Dr Coen Gho is a dermatologist and hair loss researcher who operates the GHO-clinic in Maastricht, a city in the Netherlands.

For the past ten years Dr Gho has been working on a technique to improve hair transplantation by increasing the amount of donor hair using a technique called Hair Multiplication. The technique supposedly allows him to clone 5 hairs to every one hair, and then clone 5 more hairs to each of those hairs. The net result is a 30X increase of the amount of hairs from the donor area available for relocation to balding parts of the scalp.

Dr Gho has patented his technique in Europe which is described in the following way:

"Method for the preparation of hair, which method comprises the following steps: (1) removal of hair in the anagen phase from one or more donor regions in such a way that the bulb characteristic of hair in the anagen phase is still attached to the hair removed, (2) culture of hair follicle cells from the hair removed, under circumstances such that the hair follicle cells are able to multiply, and (3) implantation of the cultured hair follicle cells in the receptor regions. Medium which comprises at least one suitable serum-free keratinocyte culture medium and is optionally supplemented with one human mast cell line and/or autologous (cultured) CD34<+> cells and/or growth-stimulating agents and a method for culturing hair follicle cells from hairs in the anagen phase, in which one or more hairs in the anagen phase are placed in said medium."

In simpler terms he removes hairs in the anagen or growth stage, take the cells from the bulb of the hair, puts them into a cell culture dish with various solutions that enable the cells to multiply in the laboratory. He then takes the multiplied cells and using a very fine syringe, injects them into the scalp where they grow into full size hairs.

On April 15, 1998, Dr Gho was interviewed in the Dutch newspaper 'De Gelderlander' and predicted that the technique would be available within a year. Since that has not materialized we believe that Dr Gho has not perfected the method yet and it may well take a lot longer than anticipated to resolve the various issues.

t is believed that Dr Gho has not yet been able resolve all the issues that prevent this from being a reality. Some problems are that the hair don't grow for a long time, others are that once the hairs have been multiplied, the hairs will all have the same growth cycle so when the hair are in the telogen or resting phase, they could all be lost simultaneously when the follicle goes back into the anagen phase.

Dr Gho has however had some success in clinical trials which has led many people to attempt to contact him via phone. fax and email. We urge people not to contact Dr Gho because it will not make him go faster, but instead will slow him down. Dr Gho has expressed the need to be left alone so he can conduct his research without being distracted.