Also known as hair multiplication or stem cell hair therapy, it is a proposed technique to counter hair loss. Hair cloning aims to regenerate in a way that makes hair loss a thing of the past. In contrast, over 40 years of basic research are behind hair cloning. More scientific and clinical research is needed before the concept can be fully developed and brought into clinical practice. 

One fundamental discovery that has fuelled research into hair cloning is that follicles are not absent from the scalp in cases of complete baldness. Instead, there are stem cells in the bald scalp from which follicles can naturally arise. It is suggested that the abnormal behaviour of these follicles may result from cell deficiency in these areas. 

Hair cloning aims to extract healthy follicle cells or dermal papillae from non-balding areas of the patient’s scalp, multiply (clone) them using various culturing methods, and inject them back into the bald scalp. The newly produced cells are expected to act healthily and have hair, thus restoring a fuller head of hair for the patient. 

While hair cloning shows promise, many challenges must be overcome before it can be widely used. One major challenge is developing efficient, cost-effective methods for culturing and multiplying follicle cells. Additionally, more clinical research is needed to ensure the safety and efficacy of the procedure. Despite these challenges, hair cloning represents an exciting avenue for future hair loss treatments. 

Hair banking is the science of extracting a patient’s hair follicular units and safely cryo-preserving them until needed. The basic idea is to store the hair for potential use in future hair loss treatments, including hair cloning or hair transplantation. 

The hair banking procedure typically involves a surgeon using the FUE (follicular unit extraction) method to extract approximately 50 hair follicular units from the patient’s scalp under local anaesthesia. The extracted hair follicles are then cryo-preserved in a unique solution that helps to maintain their viability until needed.