You can use a few cells to basically regenerate an entire organ. These cells from the so called dermal sheath were then transplanted into the forearm of Mr. Jahoda's wife. The new hair was longer, thicker and darker than typical arm hair but had some characteristics of both donor and recipient. Such success had been achieved before only in animal experiments. Current baldness treatments include hair grafts and certain drugs.
Drugs can slow hair loss or even produce new hair, but only in a limited number of people.
In grafts, hair is lifted from one section of a man's scalp and transplantted whole into a bald spot on his head. However, the process requires a slow, expensive and potentially painful series of operations. The new work suggests the posibility of a quicker procedure with less cuttin of the scalp and the creation of new hair in just about anyone. The cells could be removed from a person's own scalp or, if necessary, collected from someone else. They could then be multiplied through laboratory cloning before being transplanted.