Is Laser Therapy Effective For Male Pattern Hair Loss?

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Transcript

Now I must admit, the first time I heard about laser treatment for hair loss, I thought it was a scam. I mean using a laser beam to re-grow hair sounds like something from a sleazy infomercial rather than a legitimate hair loss treatment. But as it turns out, using laser to help with hair loss is not as ridiculous as it may sound.

In 1967, a Hungarian physician found that mice that were exposed to laser regrew their shaved hair faster than mice who weren’t exposed to laser. [1]

Fast forward a few decades and there are now multiple laser hair loss products. But how can a laser possibly help?

Although it isn’t clear exactly how lasers help with hair loss, the current theory goes a bit like this [2]: a laser beam is made up of tiny packets of energy. When a laser is directed towards our skin, some of this energy is absorbed by cells that surround hair follicles. This energy is thought to increase blood flow and promote hair growth at the cellular level.

The lasers used in hair loss products are set at a wavelength between 650 to 660 nanometres, which corresponds to a red colour in the visible light spectrum. The laser operates at a low power of 5 milliwatts or less. As a comparison, a pen laser that you can buy online has about 1 milliwatt of power.
Each manufacturer has different instructions on how to use their particular device. They’re usually applied to the scalp for anywhere between 10 minutes to 30 minutes, applied either every day or every 2nd day.

But the real question is, do they actually work?

To answer this question, I looked through 9 Randomised Controlled trials that divided people into two groups: one group received treatment with a laser device, and the other received treatment with an identically appearing sham device [3-11]. Neither the participants nor the scientists knew which treatment was being given to which person. All of these trials showed that laser treatment led to improvements in hair growth in both men and women. So does it actually work? In simple terms, the answer is yes. But the full answer is a bit more complicated.

The first caveat is that people respond differently to laser therapy. In this chart, each bar represents the improvement in hair count for each trial participant, ranked from lowest to highest response. About two thirds of participants had a mild to moderate response to laser treatment, but a third had a significant response. The results from another trial shows a similar pattern. Some trials published before and after pictures for those participants who had a good response to laser treatment. These photos look impressive, but we have to keep in mind that not everyone will have such a good response. People with early stage hair loss seem to do better than those with more advanced hair loss.

The second caveat is that these trials were done on relatively small number of participants and ran for a short period of time. The longest study stopped at 6 months of treatment. So we don’t know what the long term effects are of this treatment.

And finally, it is worth keeping in mind that all of these trials were either fully or partially funded by the device manufacturers. This doesn’t mean we should totally ignore these results. All it means is that we should take these trials with a grain of salt since there is a financial incentive for these companies to publish positive results. If these results could be reproduced by independently funded trials, then it would make doctors much more confident about recommending laser treatment.

So overall, laser therapy is a reasonable treatment option for men and women with early stage hair loss who would like a medication free treatment option or to use as part of combination therapy with other treatments. Some of the downsides are that the treatment requires a substantial ongoing time commitment, the devices have a high up-front cost and the treatment may not work for everyone. Seeing a hair loss expert can help you decide if laser treatment is right for you.

I’m interested to hear what you think. Have you tried laser therapy for hair loss and what was your experience? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

References:

Medicine ExplainedAnkit Gupta14 November 2021androgenetic alopecia, laser, low level, male pattern hair loss, female pattern hair loss