This is not one of the ads we are used to reading in the media, but rather the result of research and scientific tests by scientists from the University of Wisconsin, USA. These scientists have developed a patch containing an electrical charge that made some mice 'fur grow again. They indicated that it could be a treatment for people suffering from baldness when affixed to the head.
Currently, men who want to treat baldness and hair loss can use the minoxidil solution or finasteride pills or perform hair transplant surgery. But minoxidil is not suitable for everyone, and finasteride can harm fertility, and surgery is painstaking and expensive.
This special patch, developed by Zodong Wang of University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues, generates electrical impulses by harnessing the energy generated by random body movements. They are formed of thin layers 1 mm thick, and they are charged with electricity in different ways when they come into contact and separate, which is a type of electricity known as "friction electricity".
When the elastic patch was affixed to the appearance of naked mice of hair, due to a genetic deficiency in its growth factors, its body movements folded and expanded the patch, activating "friction electricity." These electrical impulses, after nine days, stimulated the growth of the rat's fur about 2 millimeters on its skin under the patch. Whereas hair grew only 1 mm in length on adjacent skin areas treated with minoxidil and saline solution. The hair density was three times greater in patch areas than in minoxidil and others.
Then, the study of the skin of mice under a microscope revealed that the patch works by stimulating the release of natural chemicals that encourage hair growth such as the keratinocyte growth factor and the membranous lining growth factor.
Wang also tested the patch on his father who had been bald for the past few years, and one month later, says Wang: "This helped him grow a lot of new hair."
