shades down and the light off during the day because this hair loss is so depressing for me. I didn't go out at all either for the first half of this year either. However, I've been forcing myself more recently to get out and do some of the things that I used to do. Over the summer I started going to my rock shows and started to get back into weight lifting. I also started jamming with my friends's local bands every now and again too. Problem is that in order to enjoy myself when I go out, I've usually got to get either drunk or high enough that I can just simply forget about my hair loss and have a good time. I really wish that the people out there who view hair loss as some kind of minor thing would read these types of posts and then realize that hair loss can have an absolutely devastating effect on a person's life.
Make no mistake about it though, I have tried treating my hair loss for a while now. When I first started noticing my hair loss, I tried Rogaine but it didn't do a damn thing for me (and I don't think it does anything for most people either). I've been on Propecia for about a year and a half now, but I think I am experiencing the side effects of the drug (particularly with regards to muscular definition and strength). And I really don't wanna screw around with my muscles since weight lifting has been one of the few things that has provided me with some semblance of happiness lately. I even tried a laser treatment last year. My friend wears a hair system and they had a deal at his salon where they would give you 6 months of laser treatment for $1500. It was expensive, but I was naive and under the impression that this laser treatment was really a viable method to regrow my hair. Needless to say, it didn't do a damn thing for me. Except they only let me use their laser machine once a week for 45 min. I dunno, maybe if I buy a laser contraption of my own, then I could use it more than once a week and that may make a difference. In terms of Propecia, it did slow down my hair loss for a while. However, I'm shedding a lot again and as I said before, I'm experiencing the side effects of it too. I'm not a big fan of hair transplants because they possess way too many flaws. Since a hair transplant permanently scars your head, then that means that you can never shave your head again or wear too short of a hairstyle. And it also usually means a lifelong commitment to Propecia (so that you will not lose your native hair around the transplanted hair) and that drug is already causing me side effects. I realize that as a woman, your situation is different in several ways. A shaved head is not an option for you, whereas there are plenty of men around with shaved heads, including some friends of mine. I've read way too many posts from men who say they wish they could shave their head and just get on with life, but cannot because of their hair transplant scarring. The main reason that hair loss is devastating me so much is because I love that long-haired 80s rock n roll look, especially when I go out to rock shows. But some people tell me that I would look good with a shaved head and a goatee. I've always been a big guy so if I shaved my head, it certainly wouldn't look like I had cancer or anything. I don't know.
Anyway, what pisses me off more than anything is that people like you, me, and so many others are so desperate to regrow our hair and would literally do anything to do so, yet we have such limited and ineffective options out there. That's what really pisses me off more than anything.

[Bishop]

What about an FUE treatment? That doesn't leave a scar.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Actually FUE does leave tiny little scars from where the hair was yanked out and then reinserted into the balding area. I've actually had a couple of surgeons admit that to me. Plus, FUE is really only used to cover very, very small areas. Unfortunately we have no real solutions for this curse of hair loss.

[Morgan137]

Better late than never

Guys, it is very hopeful that there are many treatments (or cure maybe) coming in next years. Aderans, Histogen and Replicel. But i came across a forum hairloss-research, and i think they are in more able to find something like permanent treatment in nearest future than those. And one issue there, it is not clear whether it is for AA or only for stress-related hairloss. Someone knows about it ?

[Morgan137]

By the way sorry for my english : )