So its Shiseido/Replicel versus RIKEN/Tsuji in Kobe

Update: And in other important news from Japan from this week:

— Dr. Tsuji published a new paper several days ago.

— Pokemon Go was finally launched in Japan, its spiritual homeland.


Without any doubt, there has never been a better year than this one in the hair loss research world. The last four months have been especially fruitful, and I am not even considering a number of newer entrants in the field (just because most seem suspicious or are likely to produce best case results that will be akin to those from Rogaine). Key noteworthy recent developments:

  • First, in April, Follica (which had been left for dead by many due to its numerous conflicting signals since inception in 2006) surprised us and is clearly alive and aims to release its product in 2018 in a best case scenario. The company’s majority owner PureTech stated in a summary document that “skin disruption alone was safe and generates new follicles as well as new hair“.
  • Thereafter, in June, Aclaris Therapeutics’ CEO Mr. Neal Walker clearly stated at three difference investor presentation that “topical covalently bound highly selective JAK3 inhibitors” work in treating androgenetic alopecia and not just in treating alopecia areata. Alcaris will be conducting trials on this use of JAK inhibitors in 2017.
  • Also in June, Histogen made a surprising announcement that it would start treating patients in Mexico in 2018. Like Follica, many people had left Histogen for dead due to the fact that the company has been involved in hair loss research for a similarly lengthy period of time with mixed signals in terms of efficacy, clinical trial and product release dates.
  • Then, in July came perhaps the most exciting news ever in the hair loss cure research world. RIKEN/Dr. Takashi Tsuji, Kyocera and Organ Technologies have formed a partnership that aims to commercially release a product in 2020 that will essentially represent a cure for hair loss. 2020 is clearly a best case scenario assuming no major hiccups along the way. Mr. Tsuji is a world renowned and extremely well respected and modest scientist; RIKEN has access to Japanese government funds and to numerous leading scientists in the world of regenerative medicine; Kyocera is a private sector multinational behemoth with pre-existing hardware side technology and expertise that will likely be of much use to Dr. Tsuji.
  • And finally, today the Shiseido/Replicel team finally announced the commencement of delayed clinical trials in Japan (see bottom part of this post).

RIKEN and Dr. Tsuji are conducting their research at the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster (KBIC) in Japan in RIKEN’s Integrated Innovation Building.

RIKEN Integrated Innovation Building
RIKEN Integrated Innovation Building.

Shiseido/Replicel Joins Kyocera/RIKEN/ Tsuji at the KBIC

Today, in yet one more major positive development this year, it was announced that the Shiseido/Replicel team has finally started its delayed 60-person (men and women included) Japanese clinical trials for its autologous cell therapy based RCH-01 product.

Riken Kobe Business Center
Riken Kobe Business Center.

While the study will be conducted at two hospitals in Tokyo, the injected product(s) will be manufactured by Shiseido at their SPEC (Cell-Processing and Expansion Center) in KBIC. I discussed this facility in a post in 2014. It is located in the Business Support Center for Biomedical Research Activities (BMA) building in KBIC.

So Shiseido and RIKEN’s respective research and development work will be conducted at buildings within a mile of each other!! 

I arrived at this conclusion after analyzing this map (both buildings are on the right side of the railroad).

While doing research on KBIC, I found that it is located on Port Island in the city of Kobe, and Port Island is an artificially constructed island. Would be quite something if humans end up creating new replacement hair follicles on a man-made island.

303 thoughts on “So its Shiseido/Replicel versus RIKEN/Tsuji in Kobe”

  1. Please try to limit comments to discussion regarding the subject matter (i.e., each company’s technology, trials etc…) of this post, or to new interesting developments. Frivolous comments will probably be deleted. If you think there is no cure coming for a few more decades and everything is a scam, no need to keep repeating your opinion in every post.

    1. Lewa, it won’t bring back hair that has been lost for more than five years per Dr. Brotzu, and I doubt it will do much more than get you Rogaine like wispy hair … so that is why I wrote the “I am not even considering …” part in the first paragraph. Hopefully I am wrong about Brotzu and it turns out much better than I expect:-)

      1. Yes. It will not be a major development but it seems to be legit and you know that in hair industry it is rare. I hope it works at least as fin….

      2. In a way it’s just as cutting-edge as the stem cell stuff, it is the first treatment to attack the prostaglandin angle.

          1. What? 5 year hair come back? Can you give me a link on that medication? Cause I lost my hair due to illness. 2 years ago i have good hair.

  2. I hope they find a way to share experience and help advancing a better treatment together, esp that they can walk to each other’s facilities.
    I count that Asian culture and the research spirits of their teams will encourage more collaboration and less competition, for the benefit of everyone.

  3. From Riken/Shiseido:

    “The treatment involves cutting off a small section of scalp and extracting two kinds of stem cells from hair follicles. The extracted cells are processed and propagated to increase their number by 100- to 1,000-fold, making it possible to transplant a large number of hair follicles by cutting off only a small section of the scalp.”

    If they mean propogating 100- to 1,000 new follicles from each single follicle, that could be either a good or less of a good thing if we are talking about a “cure”.

    The procedure will probably cut a 0.5cm section off the scalp which lets say contains 50 hairs.

    If they propagate the cells 100-fold, that will mean 5,000 net new hairs. This is nowhere near a cure but a great improvement on current transplant methods.

    A 1000-fold increase would create 50,000 hairs. Now we are entering cure territory. It would represent 50% return of an average original density of 100,000 hairs.

    You see the difference there? How many times they’ll be able to replicate the follicles means the difference between an improved treatment and a cure.

    1. Why can’t they just cut ten 0.5cm pieces from the back of the scalp and do it ten times in case each time “only” gives 5,000 hairs?

      Not practical for those who have lost most or all of their donor hair, but that would be like 5-10 percent of balding people. Maybe in those cases they could try to propagate beard or chest hair.

      1. They could just use the ones they just created and people could donate. Hell if they give me a full head of hair again Id donate to people who don’t have any donor.

    2. I think too many people are overthinking this sentence, “The extracted cells are processed and propagated to increase their number by 100- to 1,000-fold, making it possible to transplant a large number of hair follicles by cutting off only a small section of the scalp.”

      They’re just using it to illustrate to the readers what it is they are doing and specifically how it addresses the current problems of FUT. Logically, there is no reason they can’t keep propagating cells.

      1. I agree with Chris here… I think they are just using this as a reference point for their procedure not actual numbers.

        More importantly… for the people that don’t understand what “FOLD” means… it is exponentiated – doubling the number every time, hence the term fold – and the “first fold” is the initial number. So if you start with 20 and fold it 3 times, it isn’t 60, it is 80. It looks something like this 1st Fold: 20, 2nd Fold: 40, 3rd Fold: 80… if you go to the fourth fold: 160.

        Of course a lot of people don’t use the term correctly and they could be referring to simple multiplication. Either way… what they are basically saying is they can make a lot with very little.

  4. While I am skeptical of some of these efforts, there’s no doubt that there are now more players than ever in this field, and I can’t imagine they are all going to fail. That being said, I don’t think any of them are going to deliver by 2020.

    Additionally, any success in de novo hair growth will have significant ramifications beyond hairloss; if they can create new hair, then they have demonstrated the capability to create an organ, and that will really change the game of medicine.

    1. PRP Sceptic, Tsuji is aiming for hair, teeth and salivary gland regeneration to start off. Maybe pipe dreams on his part, but he seems more believable to me than Cotsarelis, Naughton, Walker, Washenik, Christiano and virtually all others in the US.

      1. I’d definitely put more stock in Tsuji than any of those other researchers. I wonder what Tsuji’s opinion is of RCH-01

  5. Hello All.

    Tsuji is not aiming for hair…. he already did it.

    Just out today:

    Hair Follicle Regeneration by Transplantation of a Bioengineered Hair Follicle Germ.
    Tezuka K1,2, Toyoshima KE1,2,3, Tsuji T4,5,6,7.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27431248

    Abstract
    Hair follicle morphogenesis is first induced by epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in the developing embryo. In the hair follicle, various stem-cell populations are maintained in specialized niches to promote repetitive hair follicle-morphogenesis, which is observed in the variable lower region of the hair follicle as a postnatal hair cycle. In contrast, the genesis of most organs is induced only once during embryogenesis. We developed a novel bioengineering technique, the Organ Germ Method, that employs three-dimensional stem cell culture for regenerating various organs and reproducing embryonic organogenesis. In this chapter, we describe a protocol for hair follicle germ reconstitution using adult follicle-derived epithelial stem cells and dermal papilla cells with intracutaneous transplantation of the bioengineered hair-follicle organ germ. This protocol can be useful not only for the clinical study of hair regeneration but also for studies of stem cell biology and organogenesis.

  6. It’s funny becuase I’ve just realized I’m getting bald 4 monthes ago hahahah…. I guess I’m lucky (not really)

    I hope they will find a cure.. hairloss in a young age is so devastating :(

    1. Get on the Big Three now, and you will still have a lot of hair in ten years. And you are indeed lucky, because ten years is probably all it will take to develop a significantly effective treatment, so in all likelihood you will never be more than a NW2 in your lifetime.

      1. i immediately started propecia when I realized I was balding. but still, my very good dr. (he’s actually a hair expert) told me it’s not that effective but it’s all he can offer me right now. so I feel pretty hopeless.

  7. Let’s do some math here. There are about 18 million bald and balding men in Japan and it will definitely increase in the future. Let’s say, if Tsuji’s method works and they could treat about 1000 (which seems unlikely) people everyday then it will take 18000 days to treat them all and that is more than 49 years in Japan alone. LOL. I not even that old now.
    Unless they can do a mass “production” of this method and bring it to every single country in the world then there’s no hope for me and a lot of others.

    1. dude its not a family own business to setup a small stall like barber shop and serve few….if the technology is proven they will have franchises and serve money…. why do you think kyocera is in the picture…. jesus christ its not even started and you guys have these kind of questions….

      1. Yeah but Farhan this is a very complex thing and something only the Riken team lead by Dr. Tsuji will (possibly) do. This is almost NASA level.

        The reality is that even if it worked well, it may never be possible to scale it up. It would need to be international and done in every clinic worldwide, but hair transplant docs can never manipulate hair cells and create primordeums lol

        1. And something like Follica would be so much easier to have in every clinic worldwide because it doesn’t involve cell manipulation, its basically just skin wounding with a device which anyone can do anywhere. Unfortunately Follica’s method isn’t proven at all yet.

      2. It seems that you think that mass producing the cell culturing technique is as easy as mass producing Pokemon GO. LOL. You should realize cell culturing is very complicated and not everyone could do it.

        1. But from the 18 millions suffers in Japan, maybe only 2-3% could actually decide to have a treatment or can afford it, so your 49 years end up to be 1-2 years. Likewise, only few HL sufferers decide to go for HTs nowadays.
          As Farhan said, if there is high demand, I do not see why Kyocera will not expand or provide the technologies to some partners world wide and make more money faster.
          Let us first hope the trials end up successful and then everything else will be easy.

          1. The demand for this will be insanely high. In fact, in terms of cosmetic procedures, I will bet you that there is none more in demand than this.

            That’s why Kyocera has been brought in to mechanize the process. Working with clinics and automating cell cultivation is how you can efficiently meet that demand.

            It’s becoming painfully apparent that all of the naysayers think these companies and doctors are stupid.

            They’re not going to charge an outrageous amount for this procedure. This is a condition suffered by the MAJORITY of men around the world at some point. They will have a steady stream of customers throughout the developed world. They know that if they keep the cost at an affordable rate, they will make astronomical amounts of money very quickly and continuously. Upon release, I’d bet that in a matter of weeks, at most, these companies will have seen sufficient return on their investment.

            Anything, primarily cost, that would alienate customers only serves to be a bottleneck in an otherwise extremely profitable endeavour and these companies didn’t get rich via stupid business decisions.

      3. Whoa… Farhan is actually making sense. Guys if they build the tech, part of that is building the distribution/ procedural shit.

        It’s like saying… they want to supply 100 million iphones ever 2 years to people. They are a joke… that’s X number of phones per day etc etc etc… It’s called a production pipeline guys. They aren’t going to have one facility where you need to be processed like a cow to get your hair back. Licensing will exist with any product.

    2. Going by what the press releases have said along with admin..it seems the whole purpose of the collaboration is to indeed make it available on a mass scale hence the involvement of Kyocera. They have the expertise and finances in potentially creating machines which can incorporate Dr. Tsuji’s primordium method on a large scale. Thereafter the business model briefly talked about appears to indicate that clinics from around the world would send biopsies to Japan where the hair follicle regeneration will take place and thereafter sent back to the clinic for the follicles to either be injected or grafted onto the scalp. This would probably be done by there being a set cost per biopsy etc. Hope this helps!

    3. Don’t you worry about that mate im sure theyll have that side of the procedure sorted im sure. I dont think theyd take such huge strides forward in this direction without having planned through that part of the cure also. And btw thanks admin and all for this website for your hard work. Lets all stay positive WEVE GOT THE CURE WOOHOO!!

  8. Hey admin if these firms are confident that it will cure baldness for real in 2018-2020,is this the right time to have a smp+ht to live happy for 3 year and later get these treament for full blown cure ?
    This is my first time comment to any forum .i like your blog :)

  9. Great thread admin!

    Is replicel method just for thining hair or for bald areas also? And regarding density ans according to the numbers discussed is it a hair transplant density?

  10. Thanks, admin.
    I agree with your opinion, this year is amazing.
    And, I think this two organizations will compete each other.
    Hair loss research world had ever been suspicious, but nowadays this world is getting credit.
    Sooner or later, we will probably get the cure.

  11. As we’re getting closer to see cell manipulation treatments become a reality all other less significant products like brotzu and kelopecia are running out of time to make some money in this market where they could possibly lose a lot of what they’ve invested. And this might force them to speed things up too. I’m sure they’ve heard the big news : )

  12. I just want to emphasize something here as everyone is getting carried away a bit here!
    Hair cloning is NOT a cure!! – cloning only (if performed to its potential) will only mean a near unlimited supply of follicles for TRANSPLANTATION!
    Science has not found the underlying genetic cause of this disease and a true CURE is when we can manipulate the underlying genetic abnormality or medically treat the underlying cause.
    Secondly, IF the Tsuji method works, everyone needs to bear in mind that the 1st generation of new product will not perform optimally and will need time to mature. Thus, realistically people will have access to an effective version of this treatment in about 10-20 years after its released (I am assuming they will start trials in 2020 rather than release it commercially)!

    1. I’d recommend actually reading the information. This is not a hair transplant nor is it “cloning”. This is an injection of cells that become hair follicles. Cloning is making exact duplicates of an organism.

      Second, yes, it is a cure.

      Cure, as a verb: “relieve of the symptoms of a disease or condition”.

      Cure, as a noun: “A substance OR treatment that cures a disease or condition”.

      This is a treatment that relieves the symptoms of baldness. People who keep saying “this isn’t a cure”, frankly, do not know what the word “cure” means.

      “Secondly, IF the Tsuji method works, everyone needs to bear in mind that the 1st generation of new product will not perform optimally”

      and you know this how? Where is your evidence?

  13. here is what is gonna happen. Dr Tsuji , as we know, will go back to his lab and probably we wont be hearing anything until late 2017.. meanwhile haters gonna hate and say he is scam and like.

    I believe, if 2020 dream comes true, KEY POINT will be a picture they post. i am expecting to see a proof in 2017 or 2018.. Because scaling up to mass production will take around 1-2 years at least.

  14. Donitello, i want two photos as proof.
    1. Microscopic level showing new hair formation where we can actually count the new hairs
    2. A full head shot showing asthetic difference from before the procedure. No combovers, no trick lighting, just blow me away w massive amounts of hair.

    Ill then be sold

  15. If a cure comes out, how could it be with health insurance. Could we have any chance to ongoing these treatments and health insurance will cover the costs?
    This is a cosmetic issue, but effects great among of people all over the world, and also causes big psychological damage.
    because so many people are effected by these disease, maybe health insurance and comp or research inst or whatever which brings the cure can work together somehow, so people all over the world can cure himself. Maybe it could be profitable for both, also the comp which holds the cure and health insurance, when more people are getting a treatment. Im not familiar with financing etc maybe someone knowledgeable post a comment on this topic.

  16. Agree with a few of the posters here that the mass production issue seems problematic, but then I’m sure that is why Kyocera have been brought into the equation. Thinking of a potential business model for how this is going to advance and come to market, I can see it being licensed out…HT clinics probably will pay a large fee to the proprietor for a course in which they learn how to harvest and replicate the follicles, and are able to purchase the necessary tech to do so.

    The way our world has been organised since the industrial revolution has involved a process approach to work – even these days in the age of knowledge work, tasks are still broken down essentially into stages of a process. Tsuji etc will be working on creating this process and the technologies which enable it to be carried out by clinics. They will charge a huge fee, and in turn, these clinics will charge an absolute fortune for us to have it done, at first at least.

    How I envisage it –
    For Clinics – Buy License from proprietor, undergo training and purchase technology, perform full process in house.
    For Patients – Initial consultation, hairline designed etc, small patch of hair harvested, stored and cultured for a few months, implanted then at 2nd appointment.

  17. But surely all this will take many years after release in Japan and in many countries the technology will have to go through rigorous safety testing and approvals.

  18. As much as I believe in Riken, the complexity involved in their method worries me. This is almost like where something would be technically possible to do like a hand transplant or whatever but is out of reach of the vast majority.

    I hope that Follica amaze us with their skin perturbation protocol. This is an million times easier than cell manipulation – basically glorified laser/microneedling. This could quickly spread to all corners of the globe and almost all could benefit from it with minimal waiting times.

    Unfortunately Follica is yet to provide evidence that their method works. There are question marks to whether it could even create and maintain terminal hairs. But a part of me hopes they surprise us.

  19. It is certainly a very positive thing that competing companies appear to be all in and are in fast forward to bring this technology to market. This would presume that they have either solved or vastly improved the cell culturing dilemma whereby the cultured cells lost there genetic characteristics with each pass. Intercytex and Aderans appeared to have been taken down on this issue…….and Replicel (in their 1st trial) did not appear to have done much better. This, to me, is the key and maybe someone has had a break-thru. I know there are many research groups and companies that have been working on this. The other impediments speculated about above would seem comparatively less significant. Does anyone have any new information related to success with cell culturing? Replicel sites an improved methodology in their releases and aside from that the best success I had heard anyone having was a 40% rate of retention of cell characteristics but that was back in 2014.

    1. Hi,

      Why do you think the logistical impediments would not make it impossible to deliver to the masses or in any case take at least a decade or two to spread across the world?

      1. FYI – This was Replicel’s original licensing plan summary when they were called Trichoscience:

        Upon successful completion of human clinical trials, the TrichoScience procedure will be offered to hair loss/dermatology clinics and those medical professionals currently engaged in hair transplant and similar hair restorative programs. Access to and application of the company’s procedure will be offered under terms and conditions of a detailed, all-encompassing licensing agreement. The agreement will cover two specific areas: Procedure Access & Training (PAT) rights covering doctor/clinic access to the TrichoScience procedure and training; and Biopsy & Cell Replication (BCR) rights covering doctor/clinic access to TrichoScience-approved laboratories for the cell replication process. Under terms of the licensing agreement, TrichoScience will fully control all aspects of how the procedure is marketed, positioned, promoted and priced by the licensees. TrichoScience will also control the training of the technicians/clinicians “registered” or “authorized” to administer the company’s procedure.

        But again, I don’t think this is the big issue. None of this matters until someone figures out how to successfully replicates cells in large numbers.

        Here is a what Dr. Aaron Gardener (Jahoda researcher) said on TBT back in 2014:

        “Several thousand genes are expressed differently in 2D DP cultures compared to a healthy functional DP. This change in gene expression results in the loss of inductive capacity of human DP cells after 2D culture. By culturing the DP in 3D, after an initial 2D culture, 40% of the expression of those genes is restored to levels seen in a healthy functional DP. This restoration of 40% of DP character partially restores the inductive capacity of the DP cells, 5 of 7 donors with a success rate of 10-60% (i.e 10 spheres implanted, 1 follicle develops = 10% success rate) We believe that further restoration of the DP character will further increase the inductive capacity of culture DP cells.”

        Dr. Gardener did not believe that 100% inductivity would be required. I assume that research has taken everyone’s knowledge to another level 2 years later but I have not seen much new concrete evidence. Curious whether anyone has any more current details on this.

      2. I don’t think delivery of the treatment will be that big of an issue as that part of the equation is just execution…….processes, procedures, automation of certain aspects. This is primarily business process. For example, Replicel published a game plan for roll out of the treatment before their first clinical trial. Summarizing, the game plan was that Replicel would control the cell culturing process. Hair transplant surgeons and others would be trained and licensed to extract the follicle specimen which would be sent to Replicel’s culturing lab. Once expanded, the cells would be sent back to the local doctor for injection. I can’t remember exactly, but I believe most of Replicel’s revenue would come from the fee they charged for the cell culture although I’m sure there would be licensing fees to local doctors as well. My guess is that once they know that they have a success, they will begin building out more or larger culturing labs immediately. Although there are more steps involved, especially if there is a 2D and a 3D aspect to culturing, this would be similar to the current process where you can go into blood testing offices all over the country and the blood sample is sent to a central processing facility where the actual test is performed.

  20. This is literally the biggest and best piece of news to ever hit the hair loss scene. It may or may not come through by 2020, but regardless this IS the cure, and it IS coming in the relatively near future, in the one country where it can be fast-tracked to the max.
    Thanks Admin for finding this!

  21. I know this Shisheido trial has been on the works for some time, but it looks to me that this latest Riken/Kyocera collaboration has spurred them to get their product to market ASAP. Expect other players to milk the MPB market in the few upcoming years before Tsuji’s work materialises. In one, two, three… Follica, SM and the rest of them to “miraculously” release a product before 2020

  22. So I haven’t checked the blog for a couple of weeks ,I come back and see all this shit about companies trying to fastforward releases and tsuji collaboration aiming to launch public use of his methods in 2020 ,like ,….wtf, well that made my day .*Starts a slowclap at admin.On a side note what happened with jak are they planning clinical trials for aga?

  23. Great update, thanks Admin!

    If this becomes possible, I guess people can donate hair grafts with same blood group people? Just a thought, may be feels funny right now :) but if possible there can be hair banks just like blood banks. They can have hair catalogs with hair graft specimens, curly, silky, etc haha. You can choose and ask for full head.

  24. So I’m a bit confused. Can replicel grow back our hair or does it just make the current growing hair immune to mpb balding? Are they going to make 100k injections under each hair follicle to immunize it? If they inject Iike per square inch of scalp will these cells just magically align to the follicles to keep them immune. I’m a but confused?

    1. RepliCel can only regenerate what is already there, unfortunately. So yes, it just makes current hair immune to MPB.

      They don’t do an injection under each follicle – there are enough cells in each injection to cover a certain area.

      1. Thanks for the clarification. So this treatment will only be good for low Norwood in a sense to cure them from balding further. Not bad for early balding people. How long does the treatment last? Is it life long protection of mpb?

        1. In theory, since the cells that regenerate the balding hair are taken from the balding resistant hair at the back of your head, the regenerated cells inherit the resistance. That’s the goal of the procedure.

          However, RepliCel is just beginning Phase II, as the article states. The thing is, their Phase I trials only published follow-up results from six months after treatment and this was done years ago. Who knows if the people in the trial lost the regenerated hair since.

          1. “RepliCel can only regenerate what is already there, unfortunately. So yes, it just makes current hair immune to MPB.”

            Out of curiosity, where did you get that from? Because from my understanding from their video explaining RCH-01 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCe5mg7X6zg), the cells move to damaged & dormant hair follicles to “rejuvinate and further stimulate the growth of hair fibers”. It also states that it can cause epidermal cells to cluster, multiply, and form new hair follicles. It says at the end that the anticipated results of this process are to “establish a full head of hair”.

            Interestingly though, in reference to the follow up from Phase I trials, there is a recent interview with the President of Replicel, Lee Buckler (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJr8_d1-3c). In it he says that at the end of the year they will have reached some milestones in data collected, i.e. the 5-year safety data from Phase I, among others.

            I think in the next year or two we will see more data that shows the safety & effectiveness of RCH-01, but I am very optimistic about it. I bet there is significant regrowth potential based on what I’ve seen.

  25. Hey Admin,,

    You are one hell of a researcher.. This info isn’t exactly easy to come by..This is by far the most exciting year yet!!! Question, not sure where a friend of mine got his info from but he told me that he heard a pharma was working on proteasome inhibitor technology entailing a topical liposomal delivery of resveratol…I remeber hype about this approach for MPB years back so without doing furter research I have no opinion yet.. How about you?

  26. Habe If they’ve already cloned a full mouse from one drop of blood It’s obvious that saying “Probably 0.5cm = 1,000 hairs is a miscalculating their capacity.

    1. Hey egghead.

      Sorry I don’t quite understand.

      Kyocera said about multiplying 100 to 1000 fold the number of cells.

      If we assume they take a 5mm scalp containing approx. 40 hairs and manage to multiply each hair’s cells 100-fold, that’s 4000.

      But I don’t know if that’s how they’ll do it or if they can keep multiplying as many times as they want from just one hair.

      1. Hey Habe, your math is a bit off.

        Fold is exponential growth, so instead of 40 * 100 = 4000 it would be 40^100 = 1.606938e+160.

        This is great news for us, there is light at the end of the tunnel!

      2. forums should emphasize the word cloning with Tsuji, he explicitly refers to follicles as a good starting ground to other organs.

        We non-scientist get lost in our own language. If RIKEN is successful this would be the long awaited scifi moment for AGA

  27. Yeah I remember seeing that susheido video and it showed an animated video of the process. It showed them taking the cells from donor area and implanting them to top of head. Then it showed new hairs growing to a full head of hair. I think too many people on these forums speculate and throw random things out there that get mixed up from what these companies are doing. For instance the rumor of follica using minox as their topical lol. Follica hasn’t said anything to anyone except for minor details of wounding and an app. We need to stop over analyzing and coming up with bs that isn’t true. Another example is tsuji stating one follicle can be multiplied 100fold. Everyone is thinking that is the max limit. I’m sure he was just trying to say that each hair plucked can be multiplied a lot! Anywho I hope replicel succeeds and released next year. They have the safety down for 5 years so it’s just a matter of yielding cure like results:)

  28. Yeah, I’m just thankful I’m not going to have to live with this for too much longer. I went from being 23 with a full head of hair and the hairline of gods to being 24 with a lot of recession and pretty aggressive diffuse-thinning in what felt like overnight.

    Not trying to sound dramatic, but as I’m sure most here can relate, it’s REALLY been incredibly stressful. What annoys me, is people who aren’t affected by it or are okay with it and doctors who share this “so what” attitude regarding hair loss. For me, my hair is part of my identity and personal style. For years, I was known for my long hair by friends and family. Then, when I finally cut it and started styling it, I was still often called “the one with the hair”.

    and it was then that I learned that hair has REAL social impact. Suddenly, I was the most upstanding citizen. Cops didn’t ask me where I was going or what I was up to “randomly” anymore, I didn’t get asked if I sold drugs, I was told “You’re hired” at every job interview I went to and I was waaaay more successful with girls. That vast majority of this difference in perception that people had about me came from cutting my hair, I kid you not. It made me feel confident and good.

    That all changed again once the recession and thinning became noticeable. Now, most of the time it’s “Oh…I thought you were a lot older, no offense.” and despite remaining as positive as I can, I get a lot less dates with women my age. Most 20-something women are used to and prefer dating men with hair because these men are the rule and not the exception at that point – No, these women aren’t shallow. Everyone has a right to date people they find attractive and the fact is, baldness/ing isn’t attractive to MOST people.

    If you get fat or old, you can still wear the types of clothes you want. There are no age restrictions and clothes come in all sizes. If you’re a woman who like wearing makeup, you can do so until the day you die if you like. No one can take these things away from you. I woke up one day and discovered I couldn’t form bangs anymore.

    Two doctors, the people who should have the most forward-thinking minds of us all, have given me the “It’s one of those things” or “It happens” followed by a shoulder shrug. You know what else “happens” and is “one of those things”? Bad eyesight, tooth decay and age induced hearing loss. Not long ago, if you had astigmatism or got a cavity, it was “just one of those things”. But there were some people – doctors, for the most part, who said that wasn’t a good enough answer. They saw the world for what it could be and spent their lives making it so. Now, for most in the developed world, these things are little more than a fixable inconvenience.

    So when I go to the doctor and he listens to my problem with his hearing aids, turns around and looks at me through his glasses, opens his mouth full of fillings and implants and says “It’s just one of those things”. Well, I’m sorry Doctor, but that’s not a good enough answer.

    So praise be to the doctors, scientists and people like Takashi Tsuji, who don’t simply accept society’s ailments and help shape a better future for us all.

    1. That guy – I know exactly how you feel bud! I’m going through this now. Rapidly thinning while on big 3. I was very lucky to have halted my baldness from 20 to 32 only using Propecia and nizoral. It held my good density nw1.5. Now I’m going what you are going through. It hurts and stresses me out to see my hair thin while I’m drugs that should still keep my hair. Hopefully in the next 2 years we will restore our thick hair again :)

    2. Well said dude.

      Feel like you should post this somewhere, really communicates the importance of this type of research

  29. Guys that are recently on treatments (that includes me). If you plan to get replicel done while you’re on the big 3 and your hair is already improved from baseline, how would you know if replicel worked for you?

  30. Who exactly oversees the treatments after the trials have been conducted like say any of these company’s gets done with there trials and it becomes a treatment in Japan or wherever who does it have to go through to get to America?

    1. If it’s the FDA I read a deal on their site saying it’s the company’s responsibility to present there treatment efficacy and safety all that jazz and then the FDA only does 2 more things for approval that take 6 months each then it can be commercialized thats really not that long if I read it right?

  31. Jesus Christ and his holy mother.
    Does anybody here have any kind of biomedical research background?
    My guess: NOBODY.
    First of all, the cells required and extracted are epithelial and mesenchymal stem cells, the ones which all the others are generated from. The number of hair follicles extracted has indirect relation to the number of stem cells collected. There’s no direct relation. Meaning one hair follicle doesn’t equal to one epithelial or mesenchymal cell. Cell amplification isn’t any longer a hardship, but I haven’t got any clue about stem cell amplification. Maybe it’s different. Frankly, keine Ahnung habe ich.
    Dr. Tsuji doesn’t give aa about curing baldness. That’s not the aim of his research. Tissue and organ regeneration is its aim. Apparently, hair, teeth and glands are the easiest ones to work with.
    The 2012 paper Tsuji and his team published talks of progress on regenerating body hair follicles (a handful of them) on a bald rat. Rats ain’t humans and body hair ain’t scalp hair, sugardaddies. (There’s extra difficulty to regenerating scalp hair but nothing infeasible.)
    The 2016 paper I haven’t read, but, judging from the abstract, clearly there has been some additional progress. Kudos to Tsuji-sama and al.
    Nevertheless, we haven’t been yet provided with any credible evidence that the progress has been that big, that, in 4 years from now, nw3-4-5s are going to have their heads fully restored with beautiful hair.
    Even if everything works just fine, still, you would need at least 20,000 injections to have your mane back.
    Be realistic, guys.
    The first heart transplant was carried out in the 60’s. It’s been only a couple of years that the death rates have dwindled.
    I’m not saying there won’t be any progress. I’m confident there will be substantial, but 2020 is not a realistic timeline for anything good.
    Sorry guys.
    Με εκτίμηση,
    Κωνσταντίνος Φουκώ

    1. Foucautill- Ellinas eisai? Eida oti to onoma sou eivai Kwsta. Xairw poly pou blepw ellina edw:) Oloi edw nomizoun oti tha exoume to cure se 3 xronia xaxa. Swsta ta eipes. Nw1 to nw4 tha exoun cure all nw6 den to blepw. Meneis sthn ellada?

      1. Yes, I’m Greek and live in Athens.
        Τα μεγάλα πνεύματα συναντιώνται, sir Jones

        1. Swsta ta les megale! Egw nomizw oti o Costarelis tha bgei me ena kalo treatment. Phga sto university of Pennsylvania pou doulebei. Mou eipane oti tha exoume ena kainourgio treatment message wounding kai stem cell activation se tria xronia all den that eivai cure. Oi malakes edw mesa nomizoun oti tha exoume to cure in 2020. Enas allos dermatologos mou eipe se 20 xronia tha bgei to hair cloning cure. Den pane kala edw mesa xaxaxa. Athina meneis file? Megalwses stin ellada?

          1. Hahahahahahahaha
            Ναι, ναι, γεννήθηκα, μεγάλωσα και ζω στην Αθήνα. Εσύ;
            Ελληναμερικάνος;
            Μια χαρά τα μιλάς πάντως τα greeklish.

          2. Μεγαλε έχεις επαφές με κοτσαρελλη? ? Για πες γιατί καραφλιαζω και έχω τρελαθεί

      1. I’m not aware of how they plan to make hair grow out of the scalp, señor.
        The bald rat had a dozen of injections on its body, though. It wasn’t just one or two injections and, ecco, twenty hairs growing.
        Besides, 600cm2 can handle more than 500,000 injections. Trust me. What’s the diameter of a needle? Do the math.

    2. Also bro, Tsuji plans to start human clinical trials in 2020, NOT release the therapy 2020.

      This wrong information came from a Kyocera representative. Kyocera won’t be involved in the cell testing aspect only in developing devices to automate the treatment. Who we should be listening to for timelines is Dr. Tsuji himself, and he has only mentioned 2020 to commence trials.

      1. So, I’m right when I say we won’t be having anything speziale by 2020.
        Thank you for reinforcing my argument.
        Vielen Dank.

      1. Che scherzo!
        Ma, cosa parli, signore?
        Sai da questa roba?
        Credo di nò.
        I do hope I’m the delusional. I really do.

    3. I love it when people march in here and say “I’m a scientist!” yet everything they go on to say is unsubstantiated nonsense. 20,000 injections is ridiculous and you know it. It’s almost like you people get off on making people who are uneducated on the treatment lose hope. The companies involved have given every indication that they intend to have the technology developed by 2018 and the trial started/commercialization by 2020. You’re talking like you have some divine knowledge that all of us were missing. And yes, one germ will generate much more than 5 or 10 hairs.
      TLDR: You’re full of sh**

      1. Yes, the 20,000-injection part was an exaggeration on my behalf.
        In order to have all nw7 surface filled with new, lovely hairs you would need around 20,000-30,000 hairs, right?
        If an injection gives 10-20 hair follicles (1 hair follicle=2.2 hairs), wouldn’t you be needing like 400-500 injections so as to achieve that hair account?
        Besides, I’ve no clue how the scientists plan to achieve densities of >100h/cm2 by injections. Shiseido’s approach is different as the injections are done in areas where there are at least miniaturised follicles. They don’t plant them. They help them become tall and strong again.
        I’m a medical student, have been in the HIV/AIDS research for almost five years and, yes, my opinion has more value than yours, unless you are professionally involved in the biomedical field ir have studied deeply into this.
        No need to be passive-aggressive.

        1. Broseph – I work in a complex field as well and something I have come to understand – things change so fast – no-one seems to have a handle on the whole picture – people are an expert on their piece only.

          I would welcome a detailed deconstruction of the solution from you – and we can see if clarification cannot be acquired. You’d be doing an absolute service. I’m sure the community would happily remunerate you for the service!

          Else, don’t expect anyone to take your opinion as of much worth.

          1. Mr Brah,
            My comments aren’t against Dr Tsuji’s research. Tsuji-sama and his partners are doing some very interesting research that is very promising. But that’s all we can say about it. We haven’t been provided with sufficient evidence yet.
            To make matters worse, in Biomedicine, rare are the cases where a breakthrough occurs. Most of the times, every scientist just adds to a project or a field and progress is achieved gradually and systematically.
            Trailblazers’ fame is restricted in time.
            Parleremo a presto.
            Ciao.

          1. Γιάννη, ούτε είμαι μάντης ούτε συμμετέχω στις έρευνες κατά της τριχόπτωσης.
            Εάν ξεκίνησες τον τελευταίο καιρό, πήγαινε σ’ έναν δερματολόγο και πες του ότι θες συνταγή για φιναστερίδη, κι αγόρασε, επίσης, μινοξιδίλη από το φαρμακείο.
            Επισκέψου, επίσης, ελληνικά φόρα όπως το ha*rl*ssGR. Υπάρχουν πολλά νήματα και καλοί άνθρωποι να σε διαφωτίσουν (και για τις παρενέργειες των δύο φαρμάκων, που, δυστυχώς, υπάρχουν).
            Η άποψη μου, ως ανθρώπου αρκετά πιο εξοικειωμένου με τις επιστήμες Υγείας, είναι ότι ο Tsuji το πάει καλά. Είναι πολύ πρώιμη, όμως, όλη αυτή η διαδικασία. Ακόμη κι αν ο συγκεκριμένος “αποτύχει”, κάποιος άλλος θα εμπνευστεί από το έργο του, θα σκεφτεί κάτι καινούργιο κι έτσι θα προχωρήσει το πράγμα. Το 2020, πάντως, είναι αστειότητα, όχι, γιατί θα αποτύχει ο Tsuji, αλλά γιατί ακόμη κι αν φυτρώσουν δέκα-είκοσι-τριάντα τρίχες στο κεφάλι των ασθενών-πειραματόζωων, είναι υγιέστατες και με κανονικούς κύκλους έκφυσης, υπάρχουν αρκετά τεχνικά ζητήματα που θα πρέπει να υπερκερασθούν και τρία-τέσσερα χρόνια δεν φτάνουν. Το 2025 είναι ένας πιο ρεαλιστικός στόχος, κατ’ εμέ. Δεν σημαίνει, όμως, ότι δεν μπορεί να πάνε όλα καλά και πριν το 2025 να αθροιζόμαστε σαν τα μυρμήγκια στα κατά τόπους κέντρα που θα εφαρμόζουν την Tsuji-α θεραπεία.

        2. HIV/AIDS has nothing to do with hair. Your medical background is useless when we all have the same information available. It says a lot about you that you feel the need to post your credentials on a hair loss blog, even when the credentials have little to no application to the topic at hand. You lack maturity and professionalism. And no, your conjecture has little more value than a liberal arts graduate.

          1. My medical background adds value to my arguments, malaka, ’cause, even though we have the same information, I interpret it differently. So simple as that.
            HIV/AIDS has nothing to do with hair loss, sure, but one’s being involved in any kind of biomedical research renders them more capable of interpreting papers, even scientific collaborations.
            When did anonymous posts on a hair loss blog turn indicative of one’s maturity and professionalism?
            I’m sorry I indulged again in cock fighting with malakes, but it’s hard for me to let stupid arguments not be debunked.
            PTBA, just do your liberal -arts-related job. Ain’t worth arguing with me.
            Είσαι πολύ κατώτερος, τζιτζιφιόγκε.

        3. Not sure where you got the idea that I have a liberal arts degree. That lack of reading comprehension isn’t helping your case at all. I’m a self employed electrician and I can assure you that I make a very handsome living. Saying that AIDS research gives you abilities to better interpret medical papers is like a carpenter thinking he can do a plumber’s job. Both being in the construction industry is entirely irrelevant to doing each others work. And interpretation isn’t even a factor when the papers have very succinct abstracts and conclusions. By the way, it must be pretty soul crushing to be studying a disease that is practically cured at this point. Have a fun life, buddy.

          1. Oh, my God.
            What did you just say?
            What’s cured?
            Just google how many people died of AIDS last year in the USA alone.
            When you find the result, come kiss my well-rounded @rse.
            Jesus, no wonder why Trump is the Republican nominee, after all.

        4. HIV only turns into AIDS if you’re completely ignoring it and neglecting to take the drugs that easily stop it in it’s tracks. You would have known that if you were a scientist worth your salt.

          1. Nope.
            Drugs have rendered the infection a chronic disease, they haven’t cured it.
            Not all patients respond to the HAAR therapy the same and not all patients are infected with the same strands of the virus. It’s not just one HIV.
            Yes, there is some great progress and seropositive people can live up to 30 years after their primary infection. Their lifespan, though, isn’t the same as of those who are seronegative.
            Also, the drugs have their own side-effects and take their toll on the seropositive individuals’ health.
            We haven’t cured HIV/AIDS, Sir

        5. Lorenzo, you failed to mention NTRIs, NNRTIs, PIs, entry inhibitors, integrase inhibitors, and pharmacokinetic enhancers. You should make conclusions based on complete information.

          1. HAART is a label that includes all possible antiretroviral drugs.
            Such a smart aleck.
            Why don’t you infect yourself with HIV?
            You are going to be cured, right.
            I’m giving you 200,000€ if you do.

      2. Could not agree with this more!

        Was going to make the same comment a couple of days ago but lost interest – thankfully another shared the same sentiment.

        I welcome honest criticisms of the work taking place but what you get for the most part is assertion, assertion and assertion, without adequate substantiation.

        To really understand whether a treatment on the horizon may work, you would have to bury yourself in the research for a while and I think almost certainly you could not validate / invalidate another’s work by writing some ~500 character comment referencing a couple of clinical trials you may / may not really understand along with some of our existing scientific understanding without all of the nuance.

        Things are always changing.

        Unless someone can provide a credible reason for why the recently announced partnership is all a big ploy / scandal / conspiracy of some kind – then I will just remain happy that progress is being made.

        And for those criticising the science – please link me to your complete work identifying why the science behind the solution is flawed / misguided / incorrect – please include all citations and references (credible / reliable sources only) and we can have it circulated far and wide (including to Tsuji or whoever) to see if we can get some clarification / reconciliation.

        For those who just pander and whine – if losing your hair is an issue of such enormity – you should be working on trying to find the solution – your obviously passionate about the problem!

    4. First heart transplant was done in the 60s but First mammalian embryo created by nuclear transfer in 1975 so yes I hope Im realistic enough to hope to see this be available soon

  32. damn first time i watched the video u posted on this thread admin.
    seriously I luv Japan. sounds like a commercial from 80s, pure, realistic and not even a glitch of BS… these guys have full of respect to people. If it was American video, u would have felt BS parts inside. I think they are superior and better people than us.

    say whatever you say.. if Dr Tsuji says it is 2020 then I believe more than my own name that it will happen. video on mice was successful and was published. As a scientist u always 4-5 steps ahead of what u share with public. in other words I m pretty sure method has been tested on human cells and it shows positive results. otherwise Dr Tsuji would never agree on 2020 timeline.
    just because we are corrupt human beings doesnt mean they are too. just watch the video and see how honest they are…
    and to everyone, please do not start a piss fight with Dr Tsuji.. yeah he is a REAL scientist not like u hiding in ur closet or the fake ones like put a wig on her head….

    1. Habe- good find man! That was the chart pure tech released in a buiness journal or something a few months back. Follica is what I am really banking on. 100cm2 coverage hairs is excellent. Dense enough to be a practical cure. No stem cell cultivating or anything complex like that. Plus it’s 100x easier for ht doctors to perform this in their clinics than tsuji. Replicel is good too but it won’t be approved here in USA for years. Follica has been all done here for the most part. Do follica, histogen and SM to halt further loss and you are set. BBM

  33. I just got an email back from the CEO of Okyanos 30 minutes ago through a email I sent to Thorn Medical, Dr. Khan basically asking all three of them when the medical co-ordinator would be getting in touch with me since it had been about 3 months of waiting and summer finishing up in a few weeks.

    I’m certain now there will be no clinical trial – whatever Thorn Medical is getting ready to do with Okyanos is going to be pretty much at market this fall.

    I hope to be one of the early patients to see and pay whether this is a scam or not. Which as you all I know I highly doubt it being a scam. …Crossing my fingers :D

    1. This is kind of in alignment with an interesting thought i had recently, relevant to what I’m writing my masters thesis on at the moment. With Hair Loss cures, so much is financial risk, as in you put a large sum of money into it with no return. I think we could use these communities to trial new technologies ourselves and give independent reviews of them to the community through having the community fund it. Basically, have a monthly subscription of 5 quid to access forum, Admin controls it (assuming we can trust this guy ;)) and releases funds to member willing to undergo treatment when released. Yeah a lot of trust is involved, but spreads the financial risk and at the end of the day, will benefit us all….

      1. What?
        Is that a joke?
        Personally, I believe that founding Bald Men Associations all around the world is a better tool for our sake.
        Million of baldsies and annual or monthly subscriptions and … you gather a humongous amount of money€€€€€€€€€€.

        1. Relax and please stop posting for few days. No cure till 2030 means you can stop posting 10 comments a day so early in 2016.

          1. I guess continuous disappointments with treatments and big claims from fake companies make people nervous about what is to come next. The easiest way to avoid another disappointment is to deny chance of success. I think admin does a great job for our community and I would not mind donating 5 quid for common benefit.

          2. 3 of them were completely unnecessary.
            Because of not being post right away, I tried a couple of times. Hence, the four answers to mjones.
            10-3=7-1 (somebody called me delusional)=6 posts in a four-five-hour period. I just can’t see how that’s irregular for a commentator.

        2. Nah it’s not a joke, it’s something which in both marketing and social sciences is fairly prevalent in other aspects of life. For someone who calls himself Foucault, you don’t seem to get the point in that would be restoring power to those who are normally subjected to it?

          1. Foucault would never approve such a proposal.
            Monthly subscription to an impersonal Internet forum or site wouldn’t be favored by him.
            Associating and syndicating ourselves is what he would applaud.
            We are millions and yet we can’t meet up, discuss and make our minds on what to do next and how to attract more investors and funds for our cause.
            To your knowledge, I’m not just fond of Foucault, the queer philosopher, but Michel, the bald person. I think I may know some more about him than you do.
            I can’t help but say I fancy your attitude.

        3. Dude – could not reply above – so will here.

          This has become somewhat fruitless and we’re down to speculation again. I hate writing comments like these but so as to ensure others are not disheartened. Yes, developments take time a lot of the time. Also true is that a single development can hasten a multitude of other developments and our species can really accelerate in multiple areas over a short space of time. We’re at a point now where technology means all development is much faster relative to times past.

          Again though – such points are fruitless and not worth pondering. No-one knows for sure what will happen next.

          If you’re in disbelief at the timelines presented – noted.

          If you’re saying that we have not seen adequate results (human) – the fact had not escaped me.

          If your point is that, given the above, there is no point in being optimistic and reasonably hopeful at the news provided – then you’re not helping anyone – consider the circumstances.

          Losing hair sucks because it puts you at a disadvantage. Wearing your insecurity on your sleeve, or scalp (as I see to be the case with things like SMP), makes things worse.
          I do not want to be a part of the bald man’s club / association -but I am being made a member nonetheless. I had hoped by now that someone would put a platform in place to fund the R&D of prospective solutions. What, the many many millions of people with this can’t each spare 1 – 50£ to expedite the work? I suppose such a pet project would look good on the CV… [i only write this last part so that hopefully someone with time takes the initiative]

          Even this term baldsies makes me grimace – what is that? You want people without hair to feel like a child? Dammit, I’ll show the world that they were right to portray lex Luther as a bald guy

          Ah – past 14:00 – time to run – peace out brah

          1. What I tried to tell with most of my comments is that there’s progress but 2020 isn’t the year we’ re having the solution.

    1. I’ve read it already. I even refer to it in my very first comment. (it’s an abstract, though; it’s not the whole paper so that I could look into it and try to clarify as many grey areas as possible)
      That’s really, really good news, but we’re just at its inception.
      By no means am I aware of all the experiments Dr Tsuji and his colleagues have conducted. It’s even slightly possibe that they have tested their method on people already. Still, we need quite some time for it to mature.

  34. Good question of PK:

    “If this becomes possible, I guess people can donate hair grafts with same blood group people?”

    What do you think about this? It’s possible? Just same blood group is possible or different blood group is possible also?

    It’s very important, because I’m not hair and I want to acces at this “cure” me too.

    If not person know, what the email to join Tsuji or members of staff to ask this question in english?

    1. Pal, for the time being, it’s impossible to implant foreign hair follicles, even with donor and receiver having the same blood type and rhesus, and not have them rejected.
      Hair follicles are living organs like all the rest.
      You can transfuse blood (RBCs) ’cause there are only just a few antigens on RBCs’ surface and these antigens are exactly the same among individuals who belong to the various blood type groups we know. An organ consists of different tissues. For instance, a hair follicle has epithelial cells, papilla cells, melanocytes, etc and every cell group (tissue) has a bunch of specific antigens on its cells’ surface. If one single antigen of the donor’s hair follicle’s tissues is different to the receiver’s, the latter’s WBCs recognize the follicle as a foreign body and may substiantially attack it, running an almost absolute risk of getting it dead.
      Even in successful transplants, the receiver has to be immuno-suspended for the rest of his life.
      Com’ on, guys, refrain yourselves from making silly assumptions and suggestions.
      Biomedicine isn’t women, cars and booze.
      Please!

      1. Ok.. thank you for reply.

        For benefit Tsuji/Replicel treatment, i’m only two options:

        1) It’s possible to clone the beard and expect a good result ?

        2) Follica/Jak/Brotzu/others… will be effective for a head with nothing hair (all hair cycle exhausted/all follicles are miniaturized) and hope at least a little % of terminal follicles/hair to benefit cloning treatment?

        1. Hair cycle cessation and hair miniaturisation are different stages of AgA.
          There are some zones where follicles are DHT-resistant and don’t suffer AgA.
          If those zones are affected and aren’t DHT-resistant any longer, there’s no point in regenerating your hair, unless the scarce follicles found can give some stem cells, which would then need be bioengineered. That’s not impossible either. But it would cost a great, great deal of money, when on the market (at least 20 years from now).
          Guys who lose all their hair should just accept it and live happily as baldsies.
          For the rest, someday maybe something exceptionally good would happen.
          Long live the baldsies!

          1. Long life to baldies? @FoucaultII. I guess you have a business and do not want a cure exists. But I have bad news for you. I’m so sorry.

          2. Yes, I’m the inventor of an onion-based cream that is sold to the elite of the world, except for Bezos (he persistently refused to buy it) and I make tons of dollars.
            I can’t help but shiver at the idea of losing all that clientele.
            Mamma mia, tragedia.

      2. I’m agree with but, i think different to you…Hair Loss cure is very close! :) And yes, tsuji lab are more advanced than this scientific paper.

        Best regards!

  35. I am a great fan of Dr. Tsuji l, but his method is just so beyond complex its crazy.

    Yes it might technically work on humans (one day) but there is no way it could then be adopted worldwide because only Tsuji and his team will know how to do this cutting edge and extremely precise cellular stuff.

    We need Follica to succeed because their method can be easily adopted by clinics worldwide. No cell manipulation involved. Just a device to wound skin in a precise way followed by the use of topical drugs. It couldn’t be simpler!

    So let’s hope Follica delivers neogenic hairs which turn terminal by 2018.

    1. Of course his method is “complex”. It’s pretty obvious at this point that regrowing lost hair isn’t simple.

      They’re not spending this kinda dough and resources if they aren’t sure it will work on humans. There is no good reason at this point to believe it won’t – even just going by RepliCel’s method.

      Also, the smartest possible move they could make is accepting biopsies from all over the world for automated cell-cultivation. The Japanese government would love this, which is probably why they are backing RIKEN.

  36. It makes sense for baldness cure to be a sophisticated scientific process, hence if it was easy or obvious there would be no bald guys. If Tsuji will finish the cookbook, prove efficiency and be able to replicate results consistently, there won’t be a reason not to commercialize the process. Complexity will be reflected in price, it’s like anything else that is controlled by market. I would not worry about any of this until results are out. This is definitely the most hope for cure balding people got. Though I have to admit it makes me nervous to hear some many extraordinary claims for cure, I hope it’s because science behind aga is finally sufficient and not purely because of individual or corporate ambitions. I guess will see soon enough.

  37. ACLARIS to present on July 12 2016. Maybe not enough time has gone by but also maybe they will let slip the status of JAK for Male Pattern Hairloss:

    Press Releases
    Aclaris Therapeutics to Present at the Cantor Fitzgerald 2nd Annual Healthcare Conference

    MALVERN, Pa., July 05, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACRS), a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced that Dr. Neal Walker, President & Chief Executive Officer, will present at Cantor Fitzgerald’s 2nd Annual Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, July 12, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

    1. Well, it’s another pitch for investment funds, don’t know if that’s good or bad- I’m eagerly awaiting something peer-reviewed. But if they’ve got something more on Pattern Hair loss, I’d guess they will try to sell it hard… So I’m feeling the hype for July 12…

  38. How long do you guys think It’ll be before Follica will reveal some results? If they really plan to release by 2018 should they not come out with something soon?

  39. Hey hlscc no one sent me photos :(
    i don’t believe yoda ever got them emailed to him either because I have been emailing everyone I can just to get followup on medical screening. I accidentally used the word trial rather than screening in my email to Okyanos to my surprise the CEO responded there won’t be a trial. Thorn is just going straight to market. Yoda if your reading please show proof. Alt Cntrl prt sc or print screen will snapshot your desktop control v to paste onto MS paint etc then upload image at https://postimage.org/ .. they give you the url for anyone to see.

    Hi Justin,

    We received your email regarding trial screening with Dr. Irum Khan and Thorn Medical. At this point we have not been given any information on a trial. I suggest you revert to Dr. Khan or Thorn Medical.

    Best Regards,
    Matthew Feshbach

    and neither Thorn nor Dr. Khan has been responding to me :\ – I haven’t sent but one email either! ..so don’t think I’m spamming them

    anyway thorn has a lot of balls to do whatever the hell their doing after saying all of that – not doing trials – and going straight to market in “this autum” .. hope i get in crossing my fingers

    1. i don’t mind my friend u can believe wherever you want in jesus buda muslim you choose .if they had something tha works without trials they had already upload photos

    1. I read it (go to sci-hub and enter the link).

      They don’t even say what the purpose of this was. Besides, I thought Cotsarelis was confident about Follica’s skin peterubation method? So why is he doing this now?

  40. Please admin, adopt Disqus comment system. It’s much better. People can upvote comments and sort them by relevance.

    1. not many ppl go into chat never bene in there not very efficient, no one is going to discuss one topic for a week straight thats not how things work.

  41. This is really interesting news. I haven’t read the full study (and don’t have access to it) but, being optimistic (though not wildly so), it would appear quite straightforwardly that Tsuji and his team have developed a protocol to bioengineer a hair follicle that can now be taken forward for clinical studies.

    However, I do think a little caution is warranted. Firstly, unless anybody knows better, we don’t have any information on the quality or functionality of the hair follicle that was created. We don’t even know if it grew (or if it was designed to). I don’t know what an “organ germ” is but to my mind it sounds like they have created the beginnings of what could eventually grow into a hair follicle. Whether it does, and how good that follicle is, the abstract does not say.

    Secondly, presuming this is the beginnings of being able to create bioengineered hair follicles from a small sample of healthy hair, scaling this up will be a massive and probably very costly challenge. Doing this once in the lab will be nothing like doing this 5,000 or 10,000 or 25,000 times in the clinic, which is eventually what it will need to be for it to be an effective treatment. Even if this works effectively and becomes a practical technology, getting it “out there” as a commercial product you’ll be able to buy will be an immense, immense challenge, particularly by 2020. And there is a chance you’ll have to pay a fortune.

    Lastly, the safety of this is not known yet. Stem cell technology and treatment is still in its infancy. The long-term effects and long-term efficacy are not even close to being known. There’s also the challenge of creating a full, healthy head of hair – the direction of follicles, implanting large numbers of germ follicles so close together etc. – these are things that will need to be rigorously studied and refined.

    I think this is wonderful news, but do I think it’ll be something any of us will be able to have done safely, successfully and affordable by 2020? I think that will be an enormous challenge, even with Japan’s more relaxed clinical trials. I would like to be proven wrong, of course, but whilst I feel like is a real step forward and presents a very exciting opportunity, I just do not think we’ll be having 20,000 graft (or “germs”) transplants in 3 1/2 years time.

      1. That would be great Paul! It would be amazing to see where the team are at. Who knows, perhaps this technology really somewhere quite advanced; I know Dr. Nakao and Dr. Tsuji have been working on this for a decade or more, so they must have made real progress.

        I do think there will be significant hurdles but that’s not to say it’s not very optimistic. At least there’s almost daily hairloss research news these days – whatever happens, I do think we’re moving in some very exciting directions.

  42. @Paul, again a study with The great Dr. Cots involved ( whos yet to show anything but talk). If Follica really had a product (their wounding procedure), and I mean a solid product, why is it that hes involved in tons of other studies?

    1. Spanky….that’s how Greeks work. We keep quiet and focus on success. Don’t doubt him. I know it’s annoying not hearing or seeing evidence of his technique but why show pics when it’s not fully completed? He obviously doesn’t need money since it’s backed by pure tech and university of PA. I think he will release pics next year. He has competition and can’t risk anything to lose. I just like how he has an app, using ht clinics nationwide with a protocol that is easy to learn and that can be quickly adapted. This won’t be a cure but definitely a great solution along with ht.

    2. Well, Spanky,
      Dr Tsuji, Dr Cristiano, Dr Cotsarellis and many, many others are scientists, above all. They aren’t Gods and they aren’t obsessed with finding the cure to baldness.
      In addition, that’s how a professor of dermatology works and should work. He’s in charge, not a laboratory dog doing a single task.
      If you want doctors and scientists to work specifically on hair loss cure, fight for it. Talking sh*t about a doc won’t solve your problem.
      Μας έπιασε το εθνικό αίσθημα, mjones;
      Χεχε

      1. Xaxa O Cotsarelis kserei ti kanei. Siga tha kanei diefthimisi gia to wounding apo twra. Tha gelasw otan tha kanei release to wounding se 2 xronia Kai oloi malakes edw tha xiestoun pano tous Xaxaxa. I tsuji tha argei. Egw lew se 10 xronia gia release

        1. Συμφωνώ για τον Τσούτζι, mjones.
          Για τον Κωτσαρέλλη, μένει να δούμε. Κοντός ψαλμός, αλληλούια.

  43. @mjones, thank you for your reply. I hope your right but I really doubt it. It makes no sense whatsoeever to not promote your product in ANY way. Because of hope ppl always fool themselves when it comes to HL treatments. HL treatments is a product like everything else, and if you have a solid product thats right around the corner you would want to promote it. I honestly hope your right @mjones.

  44. Lets focus on the products that are going to be available soon i.e. Brotzu & H&W’s Topical Fin. , Set …etc etc. These could be extremely helpful

  45. Thorne still end 2016 ?
    Keep us updated Egghead !

    Admins post is great, however we still need something significant and affordable in the meantime (before Tsuji 2020).

    Still waiting for news about the others: Thorne (end 2016), Histogen (end 2017), Replicel/Shiseido (2018), Follica (2018) and Aclaris (2019?).

    1. Aclaris 2019? That is for Areata. They haven’t mentioned a start date for Aga trials. I hope 2019 haha

    2. Will do, I have been keeping this blog updated about my Thorn Medical story. It’s been since my birthday I’ve been waiting for the medical co-ordinator to call me back. So far the only response I’ve gotten was from Matthew Feshbach himself about the issue a day or two ago.

      There will be no clinical trial. Whatever product Thorn Medical has they are going to market this fall in their own words skipping clinical trials. Okyanos, Henry Gewanter, and the whole Thorn Medical staff’s credibility is going to be on the line in a few months.

      I’m becoming ambivalent because of lack of communication but… yoda claims he had special emails with images attached of their before and afters claiming it looks like a bad PRP. and Yoda was a huge fan of Thorn now he say’s it’s a big scam. It’s a goofy story.. the whole thing….. but I’m definitely paying close attention to September- October – and November. And still skeptical yoda was telling the truth because of no proof snapshots of emails and b/a pics etc…

      They said they would be making calls to patients during the summer to get scheduled for the fall…. It’s still technically the summer but theres only about a month left and I haven’t heard a word back. .. We’ll see what happens.

  46. @FoucaultII, A little irony pisses you off? Thank you for the dermatology-research-lab-procedure lesson, Lol.

  47. So… netheir futur treatments for guy completely bald (all hair cycles exhausted/extreme miniaturization) ?

    Please, I want a reply. I’m very desesperate.

    I test Tofacitinib 50mg in DMSO 2X/day since july 6th but.. I’m not motivate.

    I watch the post of Rick:

    “Just want you all to know that I have had very good success. With using tofacitinib 30% mixed with minoxidil. I have been doing this process topically for 3 months and have achieved full follicle growth! I will update you more in 30 days. And yes that is for male pattern baldness.”

    Rick certainly not had a serious baldness than mine. Rick had a AGA and me a big diffuse medicinal alopecia (Prozac, Risperidone, etc.). Very high dosage during 14 years bla bla bla… you know my story… All my hair are miniaturzed, exhausted (Well.. almost. It’s just a matter of time).
    Also I dont understand the % in the Rick’s test. 30% of tofa??? I use 50mg. 50mg = what in %.

    But the true question is: hope for me? Follica/Brotzu/JAK/Other?

    School starts again in a month and I’m terrified . I am no longer able to leave the house . This is above my strength. I’ll do something stupid that’s for sure.

    Please, I want a true reply. I ask you to knee.

    1. Please, don’t panic or do anything crazy.

      Also, people you must READ the info. Seriously, everyone keeps asking questions that are answered right in the articles or on the linked sites.

      Yes, William, the Kyocera/RIKEN/Organ Tech. procedure will restore all the hair lost on the top of your head. It works by combining two kinds of cells taken from the hair on the BACK of your head, the hair resistant to balding and they create new follicle primordium – the cells that become hair follicles. The plan is that a biopsy is taken from the back of your head, sent to Kyocera’s facilities for automated cell cultivation and then shipped back to the clinic so that a Doctor can inject the follicle germs in the areas that have gone bald. This will grow new hair, which also has normal hair cycles and natural colour. The method has been shown to work in lab mice and there is no logical reason this will not work on other carbon-based lifeforms – specifically, mammals.

      We just gotta hang on a few years and save a bit of money.

      1. I understand this but… i have NOTHING hair on all on my head. The hair on the BACK of my head are extremely miniaturized and hair cycle exhausted same that the top on my head. All my head is affected.

        If all my hair on all my head are extremely miniatirized and hair cycle are exhausted… what the solution?

        Kyocera/RIKEN/Organ Tech. procedure will work for the guy (included me) COMPLETELY bald (back of the head also) ???

        If not, what other futur treatment will works for guy completely bald?

        1. Listen, William,
          Being bald isn’t the end of the world.
          Agassi is hot, Statham is hot, ChristianXXX is hot (he’s also very well-endowed, ;-) ), Adam Russo is hot and so many other men who are completely bald.
          There are also lots of bald men who aren’t that attractive, e.g. Jeff Bezos. But they aren’t completely wasted.
          Unless you have a really big forehead, you are gonna be fine. Yes, you are going to be the bald guy. But you can be the bald guy who’s nice and kind, the bald guy who hits the gym and is bulky, the bald guy with the huge p*nis (that’s a huge advantage, mi amigo, :-P) that girls talk about, the successful entrepreneur. No, it’s not the end of the world (unless you have a fivehead).
          Also, before doing anything crazy, please, talk to your family about your problem and visit a psychiatrist (do not let them subscribe you any kind of pills, though).
          It doesn’t matter if you’re young and only a handful of your peers share your uniqueness. Trust me. Women (and some gay men) after the age of thirty don’t give a shit if you’ re cute and have Justin Bieber’s hair.
          Oh, if it’s possible, also grow a mustache (Gosh, that’s so sexy), or some very fine beard (not hipstery beard; it makes me wanna puke).
          That’s all I had to say to you, Willy.
          And to answer to your question brutally:
          No, the cure ain’t around. 2025 is an optimistic, but also realistic timeline for some effective treatment. 2020 is a joke.
          imikriloulouIII@jagoo.com
          Contact me if you need a shoulder to cry on. Or a sincere opinion on how you look as a baldsy.
          We’ll go through it, Willy.

          1. For me, it’s the end of the world.

            I’m 24 years old, i miss my life. I want be a human, not a monster. I want a treatment and not psychiatry.

            Another view please. I want a serious reply, not a comment about self-acceptance. Suicide is only option, I never accept this baldness.

            I hid from the month of May. I can not stay hidden for a long time in my apartment. School starts in one month and I have to work to pay the rent . If I do not have a glimmer of hope , I will not continue . I’m terrified to leave the house . Considering my total baldness , am I doomed to be bald for the rest of my days there still is hope that I find my hair ( Follica / JAK / Brotzu / Etc. ) ?

          2. William,
            Your case ain’t the typical AGA case.
            Haven’t you sought a medical expert’s opinion yet?
            Maybe it’s not AGA, but something else and can be addressed differently.
            Please, seek medical consultance.

          3. @Foucaultll
            Yes, I sought many medical expert’s opinion.
            The last dermatologist I saw told me that indeed some medicaments could speed up the life cycle of hair ( rapid depletion ) . She said that unlike the AGA, my hair is not stuck in ” latency / dormancy ” . She had no solution for me.

        2. Oh, sorry. No offense, it’s just that your English is a bit hard to understand.

          Yes, there is hope for you in Tsuji’s method as well. This actually all started because his team was able to grow new skin from stem cells, which in turn grew normal hair a number of years ago. He’s been able to implant cells in nude mice (genetically engineered, hairless mice) that became hair follicles as well.

          Based on what we do know, it stands to reason that as long as Tsuji is able to obtain epithelial and Mesenchymal stem cells from your body, his method should work.

          1. Also, don’t listen to FoucaultII. He’s an @$$hole who doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about.

          2. Are you sure?

            From my body, my beard? Not possible from my head if is totally bald?
            The color of my hair chesnut/blond.
            The color of my beard/chest/body is Brown/red (Ginger)

            Do you think is possible to restaured my true color (chesnut/blond) by my head. Or if my head is totally bald, it’s impossible? The hair of my beard and my body are not very thick and the color is very ugly. I guess the corp hair will keep their genetic…

            Thank you for your comment That Guy. I’m from Quebec. I speak french usually. My English is not very good. I’m sorry.

          3. And you are who, Mr That Guy?
            Tsuji himself or Jesus Christ in disguise to know what’s going on and what’s going to happen next?
            No, William, it won’t be possible to bioengineer beard and chest hair into scalp hair in 2020.
            Besides, what are you going to do until 2020?
            If you need hope, I’m the one to tell you there’s plenty of hope. Sure.
            Imagine if you took your life and ten years from now everybody would be having their head fully restored. You would be 34-35 and at least some 40 years to live on.
            Baldness doesn’t make you a monster. Is Agassi a monster?
            Is Pitbull a monster?
            Is Bruce Willis a monster?
            Je n’ en crois pas.

        3. I feel you so much brah – literally thought I was a couple of years from my prime and I was likely to have a sweet decade – then WHAM, not so fast, suddenly I realise I’ve lost more hair than I thought and it was not just recession.

          Since then, I have become less social and agonised over whether to take finasteride and risk an, as far as I understand, irrecoverable affliction (seriously WTF – is it some kind of a test to see who really wants it because some bald guys are needed for the women who do not feel comfortable about themselves enough to be with a guy without a blatant obvious flaw? (overthinking / not possible)), spend much time checking here and Follicle Thought for news, check the commentary more often than I should, wonder why no bald man cared enough to fix this already, divert scarce mental resources – I wonder at all the unrealised accomplishments from guys who could not actualise because of hair loss…

          What wasted human capital…

          But there are always options right:
          1. Find the solution
          2. Join the military and become a monster
          3. Upon realising the true colours of the majority – smash everything down – become a monster
          4. Care less about image, focus on money
          5. Realise how much it sucks to have a burdensome problem and that everyone has one or another, many way more serious! – and dedicate your time to finding solutions to problems
          6. If all bald men become amazing – perhaps we could change the associations – it’d be like, ooooh you’re thining – someone is going to be strong and successful and powerful…;) Maybe that guy Foccacia below is on to something with his secret brotherhood business ;) we can all scratch each other’s scalps bromeo!

          I will be your pal – so long as you’re not nuts or anything ;)

        4. Oh, man.
          Do you look ok without hair, at least?
          I do get your frustration, William.
          You can always contact me through the e-mail, if you want.

  48. No worries, William. I’m from Alberta!

    Anyways, I know it’s a bad situation, but try not to get too worked up.

    I’d wager they can obtain pigment from a variety of places to create the hair colour, but even if they can’t…you can always dye it!

    The science behind the RIKEN alliance is very solid – the best there is, currently. Tsuji has many published entries in the most reputable science journals, with photos, videos and tons of other data. This team has shown they can grow new follicles in animals and they wouldn’t have created this alliance, with BILLIONS of dollars at stake if they weren’t sure it would work.

    I’d also like to point out that it is unlikely we’ll hear much from this team until around two years from now. Tsuji’s alliance is the only company so far that has the wheels in motion to commercialize a full-fledged baldness fix. His work threatens the entire existence of companies like Rogaine and this treatment will be a great boon to the Japanese government – these companies have enemies. They’re NOT going to tell you everything. They cannot risk too much information falling into the hands of their competition.

  49. @Foucaultll in light of what you just said I applaud you on helping William that was nice. However after that last comment I wonder why are you here? This site should mean nothing to you you’ve already accepted your baldness you need no cure nor treatment that’s apparent unless you don’t believe in your own advice… why waste your time commenting or even looking on here?

    1. I’m not bald yet (nw3). I may be someday. I ain’t sure.
      I’m here ’cause I want to keep myself abreast of news and progress related to hair loss treatments.
      I comment ’cause there’s a great deal of naïvitè in lots of the posts here. On top of that, there have been posts claiming my arguments are invalid or that I’m delusional or an @rsehole. Besides, it’s summer and while sunbathing or relaxing it’s fun commenting. What’s wrong with that?

  50. I can ask you the same question, Foucault.

    You’re just on here saying “no it won’t be possible” blah blah blah

    Sorry there, slick, but the evidence suggests you’re wrong.

    What do you have? Do you have inside knowledge of some crippling impediment that will prevent Riken from reaching their approximate timeline? Do you have published, peer-reviewed evidence that disproves their methods? Do you have ANYTHING!?

    The answer to all of the above is, of course, “no”. You’re not justifying your opinion in any way – you have not made one sound argument on this site supporting why you’re so certain there will be no cure. You contribute nothing of value to the discussion – You’re basically just trolling at this point.

    So do us all a favor and stop posting.

    1. Lol
      Where’s the evidence?
      They haven’t started trials on humans yet, for Allah’s sake.
      Little body hair grown on a bald rat ain’t evidence. It merely shows that there’s hope in the years to come. That’s all.
      Do you understand with what of a complexity Tsuji-sama is dealing?
      The collaboration announced is some very good news, indeed, but it’s no proof the final product will be on market by 2020. Besides, we aren’t informed what the product is gonna be like, except for some abstract bullsh*t, and, even if the product is delivered on time, will we be able to buy it?
      Millions of baldsies flocking in Tokyo is some grotesque idiocy, isn’t it?
      I really don’t get why I’m resented so much. It’s not that I say Tsuji’s ain’t gonna work out. All I’m saying is 2020 is some ludicrous timeline.
      Την εκτίμησή μου, κύριε Αυτός ο Τύπος.
      :-)

      1. Yes, it IS evidence. The fact that you say “Little body hair grown on a bald rat ain’t evidence.” confirms my point that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

        Researchers use mice and other rodents because their genetic, biological characteristics and behaviors closely resemble humans and you can replicate many human conditions in them and vice versa. Nearly all successful research and treatment for obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and the list goes on was first confirmed in experiments successfully done first in mice. So to say it’s not evidence is nothing short of ignorance.

        “Besides, we aren’t informed what the product is gonna be like, except for some abstract bullsh*t, and, even if the product is delivered on time, will we be able to buy it?”

        You’ve been informed what the product is going to be like aside from the very specifics of Kyocera’s mechanization. It’s not “abstract bullshit” – try reading.

        “Millions of baldsies flocking in Tokyo is some grotesque idiocy, isn’t it?”

        No, but speaking in absolutes when you have absolutely nothing to back it up is.

        “I really don’t get why I’m resented so much.”

        See above.

        “It’s not that I say Tsuji’s ain’t gonna work out. All I’m saying is 2020 is some ludicrous timeline.”

        Yet, you’re only reason why is because a company sitting on the most credible solution to the most widespread cosmetic ailment in human history hasn’t spilled ALL the beans about their collective 18 billion dollar business merger and tech for the next four years that they just publicly announced last week…

        It’s fine if you think that 2020 won’t be the year, but speaking in absolute negatives to people suffering from hair loss when there is no logical reason anyone should believe your doubt of the timeline over respected scientists and giant electronics companies is nothing more than a display of your ultracrepidarianism.

        1. You can’t be serious, mister.
          What’s successful in mice isn’t necessarily gonna be succesful in humans, too. Modifications and novelties may be required, aka more time.
          Com’ on, you’ ve no clue and you keep being argumentative.
          What 18 billion?
          Where did you find that?
          Hilarious.
          Better call yourself That Clueless Guy.
          Done talking to you. It’s like talking to mice.
          BB

          1. There is no real difference between you and That Guy – both are qualifying statements – outlook is different, that is all.

            “Not necessarily”

            “May be”

            perhaps they’re further along and are keeping IP close to the chest, perhaps not…

            Not much more to say TBH but wait and see.

        2. With all due respect That Guy, there are some realities here.

          Mice are not used because of their similarities to humans, at least not exactly. Mice are used because early-stage research is much easier to conduct and more ethical (at least in principle) than trials on humans or other animals.

          Mice share a lot of similarities to us and successful research conducted on mice often bodes well for translation into humans. That having been said, it’s an absolute fact that mice generally respond much more favourably to experimental and novel therapies than humans would. I cannot tell you how many times cancer, diabetes, hair loss etc. have been “treated” in mice by drugs that do not make it to human research, or do not make it past human research. Generally speaking if it don’t work on mice it won’t work on humans, but if it does work on mice it MIGHT work on humans.

          I’ve read the study, it’s here if anybody wants to look at it (for the time being at least):

          https://www.scribd.com/document/319046696/Hair-Follicle-Regeneration-by-Transplantation-of-a-Bioengineered-Hair-Follicle-Germ-by-Katsunari-Tezuka-Koh-ei-Toyoshima-and-Takashi-Tsuji

          It’s very interesting stuff, but some massive caveats here:

          First, it’s entirely in mice. Adult mouse hair follicle cells have been removed, separated, prepared and reimplanted and held in place with a nylon thread taped down, with growth observed. As stated, plenty of things have been successfully demonstrated in mice that have not translated to humans.

          Secondly, the quality of the hair produced by the follicle does not look great, though its hard to tell compared to the donor. Jahoda has been having the same problem – creating hair follicles and creating cosmetically usable follicles are two different things.

          Thirdly, there’s absolutely zero information on how this could work on a mass-scale. It’s not as simple as placing 20,000 “germs” on your head and watching them sprout. Placement, blood supply etc. must be taken into consideration. Doing it once is not indicative it truly works, at least not in the sense we all hope for.

          I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic. This is a really interesting, very exciting study and who knows exactly where the team are at in terms of what’s going on behind the scenes. But at the end of the day this basically a little instruction manual on how to do this once in a mouse, which can be taken by research teams and used to further study.

          Now, best case scenario is the team are light years ahead of this paper, but that’s pretty unlikely. Most likely scenario is that the team are a few months ahead of this paper, which may mean single follicle first-in-man human trials in the next 6-24 months, with the end-point being proof of concept that an implanted follicle (regardless of cosmetic quality) can be successfully produced from stem cells separated and grown in a special 3D structure into a “germ”.

          It’s good stuff, but an affordable way to get all your hair back easily by 2020? Very hard to imagine that being the case. It would be great if by 2018-2019 they could have reproduced this study in humans. At that point I would say start getting excited, because the next 5-7 years could get interesting. But if we’re talking strictly evidence, the evidence suggests this is an exciting, promising but EXTREMELY early proof of concept that can be taken forward to human studies in the next 1-3 years. Getting from there to healthy, cosmetically usable, mass produced follicles at a price point even the moderately wealthy can hope to meet is unlikely to be realistic in the next 48 months.

          1. And you think they’ll understand.
            I highly doubt it
            They’ ve been into biomedical research for decades that’s why they can’ hear us.
            We’ ve got no clue.
            Jesus Christ, Allah, Buddha and all the rest, help us.

          2. Yo friend,

            Again, not much of a difference between what you’re saying and what That Guy is saying, both are speculating – what if and maybe probable scenarios based on available information – outlook is different is about the only difference I see

            As for which outlook is more beneficial for readers – could start discussing on that point I suppose…

            Your name – is it supposed to resemble the name of a game?!

          3. *Tsuji actually created an adult human hair follicle in his original paper. Planted in mice. He planted a human hair follicle germ in a mouse’s skin and it grew. Who’s to say what it would do in human skin though.

      2. Kwsta xaxaxa den katalabemoun tipota edw mesa. Gia pes, se pia paralia eisai twra? Glyfada? Min peis oti exeis kai frappe giati tha zilepsw sto grafio mou. Thelw na eimai stin ellada! ;)

        1. Σήμερα, δεν πρόλαβα.
          Χθες, ήμουν προς Λαγονήσι μεριά.
          Χεχε, η Ελλάδα είναι πραγματικά παράδεισος το καλοκαίρι.
          Θάλασσα, ήλιος, τα μελτέμια του Αιγαίου, παρέες, ούζο, ρακή, μεζέδες, πανηγύρια, δεκαπενταύγουστος.
          Παράδεισος, indeed.

  51. Whether or not Shiseido can immunize hairs will be the most important hair event of this decade.

    Oh and if Follica works, too.

  52. @Foucaultll Your message to William contradicts what you’ve just told me. Like I said kudos for helping the guy thats awesome but your telling him don’t worry about being bald just accept it your going to be bald and yet you are on this site which makes me believe you don’t believe in your own advice so how can William. If you were to take your own advice you would forget about this forum and just go bald because it’s no big deal right there are hot bald movie stars with lots of money that’s hold themselves up fine right so just go be bald… And of that of arguments shrug them off I understand your skepticism i really do we all do but none of us need anybody telling us what may not happen every guy/girl on this forum has doubts the administrator who keeps the forum pretty well optimistic, knows in the back of his OUR minds that whatever percentage it might be there’s always gonna be a chance everything will flop. That’s not just to you that’s to all the people who wanna try and argue about the dates time science whatever, ya we know there’s always a catch but we don’t need to hear it a million different times in different ways we are just trying to make the most and really all we can do is wait.

    Ευχαριστώ

    1. Να’ σαι καλά, Ήττα.
      Έχεις δίκιο, σταματώ τους διαξιφισμούς. Δεν έχουν κανένα νόημα.
      Κακήν υπομονή!

    1. Wow…Be careful with Dr. Zhang! :) Of course hair loss cure (MPB) is very possible in 2020. I never doubt it…It simply realistic.

  53. Follica bitches hahahaha! This is where we will get our first new advanced hair procedure from. Add a bit of histogen injections and hopefully SM to maintain with 10% growth with a possible fue for temples hairline and you are done. No need for hair cloning. Tsuji is on the right track but he will take a while. I do believe he has the potential cure but he is long way off. Before 2020 we will have Follica, SM, histogen, maybe replicel and fingers crossed for follicum.

  54. I have a gut feeling brontzu will just be another snake oil. I know he is a good doctor and all but so many doctors come up with lotions and potions claiming great results and then we see zilch and peach fuzz. I give him 25% chance of being better than minox.

    1. Make it 10%.
      I read the italian fora every now and then and it’s mere stupidity to believe it’s gonna be effective.
      Brotzu Sr was a great, a really great dottore. Brotzu Jr, neh, not so much.
      Όλο μαλακίες λένε τ’ αδέλφια, οι Ιταλοί.

      1. Says a loser hack from Greece, who literally are good at nothing besides accumulating debt. Pick olives and shut up.

        1. Hey watch it Guest99, I’m Greek too and have a lot of family there who don’t pick olives and accumulate debt. They are doctors, architects, chefs. Greeks are one of the most intelligent people in the world. Leading top doctors including Cots are Greek. Lawyers, politician and senators. Hell the director of the CIA was Greek, George Tennet.

        2. We LOVE picking olives. What’s wrong with that, :-P ?
          Mediterranean cuisine [Greek, Southern Italian, mediterranean Spanish, to a lesser extend, mediterranean French) IS the healthiest cuisine of them all. And olive oil consumption is one of its key components.
          The last time I checked Italian debt was around 120%, the second largest in Europe (a Greek word), and Japanese debt 190%. Our debt at the beginning of our crisis (a Greek word) was around 120%, too. If we had our own currency, we could address the huge debt by devaluating the currency. We don’t, so we had to address the problem (a Greek word) (which was our fault; I don’t disagree on that) differently.
          If you happen to be Italian, I’d like to inform you that in WWII you had a really nice taste of our c*cks when invading our country. You were beaten up by a nation of six million olive-picking people. Go cry to your mama, now, pizza (a Greek word) boy.
          Jeez, Greeks, unfortunately, don’t share the same history(a Greek word) with Western Europeans. We had 400 years of Ottoman rule. And yet we are the only developed nation of all the nations of former Ottoman rule. We are even wealthier than Portuguese and almost as wealthy as Spaniards.
          Vanfaculo, my friend, and next time keep generalisations to yourself. They only help you be an idiot (a Greek word).
          Τράβα να ρουφήξεις το παλαμάρι του βαρκάρη, παπάρα.

      2. Pisteuon oles tis malakies edw. xaxaxa. I brotzu thelei na bgalei liga akoma franka protou parei to sibdaksh tou xaxa. Oute kanonika clinical tials eivai mesa me to lotion. Ti tha pame sto super market Kai tha agorasoume to lotion Kai tha fitrwsei ola ta malia mas piso? Mia sapounada tha eivai kai oloi malakes edw tha treksoun sto ebay na ton kanoun plousio.

  55. @Ma_Hong

    “Mice share a lot of similarities to us and successful research conducted on mice often bodes well for translation into humans…”

    Yes, that’s exactly my point. However, this is not a drug. This uses the very same types of cells present in humans – this is a procedure. This isn’t like “Oh, well the MOUSE’s immune system responds favorably to this drug” and then assuming it will be the same in humans. So while there is a chance it MIGHT not work in humans, going around telling people “Oh nope, there’s absolutely no way this will work in humans or that it will be available by X date” is irresponsible. There is more reason to believe that it will work than it won’t.

    “Secondly, the quality of the hair produced by the follicle does not look great, though its hard to tell compared to the donor.”

    The hair created in this paper and his other studies looks fine.

    “Thirdly, there’s absolutely zero information on how this could work on a mass-scale. It’s not as simple as placing 20,000 “germs” on your head and watching them sprout. Placement, blood supply etc. must be taken into consideration.”

    Kyocera is using some of their existing and developing technologies to automate the cell-cultivation as well as developing and refining implantation methods. Nothing indicates, that placement or blood supply are terribly vexing issues, especially since the follicle forms the necessary connections on its own.

    “I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic…basically a little instruction manual on how to do this once in a mouse”

    I appreciate not being a pessimist. However, this has been done much more than once in a mouse. The results are repeatable.

    “…Getting from there to healthy, cosmetically usable, mass produced follicles at a price point even the moderately wealthy can hope to meet is unlikely to be realistic”

    This is conjecture – plain and simple. With the amount of customers they would have, they would make a fortune if they charged even $1,000. It would be profoundly stupid to make the procedure inaccessible to the majority. Also, again, in any of the things Tsuji has published, the hair looks fine.

    1. I do see where you’re coming from, and share your sense of optimism (though a lot more cautiously).

      It’s not about the amount of customers they get though. If HT surgeons only charged $1,000 they’d get many more customers. But they can’t do that because procedures take time and need staff and facilities and premises that cost money. That’s before you get to the question of profit.

      Assuming this works well and trials are expedited, and we see something coming to the market by 2020, I still think we have to be realistic. This is an incredibly complex process requiring a number of highly trained people doing a lot of very technical things. You need labs, materials, training, protocols, premises, delivery methods, relationships with surgical partners.

      I’m not saying it will be totally cost prohibitive, because if there was nothing in the technology it wouldn’t be getting researched. But the company and the team hasn’t really even reached the stage it starts thinking about the practicalities of how this gets to market. What is important right now is the research, contrary to what a lot of people on here think, these things are not being done specifically for your benefit, or mine. Asking, “why haven’t X or Y released their new hair restoration product?” is a bit like asking why NASA aren’t taking orders for your Lunar base apartment. We are peaking behind the scenes of research that is ongoing, but how and when it gets to market is driven purely by a combination of safety, efficacy and ultimately the quality and profitability of any product that could be derived from that research. That’s why Intel are researching chipsets and quantum computing we won’t be seeing until 2030 or 2040. The technology may be getting there, but the ability to put it in the shop window requires a lot of very delicate factors that often take years to mature.

      I’m not saying any of this stuff won’t be available until 2030 or 2040, but I’m also not saying that’s not the case. Press releases and study abstracts give impressions that these things are “around the corner” but often it doesn’t work out that way – often what is released publicly is merely fodder to keep investment high and maintain brand awareness.

      I guess what I’m saying is, optimism is fine, a virtue even, and we are making real progress. But we do need to stop seeing the research and press releases as being for our benefit. These people aren’t rushing to save our hair specifically, they’re building business opportunities and that takes a lot of time and effort.

  56. Guest99 you are a really tru ignorant talking like that about greece. You need to go back to school and try history lessond again……

  57. Admin you need to do something about this 100’s msg about nothing. Sometime i feel lost in to much nosence.

    William.

    If you lost all you hair you need to shave it. You need to focus in you family friend study and hobbys. I am a girls in the same situation and you know something. You live 1 time only. In some years from now maybe will have something to cure US all. There are a lot of companys study this and in 10, 1 will got it. For now shave it. You have AGA but in the future you will not. And then you will look back and thinks why i dont do this por that . Micropigmentation i thinks is alternative for you . but first meet some guy that have it before you do it.
    Stop taking that kine of drog.
    You will be fine :)

  58. again, I don’t like deviating the subject since admin and people get upset, but all we can do is speculate and say how skeptical or excited we are.

    Mjones I’m curious why you don’t try out the wounding + naturals the greek guy snapshot.. …. i would say that guy ‘cured’ AGA quite well wouldn’t you? … your really just waiting for Cots 2018? I get more and more impatient each month personally. Wondering your take on it.

    1. Egghead, I have been thinking about wounding a lot lately. The only thing is this had his head shaved buzzed and added all these topical through out the day. There is no way I could go to work with my hair all gobbed up in oils. I’m in sales so I deal with customers regularly. However, I could add it in my bare temple spots. He used a lot of different things which is super time consuming. Plus I’m diffuse thinning so I would need to add it everywhere. I guess I could wound with 1.5mm once a week and see what that does. In the end of the day all I can really do is wait for a better treatment. I’m on the big 3 and I’m still losing ground quickly. Has anyone ever gotten results by just wounding and minox?

      1. Could you point me on the direction of that Greek guys’ regime? I’m currently rolling, only been doing it about a month. Also on the big 3 and still losing ground

  59. I see no reason they couldn’t have a center in japan (or any country that would allow it), and then doctors from around the world could offer the procedure. You go in to the local doctor. He takes a biopsy from you. You leave. He sends it to XYZ lab. The lab sends it back to the doctor on ice. You go back in for the procedure.

    Who knows, if they are successful, there are companies like thorn who have the infrastructure ready to go in places like the bahamas. All they would need is a licensing deal, or partnership agreement, or whatever form of distribution is applicable.

    I just don’t see scaling up as the major issue at hand. The issue is finding out if it works in humans, and determining the final protocol. From there, processes and machinery will be made to automate and expedite said protocol.

  60. I actually feel blessed at this point from losing my hair. I discovered a lot of things that I would have never known other wise.. I’m ready for a change though. Satisfied. Ready for these companies to blossom the next few years for sure.

  61. But seriously I really hope Cots/Follica succeeds, but it’s like he thinks we all live to be 400 years old lol. Time seems irrelevant to the Cotsman. 10 years here, another 10 years there. Followed by a 10-20 year prediction.
    Dudes been studying hair since before F*R*I*E*N*D*S came out.

  62. should i stark propecia now , i have just started to thin on the crown?I am at a stage where i will have a bald crown in the next 3 4 years.Is there enought time to wait for these treatments?

  63. @admin: I think u should consider moving or blocking some more users off this site… It is completely unreadable right now again… some comments from racism to picking olives…

    1. I think we should have a separate rant section for everyone to post their thoughts on hair loss issues

  64. what bothers me is you and others who talk off topic.. Admin said the same thing before… this is completely unreadable right now.. I just want to see topic related comments here.. And think it is fair.

    1. Really nice!! So lets say if they clone hair (too different from this sheep though) it will start its life from birth, it will be young hair even if source hair is from 50-60 years old candidate. This will be magical not for hair but kidneys, liver and heart. Actually they are the source of this issues. E.g. Transplanting liver solved hairloss in one patient. So HBP might be solved or even diabetes. This can be huge and costly too.

  65. Honestly guys, if the hairloss is too much.. shave it off. If you’re receeding, don’t stress but perhaps find another haircut that is more suitable. Also, if you’re losing diffusely like me, perhaps you can grow hair longer or perhaps you can visit a HT surgeon to get a slight touch up.

    Things not to do: spend time reading this blog everyday, read up on how to use ghetto protocols and start experimenting with your own drugs.

    TL:DR;

    Live your life.

    1. It’s not easy man.

      I shaved my head and the shape itself is OK. But without a good hair line framing ur face u look older and way different then before. I don’t get the same looks from ladies as before and deservingly so.

      Accepting it is the most difficult part.

      1. Accepting is difficult, i spent 6-7months stressing and trying things. I just realised at this point for myself it’s futile.

        I don’t feel any different from my teens/early twenties with chicks. I see plenty of bald guys with good looking women all the time. Look at Vin Diesel and many other celebs that are bald, but have no problems attracting female fan groups.

        Once it gets to the NW3 for me, i’ll shave mine as personal preference. Others might keep their hair but cut it in a different way, it’s a challenge but it’s better than sitting on this website everyday hoping for something new.

        I check out the site 2 times a week, then i carry on with what i need to do.

      1. To read the post and read some of the more interesting commentators comments. I suffer with hairloss all the same, but i’m not letting it consume me bro, that’s the point.

        1. I spose you are right I’ve already actually tried bald straight up all off but I am so fair skinned it just didnt work. The worst is actually going to work and seeing the guys on my crew 4 years older then me without even a hint of hairline movement and here I am 23 with rapid diffuse and look like the 50 year old also on my crew no offense to any older gentlemen. I guess for me it’s more of process I hate I eat right excersize do every thing possible to make sure I am healthy but a little thing like hair is completely hopelessly out of my control and it sucks cuz I loved my hair. Not just cuz it’s appealing to the opposite sex which I know bugs alot of us but because I really liked my hair dammit and dht had no right lol

          1. Me too, but accepting it for a few years until a better treatment comes isn’t impossible. We’re 5 months from 2017, the end of hair loss by 2020 or 2022 and a better treatment in 3 years basically.

            I think my hair will last till next summer, then after i will have to go with the short hair. Luckily i reckon it suites me, but like you i prefer my hair. So that means another 2 summers and there might be the option to transplant and then maintain with a better treatment.

            I just say live it up till then. Also, i see alot of people with more severe hairloss than me just living it up with their hair grown.

  66. Donitello please understand people will get off topic once the topic runs its course. Maybe we can have a rule you have to stick to the main topic for first five days?….i mean i want to touch on the follica topic myself..wounding and known drug??? Yes that strikes my interest. I hope cots isnt referring to minox!

  67. @tom, he cant be referring to minox!! Ppl tried wounding and minox with measly peach fuzz results thats worth nothing. They refer to new hair formation which surely cant mean wispy fuzz. Hopefully they will release some more info soon:-)

    1. Imagine if Cots and co. over at Follica were mistaking minox regrowth fof de novo hair follicles. D’oh!

  68. Apologies everyone for lack of moderation…I was on a few day vacation.

    Main culprit has been banned. 5th person ever banned from this blog.

  69. Hi Richieron, maybe I can somehow reach out to the Greek guy on that blog with the awesome wounding regrowth. Not sure if he is lurking in the forums anymore though. I would love to have regrowth like that!

  70. Do you know if people with alopecia areata taking topical jak, if its work for them maybe it could be used with the same percentage on aga with success.
    It would definitely help me more when id know aga could be cured, and i could wait abother couple of years.

  71. Who’s rick guy who got full follicule regrowth on jak 30% and minox? Is he for real? And he’s aga not aa , anyone?

  72. @ spanky, I surely hope he isnt referring to minox however you need to keep in mind that yes people wound and apply minox with slightly better results then minox alone however do they have access to cots specific wounding procedure? Not the same wounding procedure….but please no minox! Lol

  73. @Habe, I just hope Cots / Follica will release some information already so we can get a clue as to whether they will really release something in 2018. Then again, they have clearly stated that 2018 is a best case scenario…sigh.. we really need a new treatment…

  74. Its so frustrating, isnt it spanky!?..on another note, according to a girl on another site, kelopesia is awaiting magisterial approval. Dont know how accurate that is or if we should be excited or not. Its tough to get excited anymore. Its like “the boy that cried wolf”.

    1. It sounds plausible, if I remember correctly it was tested for several years and all they had to do was tweak the formula to make it stable at room temp.

  75. Off topic: can someone explain why going to Turkey for a HT is poplular? One, its TURKEY (in the middle east). 2. It looks like scattered pubes on most peoples heads for like 7 months! (While there head is also red…do they hide out for 7 months?) The hair angles are all off and pattern is unnatural. Is it b/c its cheap? One guy got it for 2 grand for like 5000 + grafts…id spend more on a jacket that looks nice, not cheap out on my damn scalp. Just curious if its just the money?…

    1. I never wanted to go to Turkey before, and considering all circumstances in that country now, I’ll never go there in my lifetime.

      Happy with your HT in Istanbul, blown up head and scattered grafts a few hours later in Ankara.

  76. Guys, if DHT is still one of the major contributing factors to this AGA monster, why can’t they invent a patch like in local anesthetics?

    Like, if you have severe pain (for instance your back) and they can’t fix the cause of it, they give you a patch which releases a local anesthetic, like morphine. This blocks the pain signal effectively without going totally systematic, because of its mechanism and dosage. You won’t go numb entirely, it works locally.

    I mean, a small patch in your neck to block a5r/DHT locally on your scalp, without going systemetic which oral FIN obviously does.

    How hard can that be, I don’t get this.
    Please someone with knowledge, explain this to us. The stuff has to stay exactly in the place it is needed the most. Not through the full system.

  77. @Mjones that would be great!! As anecdotal as these wounding victories are there are so many of them at this point and there is sound science to back it up.. So much so that a company is on the cusp of releasing their technology.. It’s obviously related to plucking and quorum sensing however they got more success from trauma when it was done within a smaller area of the scalp.. Thanks for reaching out let’s see if we can get in touch because this seems like the most within reach option.

  78. @Leafar, thats quite a lovely story but also ultra rare that ppl see this kind of regrowth and without a single sign of side effects, wow! Lucky dude. Imagine if we had a drug like this without the risc of sexual sides.

    1. Very interesting to see what CRISPR could possibly do. I think that for us will be the reason we find out what causes to go bald and perhaps also offer us a way to treat it.

  79. Wow crisper is definitely revolutionary! What this technology may be able to do for a disease like cancer is amazing!

  80. Just saw on Replicel’s website that participants in the phase 2 clinical trials of RCH-01 will remain in the study for 39 months (http://replicel.com/product-pipeline/rch-01-hair-regeneration/).
    Does this mean that the treatment won’t be released for another 3-5 years, given efficacy and safety? For comparison, how long did the Propecia trials take from start to commercialisation?

    Thanks for clarifying and this blog is truly an amazing resource!

    1. It means they have extended the study because the results they have observed is less than what they expected.
      The optimists will say the reverse but we have seen the same thing with SM.

    2. If they prove safety and efficacy replicel can offer treatment during the second phase so 2018 is still possible. They where saying 3 year trial before so this isn’t much of a change really, I imagine it’s this long because results are supposed to be permanent so you’ll need to watch participants over several years.

  81. Big news. Bad but but big. 3 years to sea if hair grows? If is true this can work but only cosmetic impruvement. To the same level of minoxidil….

    1. Ha – so the procedure will come with a disclaimer – results seen as early as up to three years, side effects may include tumours, various cancer, sexual anhedonia, ass falls off and swollen feet

      And for the low price of 10,000£, it is a no brainier to get this treatment

      JK, JK – I am actually happy to see persistence – at least some guys are trying to nip this S*** in the bud!

      1. Hahaha – yeah man – but the risks will be just 2% my friend, 2% only – sure you’re aware that statistics mean nothing to an individual.

        But still – we are talking about 7% regrow on the vertex, 4% on he midscalp and 0.8% on the frontal scalp.

        Imagine bro – out by the beach house early at dawn, everyone else is sleeping, you’re listening to the surf and the wind just blowing your new hairs around – and you slide your hand through your thick wavy hair and realise that this nightmare it is all over, nice thick wavy hair – no scalp visible – no turtle head

        Strangers do not see the bald and screen you out through cognitive bias

        Dreams can come true brother – look forward to that new hairstyle you will try one day

        1. You got the wrong idea friend, the answer is not to put effort into figuring a way to get hair but rather into figuring a way to make everyone else lose theirs – then it is confirmed that we will not be sticking out anymore

          Everyone will be missing something :) :) :) !!!

  82. @Susan Lol how would you know it is the same level as minoxidil or how it’s gonna turn out at all cmon…

  83. I think you’re missing the point. They may be extending to ensure it’s permanent. Also japans laws are loose with regards to when they can commercialise a treatment. So I’m speculating that this won’t change the time line. I think we are all too use to bad news in the hair loss community. Anyway ive lurked this forum for a few months. Good work admin.

  84. All seemed have missed a crucial problem.
    Bald men, have diseased scalps where it undergoes changes which make the growth of healthy hair difficult. The most well documented of these abnormalities is how the adipose tissue layer shrinks significantly when you start balding.
    How will Tsuji’s method address this?
    You can’t just inject dp cells into the skin and hope for it grow when the environment in the scalp is too hostile for its growth in the 1st place

  85. It seems that no one knows what they are talking about, just a bunch of useless nonsense. Would be nice to hear some real science talk based on actual knowledge and not this crap

    1. Hi Matt, the article I linked in the post says “launching now” so hopefully already started or very soon to start.

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