Submission Statement:
Tl:dr, while genetic alopecia doesn't have a "cure" just yet, an infinite supply of hairs would be enough to enable anyone to have the hair of their dreams. Hair cloning, if successful (and affordable), will be able to make balding a choice and unveil a whole new world of hair customization in the future.
neutral
44
u/SafeEnvironmental174
I wonder how far this is from being clinically usable though.
negative
27
u/Z3r0sama2017
I know this was memed on relentlessly due to it being one of the bits of research 'idiocracy' prioritised over more important research, but as a person with bad MPB, I'm really looking forward to this being rolled out. Being able to have something other than clean shaven for the bonce after 15 years will be a game changer for me.
Fingers crossed it doesn't suffer any setbacks.
positive
3
u/Shapes_in_Clouds
So in the future I might be able to do a hair transplant without having to move the donor hairs from somewhere else on my head? That would be pretty nice. ?
positive
2
u/Outers55
Do we have any pictures of how the styled the hair of the mice?
Seriously though, pretty cool research, I wouldn't mind regrowing some hair myself. ?
positive
2
u/onyxlabyrinth1979
Interesting research, but I always get a little cautious when something works well in mice and people immediately jump to this will fix hair loss soon. A lot of medical ideas look promising at that stage and then take many years to translate safely to humans.
Even if the biology part works, there’s still the question of scaling it, making it affordable, and getting through clinical trials. Growing a few follicles in a lab is very different from producing thousands in a reliable treatment.
Still, it’s a cool proof of concept. The fact that the follicles could actually connect to tissue and start cycling is probably the more meaningful step than the cosmetic angle people are focusing on.
neutral
1
u/ellsego
Why is our global culture so obsessed with hair and being bald? As a bald person, I can say it has not affected my life in one negative way… and I find the constant pressure to try to regrow hair to be fucking ridiculous…. I mean, I get it if it’s due to like disease or something, something but this obsession over “ fixing” bald people needs to fucking end… we’re just fine. ?
neutral
1
u/metrazol
If you're interested, Mary Roach's "Replaceable You" has a chapter on the novel hair replacement stem cell tech...
Mild spoiler, but every startup doing this has gone under, reformed, gone under again. But hey, this might be the one that works.
negative
1
u/FuturologyBot
The following submission statement was provided by /u/User_741776:
Submission Statement:
Tl:dr, while genetic alopecia doesn't have a "cure" just yet, an infinite supply of hairs would be enough to enable anyone to have the hair of their dreams. Hair cloning, if successful (and affordable), will be able to make balding a choice and unveil a whole new world of hair customization in the future.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1ropyaf/fully_functional_hair_follicle_organ_regeneration/o9fofhb/