For some men, bald is beautiful.

The iconic look may work for a few - especially celebrities - like the rugged Die Hard star Bruce Willis and Star Trek's Patrick Stewart.

For many though hair loss is no laughing matter. But now researchers in America say they've uncovered a cure.

An academic medical centre has found that hair follicles actually shrink, but don't disappear.Dr George Cotsarelis, dermatology professor at Pennsylvania University, found the discovery hair-raising.

“What we found surprised us. The stem cells were present but they were not doing their job.”

The discovery of invisible hair sounds too good to be true. But what does it mean?

“It really gives us hope that because the stem cells are present it lowers the bar for developing treatments that could activate the stem cells and get them to form a new hair follicle,” said Dr Cotsarelis.

Treating these faulty stem cells means that, rather than just maintaining hair, we could soon regenerate hair.

Mark Lobel, BBC News

Listen

Click to hear the vocabulary:

Vocabulary

Show All | Hide All

rugged

here, a man's face that is strong with uneven skin

no laughing matter

serious, something people should not make jokes about

uncovered

discovered

cure

make well or heal

hair follicles

a sac from which a hair grows

hair-raising

very exciting

stem cells

cells with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the body

too good to be true

something that sounds so good that it is unlikely to be real

lowers the bar

changes the standards required to make things easier

regenerate

grow again