TL;DR
For people whose immune systems attack their own hair, the approved treatments are pills taken every day. Two experimental drugs are hinting at something different: hair that comes back and stays after treatment stops. In one trial, 5 of 8 people who had regrown hair still met the standard bar six months after their last dose, and some kept improving. In another, all 12 people with regrowth kept it for four months off the drug. The numbers are small and none of it is peer reviewed, but the idea behind them is big. Instead of holding the immune attack down indefinitely, these drugs may be resetting it. If that holds up in the large trials starting in 2027, alopecia areata could become a condition treated in a course rather than managed forever.
Below the line, for paid subscribers: The full story: where it stands, how we got here and what's dated next; our Odds board on 5 milestones, starting with "Nektar's 850-patient ZENITH AA phase 3 enrolls its first patient by 2027"; and every source.