Skull Expansion Theory Could Actually Be True?

[coolio]

Transplant a balding follicle into a donor area = it still balds.
Transplant a donor follicle into a balding area = it still doesn't bald.

Sorry if I sound dismissive but this is a huge elephant in the room.


I actually do suspect that the recipient area can affect "donor" follicles over time. It's well known that if you transplant body hairs into the scalp, they will gradually start to grow longer (than in their original body location). They seem to reach about halfway between their original condition and scalp hairs.

The transplant community has embraced that fact and now they sometimes utilize body hairs on the scalp. But nobody ever seems to bring up the other half of what it implies - if the recipient area skin affects the traits of transplanted hairs, then it could theoretically cause thinning of "safe zone" donor scalp hairs too. Sometimes guys with older transplants (decades) will complain about long-term thinning of the donor grafts - maybe that is all explained by natural "donor thinning" from old age or maybe it isn't.

This stuff is all interesting, but it doesn't outweigh the elephant in the room. Most follicles generally behave like their balding traits are genetically programmed.

 

[Nostro100]

Transplant a balding follicle into a donor area = it still balds.
Transplant a donor follicle into a balding area = it still doesn't bald.

Sorry if I sound dismissive but this is a huge elephant in the room.


I actually do suspect that the recipient area can affect "donor" follicles over time. It's well known that if you transplant body hairs into the scalp, they will gradually start to grow longer (than in their original body location). They seem to reach about halfway between their original condition and scalp hairs.

The transplant community has embraced that fact and now they sometimes utilize body hairs on the scalp. But nobody ever seems to bring up the other half of what it implies - if the recipient area skin affects the traits of transplanted hairs, then it could theoretically cause thinning of "safe zone" donor scalp hairs too. Sometimes guys with older transplants (decades) will complain about long-term thinning of the donor grafts - maybe that is all explained by natural "donor thinning" from old age or maybe it isn't.

This stuff is all interesting, but it doesn't outweigh the elephant in the room. Most follicles generally behave like their balding traits are genetically programmed.

I can show you this study that was done with "non balding" and "balding" human hair follicules, transplanted on immunodeficient mice (so that they wouldnt reject the transplant). Their conclusion is this:

This report shows that miniaturized hair follicles of pattern alopecia can quickly regenerate once removed from the human scalp and can grow as well as or better than terminal follicles from the same individual.

This is was just one test and I'm skeptical as well ....but facts speak for themselves. IF transplanted hair doesn't die, then it must be different from the "balding hair" and this has to be the case otherwise if hairloss problem was just "barren ground where hair wouldn't grow" then it would be easy to make it "non barren"...but infact it's written on the hair's genetic code itself - *Start apoptosis *

 

[whatintheworld]

coolio is pretty much right. This is why transplants are highly dependent on the patient's genetics and results cannot be guaranteed. Some patients may have no truly safe zone.

 

[Nostro100]

coolio is pretty much right. This is why transplants are highly dependent on the patient's genetics and results cannot be guaranteed. Some patients may have no truly safe zone.

With that being said, hairloss ...we can see it's effects, we know how to stop it (castration) and reverse it (estrogen injection) BUT we can't really pinpoint the actual cause. When finasteride results are so low, one starts to question if it's really just androgen sensitivity (i mean you remove the androgens and the hair keepa dying?) I accept the hairs in the scalp are more androgen sensitive but to what degree?