Hair Clinics Offer Banking for Potential Future Cloning
Clinics are now harvesting and freezing hair follicles in hopes of using them for future hair multiplication treatments.
Updated on Oct. 16, 2026 in Beauty
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As of 2019, clinics began offering hair banking services where 100 follicles are harvested and cryopreserved for future use. The process aims to preserve hair with the most longevity to potentially combat hair thinning through cloning technology.
Why it matters
Banking provides a way to store high-quality follicles for future medical procedures, though the cloning techniques required to utilize them remain under development.
The process involves extracting 100 follicles in a 30-minute procedure, which costs upwards of $2,000 in the United Kingdom. Ten clinics across the U.S. currently provide these banking services for patients.
The players
HairClone
This is a biotechnology company focused on developing hair cloning and follicle cryopreservation technologies.
The details
Professionals use Follicular Unit Extraction to harvest the follicles before sending them for cryopreservation, with patients facing ongoing annual storage and future transplant fees. While researchers are actively testing cloning, the procedure is not yet FDA-approved and currently lacks consistent success in scalp transplantation.
Timeline
HairClone began follicle cryopreservation and banking in 2019.
HairClone started clinical testing of its technology in March 2026.
Culture Shift
Hair banking represents a move toward personalized regenerative medicine, shifting focus from traditional one-time surgical grafts to long-term cellular preservation. This trend highlights the growing consumer interest in bio-banking as a hedge against future hair loss.
Patients choosing to bank follicles must account for significant upfront extraction costs and ongoing annual storage fees. Prospective customers should also consider that the ultimate goal of cloned hair reinsertion remains experimental and is not a guaranteed medical outcome.
The takeaway
Interested individuals should consult with medical professionals to understand the current limitations and costs of experimental hair preservation. Banking is currently a long-term investment in developing technology rather than a proven final cure for hair thinning.
Further reading
For more on the latest trends in hair care, visit the Beauty section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by The Daily Beast.
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