Do You Think Hair Cloning Will Ever Be Readily Available?

Dear Dr,

From one of the last posts I saw about hair cloning it appears that there is a real possibility that it will never emmerge. You mentioned that the trials have been underwhelming and are not working how they were expected. Do you think that the compnaies invoved with developing hair cloning will wash their hands of it. Do you think we will ever see it working. Obviously, everyone is waiting for a genuine ‘cure’ for baldness and if it is not going to be hair cloning is there anything else on the horizon that might be it? Surely, we must be getting closer to that day and if so when do you think that day will be? Many thanks for your blog.

I think that hair cloning will be available at some point in the future, but certainly not in the immediate future. I feel like I’m the lone person willing to say that it is not ready for primetime yet (not even close), and I wonder why some people are just willing to believe every press release with a tiny nugget of information.

There are more promising options than just hair cloning alone such as stimulating the stem cells in the skin and epidermis, finding of compounds that are the missing link to hair growth (for example, some medication that might just grow back the follicular units that may be present throughout the bald head). While I think that any one solution is not at hand, the availability of multiple approaches just increases the odds that some solution will someday be at hand.

There are breakthroughs occurring at a rapid rate now on using stem cells to generate entire organs like the kidney, heart, and lungs. Hair is another such organ system that could benefit from such breakthroughs. I am optimistic that one of these breakthroughs will be evident in the next decade or so, but which one? Your guess is as good as mine.