What if we told you french fry oil could cure baldness?
Researchers say a chemical used to keep fry oil from bubbling over can do just that.
Scientists at Japan's Yokohama University have found dimethylpolysiloxane can grow hair on bald mice and they think it could do the same on bald humans.
According to the study, hair follicle germs using the silicon-based additive were transplanted onto the skin of the bald mice, and black fur sprouted within a few days.
“We demonstrated that the integrity of the oxygen supply through the bottom of the silicone chip was crucial to enabling both HFG formation and subsequent hair shaft generation,” Prof Junji Fukuda, of Yokohama National University told The Mirror.
Though the method has only been used in mice, the team feels the technique will be able to be used on humans with similarly impressive results.
“This simple method is very robust and promising,” Fukuda said. “We hope this technique will improve human hair regenerative therapy to treat hair loss such as androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness). In fact, we have preliminary data that suggests human HFG formation using human keratinocytes and dermal papilla cells.”