Hair donation idea. What do you think?

[elguapo]

If it is possible to implant other people's hair follicles into our head without the body rejecting them, why can't we create a program in which people who are losing their hair pay those who aren't to have some of theirs?

There are people with full heads of hair who will hardly ever, if at all, suffer from androgenic alopecia, and could use the cash. Maybe for settling their gambling debts, maybe to buy some extra blow, or maybe to put their kids through college. Whatever the reason, it would be a contractual thing, and a win-win situation.

This could be big business!

What do you guys think?

 

[Grandpa]

*Kills and scalps a bum, vanishes into the night*

 

[Rage]

haha.. strange twist on the classic organ theif



Still.. imagine instead of taking a 5ar inhibitor for the test of your life, you must take anti-rejection drugs. I know which one i rather..

 

[asolof]

I would expect yoiu would have the same problems as any organ transplant from one person to another, the same as if they had perhaps donated a kidney.

You would have the need to take immunosuppressant drugs to prevent rejection of the graft. You would also risk graft vs. host disease. Yes, there are things worse than baldness ...

 

[elguapo]

All good points. Depressing, but good. I'm an engineer, not a doctor, so I didn't know these things. That's why I asked. Thanks for the replies.

It just sucks. It sucks so very much!

 

[asolof]

Actually,

This is the idea behind some of the new research on hairloss. You are born with a limited number of hair follicles. This limits how many can eventually be transplanted/relocated. If a good method becomes available for growing your own new hair follicles, then there could theoretically be an unlimited supply, and you would not have to deal with the graft rejection problem.

 

[Grandpa]

Some of the things I've read on hair cloning speculate that further down the road, once the technology is sound. It could be possible for people to donate their follicles, instead of them having to clone yours over the course of a few weeks, come back, and then have them implanted. I guess the way they envision it is that since there's donor superiority you could just go into a clinic choose your hair color and type from a menu and get it done all in one day. It sounds kind of far fetched, but who knows? Maybe that will be the way it is 25 years or so from now.

 

[asolof]

Some of the things I've read on hair cloning speculate that further down the road, once the technology is sound. It could be possible for people to donate their follicles, instead of them having to clone yours over the course of a few weeks, come back, and then have them implanted. I guess the way they envision it is that since there's donor superiority you could just go into a clinic choose your hair color and type from a menu and get it done all in one day. It sounds kind of far fetched, but who knows? Maybe that will be the way it is 25 years or so from now.

Undifferentiated stem cells should not contain the antigens which make them recognized as foreign or "other". If somehow cultured stem cells could be directed to differentiate into a specific tissue, in this case a hair follicle, it is possible the the follicle would not be identified as foreign, and therefore not be rejected by you. But that is a lot of "ifs". You might still have the problem of graft vs. host disease (the graft rejects you and you become ill as a result).

 

[Grandpa]

Why'd you quote me? It seemed like you were saying something completely different.

 

[asolof]

FleshEatingRobot,

I quoted you to specify my post was in response to your post. I thought we were talking about the same thing, but making different points.

 

[Grandpa]

Yeah, I guess so. I wasn't trying to make a different point or refute anything though. Just kind of tacking that on as an afterthought.