RepliCel - Spencer Kobren's Follow Up Interview With CEO David Hall

[NeedHairASAP]

we honestly don't know if any of these treatments are viable, never mind their release date....


just because a few (literally a few) companies are TESTING some ideas does not mean they are going to work. where are the photos? replicel has nothing but pixar movies. histogen has some crappy macro photographs that are 3 years old. Aderans has pictures of hair growing all f*cked up in different directions (and i believe their most current news release said they can't figure out how to not grow tumor balls of hair that sprout in every direction). This is the reality of where we are at....


Speculation is okay, but can you guys limit it to speculation on some evidence and not speculating on your feelings or hopes. im so tired or coming to see who updated this thread and finding completely baseless guessing and speculation.



i hope these things pan out. I wouldn't mind getting a hairtransplant along with them. Especially with procedures like Gho's where downtime, scarring, etc. etc. are all much better than ANY strip/fue. The guy really cares about his patients and the results. He doesn't do mega sessions that OBVIOUSLY ruin your scalp, the yield, and the healing of the donor. He doesn't stick you with needles, instead they have some crazy numbing agent they use via a dermis pad of sorts. The guy does ACTUAL research to, for example, find out saline solution SUCKS, and then he makes advancements off of these findings, such as his growth solution rather than saline. There is a lot of money to be made giving transplants, and a lot of risk in doing research... which is why we see HT surgeons preoccupied giving 6k graft megasessions instead of research possible dead ends. THANK YOU GHO for evolving one of the slowest moving industries in the world. If it weren't for his procedure I would agree with you guys that getting a HT isn't worth it.





I've been on these boards awhile and histogen hasn't released anything significant in two years...just a few pictureless updates claiming that hair is still there/"growing"... not very detailed




Also, new treatments could be cheaper than hair transplants-- which are very tedious and labor intensive. maybe you need one guy and an hour to stick you with a needle vs. 5 technicians and a doctor performing surgery on you for an entire day.

[25 going on 65]

Well that's a bummer.

[bigentries]

I think some people are grossly misinformed on how these therapies will work. There is nothing currently being tested that will regrow a full head of hair or grow thick hair on bald scalp. Optimistically, these treatments will replace meds like propecia and rogaine and may offer a little more growth. People who have transplants will benefit from these treatments in stalling future loss and thickening up the transplanted areas, but a good transplanst will still look good. With regard to timeline, it will likely be at least a couple more years before anything is available, and even then it will likely require a trip to Asia to get them. It could easily be 3 to 5 years until they are available in the US, assuming that funding remains available and the trials go well - nothing is a guarantee at this point.

True, I believe, if they are even released in our lifetimes, that there will be several generations of HM procedures, each one learning from past experiences, but we will probably be too old when a "perfect" procedure is released.

I don't know about Replicel, but Aderans clearly looks like it will need a hair transplant reinforcement to create a good hairline

[ryan555]

I think some people are grossly misinformed on how these therapies will work. There is nothing currently being tested that will regrow a full head of hair or grow thick hair on bald scalp. Optimistically, these treatments will replace meds like propecia and rogaine and may offer a little more growth. People who have transplants will benefit from these treatments in stalling future loss and thickening up the transplanted areas, but a good transplanst will still look good. With regard to timeline, it will likely be at least a couple more years before anything is available, and even then it will likely require a trip to Asia to get them. It could easily be 3 to 5 years until they are available in the US, assuming that funding remains available and the trials go well - nothing is a guarantee at this point.

[25 going on 65]

People said the same thing about Intercytex 5 years ago.

Fair comment. Companies are definitely making progress but I'm reluctant to rely on any kind of projected timeline right now.

I happen to be optimistic about next-generation treatments this decade, but if I turn 35 and am still hearing "just a few more years," I will very possibly be looking into surgical restoration at that point. But it also depends on how long my medicinal regimen stays effective.

The uncertainty in all this sometimes concerns me. If I somehow knew I was the type of person who can keep his hair for 12-14 years on meds, I would definitely feel more "secure."

[bigentries]

^ this. Plus you just wasted 10K on some outdated treatment.... Hair transplants will be a history soon.

Worrisome optimism

People said the same thing about Intercytex 5 years ago. You could have had 5 years of peace of mind instead of disappointment if you had a hair transplant back then, but people still hoped for the better

Until we have a clear release date, it's not fair to judge people's actions if baldness is too much of a problem.
That's why I don't judge people who go for a strip procedure if they need it so much.
I rather have a scar in the back of my head that no one would notice and live a happy than be an extremely depressed bald guy

Besides, if the only problem is that a hair transplant might look "weird" with HM (that no one knows for sure), laser hair removal is pretty cheap, I'm pretty sure a solution would be available for those cases, besides obvious ones like a lot of gel or very short hairstyles

[25 going on 65]

^ this. Plus you just wasted 10K on some outdated treatment.... Hair transplants will be a history soon.
Who will want to get a hair transplant then if there was some injection that could revive all of your dead follicles?

Oh. Well on the bright side, grafts can be removed if I'm not mistaken. Also I think having 1.5x of one's natural hair thickness wouldn't look as bad as most of us look with 0-0.5x.
I'm like you, I'm waiting on progress from next-gen treatments before I even consider transplants in my future. But I'm also in my 20's and in early stages of loss. I can understand why a 40-year-old NW4 or 5, who is horribly depressed, wouldn't want to wait it out another five years.

[NotBelievingIt]

Transplants will likely become the equivalent of the bad toupee, they won't go away. Neither will the toupee.

In other words, only people who can't afford a cell treatment will do transplants.


But that also depends entirely upon how 'precise' they can make new growth with cell treatments. As I mentioned before it would get annoying to have to shave or pluck your forehead

If it revived only the dormant/dead it won't be an issue.

[2020]

Or just that the regrown native hairs combined with the transplanted hairs will look strange?

^ this. Plus you just wasted 10K on some outdated treatment.... Hair transplants will be a history soon.
Who will want to get a hair transplant then if there was some injection that could revive all of your dead follicles?

[25 going on 65]

those dead follicles will be revived and then you'll have 5x more hair in your transplant spots than anywhere else....
everyone with a transplant will look stupid.

I don't understand why you feel this way? Are you saying the grafts will interfere with the scalp's ability to receive cell treatment? Or just that the regrown native hairs combined with the transplanted hairs will look strange?

[2020]

Thats why I got a HT. To make the waiting more tolerable.

those dead follicles will be revived and then you'll have 5x more hair in your transplant spots than anywhere else....
everyone with a transplant will look stupid.

[chrisis]

Kiwi why do you regret your hair transplant? Surely it's the ultimate answer right now if you have both the money and a good surgeon?

[Kiwi]

Thats why I got a HT. To make the waiting more tolerable.

I wish I didnt though. I should have just shaved my head...

[Sogeking]

First of all I am a layman when it comes to medicine, actually I don't consider myself to be competent enough to be called that.
However even I know that by participating in phase II trials in order to get full head of hair is unrealistic. That is not the prupose of these trials!

Taken from Replicel website:

The Phase I/IIa clinical trial, entitled “Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Human Autologous Hair Follicle Cells in Women and Men with Androgenetic Alopecia”, is:
randomized
single-centre
double-blind
placebo-controlled

Now first you have to realize that these trials are double-blind. So basically you could go end up in a placebo group although those who are running the trials may decide to treat one small part of your scalp (will clarify this) with the compound in question, and the other part would be placebo area (untreated).

So what did I mean about small part of your scalp?
Lets take Aderans here as example because the guys at Replicel didn't go into great detail about their trials, and since their treatments are in broad and crude way somewhat similar you could say the trials will be held
in same fashion.
Taken from http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/N...aderans&rank=9

Intervention Details:
Biological: Autologous cultured dermal and epidermal cells
A piece of occipital scalp is taken from the subject. A mixed population of dermal cells from this tissue are expanded in culture. The cells are then harvested. These cells are then injected into the balding area of the scalp of the original subject.

So basically they inject you with your cells somewhere on your scalp. The area this cells are injected in may vary in size.
Even if it works you will get a patch of hair somewhere on your scalp and will have to wait for the full treatment just like the rest of the mortals.

Now all of that said, if you want to join these trials join them so you could help yourselves and others in proving a potential new treatment by knowing all the risks involved of course.


Since this is an autologus cell treatment there shouldn't be any serious side efects, but I must stress shouldn't.

I remain hopeful although a bit sceptical and pessimistic since that is my nature. However there is a lot of talk lately about Replicel but most of that talk is speculation and just basic... Well lies.

Hey even I speculated when comparing Replicel and Aderans trials but I found it necessary to show you that trials are not equivalent to treatments.
They are just that, trials. Safety will be monitored in all subsequent trials as it should be. And to all of you who are insisting in them (Replicel) releasing this before proving safety (and finishing phase III), I have to say you are too desperate and depressed too think clearly.

Think about it if this treatment gets out too early and in some rare instance it harms someone or someone claims it harmed them, no one will have access to this treatment.

We wait for phase I trials results, and then guess what? We wait for phase II trials results because thats the only thing we can really do. I know it sucks, your hair is vanishing and all we can do is wait but thats life for you.

You have it, then you lose it and/or you want it!

[2020]

As I said, some people can only learn the hard way.. Recently saw a guy in another thread, his balls are nearly falling off but still he keeps on pumping himself with the man-poison called propecia.

As with anything, better wait a few months, see how it goes, what independent studies say.. and then if its safe, go for it.

We're not talking about Propecia now.... go away