Patient’s Question:

I have thinning hair on the crown of my head that is creeping outward but I don’t want to have a surgical procedure. Is laser therapy a good option for me? Will it re-grow my hair?

Dr. Friedman’s Answer:

As long as one has some residual hair still present, what we call “miniaturized hairs” as they are shorter in length and finer in texture, there is a very good chance that low-level laser therapy will regenerate those hairs and reverse the miniaturization. The only drawback is that because the hair follicle has a memory, you have to continue laser treatment indefinitely. If you stop the laser therapy, eventually the hair progression is going to continue.

This would be equivalent to somebody taking a medication because they have high blood pressure. As long as they take the medication, their blood pressure is under control.  If they stop taking the medication, their blood pressure is going to rise. The same thing is going to happen with laser therapy or Propecia, a hair loss medication. If you stop either one of those, eventually the hair will continue to fall out and progress to what it would have been had there been no intervention.

Laser therapy is very successful as long as you can catch the hair loss at a very early stage. If somebody is bald over the crown, then the only thing that is going to get the hair to come back is a hair transplant. Laser therapy is not going to re-grow hair where there is no hair. Laser therapy will only work if there is still some hair present. If there are no functioning roots or follicles, laser therapy will not produce hair growth. 

Thank you for your inquiry. Please call us at 480.500.7443 or send us an EMAIL if you have any further questions.

— Dr. Shelly Friedman, DO
Board Certified Hair Restoration Surgeon
Arizona’s Most Trusted Hair Loss Doctor
Named Phoenix Magazine’s Top Doc – Hair Transplant Surgeon

 

 

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Written on September 15, 2017 | Categories: Hair Growth, Hair Loss Prevention, Laser Therapy, Non-Surgical Hair Loss Treatment | Tags: , ,