New Electric Tech Helps Reverse Baldness

Millions of men worldwide who suffer from pattern baldness are going to be able to reverse the condition due to this noninvasive, low-cost electric technology which can stimulate hair growth. This technology stimulates the scalp with gentle, low-frequency electric pulses that can coax dormant follicles to resume hair production. Rather than causing the hair follicles to regenerate on smooth skin, they reactivate the dormant hair-producing structures. Therefore, it should be understood that this technology could be used as an intervention for men who are experiencing the early stages of pattern baldness and not for those who have been bald for a long time.

Being powered by the wearer’s movements, the device does not need any additional battery pack or other complicated electronic parts. It is a very low-profile device that could be used discreetly underneath a cap. That makes it a really fashionable device which does not cause any pain or inconvenience associated with the hair restoration surgeries or other treatment procedures.

Xudong Wang, Professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison opines that this technology will be a very practical solution to hair regeneration. “Electric stimulations can help many different body functions," says Wang. "But before our work, there was no really good solution for low-profile devices that provide gentle but effective stimulations.

Since the electric impulses from the device are extremely gentle, without penetrating deeper than the outermost layers of the scalp, there isn’t a chance for any unpleasant adverse effects. This makes it a tremendous advantage over other treatments for male pattern baldness such as those kinds of drugs that can cause sexual dysfunction and depression.

By far, the device has only been tested on mice and it was found that it produced better results than the drugs like minoxidil. But the lead author has tested the device on his own father who is balding and has helped him grow a lot of new hairs within a month. Although Wang expects that activating the device for a few hours on a daily basis can do the trick, it is uncertain until better-controlled human experimentation is done.