Can Laser Therapy Regrow Hair?

Have you heard of laser therapy for hair loss? If you are suffering from hair loss and have been looking into options to promote new hair growth then you may have seen advertisements for the low level laser therapy solutions for hair loss. You may have a hard time believing such an odd device can actually play a role in helping you re-grow you hair, prevent baldness and give you a healthier head of full hair. You may have believed that the whole laser for hair growth idea is no more than a scan or a passing, useless fad. We all know the health care industry, especially when it comes to areas of personal health and cosmetic issues like hair growth can be rife with scams. Most of us can remember a time when every television channel and health store was selling electric abdominal exercise belts. They charged anywhere form 10 dollars to 80 dollars but unfortunately they never worked. In the 10 years since they have been hocked on every television channel and health food store they have never been proven and no one can credit them with a single pound of weight loss, much less a perfect six pack. In the past there have been fad diets, miracle cures and any and all imaginable snake oil cures peddled for any disease imaginable. It is the nature of man to attempt to make money off the needy, the desperate and those who are willing to pay good money on a dream and a chance. Such incidents have taught the majority of people to be skeptical of claims that sound too good to be true.

When you are suffering from hair loss it can seem as though many people are promising a lot, fantastic cures and guaranteed hair growth. A lot of those products are scams, but some of them actually work and have scientific proof behind their claims. Low level light therapy or low level laser treatment is a scientifically proven hair growth tool. In fact the hairmax laser comb has been approved by the FDA for specifically this purpose. It has been shown that low light laser therapy shows benefits in hair growth. In fact low light laser therapy acts in many ways to promote hair growth. One of the ways is by stimulating the mitochondria, the energy factories of the cells to produce more energy, making the cells more active and promoting cellular growth and cell-cell interactions. Low light laser therapy has also been shown to decrease proteins that mark for inflammation and increase protein that promote healing and growth in certain types of cells (Gigo-Benato,2010).

While the claims may still seem fantastic, maybe unbelievable the science is actually stands behind the claims. A recent review in a leading, peer-reviewed journal has shown that over the last 20 years and in over 3 dozen scientific studies published the low-level laser therapy has been shown to have positive, supportive effects on cell growth and regeneration. This is the case when used for hair loss, baldness, and hair regrowth as well as skin growth, tissue regeneration and wound healing. It has also been shown to be beneficial in treating certain skin infections, including infections that can lead directly to hair loss (Peplow, 2010).

In some studies vessel growth and blood flow have been positively associated with groups receiving treatment with low level laser therapy, while those treated with just a normal light did not show such benefit. The normal light in that case was used as a placebo, in the interest of proving that the therapy itself was the cause of the improvement rather than chance or just the act of being in the study (Dutta, 2010). Given that low-level light therapy is being studied for use in many different medical fields the true way it works in increasing hair growth and reversing baldness is move likely via multiple different mechanisms. The amount of chances seen with these therapies are numerous (Hamblin, 2006) and it would be nearly impossible to identify the one most important change that leads to hair regrowth. The important thing to realize is that it has been shown to work (Yamazaki, 2003).

If you are losing your hair and becoming bald, and you want to cure your baldness and hair loss, low level laser therapy has been proven to be safe, and has been shown to be effective. In the United States there is even an FDA approved product available for you to use to help you regrow your hair. The hairmax comb was studied and vetted by the same regulatory body that reviews drugs used in cancer and heart disease.

If you are dealing with hair loss, and would like to give yourself the best opportunities to prevent baldness and regrow your hair don’t be too afraid to try a new method. While you may be suspicious of these claims there are many studies that support the benefit fo low light laser therapy in hair growth, unlike other fads and miracle cures the laser therapy has been tested and retested and its claims continue to hold. Do not wait until you are too bald to benefit. Take pro-active steps in preventing your hair loss, see your doctor to be evaluated before you start this therapy if you would like, but take into account that the hairmax laser comb has been approved as safe for home use by the FDA and that other similar products use the same technology (for example X5 laser comb is an excellent product and also cheaper). Bottom line is – low light laser therapy is a safe and effective starting option for all, men and women.

Scientific References:
1. Gigo-Benato D, Russo TL, Tanaka EH, Assis L, Salvini TF, Parizotto NA “Effects of 660 and 780 nm low-level laser therapy on neuromuscular recovery after crush injury in rat sciatic nerve.” Lasers Surg Med. 2010 Nov;42(9):673-82.

2. Peplow PV, Chung TY, Baxter GD. “Laser photobiomodulation of proliferation of cells in culture: a review of human and animal studies.” Photomed Laser Surg. 2010 Aug;28 Suppl 1:S3-40

3. Dutta D, Ray S, Home P, Saha B, Wang S, Sheibani N, Tawfik O, Cheng N, Paul S. “Regulation of angiogenesis by histone chaperone HIRA-mediated incorporation of lysine 56-Acetylated histone H3.3 at chromatin domains of endothelial genes.” J Biol Chem. 2010 Nov 1.

4. Hamblin MR, Demidova TN. “Mechanisms of low level light therapy.” Proc SPIE (2006), 6140. 10:1-12

5. Yamazaki M. Miura Y. Tsuboi R. Ogawa H. “Linear polarized infrared irradiation using Super Lizer is an effective treatment for multiple-type alopecia areata.” International Journal of Dermatology. (2003) 42(9):738-40.