Laser Hair Therapy debate between Dr. Bauman and Dr. Feller

Dr. Alan Feller · August 27, 2007

How wonderful it was to have a public forum like "The Bald Truth" radio program to debate questionable modalities of hair loss treatment like laser therapy. For a long time I've wanted to debate a "cold laser" industry advocate publicly, but there were never any takers when I would ask. However, I think the national recognition Kobren has earned over the years as a consumer advocate made his request one that couldn't be refused or ignored on the part of the industry. The following are my thoughts and opinion of the debate.

On Sunday August 26 on XM-radio Dr. Alan Bauman and I debated the merits of low power laser therapy for hair loss. Dr. Bauman was given the floor to make his case for laser therapy, but he failed to do so. One might have expected him to point us to a website that demonstrated undeniable and mind blowing before/after photos and testimonials, but he couldn't. Instead, he gave us a website of photos that would easily be torn apart by educated viewers like readers of the Hair Transplant Network.

None of these photos showed any significant change after "treatment" and the usual deceptive photography practices were well represented: such as the wetting of the hair in the before photo and then showing dry puffed out hair in the after photo; or showing the scalp in the before photo at one angle and then the after photo at another angle to make an area APPEAR to have grown hair, or showing the existing hair cut short in the before photo and grown out longer in the after photo. Of course there was no clinical information about the medical history of these laser "patients" so we can't know what medications they were on before, during, or after "treatment". How convenient.

Without convincing photos he really couldn't establish that the supposed phenomenon of "laser induced hair growth" was a reality. But that didn't dissuade him one bit. He then launched into a well rehearsed list of scientific studies, texts, and papers that supposedly supported the existence of the phenomenon. This was supposed to quiet me, and while some of the sources he cited sounded a little impressive, most sounded outright ridiculous and laughable-like his reference to Russian scientific evidence.

I was prepared for this tactic and was able to dismiss any and all supposed scientific evidence out of hand by simply pointing out that you can't use the scientific method to prove a phenomenon that doesn't exist in the first place. That's putting the cart before the horse and is an invalid way of demonstrating the existence of a phenomenon. It's like looking for the details a crime when NO crime ever took place. Plainly stated- if you can't see a cosmetically significant change in hair volume and/or coverage after "treatment" with just your own eyes then there simply is NO phenomenon to speak of or study in depth. This is just common sense.

A phenomenon is SELF EVIDENT and doesn't need scientific evaluation to prove its existence. For example, the Northern Lights are a well known and easily described PHENOMENON, you do not have to understand the scientific aspects of electro-magnetic radiation, atmospheric distortion, and solar wind to witness it, you only need to open your eyes and look. The growth of hair from laser light therapy does not suffer from such obviousness and so does NOT exist as a valid phenomenon. If it is not an existing phenomenon, then only someone with an agenda will attempt to "study" it. Think of s???©ance mediums at the turn of the 20th century.

In reality, the "science" that Dr. Bauman presented had absolutely nothing to do with the growth of hair using laser light. Rather I believe it was a hodge-podge of studies that were thrown out in an effort to lead a lay public to INFER that a non-existent phenomenon had scientific support. The connections were as weak and tenuous as those presented in support of wild theories about UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, and the Loch Ness Monster.My personal favorite was the paper Dr. Bauman cited about how ATP is "energized" when in the presence of laser light. I think both the public and the scientific community deserve better than that when handing him thousands of dollars for a treatment that uses a phenomenon that does not exist.

Dr. Bauman's credibility really came under fire when it was found out that the ONE person who called the show in support of the laser comb turned out to be HIS OWN PATIENT. This would not have been such a scandal except for the fact that neither Dr. Bauman nor the caller disclosed this very important fact until I started questioning what the caller was claiming. When it came out who the caller really was and that Dr. Bauman actually put him up to it behind the scenes, Mr. Kobren stated on the air that he was never informed that the caller was a patient of Dr. Bauman.

I can't state what Dr. Bauman's intentions were when he asked this patient to clandestinely call in on behalf of laser hair treatments that he sells for thousands of dollars, but I have my suspicions.

Also note that throughout the entire 2 hour live broadcast, only ONE person called in supporting laser therapy. For a show that reaches millions of people each week I think that's enough evidence to show that no such phenomenon exists. It seems that the only people who claim such a phenomenon exists are those who stand to benefit from it -not very convincing to me.

Why is it that grocery store check out clerks whose hands are exposed to laser light all day do not complain of excess hair growth on the hands or forearms? Why is it that people who work in laser printer factories or laboratories that use lasers all day have not reported unwanted hair growth? The obvious answer is that there is no such phenomenon.

The bottom line is that I am convinced my position is correct simply because I know and understand what lasers are. "Laser" is NOT a substance as laser therapy advocates would have you believe, but rather a form of energy. As such it does not contain any mystical powers and cannot affect cellular material in anyway other than to transfer the energy into to heat.

If lasers positively affected the body at the cellular level then advocates of laser therapy would have us implant fiber optics throughout our bodies and light ourselves up like an internal Christmas tree, and while this may sound silly, it is only marginally more ridiculous than shining a laser pointer on your head and expecting it to grow hair.

I look forward to continuing the debate with Dr. Bauman on this forum.

Dr. Alan Feller · August 27, 2007