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A new hope for hair loss
That's why the work of Prof Tsuji in Japan is important. He and his team think they have found a missing piece of the puzzle.For a long time, scientists believed there were two key types of cells responsible for growing hair: epithelial stem cells, which create the hair follicle in the first place, and dermal papilla cells, which tell the hair when to grow.
Those cells cannot grow hair in a lab, only when they are transplanted into skin and connected with underlying tissue.
But Tsuji says his study identified a "novel third cell type", called a hair follicle regenerative-supporting cell.
And crucially, the new cell could bring scientists a step closer to the possibility of growing hair in a lab.
"In simple terms," Tsuji says, "our study identified a [cell] which supports the development, growth and regeneration of hair follicles."
Tsuji says the findings are "a major breakthrough", a potential game-changer in treating alopecia.
Claire Higgins, who was not involved with the study, agrees it is significant. She says previous research has only managed to create partial hair follicles in the lab.
"No-one had managed to get fully cycling hair follicles like this before," she says. "That's a really big step." In other words, the follicles were able to repeatedly grow, shed and regrow hair in the way natural hair does.
The study was only carried out on mice, mostly via cells taken from their whiskers. Translating the findings so they can be used on people remains difficult because human hair growth is far more complex.
Still, Tsuji is hopeful. "We believe we are now much closer than before."
Last year, I saw a post from someone on social media which featured a close-up photo of Catherine, Princess of Wales at an event. The words simply read, "that's a bad wig". I found it particularly cruel and upsetting.
None of us knows what cancer treatment she underwent, whether she lost her hair, or whether she wore a wig at all. If someone had said that about me during chemotherapy, I would probably have wanted to hide indoors.
Indeed, hair loss through illness is not something anyone would choose. It's imposed upon us and that's why it was so hard, for me at least, to come to terms with.
And that matters, because hair is never really just hair.
For many of us, it is our identity, our privacy, our way of feeling in control and feeling confident. So forgive me when I say that's why hair matters so much.
