Scientists Induce New Hair Growth In Balding Men 232
sciencehabit writes "Scientists have successfully grown new hair follicles from the skin cells of balding men. While the research team (abstract) hasn't yet shown whether the structures, which produce strands of hair on our bodies, are fully functional and usable for transplants onto a scalp, experts say the discovery is a significant step toward finding new treatments for hair loss. Previous attempts used standard two-dimensional cell culturing techniques, but the new works grows the follicles in suspended droplets, better replicating the 3-D environment of the body. Using one's own cells to generate new follicles is useful because hair color and thickness will match perfectly with the rest of someone's head of hairs. And with the new technique, clinicians would be able to take just a few dermal papilla cells from a balding patient and expand the number of hair follicles available for transplant, rather than only be able to move follicles around."
Just think of the uses! (Score:3, Funny)
Which color? (Score:5, Interesting)
Using one's own cells to generate new follicles is useful because hair color and thickness will match perfectly with the rest of someone's head of hairs.
Assuming that you take samples from the same area, I'd guess. After all, a good number of people have very different hair color and thickness at different parts of the body, like men with dark hair and reddish beards. Do we actually know what controls that?
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Possibly you are only seeing sun bleaching?
Do the men with different colour beards wear hats all the time?
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Umm, no.
The hair on my head is darker. Alas, I don't wear hats all the time, but I DO wear pants all the time...
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Dark auburn on my head, every color in my beard but mostly red, dark hair on my body everywhere but my arms and my pubes, which are red too. Go figure.
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I don't know, but it must be based on *something*. The other morning I scratched my ear and I felt a strange hair. Lo and behold I went looking for more and there were a couple dozen gray hairs, nearly an inch in some cases, growing right out the edge of my earlobe.
WTF? Where the hell did those come from?
Study hair growing properties of ear lobes and you will find the answer.
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I think you are correct... from Wikipedia:
Two types of pigment give hair its color: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Pheomelanin colors hair orange and yellow. All humans have some pheomelanin in their hair. Eumelanin, which has two subtypes of black or brown, determines the darkness of the hair color. A low concentration of brown eumelanin results in blond hair, whereas a higher concentration of brown eumelanin will color the hair brown. High amounts of black eumelanin result in black hair, while low concentrations give gray hair.
Pheomelanin is more chemically stable than black eumelanin, but less chemically stable than brown eumelanin, so it breaks down more slowly when oxidized. This is why bleach gives darker hair a reddish tinge during the artificial coloring process. As the pheomelanin continues to break down, the hair will gradually become orange, then yellow, and finally white.
Hes not just the lead author of a scientific study (Score:5, Funny)
He's also a client. --dept
Yea, Been Pullin' my hair out over this... (Score:2)
Fabio and I are relieved! We've been pulling our hair out worrying over this..
Seriously, are we not past this, I got to have hair to be a man thing yet? I guess in today's plastic surgery, photo shop and fake tan world this is par for the course. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Folks, generally you are as attractive as you THINK you are (with some notable exceptions who have egos which are too big). Personally I prefer the company of folks who take care of themselves but are not preoccupied with appea
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> Seriously, are we not past this, I got to have hair to be a man thing yet?
True story: A friend and I have finished an afternoon of skiing and we're sitting in the bar afterwards enjoying irish coffee. Discussion drifts to this very subject, how much society appears to demand a full head of man-hair and how much money is spent on products trying to achieve this. We had both agreed that this was all silly and narcissistic and although we're both going a little bald we'd never do any of those things.
Th
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The world cars less everyday. 30 yeas ago? yeah, outcast. Today? pffft. Once action movie stars starting appearing bald(Bruce Willis) people cared less.
Anyone can find a vapid waitress.
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Maybe she was a lesbian???
Now that you mention, she did say that, but I said that's ok, how are things in Beirut?
I've been waiting since 1971 to use that joke.
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Um, okay.
I like my hair. It's really just about as simple as that. I use Rogaine for that, and it seems to have stalled the loss for a while. It won't work in the long term. If the cost becomes unreasonable, I would stop.
To me, it's exactly the same as paying to keep/obtain other things I like, such as pets or clothing. I don't understand why wanting to keep it is necessarily a proxy for my insecurity. I'd like to keep my fitness level too, but that also will inevitably decline.
All is vanity in the end anyw
As a man who currently shaves his head bald (Score:2)
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And looks damn good with a bald head, I say: bring it on! The only way I will ever have hair again... is if I can have a JESUS-MANE of hair! Damn straight! I'll grow that out down to my shoulders! Hell yeah!!! Go long, or go bald--No in-betweens!!!!
How about long and bald? At the local hippy-fair I see a lot of heads that are bald on the top with a long fringe tied back in a rather stringy pony tail. I haven't decided whether it's a common fashion statement or part of the uniform.
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And looks damn good with a bald head, I say: bring it on! The only way I will ever have hair again... is if I can have a JESUS-MANE of hair! Damn straight! I'll grow that out down to my shoulders! Hell yeah!!! Go long, or go bald--No in-betweens!!!!
How about long and bald? At the local hippy-fair I see a lot of heads that are bald on the top with a long fringe tied back in a rather stringy pony tail. I haven't decided whether it's a common fashion statement or part of the uniform.
I basically stopped getting my hair cut at around 14, and had a pony tail from then until my late 20's. Then my hair started thinning on top - probably not noticeable to most but I could definitely tell there was less up there than there used to be. Then I got a crop of sebaceous cysts (i have very oily skin which is apparently a contributing factor). I got all those cut out, waited for the stitches to come out, then shaved it all down to a #2 clipper cut. No way I was going with the bald top and pony tail.
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You want a head with hair? Long beautiful hair? Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen?
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Scalp? (Score:3)
Wake me when they've managed to grow chest hair.
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"Public hair?" Tragic autocorrect error, or just trying to avoid a PG-13?
Idiocracy (Score:3, Informative)
"but sadly the greatest minds and resources where focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections."
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It's seems pretty meaningless now. In the 50's, being bald would pretty much make you an outcast.
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Yep: because there weren't bald heads of state*, actors, leaders of movements, leaders of industry, etc pre-1960. Idiot.
you can be all those things and still be a social outcast. or be those things because you are a social outcast.
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Was reading various news sources about this. It is strange that a lot of people attack this research. They say that we should be trying to fix more important things and baldness isn't important. You don't see that kind of reaction for women's makeup or even digital devices. How about movies? According to people like you, if it isn't a cure for poverty or disease, we shouldn't be researching it.
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Actors and directors don't work in the science field, making movies does not reduce the number of scientific researches.
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"but sadly the greatest minds and resources where focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections."
So, by your example, they should instead be commenting on news stories that don't interest them?
Research that improves peoples' lives is great. Sometimes that means curing diseases and saving lives, exploring space and inspiring awe, but other other times that means letting old people get it on and making people happy.
Good news/Bad news (Score:3)
The good news is it grows hair. The bad news is you now have pubic hair on your head.
I'll believe it... (Score:2)
Alternative (Score:2)
Stop judging people based on hair.
Damn! (Score:3)
I've spent the last few decades cultivating a natural reverse Mohawk.
Cool (Score:2)
I really hope it works... (Score:2)
...and everyone uses it. I'd love to be the last bald man in the world. A rare breed.
Seriously, what the hell? It's not a disease. It make convertibles more comfortable. It costs a drop of sunscreen or a hat.
I guess some people will cry over anything.
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Women are wicked sexy when they do.
Mice! It was Mice. Misleading title (Score:2)
Did the OP even read the linked
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I have no problem with wanting my hair back. (Score:5, Insightful)
I question how honest someone is being to themselves when they say that they are going bald or are bald and yet state it has not affected them. I've been bald for since the 90's. Do I worry about being bald? No. Am I aware I am bald? Every day.
I have no guilt about money being spent on 'unbalding' research. We're not talking about cosmetic surgery or injections, but instead returning something that has been lost to me.
To all the people, bald or hairy, that think going bald is no big deal. If the world was a fair place then yes, having no hair would not matter, and neither would other superficial things, but we don't reside in some fairy-tale realm. Unfortunately we have to deal with the real world and deal with real people that judge you on you appearance which includes height, body weight, the clothes you wear, swagger, body decorations like tattoos an piercings, and of course YOUR HAIR!
Baldness adds years to your age. I'm not talking about shaved heads. I mean being bald and still letting your hair grow at the back and sides. 5-10 year easily gets added on.
Thankfully shaved-heads have been an acceptable style for the past 20 years. Unfortunately not everyone can shave their head and still look good. Many men have Charlie Brown heads.
As much as women say they find bald men sexy, those women are few and far between, and the bald men they are attracted to are usually 'larger than life' men like movie stars. In the real world the majority of women consider balding men unattractive.
Everyone knows that baldness is very emotionally debilitating, but it also affects you physically.
-You're colder in the winter because of the lack of hair thus less insulation. Sometimes I even have to wear a hat or toque indoors. I find hats uncomfortable. Debilitating no, but it is annoying.
-the sun quickly cooks your cranium in the summer because there's no hair to insulate you from the sun's rays. Wear a hat you say? Well hat's make it worse if you shave your head because the hat forms an air-tight seal with your shaven head, preventing any air circulation underneath your hat. It's either shade or a bandanna or put up with the sun beaming down on the cranium for us baldies.
-Hair acts as a cushion your head when you bang your head on something. Hair also has sensory functionality and warns you when something is about to touch it. When you have a chrome-dome, that sensory function is gone. Don't believe me? Hold your hand out and slowly move it towards your head and you hair will pick up and feel your hand while it is still inches away.
-Hair hides stuff on your head. I have numerous acne scars on the back of my head that make me feel uncomfortable if others see. A coworker recently had a tumor removed from her brain. They went in through the upper back of her skull. Her scar is not visible because she has thick long flowing hair which hides the scar. That scar would be visible from thirty feet away on my shaved head.
Those above items will seem trivial to many, but they are things I have to be conscious of and work around at times. You don't realize what a full head of hair does for you until it's gone.
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Started losing my hair at 19. It didn't bother me then; it doesn't bother me now. It's in no way "emotionally debilitating". I haven't been to a barbers in 15 years and I don't miss the monthly waste of time.
Hats in the cold: Where I live, everyone wears a hat in the cold. It doesn't matter if you have hair or not.
Hats in the hot: You should wear one even if
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"something that has been lost to me" this applies to those desperate fools who pay for cosmetic surgery too. They "lost" non-saggy tits, a flat stomach, absence of crow's feet etc and believe mutiliating themselves somehow looks better than having dignity.
Sensory function: most of us are very aware of things being near your head anyway and the number of times you rely on such sense input must be pretty ti
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Shave your head, wear a hat, and stop whining.
You think you feel your hand when it's several inches away because you know where it is, fool. Your hand has the same charge as the rest of you, you can't feel it. You're imagining things because you miss your hair. Now, your hairs may well pull towards or away other people, that's a real thing.
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Not as important as decades ago (Score:2)
Patrick Stewart, Bruce Willis and all the other bald or shaved head actors - Thank you.
Re:Wow, glad we solved that! (Score:4, Interesting)
I bet you went bald in your teens right bro?
"Imagine if we applied this effort to shit that bothers me. The fact that some men are almost unable to date doesn't bother ME, so fuck you."
Gtfo with your high horse. A fix for baldness will prevent tons of suffering.
Sad thing is, I knew some jackass would get on his high horse the moment that something like this hit slashdot.
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I hate to break it to you, but plenty of bald men date without any particular difficulty. Buzz cuts work wonders.
Being poor or socially awkward is a much bigger inhibitor to dating than baldness.
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I shaved my head down once, and it looked *terrible*, especially compared to when I just kept my hair long. Not everyone has a nice clean shiny skull to show off. Some of us have scars, discolorations/birthmarks, that can be nicely covered up with a full (or even partial) head of hair. Add to that various things that are more likely to show up with a shaved head and too much sun (such as said discolorations, or even melanoma) and there are plenty of reasons to keep ones hair beyond simple vanity.
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What about bald women? It's rare, but it's possible to get male pattern baldness in women.
I suspect they find dating quite difficult.
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Pretty sure women never suffer from male pattern baldness.
Other forms of hair loss can effect them. However, that's much rarer, and those can also effect men. Baldness is almost exclusively a male issue.
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Literally the second sentence of TFA:
The approach could significantly expand the use of hair transplantation to women with hair loss, who tend to have insufficient donor hair.
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You're kidding yourself if you think you have access to the same pool of women you would if you weren't bald. An attractive man with a good head of hair has far more options than an attractive man who is bald. Especially if your baldness happens in your teens. As a freshman in college (when I had just turned 18), people thought I was some old guy returned to the dorms, even though I was younger than all of them. A couple years later as a TA, I asked the students to guess my age- the lowest number was
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No, no, it is just they keep asking out obvious lesbians.
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If baldness prevented dating, it would of been solved generations ago.
That it is not tells us that it does not significantly effect dating.
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Egyptians shaved most of their hair and only wore wigs. Throughout history, this has been the style many times. Obviously long ago enough, baldness was considered very attractive- or it wouldn't have been selected for, which it was (it offers no inherent advantages physically, so it's a reasonable enough guess).
As recent as a century and a half ago it was still the fashion for many men to go about wearing wigs, which were done in styles that natural hair could never achieve. Today, wearing a wig is seen
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First off, obviously the comment can only apply to cultures with the same dating style of procreation and dislike for baldness. And some Asian culture of liking bald men, has no effect on the genetic mutation of the North American group.
And I did not say it would be been bread out thousands of years ago, but that it would of been bread out generations ago.
If boldness significantly effected dating it would not take thousands of years to get rid or it. Something that visible, wholly genetic, black and white,
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Grey is unfortunate, but it's at least possible to dye your hair convincingly and indefinitely. There's no medical solution for baldness yet- if there was, you know John Travolta would have been all over it, right? So baldness you are just fucked with it, and it needs a solution, and it doesn't need a bunch of jackwads pretending that we shouldn't try to solve it because it isn't fucking cancer, or that it's a trifling matter. Fuck them, and if you agree with them, fuck you too.
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Why would he dye it?
Grey never stopped him from getting girls.
But then, I've only worked on malaria, TB, Parkinson's, TBIs, and now Alzheimer's ...
You know, serious things.
We have a world that provides consumers with "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo". In that context, curing baldness is moral imperative.
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Re:Wow, glad we solved that! (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, skin and hair are relatively easy to experiment on, making it a fairly reasonable first step, assuming that at least some of the techniques involved can be applied to other areas of regenerative research, such as organ regeneration, dermal regeneration for burn victims, etc.
NASA (Score:2)
NASA's mission was to go to the moon, but along the way they they discovered scratch resistant lenses and memory foam. I have both in my house right now.
The point is a discovery is something new and beautiful, no matter what the reasons for looking were. I can easily imagine some offshoot of this technology fixing some other skin condition like shingles or eczema.
As for the "this helps people's suffering" vs "quit whining and just shave your head" argument, I started balding at 14. I'm happy with my
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Some forms of deafness are also caused by hair loss(the little hairs in the inner ear).
Re:Who cares (Score:5, Interesting)
Or you could you know, just shave your goddamn head. Never understood why some people have such a want to get their hair back. Even tho transplants seem alot better than other solutions such as sprays and wigs, which will literally fall off or melt off your head in certain conditions, why waste the money. I have never understood this fascination.
For some combination of mortality-anxiety and the desire to get laid, people are obsessed with any measures that can keep aging indicators at bay and restore a youthful appearance. Only a fairly small subset of male aesthetics actually look suitably young with a shaved head.
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Re:Who cares (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who cares (Score:5, Funny)
Some of us happen to have godawful ugly heads and those around them can be blissfully grateful for whatever cover the hair upon it can afford, whether this hair is natural or not.
Have you thought of decals, caps, or racing stripes?
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Some of us happen to have godawful ugly heads and those around them can be blissfully grateful for whatever cover the hair upon it can afford, whether this hair is natural or not.
Have you thought of decals, caps, or racing stripes?
Or perhaps something else [youtube.com].
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I agree. I figure when I'm bald enough that it matters, I'll just shave my head and wear a cap.
As with Minoxidil, this method looks more likely to be useful for women, who have cultural bias towards not losing hair.
Or at least the ones who don't wear wigs.
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A shaved head is a hell of a lot of work to keep up. Plus, it makes people think you had head lice.
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"hair protects your head from sunburn"
You know what works even better for that?
A hat.
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"hair protects your head from sunburn"
You know what works even better for that?
A hat.
When I had my hair I never forgot to bring it with me. Now I end up with a new hat every vacation. Luckily, I don't travel much.
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Hair protects you from sun >> skin cancer, so take or splash on drugs, and later find that they're increased your risk of .... cancer.
I'll go with the hat.
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Public perception is incredibly important if you are looking to have or maintain a job, procreate, find a marriage partner, etc.
I shaved my head a month ago, and it made me look like 35-45 year old hardened criminal.
So if you are interested in living in the wilderness alone, that is a reasonable solution.
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I have been bald since my early 20s. Never had a problem finding a job because my baldness.
But you are posting on Slashdot, so apparently you haven't had as much luck finding a mate.
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I shaved my head a month ago, and it made me look like 35-45 year old hardened criminal.
That would take a mullet in these parts. Bald is OK in polite society.
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As someone who has grown his hair long twice in the last four years for donation purposes, I feel like the opposite could also be said.
This probably says more about women liking a guy *with a mind of his own* than just another robot. Buck the trends... stand out a little bit... be proud of it. Women love that shit.
Re:Who cares (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'm not depressed, therefore you have no right to be! Antidepressant research is a waste of time!
Get over yourself.
Re:Who cares (Score:4, Interesting)
And his point is right.
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'Tis perfectly cromulent, forsooth. Now begone!
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I agree with you. Completely.
For the rest of you:
What a bunch of pussies. Shave your head with a cheapass Atra cartridge on a Headblade [headblade.com] every other day, get outside to get rid of the initial blinding whiteness via a slight tan (if you're a white guy) and suck it up. I'm early 40s, have been shaving my head for eight years, and get more Tang than a fucking astronaut. I'm just like a lot of you guys, MBTI INTJ, IQ third standard deviation to the right, geek for a living, etc. (Note: introverted.. extremely...
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I like my hair. What more reason do I need? I'm pretty open about using Rogaine; I just would rather be non-bald than bald. It's not the end of the world if I were, but for a reasonable price, I'm willing to take measures.
Not that you did so, but I get a little annoyed that people that want to keep their hair are always portrayed as insecure and desperate. I view it as no different than paying to keep other things I like, such as pets or a PC gaming habit.
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I shave my head once a week. I don't understand why some guys do the combover. I've even seen young guys do it. They don't realize how completely ridiculous they look - it's easily as bad as all those 'people of Walmart' pics.
Re: Who cares (Score:2)
Did you just make a sex with cancer patient joke ?
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Because never in the history of science has a targeted research project discovered the solution to a completely different problem.
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That's why my toupee is made entirely of $100 bills.
Re:Harvested foreskins (Score:4, Informative)
The foreskin has the most sensitive parts of the penis.
You probably mean that the glans has most sensitive parts of the penis. Which, of course, is protected by the foreskin, that helps to maintain the sensitivity of the mucous membrane.
To fine touch, the foreskin is the most sensitive.
look up:
"Fine touch receptors in the human penis" Sorrels et al
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Nope, the foreskin is the most sensitive part. Men in America think the glans is the most sensitive because it's the most sensitive part they have *left*.
A 2007 study tested the fine touch sensitivity of a group of circumcised men and a group of intact men. The study found that the foreskin has dense concentrations of nerve endings. Circumcision removes all of those nerves. Using data from that study, these diagrams show the areas of penile sensitivity. As you can see, the most sensitive parts are removed b
Yeah (Score:3, Insightful)
ooh that looks like an unbiased url. If you weren't an AC it would almost look trustworthy.
Medical evidence belongs on reputable peer reviewed sites, not on advocacy sites funded by hate mongerers. Track the sites origin to its roots.
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But it all depends on what sort of sensitive you mean. Sensitive as in higher resolution or sensitive as in "Ow! Don't pinch that!". Pinching my foreskin doesn't hurt as much as trying to pinch some other parts.
I think you are associating the sensitivity with pain. I am not sure that the sensitivity in this topic is actually about pain...
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I seem to remember reading about a doctor who actually developed a relatively simple aparatus for slowly stretching what skin is left into a functional foreskin. I believe he invented it because in some cases where they botch the procedure the skinn ends up being too tight making an erection actually painful. Anyways it was suposed to be pretty painless and you would just wear it under your clothes on a daily basis until you had the desired amount of slack. I guess it wouldn't do anything for restoring lost
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