Reversing hair loss could soon be as easy as wearing a hat after scientists develop a new simple technology



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Photo by Alex Holloway / UW-Madison

Few things on earth strike fear in men's hearts more deeply than hair loss. But reversing baldness might one day be as simple as wearing a hat, thanks to a non-invasive and stimulating technology for hair growth, developed by engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"I think it will be a very practical solution to hair regeneration," says Xudong Wang, professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison.

Wang and his colleagues published a description of the technology in the review ACS Nano.

Based on devices that harness the energy of the body's daily movements, hair regrowth technology stimulates the skin with gentle, low-frequency electrical impulses, which forces sleepy follicles to reactivate hair production.

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The devices do not push hair follicles back into smooth skin. Instead, they reactivate hair-producing structures that have become dormant. This means that they could be used as an intervention for people who are in the early stages of baldness, but that they would not give cascading braids to someone as bald as that. 39, a billiard ball for several years.

The devices being powered by the movement of the carrier, they do not require bulky battery or complex electronics. In fact, they are so discreet that they could be worn discreetly under the crown of an ordinary baseball cap.

Photo by UW-Madison / Sam Million-Weaver

Wang is a world expert in the design and creation of energy recovery devices. He was the pioneer of electric bandages stimulating wound healing and a weight loss implant using soft electricity to make the stomach feel full.

Hair growth technology is based on a similar principle: small devices, called nanogenerators, passively collect the energy of daily movements and then transmit low-frequency electrical impulses to the skin. This gentle electrical stimulation causes the dormant follicles to wake up.

"Electrical stimulation can help many body functions," says Wang. "But before our work, there was no really effective solution for discrete devices offering gentle but effective stimulation.

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Because electrical impulses are incredibly soft and do not penetrate deeper than the outermost layers of the scalp, the devices do not seem to cause unpleasant side effects. This is a definite advantage over other baldness treatments, such as the drug Propecia, which carries the risk of sexual dysfunction, depression and anxiety.

In addition, in side-by-side tests on mice without hair, these devices stimulated hair growth just as effectively as two different compounds found in baldness drugs.

"It's a self-activated system, very simple and easy to use," says Wang. "The energy is very low, so the side effects will be minimal."

Reproduced from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

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