Do Pills To Make Curly Hair, Straight Only Work if Bald?'

Nicole

Question: I was reading your post on the Pill to Make Hair Straight or Curly. Don’t you have to be bald for a pill to make your hair straight or can your hair be long too?

How the Different Shapes of Hair Follicles Produce Different Hair Textures

Hi, Nicole. You would need to ask the company who are currently trying to formulate this pill for their response. However - although it is not yet possible as the drug is still being developed - we can tell you the following...

Whether a person's hair is straight or curly depends on the shape of their hair follicles. Circular, round follicles produce straight hair, slightly oval will produce wavy hair and oval/elliptical follicles will produce curly hair - the more oval, the curlier the hair. This is why certain follicle shapes are often associated with different racial hair types, as can be seen in the diagram pictured.

With this in mind, we would assume the pill being developed intends to actively morph the shape of the hair follicles as they grow, so the change would be visible as the hair growth cycle progresses.

In theory, if this pill was released, it could only work on people with hair as if they were bald, this means their follicles are dead and hair is no longer produced. This is the same reason why people whose scalp skin has the smooth, shiny appearance that signifies true baldness do not respond to hair loss treatment - because there are no live follicles left to stimulate.