L’Oreal hopes to cure baldness using 3D printing technology
L’Oreal is working on a groundbreaking new technique to cure baldness [Photo: Getty]
Adverts claiming to have discovered a ‘Miracle’ cure for baldness have long been treated with a dollop of skepticism. But when beauty giant L’Oréal claims to be working on a groundbreaking 3D printing technique with the potential to cure baldness, it can only be good news for the follicly-challenged.
Teaming up with bio-printing experts Poietis, the cosmetics company is working on a technique which uses 3D printing to produce new follicles that could be capable of growing new hair.
L’Oreal said the tissue created must then mature for three weeks before it can be used in tests.
The follicles, which contains living cells of the patient’s own hair, would then be printed using a specialised “ink,” composed of cells from alopecia patients, produced after hair surgery.
José Cotovio, director of predictive methods and models at L’Oréal, said the pioneering technique could create a cure for millions of hair loss sufferers.
“For L’Oréal, the combination of our respective areas of expertise opens up the possibility of previously unheard of achievements in the field of hair. This research partnership is very stimulating for the Advanced Research teams,” he said.
Baldness affects 50% of men in the UK [Photo: Getty]
“From one hair you can maybe make hundreds and hundreds of others,” he told The Mirror.
“We know it is very difficult to do; we know a lot of teams have tried. But we think by reproducing this very complicated hair follicle we will acquire new knowledge and it will help us understand the mysteries of hair loss and ageing.”
“This is the holy grail that we all have in mind to make something to put on the head of people with hair-loss problems.
“Hair loss is a very emotional problem for people, and this is the final target.
“But we get there step by step. We think this is the time. We have the knowledge and the technology.”
Hairloss isn’t just a male problem [Photo: Getty]
According to recent NHS statistics, a whopping 50% of men will experience some degree of baldness by the time they’re 50. And, for many, it’ll start far earlier than that, with some battling the condition in their late teens.
But it’s not just a male problem as an estimated eight million women in the UK also suffer from hair loss. According to research from trichologist Philip Kingsley one in eight women affected by the condition was under 35.
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