Monthly Archives: May 2016

Hair System, Hairpiece, Poll, Toupee

Would you ever Wear a Hairpiece or Hair System?

130 Comments

This year, I plan to conduct some polls on this blog. I also plan to cover topics such as hair transplants and hairpieces more frequently. For many people, these options are almost as good as a hair loss cure and I have received a few requests for more posts on such subjects.

As always, if you do not like a post, just comment on other ones instead.  Women should vote too in spite of the below Elton John image.  I think far more women wear fake hair than do men. Insulting comments will be deleted.

Update: I had to delete the poll in 2018 due to some plugin issues. The results of the poll are summarized below.

Update: 2022 — Lately, there have been some great before and after  toupee or hairpiece videos on TikTok, YouTube and Reddit.

Would you ever wear a customized hairpiece or hair system or toupee?

Total responses = 1,526.

Yes = 396 (26.0%).

No = 854 (56.0%).

Maybe = 276 (18.0%).

Hairpiece or Toupee Example
Elton John Hairpiece Toupee
Aclaris Therapeutics, Androgenetic Alopecia, JAK Inhibitors

Aclaris Therapeutics Raises $20 Million for Alopecia Research

239 Comments

When it comes to the subject of JAK inhibitors and androgenic alopecia, commentator “nasa_rs” is always ahead of the curve and keeps adding tremendous value to this blog for which I am grateful. My taking time off my regular daytime work and writing this post is due to his comments from earlier today to my last blog post.

Just a few hours ago, it was announced that Aclaris Therpeutics had raised around $20 million from a private stock sale.  Main item of interest:

Net proceeds from this offering are expected to be used to fund research and development, including new JAK inhibitor programs for androgenetic alopecia (also known as male or female pattern baldness) and vitiligo, as well as ongoing business development.

— One more article on this development.

If you have not done so already, you should do a search on “JAK inhibitors” in this blog and read all the past posts on the subject.  The two biggest news stories of the year in 2014 both entailed different JAK inhibitors curing alopecia areata (which is a type of patchy scalp hair loss that affects <5 percent of people).

Will JAK Inhibitors work for Androgenetic Alopecia?

Ever since then, we have had some conflicting opinions from experts on whether JAK inhibitors will also cure androgenic alopecia, by far the most common (>95 percent) form of baldness.  The two leading researchers in this field, Dr. Brett King and Dr. Angela Christiano, have both been somewhat optimistic about this potential. Moreover, my recent post from March provides further reason for optimism.  It says a lot about my obsessiveness or whatever you want to call it that I got so much joy in bolding the text “androgenic alopecia” in that March post, and now again in this post.

In any event, I am still 50/50 about the potential for JAK inhibitors to cure androgenic alopecia.  However, raising $20 million in one go is no joke in the hair loss industry, especially since there is no evidence provided by Aclaris as yet that JAK inhibitors can really cure male pattern hair loss. I am even unsure if they can consistently cure/reverse vitiligo.

Several years ago, when Histogen raised $10 million (for a technology that they had already proven with many years of research behind it), it was touted to be a big deal.

This is a much bigger deal.

Further reading: Mr. Neal Walker, CEO of Aclaris Therapeutics.