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A hair follicle is indeed a very important part of your skin. Besides the aesthetical qualities it brings, every single follicle helps keep your body's heat in balance and excretes oil that conditions and protects your skin, preventing it from drying.

The science behind hair cloning involves understanding the inner workings of the hair follicle and the responsible cells for generating hair growth. So if you want to know the full potential of this latest technology, do take a deep look on how this tiny organ in your skin works.

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Where It All Begins

It all began when you are still a little fetus, where your hair follicles as well as your other major organs start to take shape. During the first few weeks into pregnancy, where cells divide and form individual organs like your lungs, liver and kidneys, your largest organ, the skin starts to develop.

Skin cells known as dermal papilla starts to travel to the top of the dermis, the inner part of your skin layer and cluster together. These 'seed cells' are the foundation of the hair follicle. After finding a comfortable place on your skin, these cells will then send an unknown signal to nearby skin cells to form new follicles around them.

By the 22nd week of fetal development, you should roughly have around 4-5 million of hair follicles spread throughout your body with around 100,000 of them on your scalp. These are indeed great numbers, for that cute little baby that you are going to become. However, there won't be any new follicle formation after this stage and as you grow older, the hair follicle density will gradually reduce.

That is also the main reason why until now there has not been a proven method to actually grow more hair that you already have. Even the most successful hair loss treatments are only to maintain, reallocate or restore the current hair that you have left on your scalp. However, with the advent of Hair Cloning, this once saddening fact might change, for good.

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The Crash Course on Hair Follicle Basics

The hair follicle consists of a few major structures that complement each other to keep your hair growing and functioning normally. Some of these structures are

• Sebaceous Glands
  The Sebaceous gland produces sebum, a type of oil which conditions your hair and prevents it from over-drying which can lead to brittleness and breakages.
• Arrector Pilli Muscle
  This is a tiny muscle fiber connects to your follicle just right below the sebaceous glands. The muscle contracts to raise your hair to capture heat and keep your warm. It's also the main cause of goose bumps.
• Capillaries
  Tiny blood vessels are connected at the bottom of your hair bulb to provide your hair with essential nutrients and oxygen. Without it, your hair can't grow.
• Hair Shaft
  The hair shaft is the hair itself. It's made up of 3 layers of dead, hard protein called keratin formed at the top of the hair bulb.

These are the basics structures found inside each hair follicle. Now let's look at the most crucial structures responsible for your hair growth.

The Main Growing Blocks

Just below the hair shaft, lies the hair bulb, which contains the most important parts of the follicle which is responsible for the entire hair growth. These parts are the

• Derma papilla
• Hair Matrix
• Derma Sheath

Dermal Papilla (Papilla of the Hair)

The dermal Papilla is the main engine consisted of a few hundred specialized cells. These cells sends out chemical signals to nearby Keratinocytes cells and pigment producing cells Melanocytes to multiply and form into the hair shaft during the hair growing phase (ANAGEN).

Fed by the capillaries at the bottom, the dermal papilla creates and forms new hair fiber every 23 to 72 hours. Technically speaking, the size of the dermal papilla dictates how large each hair is going to be, so if you have a smaller derma papilla cells concentration during the growth phase, your hair will grow much smaller. This is particularly evident if you are facing with Pattern Baldness because the dermal papilla also contains androgen receptors where DHT attach and can progressively reduce the size of the dermal papilla causing your hair to shrink every cycle.

Hair Matrix

The hair matrix that wraps around the dermal papilla is a collection of epithelial cells called Keratinocytes and pigment producing cells Melanocytes. These cells divide and will form the structure of your hair fiber. These cells are also one of the fastest growing cells in your body and that is also the main reason why certain triggers like stress or drug induced hair loss can instantly stop the cell proliferation at this level.

Dermal Sheath

Surrounding the hair shaft and the bulb are 2 layers of protective cells that helps mold your hair into shape. These cells are known as

• Inner sheath
• Outer sheath

Initially, the dermal sheath is thought to be the only purpose to conceal and hold and mold the hair shaft in place, recently some researchers have discovered otherwise. It's said that the inner dermal sheath cells located at the bottom of the follicle share the same properties as the dermal papilla cells and they work in rhythm.

During each new hair growth cycle, the dermal papilla expands with cells from the dermal sheath. After the growth phase, the cells recede out to the dermal sheath again.

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Defining the Crucial Elements in Hair Cloning

After thorough understanding of the biology of the hair follicle, researchers have pinpointed several major spots in your hair follicle like the dermal papilla and dermal sheath cells are the main components for regulating and promoting hair growth.

Therefore, they have extracted and cultured these specific cells from the scalp and performed multiple trials, experimenting different triggers and implanted them to test mice and to their surprise, they have find what that can be said the most potential permanent cure for hair loss in our time.

So what is it all about? Find out in Chapter 2: Follicular Cell Implantation

Return to Top of Hair Follicle
Back to Hair Cloning
Return to Surviving-Hairloss.com

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