It's impossible to quantify the social and emotional impact of hair loss. It may be enough to note that more than 80 million people in the U.S. alone suffer from pattern hair loss, and worldwide consumers pour billions of dollars annually into their search for a satisfying solution. Male pattern baldness in particular, called androgenetic alopecia, contributes to widespread perceptions of diminished virility and attractiveness. As many as 90% of people with hair loss report that the condition has a significant negative affect on their daily lives.

Aderans Research Institute (ARI) is pioneering one of the most hopeful paths of research in the field, a process called cellular hair regeneration. By growing hair-producing cells, cell-based hair regeneration can deliver an unlimited number of hairs to a person suffering from hair loss – his or her own hair, only more of it.

As ARI refines its cellular regeneration techniques, it is conducting cutting-edge clinical studies across the country and is seeking subjects. The process for participating is fairly straightforward and typically consists of only 10-12 office visits over the course of a year. An initial screening interview determines an individual's fitness for the study. If accepted, physicians excise a small piece of tissue from the base of the participant's neckline. The hair cells from the tissue are then cultivated in the ARI laboratory. A few weeks later a series of treatments begin in which the cultivated cells are injected into the scalp of the participant. The clinical staff measure the progress of the treatment in a series of spaced office visits.

ARI treatments are entirely autologous. That means that ARI only attempts to generate hair growth using the participant's own hair cells. No foreign growth media, such as plant- or animal-derived growth factors, are involved. When the cultivated follicles are restored to the participant's scalp, he or she is receiving only his or her hair cells. This serum-free process delivers a degree of safety from complications unique to the field.