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Hair loss is a common disorder that affects many men and women due to aging or medical conditions. Current FDA-approved drugs can minimize further hair loss but are unable to regrow new hair. The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) has recently engineered a new hair follicle model that could help discover new drugs for hair regeneration1.

IBN Executive Director Professor Jackie Y. Ying said, “We have applied our cell and tissue engineering expertise to create a hair follicle-like structure that is very similar to the native hair follicle. This model allows us to better understand the mechanisms that control the development and growth of hair follicles. We hope that our invention would lead to novel ways to treat hair loss, which affects millions of people worldwide.”

Read the rest — New 3D hair follicle model to accelerate cure for baldness

The title of the article is quite hopeful, but essentially this is something they hope to sell to pharmaceutical companies to aid in their hair loss drug treatment development.

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Dr. Karen Nyberg is a flight engineer on the International Space Station—and she happens to have long hair. So how does she wash her hair in space? It turns out to be an easy process, though a visually striking one. Due to the lack of gravity, her hair sticks straight up, so she ends up washing up rather than our Earthbound, gravity-centric “water flows down” thinking.

See the video at Mental Floss — Washing Your Hair in Space

I have often wondered about the other essential body functions in space, but did not feel it was a necessary project for my busy mind prior to seeing the video. Click on the above link to check out the video!

I am 28 years old and for the past 6 months I have noticed an increase in the amount of white hairs in my mustache. But now I am seeing a few white hairs in my nose! Is there a treatment for this?

Thanks

I suppose the treatment for nose hairs of any color would be a nose hair trimmer. The treatment for your white mustache hair is called dye.

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William, the Duke of Cambridge, is about to be a dad any day now, so maybe some of his family members aren’t treating his 31st birthday as the specialest of days. But don’t worry, we didn’t forget your gift, Will!

Read the rest — Happy Birthday, Prince William! Here Are 31 Balding Stars For You To Look Up To

How sweet of VH1 to wish Prince William a happy birthday by presenting a slideshow of bald or balding celebrities. I am sure it was at the top of the his favorite birthday gifts. Click the link above to see the slideshow, which includes notables like Patrick Stewart, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Jude Law.

Our office is closed today and tomorrow for a long weekend to celebrate Independence Day. We hope everyone has a happy and safe July 4th!

Happy birthday, USA! We’ll be back here on Monday.

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In a new study, a “bioadhesive” coating developed at Brown University significantly improved the intestinal absorption into the bloodstream of nanoparticles that someday could carry protein drugs such as insulin. Such a step is necessary for drugs taken by mouth, rather than injected directly into the blood.

For protein-based drugs such as insulin to be taken orally rather than injected, bioengineers need to find a way to shuttle them safely through the stomach to the small intestine where they can be absorbed and distributed by the bloodstream. Progress has been slow, but in a new study, researchers report an important technological advance: They show that a “bioadhesive” coating significantly increased the intestinal uptake of polymer nanoparticles in rats and that the nanoparticles were delivered to tissues around the body in a way that could potentially be controlled.

Read the rest — Polymer coatings a key step toward oral delivery of protein-based drugs

This is exciting research, and although it is obviously not hair loss related, I wanted to share this with our readers. The article points out that progress has been slow and they’re just testing in lab rats at this stage, but perhaps in the future this advancement will lead to new methods of treating type 1 and 2 diabetes, such as an oral pill instead of needle injections.

i don’t keep my hair long and when i have it short i have this horrible cow lick in the front of my head. it starts in the middle of my head and swings around to the side. it’s quite horrendous. i need to know if it can be reset to look like the rest of my hair. if not i don’t want to live. i am at my whits end and it has hindered my confidence to the point i don’t have a life. please help.

If you are thinking about ending your life over a perfectly normal hairline with a cowlick, you need to see a psychiatrist or seek some other type of help immediately. Your email is distinctly a cry for help. Making a cowlick disappear is easy, but does not appear to be the real issue here.