WASHINGTON: Scientists believe that in the not-too-distant future, reversing baldness may be as easy as donning a hat, all due to a new technology that stimulates hair growth in a non-invasive and inexpensive manner that has been successfully tested on mice.
The hair-growth technology, which was described in the journal ACS Nano, is based on devices that gather energy from the day-to-day motion of a body. The technology stimulates the skin with gentle, low-frequency electric pulses, which coax dormant follicles to reactivate hair production. The journal ACS Nano.
According to Xudong Wang, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, “I believe this will be a very practical approach to hair regeneration.”
These devices do not stimulate new hair follicles to grow in areas of the skin that are smooth. According to the researchers, what they really do is reawaken hair-producing mechanisms that had been dormant.
The technology can be used as an intervention for people who are in the early stages of pattern baldness; however, it would not bestow cascading tresses on someone who has been “as bald as a billiard ball” for several years, they said. The technology can be used as an intervention for people who are in the early stages of pattern baldness.
The researchers pointed out that because the gadgets are powered by the movement of the person wearing them, they do not need a cumbersome battery pack or complex circuitry.
According to the researchers, they are so low-profile that they may be discretely worn below the crown of an ordinary baseball cap because of how low-profile they are.
Nanogenerators are passive devices that collect energy from day-to-day motions and then transfer low-frequency electrical pulses to the skin. These nanogenerators are very small devices.
According to the findings of the study, a mild kind of electrical stimulation may “wake up” latent hair follicles. According to Wang, “electrical stimulations may benefit a wide variety of diverse biological processes.”
“However, until we did this study, there was no really viable option for low-profile devices that offer mild stimulations that are nonetheless effective,” he added.
Because the electric pulses are so mild and don’t go any deeper than the very surface layers of the scalp, the devices don’t seem to have any unfavourable impacts on the user.
According to the researchers, this is a significant benefit in comparison to alternative therapies for baldness, such as the medication Propecia, which is associated with an increased risk of sexual dysfunction, depression, and anxiety.
According to the findings of the study, the devices induced hair growth in hairless mice just as efficiently as two distinct substances that are contained in baldness medications. The experiments were conducted side-by-side.
“It is a system that activates itself and is quite straightforward and easy to make use of. Since the energy is so low, it will only create a little amount of adverse consequences” explained Wang.
Published at : 10 Aug 2022 10:52 AM (IST)
