TL;DR
For decades, treating baldness has meant two moves: block the hormone that shrinks hair follicles, or nudge growth with minoxidil. The new bet is bolder. Several companies now think bald follicles are asleep rather than gone, and they are building drugs to wake them up. The first of those, a cream called PP405, started a 600-man, year-long trial on Oct. 14. Nearer at hand, a slow-release minoxidil pill has passed two final-stage trials, and a company has started injecting people with their own lab-multiplied hair cells. None of it is proven yet. If the waking drugs work, hair loss could shift from something people slow down to something they reverse.
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