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A chemical found in McDonald’s chips could cure baldness, new research suggests.

Scientists in Japan found that a chemical used to cook the fast food giant's fries helped to cure hair loss in mice and are hopeful it could do the same in humans.

Using a chemical called dimethylpolysiloxane found in silicone which is added to oil to cook fries researchers were able to produce follicles which could sprout human hair.

Silcone is usually added to fries to prevent the oil bubbling and spitting.

When the cells were cultured in the cooking aid they grew 5000 hair follicle germs simultaneously, scientists said.

The follicle germs were then transplanted into bald mice that began to sprout fur within days.

Scientists say that preliminary tests suggest that the technique could work in humans.

Researchers said that the reason the chemical was so effective in encouraging hair growth was due to the fact that oxygen easily passes through it.

“We demonstrated that the integrity of the oxygen supply through the bottom of the silicone chip was crucial to enabling both HFG formation and subsequent hair shaft generation,” Prof Junji Fukuda, of Yokohama National University told The Mirror.

Scientists hope that the discovery will eventually be able to be used to treat hair loss diseases.

"This simple method is very robust and promising. We hope this technique will improve regenerative therapy to treat hair loss such as androgenic alopecia," Prof Junji Fukuda said.