However, we may finally have a solution to the First Worlds most enduring problem, baldness, as according to new research, it is certainly possible to create new hair follicles when theyve redeposited themselves to the foot of your shower, through the application of stem-cell technology and 3D printing.

There is a caveat, as the results of the technique are not necessarily long-lasting. When you try to clone hair cells, over time they dedifferentiate and stop producing hair, says Robert Bernstein, a dermatologist in Manhattan who specialises in hair transplantation. For a long time, no one could figure out why. But researchers gradually solved the problem. Over the past few years, they noticed that cells spread out when theyre cultured; the follicular structure essentially melts away. The epiphany was that if you can keep the cells together in their teardrop shape so they continue to signal each other, they continue to grow into hair follicles, Bernstein says.

The next step is to create hair farms, according to an entrepreneur who has started such a thing. Stemson Therapeutics is, per The Atlantic, growing hair from stem cellsnot fetal, but stem cells derived from a persons own skin or bloodand implanting hair follicles rich with dermal papillae into the space around a persons old, shrunken, dormant follicle.

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Science makes baldness optional (if you can afford it) - The Big Smoke Australia