Shaving could soon be a thing of the past, say scientists who claim to have developed a rub-on gel which could keep men stubble-free. A team at the University of Pennsylvania says that early results from the experimental gel has showed it stops beard from growing -- in fact, it could also be applied to remove unwanted hair from women's legs.
The daily rub-on gel is made from a drug called cidofovir, which has been around for more than a decade and is widely used in high doses in the treatment of AIDS.
Doctors, however, found that the drug caused alopecia -- or lack of hair growth -- the faces of men who had it injected.
In their latest research, the scientists were interested to see if a gel made with different concentrations of the drug -- either one per cent or three per cent -- could stop hair growth completely, a media report said.
A group of 16 men, who grew beards that were classed as either dense or very dense, were recruited. Each was given either the one per cent strength gel or the three per cent gel to rub on a small circle on one side of the face every day.
On the other side they used an identical looking dummy gel with no drug in it.
The men were told to carry on shaving every day but to stop 48 hours before their scheduled visit to the clinic for assessment, so the effects on hair growth could be examined.
