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Comment by dumbfoundded | Hacker News Reader

Hasn't this already happened?

Elon: https://nyppagesix.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/elon.jpg?qual...

Lebron: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1_YfIB-9iM8/maxresdefault.jpg

Those are most likely implants which means they take healthy follicules from the back of head and reimplant them in the front.

The idea with the treatment discussed here is to create hair follicules from stem cells.

So as pointed in the article, people who have female pattern baldness or more advanced stages of baldness (who are not candidates for 'collecting' healthy follicules from the back of the head) could still undergo a hair transplant.

Wow, how did Elon Musk pull that off?

Seems like a pretty straightforward hair transplant, no?

It was, you can see his scar when he has a close shave on the sides of his head [1].

[1] https://static.ffx.io/images/eed406d72af2384b0d58edd9903e55c...

That looks odd, the scar doesn't go that far. Plus, you can have implants without a scar now.

The scar is at the bottom (just above the ear) and would go either half way or all the way around and end at the same point on the other side.

Yes Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is possible, it has less yield than strip harvesting but if you don't need to maximize donor area it's a good option to avoid a scar (you'll still have micro scars from extraction area but it's much less visible).

But in Elon's case, it's clear he underwent strip harvesting for at least 1 implant.

Wow, how did Elon Musk pull that off?

Rather, how did he put that on?

The Foundation to Extend the Lifespan of Larry Ellison has produced some research that has had nice side effects for other billionaires.

Let’s hope Larry spends his fortune on this research for himself and other billionaires.

That’s more valuable than buying a bigger yacht.

Of course, once the knowledge is gained and a problem is solved, someone somewhere will reproduce the same thing for a fraction of the cost. The real cost is the research.

I'm not sure why you assume that all observable results of technology can lead to reverse engineering that technology.

Billionaires could easily solve baldness, aging, or any number of problems for themselves without releasing anything.

In fact, Alphabet is already openly doing this with its ultra-secretive Calico company that is sucking in lots of researchers and locking their discoveries (if any) in a private vault.

Because they stand to make money, lots of it, by selling cures for aging.

Keeping it at least somewhat inaccessible could up profits though. Hard to say what the curve is like a priori.

Nah, if you actually cure aging, you could sell it at any cost to anyone. How will they afford it? They'll give you a loan and five hundred years to repay it.

Well for one thing simply knowing something is possible can be enough to lead others to try. To use an old cliche, look at the number of people who've run sub 4 minutes miles since Roger Bannister showed it was actually possible.

And if the technology was patented in some way that would also lead to disclosure and not all regions respect foreign patents anyway.

I wonder if Elon's facial hair is also a transplant.

From the picture, it looks like he did have at least some facial hair before. Facial hair often stays around longer than hair at the top of the head as well; my dad has been bald since long before I was born, but he still has a full natural beard.

It's very unlikely he would waste his limited donor area on facial hair, especially when he rarely grows a beard.

MPB generally only affects the top of your head, not other areas. It's just as common for men who's hairy everwhere else to have MPB.

I hope that's the case for me. I feel like I'm going bald but I have a tiny amount of hair on my arms, chest, or legs.

That is still limited hair

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