Hair loss treatment improving
Legitimate remedies for balding are improvingPat O'Brien The Press-Enterprise
Hair loss, like weight gain and aging skin, causes people to try everything from over-the-counter beauty products to surgery.
The newest treatment is literally hair-raising. Hair cloning or multiplication of hair cells could be in clinical trials by next year and be a treatment for balding in four years. It depends on Food and Drug Administration approval.
For now, balding men and women will have to depend on available treatments.
Cloning would be an adjunct to hair transplantation, a procedure dramatically improved in recent years. Early methods looked like doll's hair. Now the look is natural, moving follicles in units of one to four hairs instead of clumps.
"It was really cool, the best thing I've ever done," said Les Livingston who had a transplant nine months ago. The Riverside resident said his new look has boosted his confidence.
"I do sales. I feel much more confident when I talk to people. I feel younger, and I look younger," the 45-year-old said.
He endured 11 hours in the surgical chair and had 2,400 hair grafts at Medical Hair Restoration in Beverly Hills. Many people break up treatments, rather than do it all at once as Livingston did.
In a transplant, genetically different hair from the back and sides of the head is moved to the top, where most balding takes place. People are born with 100,000 hair follicles, but genetics can make follicles on top shrink due to sensitivity to the hormone DHT. The result is receding hairlines, thinning hair and bald spots.
Transplants cost $3,000 to $30,000, depending on hair loss and number of grafts.
Full hair loss report
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