Follicle Injection to Help Treat Hair Loss

Are you anxious to replace lots hair, but don't want to go through prolonged surgical procedures? Follicle injection is a new cloning-based treatment that may be able to help. Though it's not yet available on the mass market, it's showing a lot of promise, and it could give your hair a whole new lease of life.

What is Follicle Injection?

Follicle injection draws on two older methods of treating hair loss – transplanting hair from other parts of the body, and transplanting hair from other people. The former method is problematic because body hair doesn't always grow properly on the scalp and it rarely looks right. The latter is problematic because the body usually rejects the transplanted tissue, so it's uncomfortable and doesn't remain healthy or functional for long.

Follicle injection uses hair from your own head. This means that it's the right type of hair and your body won't reject it. The downside is that it can only be used on people who have some head hair still growing, though only a small amount is needed.

Cloning Follicles

In preparation for follicle injection, healthy hair follicles are removed from the scalp. Follicles are actually made up of several different types of cell, some of which are easier to clone than others. It is currently impossible to rebuild a whole, functioning hair follicle, but by constructing a sort of framework for one, doctors can trigger an otherwise healthy scalp to do the rest of the work by itself.

The cells that make up this framework can be cultured in a glass dish in a lab, enabling many to be made from a single donor follicle. Stem cells harvested from the scalp can also be cultured to provide the new follicles with the base material they need to grow new hairs.

How is Treatment Provided?

After cells have been cloned, they are ready to be injected. Unfortunately, each new follicle framework needs to be inserted into the scalp separately, as they will remain where they are placed. This means that several hundred injections need to be given to provide reasonable coverage for the average bald area. The good news is that they don't need to go all the way through the skin. The process is similar to Receiving A Tattoo.

Because of the number of injections needed, they may be given over repeat sessions rather than all at once. Afterwards the scalp may feel itchy, but it's important not to scratch. An ordinary painkiller like paracetamol should help. The follicles will take a few days to develop fully and will only then start producing hair, so don't worry if you don't experience an immediate change.

Having follicular cells and stem cells harvested once means they can potentially be stored for future use, should you need further treatment. Stored cells, however, are not as likely to grow successfully after transplantation as fresh ones, so unless you are facing chemotherapy or another process that has the potential to kill all your hair, it's better to use fresh ones.

In its early stages, follicle injection is already showing promise. Scientists hope that, over time, they will be able to clone more of the cells that make up the follicle, so that more hairs will grow for each course of treatment. Hair grown successfully after follicle injection should remain healthy for many years to come.

More Hair Loss Treatments

If you are considering other treatments, read our features on Electric Pulse Treatments and Hair Transplants.