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Dr Cooley wrote: I started testing the ?autocloning? procedure two years ago. At that time, I didn?t know anyone that gave any credence whatsoever to Dr. Hitzig?s description almost ten years ago of follicle regeneration from plucked grafts. So my first goal was simply to document whether or not this ever occurred. I did small tests of 100 grafts or less. It was slow going at first, as the procedure is much more difficult than it sounds. It was another 6-9 months before I was observing my first hairs growing. I continued to refine the process and our technique. After about a year, we were doing only slightly larger test areas of 200-300 grafts. So the public presentation last October, represented these small test cases with followup of 1 year or less. I was able to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt using photographs and biopsies that this phenomenon was real.

Just prior to last October, we started doing increasingly larger cases. Most of these are only now reaching the 6 month mark. Since word of our technique spread, many of our patients are coming from long distances, so I am relying mostly on emails from these patients that they are starting to see hair growth. A few have been local so I have been able to document with closeup photography the early stages of growth, which in most take longer than standard transplants. These closeup photos look like the other photos I?ve already posted of hair growing; certainly not impressive from a distance, which we wouldn?t expect at 6 months. (see attached 6 month result, dark hairs are from plucked grafts and trimmed for the photo).

Given the uncertainty about the:

1) %graft survival

2) ability of new hairs to cycle normally and

3) the question as to whether these new hairs will be androgen resistant…

…I have tried to be careful not to inflate expectations, even though I still consider this a clinical breakthrough. Demonstrating follicle regeneration as a documented fact means we are moving into a new era in our field but we have to go slowly.

Later this year, I will be presenting my accumulated experience with these larger cases. Presenting them together will allow better conclusions than posting them piecemeal along the way.

Its worth remembering that microscopic follicular unit grafting, the procedure that is now the accepted gold standard in our field, was developed in the late 1980?s by Dr Bobby Limmer and didn?t make into a medical journal until 5 years later, and another 5 years would pass before it gained widespread public acceptance. Perhaps I should have waited longer to go public, but I wanted to share these findings and spur my colleagues to try it as well, which they are now doing. We will know much more in the not too distant future.