Cloned Hair for Hair Transplant Surgeries

Scientists are continuously working to improve on hair transplant procedures. Right now, scientists are hard at work in their laboratories finding a way so that hair transplant procedures have a higher success rate for patients.

Hair cloning is one area of research that scientists are looking into.

What is hair cloning? It's a procedure that promises to revolutionize hair transplantation. With hair cloning, people who are not good candidates for a hair transplant procedure today because they have little hair for use, can have their chance at the procedure.

Instead of using up what little hair there is left on the patient, existing hair can be multiplied -- cloned, to be exact -- and that hair is then used for hair transplantation. Basically, the stem cells (also called dermal papilla cells) are taken and cloned in a laboratory. These cells are multiplied and then combined. From a few stem cells, the needed number of hair follicles then become available and ready to be transplanted to the patient.

There is no question that cloning hair is doable. In fact, a number of scientific studies prove that hair cloning is possible. In recent times, a group of researchers did a culture wherein they multiplied dermal papilla cells. It was a success, and meant that hair cloning is only a step away.

While hair cloning is entirely within the realm of possibilities, using cloned hair in hair transplant procedures are still a long way off. There are numerous research studies done on cloning hair, but there no studies are yet done to determine cloned hair are safe and effective to use on human scalp. The only time this kind of testing can be done is when the hair cloning process is perfected.

Scientists still face a long road ahead of them to find out which hair cells can both be used for hair cloning and hair transplant surgeries. Keep in mind that some cells have short lives, and undergo a number of changes and stages before they ultimately die. These are the cells that are not ideal for use in hair transplant procedures. There are cells, though, that tend to live longer. Thus, scientists need to identify the cells that would work for hair transplants.

A scientist named Dr. Gho claims to have done some work in the area of hair multiplication. According to him, he has a Dutch patent on the method he used to multiply hair. It's not clear, however, if his method is hair cloning. It cannot be verified since Dr. Gho never submitted his findings for publication in medical journals. Without peer review, Dr. Gho's theories on hair multiplication can't be verified through clinical trials and evaluation.

Hair transplant techniques that use the donor strip method are now found to work in treating alopecia areata and other types of autoimmune diseases. Hopefully in the near future, patients with very little hair for grafts can have hair transplants by way of hair cloning.

In terms of cost of hair transplant procedures using cloned hair, some believe it will still cost about the same as a normal hair transplant procedure while some believe it will cost more because of the specialized method involved.

It may be only a few years, five years from now perhaps, when hair transplants using cloned hair are available. If you're thinking of undergoing hair transplant surgery, why not wait a while and see how hair cloning develops?