We began our “Heads Up! Women’s hair rejuvenation solutions for thinning hair” series about Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy. For Part 2, I’m going to share info about Low Level Laser Therapy. The April 2015 print issue of Allure magazine featured a Q&A about age and its effect on hair with Nicole Rogers, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine.
When asked about new hair thinning and hair loss medical treatments on the horizon, she specifically mentioned hair growth lasers saying, “For a long time, the marketing was ahead of the data, but we’re getting more evidence on a microscopic level that low-level light can grow hair.” This is true!
Low-level light emitted from a laser device can actually stimulate the hair follicle cells to grow in the scalp and increase cellular activity around the follicle, which decreases inflammation so new hairs can form and grow. Depending on a patient’s needs, at our for-women-only Medi Tresse practice we may recommend laser therapy in one of two forms: the LaserComb® and the LaserCap®.
The LaserComb® is a hand-held device that looks like a brush but has teeth like a comb. It’s a very simple device and entails brushing the hair from the front of your head towards the back slowly (the ideal amount of time is between 8 and 15 minutes). The LaserComb® should be used three times per week on a consistent basis.
As we say to our patients at Medi Tresse: “If you stop, you go backwards.” This means that with almost all treatments for patients in the early and middle stages of hair thinning , you’ll really want to keep up your efforts to see the best results.
The LaserCap® technology works exactly like the LaserComb®’s except the Cap involves just a little less “work.” It looks like a thin plastic “shell” and fits nicely inside a hat, like a baseball or bucket hat, so you can wear it discreetly while running errands, watching TV or sitting in front of a computer. The interior of the LaserCap features flat lasers which pulse laser light across the entire top of your head.
Both LaserComb and LaserCap are low-level laser therapy options for women's hair loss. And are just a couple of the effective treatment solutions available at Medi Tresse to help address hair thinning. To talk to one of our staff members about laser therapy and see if it’s right for you, contact us.
Posted by Mary Wendel, M.D.
