Androgenetic alopecia – also known as male pattern baldness – is a known disease that causes hair fall in men and women. Androgenetic alopecia is the most common form of hair fall seen in both men and women. The reason behind this disease is entirely genetic.
Red light therapy has been in use for quite some time now. This equipment has respectively been used in different doctor’s chambers, skincare centers, and various therapy centers. But, there was always controversy surrounding whether this kind of light therapy really works or not.
The recent development in the production of LED lights has seen different organizations taking it upon themselves to help people get red light products in their homes. With mass production, the product has seen a fall in price, making it accessible to a wide range of customers.
Causes & Symptoms of Hair Loss
Depending on what is causing it, there are many distinct ways that hair loss can manifest. It can affect only your scalp or entire body and start off suddenly or gradually.
Hair loss symptoms and signs might include:
- Hair thinning out gradually on top of the head: As people get older, they are more likely to have this sort of hair loss. At the hairline on the forehead, hair frequently starts to recede in men. Typically, women’s hair parts are wider than men’s. A receding hairline is a hair loss pattern that older women experience more frequently (frontal fibrosing alopecia).
- Patches or circles of baldness: On the scalp, beard, or brows, some people experience bald spots that are round or spotty. Before your hair falls out, it could hurt or irritate your skin.
- Hair suddenly becomes looser: Hair may become loose due to a physical or mental trauma. You might lose a few handfuls of hair when brushing, washing, or even with a bit of tugging. Although transient, this form of hair loss typically results in general hair thinning.
- Complete body hair loss: Hair loss can occur all over your body as a result of some diseases and medical procedures, such as chemotherapy for cancer. Usually, the hair grows back.
- Scaling that appears in large patches all over the scalp: This is a ringworm symptom. Broken hair, redness, swelling, and occasionally leaking may also be present.
Could Red Light Therapy Work for Hair Loss?
It was only a matter of time until scientists got to the bottom of this kind of light therapy’s efficacy. As numerous studies have been underway for years, the results are starting to come in and are very positive!
The study in question was conducted with 81 patients of androgenetic alopecia, their ages ranging from 18 to 65 years. The study was conducted with every single detailed measure in mind. For example, the research was done even with the placebo implications as a factor.
To get the best results, the researchers divided the volunteers or patients into two separate groups. One group was given the primary treatment of red light therapy from a LED red light device, and the rest of the group was provided therapy with a fake tool that was not really red light therapy.
Over the course of 26 weeks, the patients received the treatment for 10 minutes per day. 90% of the patients that received the original treatment completed the study, in contrast with 88% of those in the group that received fake treatment.
In the words of Rodney Sinclair, the primary study investigator himself, “we specifically designed this clinical trial with the rigor of a pharmaceutical trial.” It only goes on to further strengthen the position of this study compared to minuscule studies that have proven red light therapy to work.
The results of the study were primarily presented at the 2020 Winter Clinical Dermatology Conference, which took place in Hawaii. The results were remarkable by proving that the group that received the original treatment had 26.3 more hairs per cm than those who received the placebo treatment.
Moreover, the clinical data in the study proved that red light therapy significantly reduced burning, itching, and irritation that the research participants previously had. 83.4% of the participants receiving the original treatment reported “never” or “rarely” having pruritus, which means scalp itches.
On the contrary, only 44% of the volunteers receiving placebo treatments could report the same for themselves. The study proves that red light therapy is a viable option, maybe one of the few, for treating hair loss. This study will open doors for other researchers to dive deeper into the realm of red light therapy to prove its other benefits.
Uses of Red Light Therapy For Hair Growth
There are several types of light therapy based on the wavelength and the color of the light, and red light therapy is one of them. So far, we have found red light therapy to have the most benefits among all others based on several pieces of research.
Red light helps to reduce inflammation and accelerate the process of healing, which helps to get better skin health. Being light of the visible spectrum, you can easily see the light coming out of the red light therapy devices, and red light is bioactive in humans.
This means our bodies respond to red light in a very beneficial way, and this process is similar to our bodies reacting to sunlight. Actually, red light therapy devices work to mimic the sunlight, and this helps a lot to tackle different problems such as SAD, broken sleep cycle, etc., with red light therapy. Red light can create more energy in our body cells.
At-Home Red Light Therapy for Hair Loss
The connection between hair loss and red light therapy was discovered accidentally back in the 1960s. Mice were being used for a test of chemotherapy, and doses of chemo made the mice lose their hair. But the hair grew back again with the help of red light. And the new hairs were a lot thicker than the old ones.
Light therapy technologies of the present day also work in a very similar way. They use high-powered LED lights to saturate one’s body with doses of light that are very therapeutic. And among all the other types of lights, red light and infrared light therapy work the best for hair loss treatment. You need to know that there will be no side effects such as pain, burning, or damaging the skin.
You may use red light therapy devices to treat hair loss conveniently at home without making an appointment and going for expensive therapy sessions.
Red light therapy works to grow hair by increasing the blood flow to the hair scalp. And due to that, the metabolism gets stimulated in the follicles of the hair. This later results in the production of more hair on your head.
When you are losing your hair, the hair is lost but not the follicles; they still remain there. The follicles look like tubes, and they are responsible for anchoring your hair to the skin of your head. There are hair bulbs at the base of each of the follicles, and in parts of the bulbs, hairs start to grow.
The things that we usually call hair are, in general, a protein that goes by the name of keratin, and it makes up the shaft of the hair. When the cells of the hair follicles and parts of the hair bulbs don’t function properly, they can’t grow hair properly anymore. And as a result, the hair growth of a person slows down or completely stops.
And to treat the condition, red light has the perfect potential as it can penetrate the skin and go through to the base of the hair follicles. And that creates a stimulating effect on the hair cells and hair bulbs, which produces more energy. This allows the cells to replicate themselves successfully and much more efficiently. The end result of this is more hair growth and growth in previously-dormant cells.Â
Red light also helps to generate more ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which works to fuel the body cells. An increase in ATP levels increases the activity of hair follicles, and the rate of their replication also increases.
The increased energy in the cell of hair follicles makes sure of more hair growth. The production of collagen also increases due to red light therapy. Collagen is an antioxidant that fights damage caused by free radicals, which are compounds that damage the hair follicles.
Final Words
After reading the above article, you now understand the many ways in which red light therapy can aid with hair loss problems. Not to mention the additional benefits that it offers! Plus, when used correctly and regularly, one may even experience a thicker growth of healthier-looking hair than ever before. Therefore, if you are facing any hair loss issues, you should give red light therapy a shot today.
FAQ
Does red light therapy regrow hair?
According to a solid body of peer-reviewed clinical studies, red light therapies have enhanced hair count, hair density, and hair thickness for both men and women.
How frequently should you do red light therapy for hair growth?
Stimulate your hair follicles and reduce the amount of hair you’re losing by treating yourself to 10-20 minutes of red and near-infrared light three to five times per week. To sustain hair growth over time, you can cut down on the frequency of sessions to one to four times per week after one to four months.
