News from Pennsylvania in the United States offers new hope for those suffering from hair loss (alopecia). Research undertaken on mice has yielded some surprising results. It was previously thought that the loss of hair follicles, which are present prior to birth, was permanent. The research on mice looked at how wounds repair and researchers found that in areas of the skin where wounds repaired, new hair follicles appeared below. On closer examination of the new follicles it was found that they had been produced from master stem cells with the involvement of a protein called ‘WNT’ normally only found in the womb.

Future treatment for hair loss would necessitate wounding to the scalp such a scratching and scraping the surface followed by the introduction of stem cells with the ‘WNT’ protein. The resulting hair would have no colour pigment, as seen in recent experiments, and would need to be dyed.