Hair cloning and the future of hair loss treatments - AmericaNowNews.com

Will the human race ever solve the age-old problem of hair loss? America Now Host Bill Rancic sat down with Dr. Robert Leonard, one of the country's top authorities on hair restoration to see what science has already done -- and what the future may hold.

In just the last 50 years, Dr. Leonard says science has done more to combat hair loss than in 5,000 years. But what will the next 50 years offer?

He says that so far some of the biggest learning curves have been "the recognition that genetics actually causes hair loss from both the mother's and the father's side of the family. The other thing is medical therapies. We have wonderful treatments now that we didn't have prior to 50 years ago." 

Back in the late 1970's, a medication called Minoxidil was discovered. It was actually a pill to treat high blood pressure and one of the side effects was re-growth of scalp hair.

In the 1980's, Rogaine was devised as a topical prescription medication to treat male pattern hair loss and then about 10 years later, it became an over-the-counter product. Then in the late 1990's, the first oral medication was devised called Propecia, or Finasteride, and that's still available today by prescription.

Later on, low-level laser therapy became available.

"Low-level laser therapy is a clinical treatment where a patient is exposed to a low-level laser beam, which is bio-stimulating. It increases the capillary blood flow in the dermis of the skin where the follicles live. It helps to stabilize further progression of hair loss, as well as to re-grow hair," Dr. Leonard explains. 

So where might we be in 20 or 30 years with hair loss treatments?

"Cell therapy, genetic manipulation. I think that will be the future frontier where we can find out why that switch turns off the hair cycle, and turn that back on," says Dr. Leonard. "We'll be able to take a pill or do something medically to change our genetics to some extent."

He thinks the biggest thing we can look forward to is hair cloning, where "we will have an unlimited supply of hair to transplant. Right now with hair transplantation, we're limited to the amount of hair that's available on the sides and back of one's head. So if we have an unlimited supply, we'd be able to have people develop full heads of hair."

Dr. Leonard thinks we may even see this within the next 10 or 15 years.

But for now, he also says that if you are dealing with hair loss and wait for the next future thing to occur, you'll still become bald over time.

"There are wonderful treatments for people to investigate and utilize today," he adds. "Be pro-active right now, before it's too late!"

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