Plucking Hairs Could Actually Help Cure Male Pattern Baldness

Researchers at the University of Southern California have found that plucking hair could help cure male pattern baldness. 

"It is a good example of how basic research can lead to a work with potential translational value," Cheng-Ming Chuong, first author of the study, said in a news release. "The work leads to potential new targets for treating alopecia, a form of hair loss."

For the study, researchers found that plucking 200 hairs in a specific pattern and density helped to reduce up to 1,200 replacement hairs in a mouse, making its hair nearly six times thicker than before.

When plucking the hairs in a low-density pattern from an area exceeding six millimeters in diameter, no hairs regenerated. However, higher-density plucking from circular areas with diameters between three and five millimeters triggered the regeneration of between 450 and 1,300 hairs, including ones outside of the plucked region.

Furthermore, researchers discovered that this regenerative processed relied on the principle of "quorum sensing," which defines how a system responds to some stimuli. Quorum stimuli also senses how some hair follicles respond to the plucking of some but not all hairs.

A molecular analyzes helped researchers study the plucked follicles via signal distress with releasing inflammatory proteins that help recruit immune cells that rush to the site of an injury. These immune cells then secrete signaling molecules such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), which, at a certain concentration, communicate to both plucked and unplucked follicles that it's time to grow hair.

"The implication of the work is that parallel processes may also exist in the physiological or pathogenic processes of other organs, although they are not as easily observed as hair regeneration," concluded Chuong.