Creeping timelines, creeping hairlines
For about the past 5 years (more or less) there has been a lot of hype surrounding hair cloning and hair multiplication. All you have to do is read the plentiful articles and posts in various forums to see the excitement surrounding this topic. Frankly, at this current point in time (October 5, 2003) I'm not particularly excited about it. I reserve the right to jump on the bandwagon as soon as I hear some more promising news about the progress in this area, but for now I think that for the vast majority of people that are currently losing their hair the prospect of being able to clone multiple hair follicle cells from a few cells, or being able to culture hair cells via inducing the cells to split into multiple cells, will not be something that we will be able to take advantage of.
By this I mean, even if in the next 5 to 10 years (a timeline that has remained static for the last 5 years or so) scientists are able to say, "Okay, we can now do hair transplants using hair cloning or hair multiplication," that still won't do most of us any good. I could be wrong about this, but here's why I think I'm probably right. First, even if they manage to figure it out, at first it will probably be very expensive, and most likely a much better result can be obtained by doing a traditional hair transplant as is done today for the same price. Second, would you want to be in the first bunch of guys that get a transplant with cloned hair? The reason I ask is because I think it will take many years before scientists can (a) get quality follicles that are as good as the originals and (b) find out what the long term (10 to 20 year) side-effects are going to be. What if the cloned or cultured hair can cause cancer? Are you willing to take the risk of getting cancer 10 or 20 years down the road to have more hair now? I bet some of you answered yes to that one. If so, you're either really old and don't care, or you're really desparate. I think that hair cloning and hair multiplication for the mainstream is at least 20 years off for these reasons. I also think that if it becomes available soon, only a small subset of hair loss sufferers should consider it: those that do not have enough donor hair to be able to get a traditional transplant being the most likely candidates.
So, in my opinion if you're one of those people that is eagerly waiting for hair cloning or hair multiplication to go mainstream and you think you're going to get a procedure done, I think instead you should ask yourself whether you want to take the risks outlined above, or wait at least 20 years after the techniques start being used ... OR ... consider the more realistic alternative. Find out if getting a hair transplant using today's advanced techniques is right for you. This is assuming you don't want to use the medical treatments like propecia and rogaine, or they don't work for you. There are some excellent doctor's practicing, and you really need to do your homework to understand what you're getting into and to pick a good doctor. But it may be right for you. Even high quality transplants have become very affordable nowadays. This is not something you want to dive into. You should spend some serious time researching the matter if you're seriously considering it.
So either you do nothing (creeping hairline and bigger baldspot), or you use the medications, or you get a transplant. These are the only options that I would consider. You can also get a hairpiece if that's your thing... but that's not for me. I would rather shave it all off than stick something to my head, but to each his or her own.
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