Although male pattern baldness affects nearly 50% of men by the time they reach 50, it’s still something that most guys would like to avoid.

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That’s why you end up getting men spending loads of money on treatments such as expensive lotions and creams or in extreme cases, hair transplants. However, researchers at the University of California reckon they might have found a treatment that could be the future for people suffering from hair loss and it’s surprisingly simple.

The research showed that activating stem cells in the hair follicle could stimulate hair growth. Co-author of the study and associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular and medical pharmacology Heather Christofk said:

Our observations about hair follicle stem cell metabolism prompted us to examine whether genetically diminishing the entry of pyruvate into the mitochondria would force hair follicle stem cells to make more lactate, and if that would activate the cells and grow hair more quickly.

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What was discovered is that this process works so they tried it out by increasing the lactate in mice. Amazingly, they discovered that this spurred on hair growth because it activated the stem cell. Co-author William Lowry, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, added:

Before this, no one knew that increasing or decreasing the lactate would have an effect on hair follicle stem cells.

Once we saw how altering lactate production in the mice influenced hair growth, it led us to look for potential drugs that could be applied to the skin and have the same effect.

This is very promising news and once the drug gets verified, it could be used not only as a treatment for hair loss in men, but also for people suffering from alopecia. The researchers have identified two drugs that could stimulate hair growth in this way, although they’ve not been tested on humans yet. So now the world just needs to wait for the testing process to be carried out and for the drugs to be verified and then it looks like there could finally be a cure for baldness.

Having said that, some of you baldies reading this might not actually want to “cure” your hair loss. After all, this study showed that bald men are the most intelligent and masculine men of all.