The study of hair growth has important and obvious clinical and commercial significance. For that reason most of the work on hair has been done by dermatologists in medical schools, or scientists in the wool industries. Under the auspices of either group the studies and related conferences have, in general, focused on applied issues: therapeutics of alopecia or hirsutism in the former and shaft characteristics in the latter. To both groups understanding hair biology remains fundamental and in the last thirty years considerable insight has been gained into the structure of the follicle. In recent years another group of workers have emerged who also study the hair follicle. For these workers however the follicle serves as a valuable model for studying central biological problems as growth control, morphogenesis and inductive phenomena, and epithelial mesenchymal interactions. It is this approach - the follicle as a model to study important problems in biology that has received little attention in other meetings. Recognizing the need to consolidate experience of other workers using the hair follicle as a study model stimulated a small group of us in the field to think about an international meeting where the relatively small number of basic science directed hair biologists could meet and evaluate where we are, how each of our separate directions may influence each other, and where we are going from here.
