Trichologists from Paris have discovered information that could possible pave the way for new methods of treating baldness. Head of hair biology Dr Bruno Bernard and his team at L’Oreal Paris underwent research and found that some hair follicles can become trapped in their resting or ‘sleeping’ state, which then means new hair is not grown and eventually will fall out. Usually hair strands grow for about four years before the follicles become dormant and the strand will fall out. As the follicles remain dormant, stem cells in the skin should begin to kick-start the procedure of growing new hair. However, this process is interrupted and fails to occur for people who are suffering from baldness. The researchers however may not be able to completely halt the balding process forever; the hair follicles inevitably lose the ability to make new hair. For people who are looking a little thin on top, the future products the team are developing could come in handy and prevent you from having to do a dreaded ‘comb over’, using embarrassing wigs, or hugely expensive hair transplants. Of course, there are already many products available on the market right now that have been shown to effectively combat hair loss in both men and women, such as Propecia, Regaine, Alpecin caffeine shampoo, and Dianette for women - which can also be used for acne, hirsutism and contraceptive purposes. Dr Bernard says that the company are exploring a treatment that can either be applied to your scalp in a cream or shampoo which may help in hair regrowth. He spoke out on the current developments and said, “Hair follicles exist in two stable states – either an active state or a dormant state. From time to time, they will jump from one state to another. Some of the follicles are just resting in the dormant state and are waiting for the right signal to make new hair. They are in a latency period. If you can reduce this latency period, you will have more hair. We have identified a compound and we are going to make a formulation of it that can be applied to the scalp to wake the follicle up from its sleeping state to the active state.” David Bailey, a leading UK Trichologist and now retired said, “I can’t see how this treatment can help. There are basically three stages to the hair cycle: Anagen (growing phase), Catagen (resting phase) which lasts about three months, and Telogen (falling out phase). It would seem that this treatment works on shortening the Catagen phase, which is only three months, and would not stop the hair loss process which reduces the Anagen phase.” At Medical Specialists Pharmacy we are fully aware of the impact both male and female pattern baldness can have on a person. It can be massively detrimental to one’s confidence and self-esteem. Male-pattern baldness is the most common type of hair loss, affecting 6.5 million men in the UK and an estimated 35 million in the U.S. In addition, it is believed there are 8 million women just in the UK who suffer from some degree of hair loss. As mentioned earlier, we offer a huge range of prescription and non-prescription treatments that can slow down the process of thinning hair, promote hair growth and help regain your confidence.