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Scientists have developed a baseball cap that zaps your scalp – and could reverse male pattern baldness.
The experts first created a wireless patch that could stimulate the scalp with electrical impulses to promote hair growth.
The 0.4 inch thick plastic patch contains layers of differently charged materials that produce electricity when they come into contact and separate again.
It's a phenomenon known as a triboelectric effect that can result in faster hair regrowth than staying connected to a machine for many hours a day. The team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison tested it on the backs of shaved lab rats and found that as they moved, the flexible patch bent and stretched.
They found that this movement activated the triboelectric effect and noted faster growth than in rats given a minoxidil lotion – a common treatment for hair loss.
Then, the team, led by Xudong Wang, tested the patch on hairless mice due to genetic deficiency.
They discovered that after nine days, a fur 2 mm long had developed on the skin under the patch, compared to 0.8-inch hairs that had developed on a skin treated with minoxidil.
Hair density was also three times greater for patch-treated areas.
Wang has also tested the patch on his father, bald for a few years.
"It helped to grow a lot of new hair after a month," he told New Scientist.
His team has now designed a baseball cap that wraps the entire scalp in triboelectric materials.
Wang is seeking permission to test it in men during a clinical trial.
He says it should not be uncomfortable to wear because it produces very soft electrical impulses.
However, the hat will work only in men who are currently losing hair or who have recently become bald because the skin loses its ability to generate new hair follicles after many years of baldness, he added.
It is also unlikely that men sleep, because they do not produce as many movements to power the device.
"Small movements of the head during a normal daily activity should be enough to fuel the device," he added.
Previously, a team of scientists had described a breakthrough treatment in which they used stem cells to develop a way to make "no-limit" hair.
In groundbreaking trials, human cells were grafted onto mouse cells and attached to tiny "scaffolds" to help them grow directly.
They were then placed under the skin and emerged through it.
The team is now working on tests on humans.
About four in ten Britons suffer from a form of baldness.
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