What Is Hair Cloning?

Hair cloning is more accurately called hair multiplication or follicular neogenesis. During hair cloning, healthy hair follicles are removed from an individual. Hair follicles contain stem cells. When scientists get these stem cells to divide, more hair follicles are made. These new hair follicles can then be implanted back into the individual for hair growth. Research shows the healthy new follicles produce hair and send chemical signals to nearby hair follicles that make them produce hair as well. Hair cloning has potential, but there are a few hurdles that still need to be overcome.

Misconceptions

• Hair cloning is not technically cloning at all. True cloning is done using different processes and techniques. The procedure is called hair cloning because it produces many hair follicles from one.

Quantity

• It's difficult to predict the how many of the new hair follicles are needed to thicken hair and cover any bald areas. Dr. Jerry Cooley implanted several new hair follicle cells onto himself but only grew one hair. The amount of follicles that need to be placed on an individual to regrow satisfactory amounts of hair must be determined before hair cloning is widely used.

Direction

• Another problem that must be resolved in hair cloning is the way hair grows. Hair follicles on animals and humans are arranged in a certain pattern. If new hair follicles are implanted contrary to this pattern, the hair that grows from them will go against the grain, resulting in an unkempt look.

Distribution

• Hair follicles are very evenly distributed on our bodies. Until we discover a way to implant new follicles just as evenly, the new hair growth produced by the cloned follicles will be patchy.

Potential

• Hair cloning works because chemical signals can be used to tell harvested hair follicle cells to split and reproduce. It has been speculated that scientists may one day be able to isolate the chemicals that cause hair follicles to reproduce and make them available in pill form.