Attention everyone who is follicly challenged, scientists may have discovered one of the most effective cures for baldness, and it isn't what you think. Researchers from the University of California have shown how hair plucking can actually stimulate hair growth.
For years there have been many different solutions to baldness. Today, there are more hair products than you can count that promise to regrow hair. This latest technique, however, blows the all away.
Researchers employed the concept of "Quorum sensing." which determines how would a system respond to stimuli that would affect a certain part but not all of the members. This same approach is used by bacteria and insects to populate and nest.
The study is actually a follow up from a research made by Dr. Chih-Chiang Chen from the National Yang-Ming University based in Taiwan. Chen, a dermatologist, developed a technique where 1,300 new hairs grew by just precision plucking 200 hair follicles.
In a study of mice, researchers began by performing low density plucking in a 6 mm diameter. This plucking failed to stimulate any growth. However, when performing a medium density pluck in a 5 mm circle with 200 hairs removed, 1,300 hairs were regenerated during the regrowth process. A high density pluck, on the other hand, resulted in the growth of only 780 new hairs.
"By plucking hairs in the way we designed in the paper, we can make the population feel stress, then it will enter the regeneration phase all together as a population. If you just pluck one single hair that is not enough of the distress signal", explained the researchers.
Inflammation started the regrowth process, which was finally adjusted to the scale of the damage by a process of the body's chemical and immune signaling, allowing the specific regrow to be controlled.
"It is a good example of how basic research can lead to work with potential translational value...the work leads to potential targets for treating alopecia, a form of hair loss", said lead researcher Cheng Ming Chuong.
"That's the million dollar question. I'm not sure. As it stands here, you've got to have some hair to pluck", said Professor Chris Mason from the University of College London's regenerative medicine who also regarded the concept "a nice piece of science".
Mason also noted that many studies that reported new hair growth only managed to stimulate the growth of fine hair, such as baby hair, which doesn't look right for adults and that's why this study can truly help with the understanding of the growth and regrowth of hair.
