I’ve had long, thick hair for most of my life. Right up until my early forties, in fact, when large handfuls of my hair started falling out in the shower. “Why is this happening?” I asked my doctor at the time, as my front part began widening at an alarming rate.
My doctor ran thyroid tests, iron-deficiency tests, and pretty much every other test except for the estrogen and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) labs that, a couple years later, would ultimately indicate the problem: perimenopause. Fluctuating estrogen and progesterone hormones in the years right before menopause often cause a dominance of androgens, or male hormones like testosterone and androstenedione. In genetically susceptible women (like me, apparently), such androgens can shrink hair follicles and cause pattern baldness.
This was new information to me. I knew older women often wore their hair in a short, fluffy bouffant, but until I started shedding, I thought it was a style thing, not a strategy to cover their balding heads. I knew I was now in a race against time, so the concept of red-light devices for hair growth caught my attention—specifically, the quick-treatment Hairmax LaserBand, which only takes 30 seconds for each area of your head. (I do three sessions to cover my scalp.) As a full-time working parent, my daily mental load already defies the laws of physics; if a beauty regimen takes longer than a minute or two, I’m probably just not going to do it.
I’ve now been using the Hairmax for five months, and while the results didn’t exactly constitute a miracle, they were definitely noticeable.
Laser-Sharp
Clinical trials have shown that red-light therapy can help increase blood circulation and reduce inflammation, which can lead to increased collagen production in the skin. It’s not a huge leap to see how this benefit could extend to hair follicles in the scalp. In fact, studies show that red light can energize hair follicles and lower levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is another androgen that can cause hair loss.
Red light can also support the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), an energy-carrying molecule that helps existing follicles remain in the hair-growth phase. However, while these devices can promote a healthy environment for living hair follicles, they can’t revive follicles that are scarred or long dormant. If parts of your scalp are totally bald and shiny, you may need to go to Turkey after all.
The Hairmax LaserBand, a 3-inch-thick blue headband with teeth, looks a lot like a shark mouth when sitting on its charging cradle, which is both a handy resting place and keeps it charged at all times. It’s pricey—a few hundred more than similar devices. But unlike a lot of competitors, like CurrentBody’s LED helmet and HigherDose’s ball cap-style hat, the LaserBand contains no LEDs in favor of more targeted red-light laser diodes. (Some competitors, like GroWell and iRestore, use a mix of LEDs and laser diodes.)