PEOPLE ARE NOW “BANKING” THEIR HAIR BEFORE THEY GO BALD

Apparently we can now add hair to the growing list of things we’re supposed to save for the future.

Money. Retirement funds. Eggs. Important documents. And now... your follicles.

There’s an experimental treatment getting attention called “hair banking,” where people essentially preserve healthy hair follicles now in hopes they can use them later if their hair starts disappearing.

Because apparently your 20s are no longer just for having fun. You should also be preparing for your future scalp.

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SO HOW DOES HAIR BANKING WORK?

The idea is similar to other forms of biological banking. Roughly 100 to 120 individual hair follicles can be removed and cryopreserved, basically frozen at extremely low temperatures to preserve the cells inside them.

Then, in the future, scientists hope they’ll be able to multiply those cells through a process sometimes described as hair cloning and inject them back into your scalp to encourage new hair growth.

I lose enough hair in the shower every morning to build a small emotional-support Yorkie.

THERE IS A CATCH... ACTUALLY, SEVERAL

The biggest problem is that the cloning part is still experimental.

It hasn’t been approved by the U.S. FDA, and researchers haven’t yet perfected a reliable way to turn those stored cells into consistently successful new hair growth.

Sometimes it works better than others, and results may also vary depending on where on the scalp the hair is needed.

Then there’s the price.

Hair banking and related experimental treatments can cost thousands of dollars, with some estimates putting the overall expense in roughly the same neighbourhood as traditional hair restoration procedures.

So basically, millennials have finally reached the age where we're deciding between:

A vacation.

A new furnace.

Or investing $15,000 in our forehead.

And after surviving skinny eyebrows, Sun-In, home perms, box dye and straightening our hair at 400 degrees every morning in 2004...

Honestly?

It’s amazing we have any follicles left to bank.