This Month’s Hair Loss News

Hair loss news first:

— I have covered Samumed and its SM04554 product a few times on this blog in the recent past. The drug is likely not going to be a miracle hair loss cure. I was therefore impressed that the company’s CEO Osman Kibar still managed to recently get profiled on a Forbes magazine cover page. In any case, a few days ago Samumed completed its Phase 2 clinical trials. Now we can only hope that they choose to continue with Phase 3 trials.

— Seems like South Korea’s Dong-A ST updated the Phase 1 clinical trials page for its DA-4001 topical finasteride product.

— Sweden based Follicum’s US patent was approved in July. The patent covers the drug candidate FOL-005.

HairCell, yet another new startup in the hair loss world. This one wants to use a “bioelectric stimulator combined with a micro infusion pump”. Even if the vast majority of these new entrants end up as outright failures or frauds, the frenetic new activity in the hair loss world is great.  HairCell’s phase 1 clinical trials have not yet commenced.

HLT forum member “jgray201” has a very interesting thread that he started in 2012, but updates every so often including several weeks ago.

Joe Tillman has been making some great videos that he then posts on his YouTube channel. When you combine Joe with the highly respected and skilled surgeon Dr. Ron Shapiro, you get an excellent final result.

— Commentator Peter Renardo gives us some more updates on his decades old artery ligation procedure. Extremely interesting, although I would never go through with such a procedure just to save my hair.

— A 2015 presentation on Kerastem by Dr. David Perez-Meza from Spain was posted on an Italian hair loss site last month. Results in 6 patients showed an improvement in all, with an average 14 percent increase in hair count at 6 months. Not that great for the price people pay for this treatment unless the results last for years.

Brief mention of Follica.

— A huge increase in men wanting to become women (MTF transsexuals) in the UK. This will lead to many interesting before and after MTF transition photos of scalp hair regrowth via medication, transplants and castration. The increase in women wanting to become men (FTM transsexuals) is not so useful for our purposes.

El Chapo going bald, although the link between stress and permanent hair loss is tenuous at best in my opinion.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— Stem cell stimulating regenerative dental fillings could eliminate the need for root canals.

Artificial pancreas next year?

— Extremely interesting article on “pausing” people so as to then bring them back from the dead.

Growing human bones from fat cells.

— Finally, we have a biodegradable absorbable stent for heart patients with blocked arteries.

3-parent DNA containing life-forms seem healthy when it comes to monkeys. Note that the UK has already approved this technology for human embryos.

3D printed jaw for cancer survivor.

— Recently, I read an article that referred to an interesting freely available online 3D Human Blastocyst Viewer. You have to click on the bottom left options first and then on all the options on the right side. Way above my head, but there are probably at least three blog commentators on here who will understand this. Also reminds me of Dr. Michael Rendl’s Hair-GEL (gene expression library) site. And Dr. Owen Rakham’s Mogrify,  both of which I have mentioned on this blog in the past.

A transparent skull implant = “window into the brain”. Also make sure to read my post on the first ever full skull and scalp transplant.

Wired magazine’s Kevin Kelly: Next 30 years in technology.

— Thanks to commentator “Susana” from Portugal (who is usually quite pessimistic) for providing us with this link on groundbreaking skin replacement technology from Spain.

115 thoughts on “This Month’s Hair Loss News”

    1. Thanks Susana! That does seem very interesting and I am adding it to my medical items list:-) Don’t get to research too much from that part of the world.

  1. A few interesting points…
    – Would love to see Samumed publish some details of the results, I have a feeling that if it was proven to be slightly effective, that they would come out with something soon given the amount of activity around HL treatments now.
    – Scalp Ligation is mental but apparently so effective..I wonder if any docs still offer it?!
    – Follicum frustrate the hell out of me – Fol005 seems to be the hair inhibition treatment, whilst they have other compounds that showed efficacy & hair growth within 5 days according to their trials. I have always had a feeling that they’d have the best treatment but there seems to be so little info from them…
    -Rivertown….can’t decide what I think of them..it reads like a one of the standard scam “100% natural, results guaranteed” products, have they posted any trial results yet?

    Promising but I’m off to slap some Minox on….

  2. I had hopes for samumed but agree it’s likely not going to be miraculous. Still, we have so much going on with research, from a purely statistical point of view the probability of us beating hair loss is getting better and better!

    My personal feeling is that stem cell therapies or treatments are the future, not just for hair loss but for many many things, so I’m still placing my hopes on histogen, replicel and that most recent one mentioned in the last post.

    @admin just a thought, whatever happened to that lotion by the Turkish University that was coming out this summer?

    Ps Appears someone else has also used my name so I’ve changed mine :D

  3. Hey admin, a bit off topic but maybe you might know some info that could help me. I’m thinking of adding laser comb to my treatment. As you know I’m on Propecia 14 years and Rogaine 18 months. Losing ground. Do you have any studies showing the effectiveness of adding LLT for those using Propecia and Rogaine. Have you tried it? Or any one else while being on other treatments? Running out of options here:(

    1. I would give dutasteride a shot. It’s already approved in other countries for hair loss, and you’re at an age where DHT isn’t that important.

      1. Thanks for the response ty. I thought about dut but I won’t risk it. Propecia is the highest I will go for internal dht blocker. If there was a topical dut I would give it a shot but blocking all dht is too much for my body

        1. I’ve been using LLT for over a year..no regrowth but I do think it has helped the condition and thickness of hair..in particular the day of actual use. I think LLT in general provides much variation in effectiveness from person to person. I am also taking propecia and TRX2 (no idea if TRX2 does anything)

          1. @Mjones, nah I wasn’t. Don’t think it would have given better results either though. It honestly was a complete waste of money. Just a plastic casing around some cheap LEDs which didn’t look at all powerful.

    2. I tried LLT for a little while. The lasercomb i’m not quite sure if it helped, but i was using it for a period where i saw some good regrowth after a really bad shed.

      1. You got the shed from the laser comb then regrowth or you used it after you shed from other treatment?

        1. I used it after the shed and it came back quite nicely. I felt like i was shedding alot less, but it’s time consuming.

    3. Mjones, used Hairmax comb for 1 full year, no other treatments during that time. Completely useless against hair loss, works well for Seb Dermatitis.

      But so is MIN plus topical DHT blocker now as well, just crap, no maintenance, just burning money.

      Looks like the topical DHT blocker is even worsening my situation still after almost 3 months, or it just works even worse than MIN! It smells like Fanta when I have it on my fingers. I bet I am smacking very expensie orange soda on my head.

      I hoped that this July we could say Veni Vidi Vici, and claim the victory over the same AGA as Julius Ceasar encountered some 2 millenia ago. Looks like we still have 2 weeks to get good news from Aclaris :p.

      Aren’t there any quarterly figures from Acalaris yet?

        1. It’s 5AR/ DHT blocker from Marcel Contier in Paris.
          I just gave it a try, so substituted morning topical MIN with morning topical blocker. In the evening I stayed on topical MIN.

          The substitution could have been a bad choice, because I went from 2x MIN a day to 1x MIN a day.

          What the hell, nobody will ever know what the effect has been, because we are all slapping useless stuff on our heads.

          I have higher expectations from injectables compared to all these topical creams, foams, potions, etcetera.
          I know oral FIN might have saved more crown hair for years, but it isn’t more subtle than SP unfortunately.

          Again I changed my shaving moment, now to mid 2017. Because I think I can deal with the current treatments until that point of time.

          By then I used an amount like €4.000 during the years I tried to halt the hair loss, with no success.

      1. Yeah i suffered from Seb Derm and that Lasercomb helped me maintain from more loss. I would always see vellus hairs in the areas i concentrated more on, but they would never grow much longer.

  4. This is so frustrating. 2016 and still using crap from the 1980s. We should at least have a maintenance treatment that halts mpb as long as you use it then just do fue for the thinning areas you didn’t save from balding. One of these companies better deliver and deliver quick with bad ass results and awesome regrowth.

  5. Admin, do you know of any doctors still performing ligation of arteries? I have hair loss from seb derm and would definitely give this a go.

  6. I think we’ll start to see the big guns after the first release. After that the company’s with less efficacy will drop out and the others who think they could maybe beat the first will have an idea of what they are up against and it will give them ideas for improving.

    1. Haha,
      PG is just a hype.

      I also believe that there will be much more money spend on an AGA cure eventually than on any other consumer good / service in history.

      This will outperform even the Apples and Microsofts. Or any medicine ever made. It just shows how much we value our hair and skin, the biggest organ of the body which is visible for everyone.

  7. We all see unlimited cloning as the cure, but what about miniaturizing hairs on our sides, sideburns and nape if we suffer from that? Those type of hairs get thin but they dont fall out. We will still be using fin and min for those hairs after cloning?

  8. It’s written somewhere that tsuji’s method final step will be grafting new follicules, is it transplantation? Does it mean we can still obtain pluggy appearence ??

  9. an email from Riken :

    Thank you for your interest in the research carried out at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB).

    The news you may have read is likely regarding the recent press release made on the joint research between Kyocera Corporation, RIKEN CDB’s Laboratory for Organ Regeneration, and Organ Technologies Inc. in regenerative medicine aimed at developing technologies and products for treating alopecia through the regeneration of hair follicles.

    The agreement has just been reached between the above parties and research will begin shortly. As this is still very early stages of research, there are currently no confirmed plans for when clinical research or trials may take place. While the parties have set a goal for 2020 for developing technologies for treating alopecia, this is only a goal and not a guarantee that it will be in the market by then.

    Details of the proposed research can be found from the link below.
    http://global.kyocera.com/news/2016/0702_nfid.html

    If and when the research reaches the clinical stage, there will likely be another press release at that time.

    We appreciate your understanding of the present situation.

    Sincerely,
    Developmental Biology Planning Office (Research Communications)
    RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology

  10. Damn.. So the treatment won’t be available until 2025 – 2030 or something like that? So typical… We really need something else in the meantime!

    1. I don’t think they would set 2020 as a goal if they had a 0 % chance of attaining it. It may be unlikely, but 2030 is even more unlikely. Remember that the trials are sped up over there with more lax regulations and if new legislation passes, I believe they will be able to commercialize after a clinical safety trial.

  11. @Runningman, yes it certainly looks like it. For those of us whos been following the different developments for several years this is getting really tedious. Again and again we get news that a treatment is just around the corner, only to find out that its nothing but a bad publicity stunt. I reckon that within long we’ll get news bout postponements from Histrogen and Follica.

      1. Obviously 2020 can change (any probably will), but since Kyocera is a publically traded company, any press release will be considered in their market valuation, which helps keep them from being way too aggressive without some fact base. You may see this behavior from groups trying to get funding or going IPO, but they don’t seem to fit that profile.

    1. But Spanky we haven’t had Japan in the game for all those years, this is not an American research process that takes ten years. This was discussed before, while no scientist can guarantee a date, Japanese culture is not about sales and hype. We need to stop focusing on the release date and be happy that so much progress is being made in figuring out this puzzle. The rate of discoveries and New research is so much greater than ever and its all looking positive for 2020, may be sooner, may be later but at least its looking very likely that we will have SOME sort of solution!

  12. @admin, well, from their previous info I got the impression that their product development was beyond the early stages, and it would only be a matter of time before they would go clinical. In the e-mail posted there seems to be a pretty big IF they get to the clinical stage. Im keeping my fingers crossed like everyone else but im also realistic. 4 years to release a treatment that is in the early stages right about now? Sounds too good to be true, but if anyone can do it, Japanese scientists would probably be a good bet;)

  13. Hi !

    I think this all is great news. But i only am doubting if this cure is safe. Wouldn’t there be any consequences.

    I remember some guy on a tv show who had a liver-transplant. After the transplant he had his full head of hair again. So the liver is a very important organ for hairgrowth. So this proves hairgrowth is coming from the healing of the inside.

    Do we have to be scared for concequences when we use chemical products ? I hope not. Kind regards.

    1. Turtle wax there are a thousand things involved in a liver transplant and so it could one of many reasons he got his hair back, could even be the anaesthetic! Also don’t believe everything you see on TV…

      You’re better off reading this blog and learning from it. Side effects are often discussed. This is all part of the research so too early to be concerned.

  14. I was initially very excited about cotsarelis follica. However the more I think about it, it sounds like its a minox boosting procedure. What about all the people like me that cant handle minox? We are out of luck! If im incorrect, please feel free to update me.

  15. @tom, I havent read or heard anything official from Follica saying that Minoxidil is part of their procedure. Im pretty sure that the minox thing is “made up” on various forums.

  16. Yes follica never stated that is their definite treatment paired with wounding. However I recall reading a study that said when cots paired wounding with minox the result is impressive. I have yet to read anything about impressive results with wounding and any other compound. I know they were interested in trying another conpound, however never heard of results like that were posted when they used minox with wounding.

  17. Wounding does work with the right compound. That Greek dude grew back lots of hair by derma stamp and adding an assload of topicals like rosemary oil, castor etc

  18. Could follica be applied to temple points?

    Man I hope Cots can tell us when follica + fgf9 could be available. Follica + minox or sumthin sounds meh unless it actually works lol.

    I hope Brotzu lotion beats minox.

  19. Ya no kidding turtlewax has a point. I’ve been thinking about side effects to a cure also. If Japan goes through their trials so quickly I wouldn’t want to rush in there and later years down the road my scalp skin falls off or as I age it starts to look messed up and people tell there kids look at that guy must have been a blah patient or whatever. I mean that a pretty solid fear right?

  20. Tsuji will release more updates during the next four years. We are better off focusing on jak, sm, follica, brotzu and histogen and replicel. These are two years away and mid to late stage trials. Tsuji just started and we should speak of him when he releases pictures, until then it’s just a dream. Like I said before if I hear 5 to 10 years away that just usually means never.

    1. How follica two years away ? Is they officially announced to market out their product in 2017-2018 ? Then how will be follica two years away. I really don’t know about follica too much. Pls let me know if I’m obscure something about follica.

    1. Small trial but seems to have been done correctly – pretty impressive results for something which is probably going to be OTC. If they could replicate that in the average guy, I imagine this would blow Bortzu & Kelopesia out of the water…

      “Using Gravimetric Analysis1 évolis ONE has shown a statistically significant 80.2% reduction in hair loss over 112 days (16 weeks) with twice daily use. Hair differentiation (or anagen/telogen ratio, a measure of growing versus resting hair follicles) improved with an increase of 44.2% in growing follicles during the same period, as analysed by the Van Scott “hair pluck” method2. Hair release and recovery (overall improvement in hair quality and volume) was quantified by PhotoGrammetrix™3 measurements and has shown an improvement by a statistically significant 143.3%. “

  21. Guys what do you think about getting a Micropigmentation procedure for your scalp?
    I’m strongly considering getting one

      1. I do have a great head shape for a shaved head. It’s just I’ve lost enough of my hair line and density that when I shave it the thinning is noticeable which makes it look bad.

        What I’m worried about is the laser removal of it in the future. Is it risky to use the laser? Also I would like to try future treatments like Brotzu potentially with the smp on

        1. Johnny I’ve had SMP done and I love it. I still want my long hair of course but I get loads of attention and people say it’s looks sexy. So about laser, yes there are small risks depending on your skin type and sensitivity. But, SMP fades in the sun (you have to wear sun protection on your head daily), so it’s possible to fade it away using sun and creams and maybe mild laser to finish off. From my perspective I highly recommend it as it will make the next few years so much better in terms of confidence and feeling good. Happy to answer any more questions if you like. I recommend SKALP if you live near their locations. J

          1. Thanks! Glad you have had a good experience with it. Also since I am not close to Skalp, I will most likely be reaching out to His Hair Clinic.

            Another worry for me was the cost. How much did u pay for the initial procedure (usually 2-3 times you have to go in to complete it) and the cost of maintainence?

            I was also wondering about the elements of detection. Is the fluroscent lights in a school setting enough to detect it as fake? How about the sun itself outside with it? I’m assuming you have to shave your head every 2 or 3 days

  22. Wow im pretty intrigued by cellmids product. Why are they saying it is already market ready though? Wouldn’t there have been some serious hype about it if it really was as effective as the statistics say? An 80% reduction and 44% increase in anagen follicles is a pretty big deal for this to just be making light. It blows SM’s 10% out of the water.

  23. Guys here’s a question.

    When cloning is available (if it becomes available) would you drop the big 3 or would you continue using even after cloning to keep your native hairs?

    The way I see it even if cloning were a reality we would still need fin and minox.

  24. Habe I’d say they’d probably clone the dht resistant follicles on the sides and back or do something of that nature. No sense in cloning the follicles that would eventually shrink or disappear again then wed keep on having to do transplants. Although the it is kinda weird I come up on sites all the time for fue saying the sides never go away or thin out but they definately get thinner and sparse also as I’ve seen on my older relatives.

    1. I hope they would do this and it would not look weird having thick back of hair head on your sides. Would probably work though I guess.

  25. Cellmid looks really good! Is this for sale? 44% increase is great but probably scam. Anyway we can try this stuff?

  26. Ive done some looking into the cellmid topical. Idk, it just seems too shady for me. $120 for a 3 month supply. Its on OTC product that has been around since 2015. Very few posts anywhere on it, and what ive read most people are calling it a scam. Reviews on it vary from excellent to terrible. Basically its impossible to tell which reviews are actually real. But if it gave that much regrowth and reduced hairloss by % 80 I am damn sure we would have heard about it a long time ago.

    1. Listened to an interview about it on some Aussie podcast today.. was with the CEO of the company. Was a total sales pitch….interviewers were far too gushing about it considering neither of them use it. Unfortunately, it has scam written all over it again.

  27. Scam! Hair loss industry equals scam. We have the most shady industry working for us lol. Aids will be cured before hair loss. Sht….aids has more effective treatments than baldness. You can now live a full healthy life while taking aids medication. The best Propecia can do is 5 to 10 years if you are lucky.

    1. @MJones don’t be so silly. AIDS had killed millions of people and current medication isn’t a cure, it just keeps the virus at bay. There’s is still risk to health. Don’t get me wrong I understand the hardships on our psychology from hair loss, but don’t lose perspective on the world. We are still so much luckier than those with serious illnesses or disabilities. Be a little more respectful.

      1. Sorry original Jay you are right. I’m just exhausted of having to deal with this crap for the past 15 years and seeing only scam after scam. Things could definitely be worse. It’s just we should have had at least 2 new treatments by now.

  28. Would any of these supposed “cures” work for women with AGA? It doesn’t seem like it. I’m a woman who’s had AGA since 18. This sucks.

  29. Very informative video, Admin!

    I don’t comment on here much, but I check the blog regularely and it truely is a fantastic and reliable source on new info!

    In the Riken/Tsuji part of the video the narrator states that the cultivation technology is not yet fully established (if I heard it correctly). Shouldn’t this be the last big scientifically-sided hurdle for Tsuji and Riken? They’ve also stated that treatments on humans might arrive with in 10 years, and I am willing to trust that, but I’m curious to see if they can create adequate cultivation technology!

    Greetings,

    Shady

    1. Thanks Shady! I hope Tsuji is ahead of where the video narrator(s) think…but it does seem like 2025 would be a worst cast scenario, and 2020 a best case scenario.

  30. i believe in a much esier way from tsujiss technique something that send the signal in dormant hair follicles to reproduce hair more than create new hair … so i believe more in rivertown therapeutics or stemhair than tsuji. this is only my humble opinion

  31. Lol the interviewer is like what a drag. The video is pretty cool but I just am not wrapping my head around this for some reason. Theoretically if someone were to take Tsujis method and it was what Tsuji intends would they grow back their old hair the style the shape pattern thickness it was once in or would it be making new hair and configuring it hopefully in a natural pattern? Would it produce hair back to the 100000 follicle thickness we are born with or would it be ah okay you got some hair kinda thickness? If someone could elaborate more on that for this lowly non hair scientist that would be much appreciated.

  32. I just started working out again this week and does it feel good. I still get some looks from cute girls even with a hat on. Also feels real good to work on my body. You guys should do the same it will help a lot mentally and physically speaking.

  33. What I’m interested in is whether Tsuji’s method would be able to modulate growth density in different areas of the scalp of would it be the same density added everywhere? It might look weird to have the same density in the crown as the forelock, for instance. Or maybe uniform thick density would just look awesome regardless.

    1. This post mentioned Rivertown and Kerastem. Are you trying to be funny? In any case, based on your 100s of comments, there is almost zero chance that you believe in any of those companies, so why the sudden interest?

      Why do you also keep posting that the cure is never coming every single day, yet keep visiting the blog every hour? Strange.

      1. I actually wrote numerous times in my 500 comments that I believe in follica, SM and histogen. Not sure where you got that from. As for a cure to mpb we are many years away from that. It’s not just me saying but numerous doctors and dermatologists and my contact at university of Pennsylvania. So I’m going to their word for it than random people speculating on this site. I always said we would have better treatments within 5 years. Cure is impossible within the next 5 years. Sorry buts it’s true. Tsuji still hasn’t started clinical trials. How is he going to get a product to market in 3.5 years lol. Come on man…you know I’m right. He said himself he will start trials in 2020 and he emailed that to you as well. 2025 to 2030 sounds about right for hair cloning

        1. Ok, but stop wasting your time here till 2030! And get interviews with all your researcher and dermatologist friends and connections and be of some use instead of whining hourly. Do some research on the 4 companies you were interested in and let us know if they have any new info. Especially the 2 that I just wrote about. They might have had a breakththrough in the past 3 days.

          FYI — of all the comments I have ever deleted on this blog, half have been yours.

          1. I was planning on visiting cots this month but will be setting up the appointment for Sept. So I will definitely get some info from him. Sorry you had to delete my comments but you should be happy that I find your site a place where I can get the latest updates in the research world. Yeah I complain because nothing ever pans out. Why would I wait till 2030 to come back haha silly. I still strongly believe in two years a much better treatment will be out. I’m not looking for a cure because it won’t happen. I just want a treatment that can give me my fuller less diffuse nw2 hair back that I had in 2013. I think histogen, sm or follica can do it. I will do my research admin and will post anything new I can find. :)

  34. @admin: yo think a shot having interview with Dr Tsuji or simple email exchange? I am really curious what has changed.. before he was sayin couldnt start human trials before 2020. now on contrary kyocera claims it will hit market by 2020.

    1. He replied to me once, but not second time in my last mini interview. Will try again, but he must be getting 1000 emails per day lately lol

      1. Hey admin,

        The Tsuji thing has me a bit confused re timeline. I’m still not clear on it. I get if they start trials now, they might be ready in time for 2020 with Japan’s now speedy trial process but if they’re starting in 2019 (if I’m picking that up correctly), how can it be ready for 2020? Can anyone explain that to me? I’m happy there’s another serious competitor in the ring. More pressure on folks like Follica and Histogen (though not as hopeful about the latter).

        Re Follica and the addition of wounding plus minox – Follica have never confirmed that’s what they’re doing. They’ve just mentioned compounds. Minox is just speculation. And it would maybe make more sense it has something to do with activating fgf9 as that was the last place we found them.

        http://www.nature.com/scibx/journal/v6/n24/full/scibx.2013.590.html

        That nature article btw, though few years old, I’d never read before as Nature articles weren’t free to read then. Interesting, especially Tobin’s speculation.

        Great stuff as usual. Still the only place worth visiting imo for news.

    1. Hurray! More great news.

      It seems like it’s finally time that we get a period of optimism and positive news instead of the usual drag. Seems like 2018-2020 will be the years that hairloss will finally come to an end.

      Call me crazy but I think we’re almost there. I couldn’t be happier :)

      1. Still a long time to wait though… What are we supposed to do in the meantime? It would be great if we got a new treatment before 2018 IMO

  35. Why is it still “Replicel”? It should be Shiseido news from now on lol.

    I sure hope Shiseido improved on Replicel’s lacklustre results.

  36. Well gentlemen….I think the next few years are looking promising in terms of a comprehensive treatment, with a cure I think being within the next 20. I’m just about to turn 27 and have pretty bad diffuse thinning, particularly in the frontal 3rd. So with this in mind, I think I’m going to bite the bullet and go for an FUE surgery , focusing on high density at the front and relying on minox to hold the back until such time as a better treatment is available. Does anyone forsee any issues with having FUE already and future treatments? Thinking scarring, etc?

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