Nicole Rogers, a leading specialist in hair transplants and a clinical professor from Tulane University in New Orleans, has praised hair cloning for being a future “holy grail” for hair loss, but also adds that it is still a long way off from being approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The procedure takes a hair from an area of the head (usually the back of the head) and clones the hair for the rest of the head. Roger says it would be great if they could harvest a single hair from the back and create thousands of copycat hairs from it.

The only approved medication currently available is Propecia finasteride, which reduces the hormone DHT circulating in the body. This slows baldness and can actually reverse the effects, encouraging new hair growth in the patient. As excited as some specialists are getting about hair cloning, this current medication is still good and is approved by Rogers.

50% of people who experience baldness over the age of 50 suffer from male pattern baldness, but it is also frequently found in younger men. Over half of 30 year olds (around 60%) have reached various levels of baldness. Because it is not thought of as too common amongst this age range, it can result in the lowering of self confidence and insecurity.

The high price of Propecia finasteride encourages the research into cloning but a new technique is still a long way off and is in need of fine tuning to stop any health concerns like skin cancer.