Just when you thought your hairline was on a one-way trip to your back, a new experimental scalp treatment is showing serious promise in the fight against male-pattern baldness. The treatment, called clascoterone, could be the first new approach in decades to reversing hair loss. 

Two late-stage trials, aptly named Scalp 1 and Scalp 2, were conducted by Cosmo Pharmaceuticals in Ireland. They enrolled 1,465 men across the United States and Europe, who were randomly given either the clascoterone topical solution or a placebo in the Phase 3 trial. 

The main goal? To see a significant increase in the “target-area hair count,” a fancy way of saying they counted the hairs in a specific spot on the scalp. The results were hair-raising. In the Scalp 1 trial, clascoterone showed a whopping 539 percent relative improvement in hair count compared to the placebo. Scalp 2 wasn’t far behind, with a 168 percent relative improvement. 

“With strong efficacy across the two largest Phase III studies, and a favourable safety profile, clascoterone 5 percent topical solution opens the door to a fundamentally better treatment paradigm for patients,”Cosmo CEO Giovanni Di Napoli said in a statement.

Patient-reported outcomes were positive, with one study showing “statistical significance” and the other a “favorable trend.”

How does it work? Clascoterone gets to the root of the problem—literally. It blocks the action of dihydrotestosterone — the hormone that causes hair follicles to shrink — directly at the follicle. This localized approach is a game-changer, as it aims to treat hair loss without messing with the body’s overall hormone levels.

Dr. Maria Hordinsky, from the University of Minnesota’s Department of Dermatology, highlighted the significance of the findings. “For decades, patients have had to choose between available treatment options with limited efficacy or safety issues due to systemic hormonal exposure, often resulting in patients not treating their hair loss at all,” she said in a statement. 

“These findings show the potential for clascoterone 5 percent topical solution to change that equation by delivering real, measurable regrowth with negligible systemic exposure,” he said.

The company said the treatment was found to be safe and tolerable, with side effects being minimal and comparable to the placebo group. However, don’t throw your hats in the garbage just yet. These are just the initial results. The full data, including long-term effects and safety over 12 months, has yet to be released. Cosmo plans to complete its follow-up by spring 2026 before seeking regulatory approval.

If approved, clascoterone would be the first scalp treatment of its kind made specifically for male hair loss. For the millions of men watching their hairlines retreat, this could be the follicle-saving breakthrough they’ve been waiting for.