A healthy individual loses around a hundred hairs a day. Nothing to worry about as long as they are constantly replaced and the losses occur evenly around the whole scalp. But when hair loss goes well beyond this level it can become quite a problem for those affected – not only superficially in terms of looks but also psychologically.

The bald look may have been made fashionable by a raft of sporting and entertainment stars, but for many men a receding hairline is still a source of anxiety. But hope of a cure for baldness has arrived in the form of a US study, which shows for the first time that hair can be regrown.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos. These findings provide unequivocal evidence for the first time that, like other animals such as newts and salamanders, mammals have the power to regenerate. These findings are published in the May 17 issue of Nature.