New Hair Loss Treatments: The Latest, Most Advanced Treatments available in 2017/2018

The most popular hair loss treatments of today are rarely 100% successful and often come with side effects.
People are fed up with the ineffectiveness of popular treatments and some are taking their own initiative by using unapproved medication to treat their hair loss.
Fortunately, the early adopters’ interest in curing hair loss is paying off in some areas and the future looks bright — even for those with complete baldness — thanks to new discoveries and treatments that are currently being researched.
The following are 6 of the most promising discoveries in hair loss treatment that will be available in the near future and might completely change the way we approach hair loss.

JAK Inhibitors Treatment

The trials have shown that mice receiving Ruxolitinib and Tofacitinib regrew new hair within ten days

New research has shown that Janus-kinase inhibitors, also known as “JAK inhibitors”, could be the answer we’ve been looking for in the treatment of alopecia areata. The effects of JAK inhibitors on hair regrowth was accidentally discovered during a study of Tofacitinib as a treatment for psoriasis.

by applying JAK inhibitors topically we are able to control the hair growth mechanism and help the hair follicle revert to the anagen phase

One patient who was treated hadn’t had any hair growth in 7 years. However, at the end of his trial, his hair had regrown.
The latest study from Columbia University confirms that JAK inhibitors such as Ruxolitinib and Tofacitinib may have a positive effect on hair growth.
The study was based on JAK enzymes’ involvement in the hair growth cycle: in alopecia areata, the baldness is caused by the hair follicles getting stuck in the telogen phase due to an auto immune response. This auto immune disease can be caused by stress or a sudden shock and this disrupts the normal hair growth cycle. JAK treatments target the enzymes inside the hair follicles to go beyond the telogen phase and resume their normal growth cycle.

The trials have shown that mice receiving Ruxolitinib and Tofacitinib regrew new hair within ten days from administration. The findings suggest that by applying JAK inhibitors topically we are able to control the hair growth mechanism and help the hair follicle revert to the anagen phase.
Furthermore, the treatment regulates the activation of key hair follicle populations as well as improving the inductivity of cultured human dermal papilla cells. There are also at least two additional clinical trials that are trying to show the effects of Tofacitinib as a treatment for severe hair loss such as Alopecia Totalis and Alopecia Universalis as well as teams trying to concentrate on male and female pattern baldness.

Stem Cell Based Treatment for Baldness

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed a new way to generate a significant amount of hair follicle generating stem cells from adult cells.
The technique converts adult cells from humans into epithelial stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells were converted into epithelial stem cells that are found in hair follicles. The conversion usually lasts 18 days and about 25% of the pluripotent stem cells are successfully converted into epithelial stem cells.
Researchers were surprised to see the regenerating effects of the cells when they were mixed with follicular inductive dermal cells and then grafted on the skin of mice. The cells produced hair follicles but they may have other dermatological applications.
This treatment is still being researched. In order to achieve a more complete picture of success there is a need to recreate the dermal papillae cells — adults who lose their epithelial cells also lose the dermal papillae cells, which brings us to our next revolutionary new hair loss treatment.

Shiseido and Replicel Treatment

The cells are then replicated into millions of other cells and added to the scalp

Shiseido has promised to come up with another commercial treatment for baldness in 2018 by pairing up with Replicel Life Sciences. The company is known for developing a revolutionary hair loss treatment known as RCH-01.
Replicel has created a method for converting mature cells into pluripotent stem cells that will be later converted into derma papilla cells. The treatment created by Shiseido and Replicel starts by extracting hairs from the scalp at the root level in order to isolate a specific cell population from a person’s healthy hair growing scalp areas. The cells are then replicated into millions of other cells and added to the scalp by injecting them into the areas where hair doesn’t grow.
Although this treatment will probably not be suitable for home-use, it has been speculated that it might become a standard procedure in hair loss treatment centres.

Foreign Donor Hair Cloning

The hair follicles are taken from a person with a healthy scalp, multiplied in the lab and then re-implanted into the recipient scalp

The researchers at Bernstein Medical Center for Hair Restoration are currently working on a new hair loss treatment that seeks to transplant hair follicles from one donor individual to another recipient individual.
Research suggests that dermal sheath cells can be isolated from one person and then injected to the scalp of another person in order to produce the formation of new hair. The treatment is extremely promising for Androgenic Alopecia and involves moving hair follicles from one person, perhaps even of another gender, to another person’s scalp and it is suggested it may work for people who have been completely bald for years.
The hair follicles are taken from a person with a healthy scalp, multiplied in the lab and then re-implanted into the recipient scalp: these hair follicles can be multiplied in unlimited amounts.
The hair follicles cells will eventually grow new and healthy and permanent hairs. This not only means that the patient will have a healthy hair but also that they will be completely cured of hair loss.
One of the major problems with this treatment is finding an environment that would allow the cells to grow in a state that is differentiated as to not become fibroblasts again.

Histogen Treatment For Hair Loss

it was shown that 84.6% of the patients receiving the substance had a significant increase of hair count after 12 weeks

Histogen is one of the new substances being researched for the treatment of hair loss. Known as the Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC), the substance is produced by growing neonatal cells under hypoxia + suspension, thus making them multipotent. The proteins involved in HSC , such as Follistatin, VEGF and KGF are known to signal stem cells in the body to start hair formation and stimulate hair follicles.
The product is already in clinical trials and will probably be commercially available in the near future. In the HSC pilot trial it was shown that 84.6% of the patients receiving the substance had a significant increase of hair count after 12 weeks. Another clinical trial showed that the total hair count was 45.5% more than the results seen in the pilot. After one year, the hair growth parameters in the patients that underwent the treatment were above the baseline. Another important aspect is that other trials showed the product works just as well for women as it does for men. Even more, the product shows no toxicity or abnormalities in clinical trial follow-ups with minimal adverse effects.

Samumed

the one that was tested with SM04554 showed almost 10% increase in the hair density

Still, in the experimental phase, Samumed is a small-molecule component that boosts hair growth. Also known as SM04554, it is a topical solution that initiates hair growth through the Wnt pathway. Samumed successfully completed its phase 2 testing during March 2016 and presented its results to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). People showed a mixed response to the results of phase 2 testing, but the most important thing is that hair did grow during the phase.
The phase 2 testing was conducted on different groups and the one that was tested with SM04554 showed almost 10% increase in the hair density which is quite promising. After Samumed got encouraging results from testing, the team conducted a detailed biopsy of the scalp so that the complete action could be understood. The initial research showed that the patients using this treatment didn’t get any sort of dose response. In simple words, a larger dose of the treatment does not lead to any increased improvement.
Samumed began experimenting with the new treatment through low-key clinical trials, which continued for almost two years and finally ended with the successful results of the phase 2 study. After getting successful results in the phase 2 study, the company is seeking a solution for the dose response issue. Once the drug has been optimized without the dose response issue, the company will move forward to the phase 3 testing. According to the recent updates, Samumed has indicated that it will hold the stage 3 of its phase 2 testing in 2017 as it has successfully worked out the kinks in the biopsy analysis of the phase 2 testing. The company has announced that it will move on to phase 3 testing once it has successfully completed stage 3 of phase 2 testing by the end of 2017.

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