Most scientists agree that the therapeutic applications of cloning are limitless. Its future may provide us with a remedy for organ transplant shortages for diseases such as Parkinson or Alzheimer and it may even make the paralyzed walk again. But some scientists say the sprouting technology can also be used to sprout some hair.

"This is going to be revolutionary, anybody with the greatest amount of baldness will be able to have a full head of hair," said Dr. Bernard Nussbaum.

Scientific purest no doubt will feel a bit sheepish about the latest cloning possibility. But hair cloning has become a latest craze for hair restoration surgeons who claim those long ____ don't have to be a thing of the past.

"We've been talking about hair cloning for several years now and it has just been the buzz word. Everybody is expecting when it is going to happen, it is the first question that all patients ask," said Dr. Bernard Nussbaum.

Though the process is still experimental, it looks promising. After a small section of the scalp is removed, the individual hair follicles are dissected under the microscope. The hair's own stem cells, known as bulge stem cells, are then removed and placed in a special culture medium. They are chemically treated and trigger to divide. It is believed that each of the bulge cells has the potential to create numerous hair follicles. Some are harvested immediately while others are kept in a deep freezer for future use.

After the harvesting is complete, the cloned hair follicles would then be transplanted back into the scalp creating an unlimited source of growing hair.

"Cloning would give us as much hair as we want to be able to transplant to as large an area as we want to," said Dr. Nussbaum. And that is good news to men with the most severe form of baldness with too little on top for a traditional form of hair transplant.

But hair cloning has become particularly important for women. "About age 15, I had thick hair, very thick and gorgeous hair. Little by little, it started thinning and falling out," said a female hair loss patient. Medicine has little to offer women. Propecia, the most effective drug for treating hair loss, is only approved for men. Rogaine, though available, needs to be applied twice a day and once you stop, so does the hair growth. Many women have to resort to unproven pills, potions and lotions. "Nothing really seem to work," said a female hair loss patient.

Hair cloning would not only provide a boundless baldness solution for them, but they may make pills and current procedures obsolete for everyone.

'Anyone would be a candidate, it really would revolutionize the treatment of hair loss," said Dr. Nussbaum.

As yet, the technology is still confined to the petrie dish and a few well rugged rodents. Some doctors recommend zinc and B6 supplements to slow down hair loss while we wait for this follicle fantasy to become. 

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