January 23 2009, 3:32 pm PT | Posted in: Hair Products
Hi Doc,
I am going to be starting the LUCE lds 100 laser treatment soon. Ive been losing hair for about a yr and half. I am currently 22. From your experience, what chances do you see of the treatment working on me? I’ve been on propecia for 5 months. Thinning on my crown is noticeable if pointed out. And the temples have receded slightly.
Thank you
In my personal opinion, lasers do not work to regrow hair. I base this on my experience with seeing many patients who have tried all sorts of lasers (from the big ones in clinics to the handheld models), and I have not seen it work. As I’ve mentioned before, I had a medical grade laser in my office for a year and offered free treatment, of which some patients chose to take advantage. None objectively grew any hair unless they used some medication like finasteride or minoxidil. I recall one patient who spent nearly $5000 on such laser treatments with another doctor for over a year, and as much as he wished and hoped that his money wasn’t wasted, the laser simply didn’t work for him.
If you are balding, there is no simple cure. You wanted a statistical assessment, so I’ll say that my best guess is a 0% chance of laser treatment working to regrow your hair. There are medications and/or surgery to address it, but there are always limitations.
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And remember - the pivotal, placebo-controlled (or any) clinical study that Lexington International cites on their web page and noted in a March 2008 response on the Balding Blog web site has yet to be published. Indeed, there is not a single publication of any controlled clinical trial with the LaserComb in the medical literature. This is a major red flag as such publication is the only true way for consumers and health care professionals to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of any treatment. While rare, absence of published trials is due to two reasons either singly or in combination: (a) the Sponsor (Lexington) does not believe that the data is adequate to support claims or be published or (b) data has been submitted but has been deemed inadequate by journal reviewers and editors to warrant publication. As an experience clinical trialist, presentation of the data on the Lexington web page reads as if it was put together by sales and marketing folks and not scientists, which should come as no surprise given the aforementioned absence of published results in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Dr.L, I also share your skepticism of lasers for hair restoration. To add to the list of red flags, the FDA study does exist online, but it seems that Lexington only provides it to people who support its use. If you want to take a look at it and share your thoughts about it just go to the following link:
http://home.arcor.de/gekkehenk/HW/Laser/01.22.08.Hairmax%20LaserComb%20FDA%20Clinical%20Study%20Report.pdf
I’ve been wanting to hear what an experienced clinician thinks about this ever since the Lasercomb was cleared.