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Hair Restoration in Scottsdale, AZ

The Scottsdale Stem Cell Treatment Center offers hair restoration treatment to the residents of Scottsdale, Phoenix, and the surrounding Arizona communities.

Stem Cells and Hair Regeneration for Men And Women

Hair growth is one of the body’s most natural and complex processes. Unfortunately, you are at risk of losing hair due to environmental influences, health conditions, aging, hormone imbalances, heredity, and other factors. Even infections, metabolic changes, auto-immune disorders, vitamin D deficiency, and nutrition may trigger hair loss. Male pattern baldness, also known as androgenetic alopecia, or AGA, that affects some 35 million American men is attributable to the influence of the mother’s DNA. What’s more, 20 to 30 million women also suffer from AGA to varying degrees.

Facts About Human Hair

On average, hair grows at a rate of about half an inch per month, and on average, people have 100,000 and 150,000 hairs on their heads. A strand of hair has many microscopic parts that all contribute to hair health and normal growth rates. The human body has three type of hair, and the hair on your scalp is known as “terminal hair.”

Hair Growth Basics

As humans, we are constantly undergoing a cycle of hair growth and hair loss. The scalp sheds dead and damaged hair daily. If the hair that we lose fails to regrow, it defines a condition known as alopecia. Sometimes, and usually as individuals age, a type of hair known as vellus hair replaces the terminal hair on the head. Vellus hair is very similar to the hair an individual has at birth. The hair is very fine and protects the scalp before terminal hair grows. The cycle of hair growth happens in three phases, and most adults cycle through the phases several times throughout their lives.

Phase One – Active Growth – Anagen

The first phase, known as the anagen phase, occurs when the majority of the hair strands actively grow. On average, the anagen phase lasts three to four years, but it may last as long as nine years in some cases. Individuals who experience shortened anagen phases may notice finer, thinner, less pigmented hair. Most of the hair on the average human head is in the active anagen phase at any given time. The other hairs are in one of the two remaining phases—catagen or telogen.

Phase Two – Regressive Phase – Catagen

Phase two is the hair loss phase or catagen phase. Hair loss is actually a normal part of hair growth, and the catagen phase lasts three to four weeks in most cases. Some part of the hair is always in the regressive phase, which is why humans shed between 75 and 100 hairs every single day. The hairs fall out to allow for newer, healthier hair. Often, people notice the hair falling out when they shampoo or brush their hair.

Phase Three – Resting Phase – Telogen

During the telogen phase, which lasts only a few months, the hair essentially lies dormant. The hairs will not fall out or actively grow. The hairs simply lie “asleep” in preparation for one of the other two cycles of hair growth.

Common Options for Hair Restoration

Numerous cosmetic hair procedures and restoration techniques are available. To maintain the best possible appearance, physicians take special precautions concerning growth direction and hair type. One of the most recent innovations is hair restoration using injections of platelet-rich plasma. The formulation contains a few stem cells and growth factors. Another alternative is medication. Rogaine and Propecia, which are the only two FDA-approved medications for baldness, assist in maintaining hair, but do very little to actually regrow hair. Unfortunately, these medications cannot restore the follicles that die off in those with AGA. The medications also have some undesirable side effects, and despite stopping the medications, the side effects are sometimes permanent. Recently, researchers are placing emphasis on vitamin D and its associated receptor. Scientists, researchers, and physicians are extremely hopeful about the possibilities of using stem cell therapy to stimulate hair growth in AGA patients.

Scientists believed for many years that people dealing with hair loss were suffering from a depletion of hair follicles and follicle stem cells, which are necessary in terms of growing hair. A professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania by the name of Dr. George Cotsarelis published a study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in early 2011 that showed a startling correlation between bald people and those with full heads of hair—people in both categories have the same number of follicle stem cells. Dr. Cotsarelis and a team of researchers analyzed skin cells taken from both bald and non-bald sections of the scalps of those with AGA. Then, using markers to differentiate between follicle stem cells and hair follicle progenitor cells, they counted the number of each type. They determined that the same number of follicle stem cells appeared in the parts of the scalps with hair as were present in the parts of the scalp that were bald. Thus, they determined that male pattern baldness might be the result of an inability of the stem cells in the scalp to develop into the types of cells that form hair follicles. If they could then identify which signals were required for stimulating the stem cells into producing more of the hair follicle progenitor cells (those responsible for forming the follicle itself), they might be able to assist the patients in generating bigger follicles capable of growing healthy terminating hair. Similar studies prove that men who have AGA also have stem cells in the follicle roots, but it appears that these cells are incapable of initiating hair growth. Until recently, the source of the signals required for the stem cells to generate large, healthy follicles was unknown.

A 2011 Yale study seems to show the efficacy of adipose-derived stem cells in terms of growing new hair by activating dormant hair follicles. A researcher named Horsely and his team found that a layer of fat in the scalp comprises the majority of the skin’s thickness, and when hair dies, that fat layer shrinks. What’s more, when hair growth resumes during the anagen phase, the fat layer expands again. A special type of stem cell known as adipose precursor cells is responsible for hair regeneration in mice.

The Scottsdale Stem Cell Treatment Center utilizes the same stem cells in a process known as stromal vascular fraction. The Yale team also found that these very same adipose precursor stem cells produce molecular “signals” known as PGDF and that mice require these signals for hair growth. Researchers do not yet know whether PGDF is required for hair growth in humans, but PGDF is an activator of a different type of stem cell in the human body known as mesenchymal cells. (see Horsely, et. al., in the Sept. 2, 2011, issue of Cell)

Androgenetic Alopecia

With current knowledge and technology, men with AGA have no guarantee of consistently and sustainably re-growing hair. However, current hair replacement technology may be enhanced by utilizing the regenerative qualities of mesenchymal stem cells and growth factors. Essentially, doctors administer SVF that contains adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells and growth factor to patients who are receiving hair replacement. The aim of treatment is to minimize the frequency of graft loss due to transplant shock.

Alopecia Areata

Patients who suffer from alopecia due to an auto-immune disorder are at an advantage. These individuals enjoy a higher chance of success when mesenchymal stem cells are locally and systematically deployed as part of the treatment plan.

Scottsdale Stem Cell Treatment Center “SSCTC” Protocol

At the Scottsdale Stem Cell Treatment Center, the effects of stromal vascular fraction on hair transplantation and regeneration are our areas of study. We use three control groups—patients receiving SVF alone, both locally and intravenously; patients receiving hair grafts without SVF; and patients receiving automated hair transplantation without SVF therapy. The automated hair transplant process, NeoGraft™ Follicle Unit Extraction, or FEU, transfers healthy follicles from abundant areas of the scalp to areas without healthy follicles. The goal of the study involves determining whether patients receiving SVF therapy enjoy better, more sustainable results than patients who do not receive SVF therapy. A Science Reports article published in 2012 documents that FUT has assisted in achieving the restoration of the appearance of hair by controlling hair type, density, and stream during surgical transplantation.

The NeoGraft™ technology provides results that are both outstanding and completely reproducible. The procedure does not require physicians to remove a strip of hair, setting it apart from other hair transplant techniques. No scalpel or sutures are necessary, and since the process is minimally invasive, only minimal anesthesia is necessary. In one outpatient treatment, physicians at the Scottsdale Stem Cell Treatment Center combine SFV harvesting, which is similar to miniature liposuction while under local anesthesia, with the NeoGraft™ therapy to produce noticeably natural, sustainable results.

If you are experiencing hair loss, please contact us at Scottsdale Stem Cell to find out whether STV or another form of stem cell treatment is right for you and your unique condition.

Written by Scottsdale Stem Cell Center