Dr. Shelly Friedman uses LLLT to combat hair loss for 65 year old female

[Carly]

Patient had been experiencing hair loss for quite awhile. She couldn’t get her hair to grow longer than 2inches. Patient came to us in hopes of not using her wig anymore. Patient kept a consistent routine with laser treatment. Patient saw within a few months a dramatic acceleration in hair growth and an overall thickening of the hair. Patient is thrilled to not be constricted to a wig and is comfortable in her own hair now. We will post her newest photo’s soon!

[Spanker]

Any way you could get her to cut her hair again for a more scientific approach?

 

Her hair looks better, but it is much longer and styled in a "comb over" fashion.

 

LLT up to now, as I understand it, is snake oil.

 

Is this lady on any medication?

 

If not, a nice haircut and info about any medications she is taken would help quite a bit in the claim that LLT is legit.

[Blake Bloxham]

Carly,

 

Though the topic of LLLT is still a bit controversial, I really like these cases. It's interesting to see how this treatment may work in women with diffuse thinning, and I look forward to seeing more research with the technique.

[RCWest]

This is very impressive considering the previous disappointment in LLLT. What kind of unit is it? Is it the small hand held version or the large office type?

[Spanker]

This is very impressive considering the previous disappointment in LLLT. What kind of unit is it? Is it the small hand held version or the large office type?

 

 

I don't want to sound like a jerk about this, but I can not tell that it is an impressive change, because of the hair length and the faux hawk pushed toward the center of her head where she was thinnest in the pre treatment photo.

 

The reason that I bring this up is that I definitely think that unproven treatments should be challenged on this forum, because this is where people come to learn.

 

People with hair loss are so vulnerable, and lets face it, sometimes so gullible, that they will not question this result or the science behind it, and then we have people getting suckered out of their money because we, as educated forum members, failed to challenge the result and ask for more data.

 

If LLLT was legit at all, we would like have a forum dedicated to it and its successes.

 

Sorry to be the Debbie Downer of this thread, just trying to keep it real.

[Janna]

For just a LLLT device used, I happen to think it's a great transformation. I never expected a total miracle from them....just a subtle difference to get you over that threshold. Carly mentioned this patient couldn't grow her hair beyond 2 inches before. The fact that it's grown longer is a positive benefit. More power to her if she'd agree to cutting her hair again but you're talking about someone who couldn't grow her hair. It'd probably break her heart to purposely cut her hair now. I have to say, I'm well impressed. I too am curious as to which LLLT device was used.

 

I hope more and more patients document their cases with LLLT devices so we can see if it truly works or doesn't. I have my doubts about the lasers but I'll keep an open mind. From what I can tell, they seem to be getting better from just a few short years ago.

[Spanker]

So not being able to grow longer than 2 inches, is that from the turn over rate of get hair? It was falling out before it got longer than that, or was it because she was wearing a wig?

 

I will try to keep a cautious open mind about them.

 

Janna, I would not seriously expect her to cut her hair either, my point is, like I made earlier, if they did work, there would be enough results to have a forum dedicated to them. I have never, in my over 2 years on this board, seen a patient come on here and say that LLLT made a real difference for them.

 

I hope they are getting better and do start to make a difference.

[Carly]

Thank you for the comments in regards to the latest post.

The hair was not combed over as you can see in her previous "before picture" it is growing in that direction. The "after" photo is only 2 1/2 months after her before picture.

I completely felt the same way about laser. I felt it was snake oil and that it was a con... When our colleagues started using laser therapy and telling us of the results they experienced we purchased our first unit. I treated patients for a year free of charge to see what it could do. It was trial an error at first to see what worked.

Now we have it down, we have been using laser for the past 5 years. We have our patients use laser cap in conjunction with using our lasers in our office. We have a routine that works with the patients as long as they are consistent we can stop the loss and hopefully reverse the miniaturization. Again, this is not guaranteed but since women don’t have many options- we feel it’s been crucial in combating hair loss.

Studies have shown since the 60’s that they have known that laser are beneficial for hair loss. It's just now over the past 10 or so years that it is getting alot of exposure.

Again, you have to be a candidate for laser and have miniaturization to see results of more density. Many people use the comb for 20 mins and don't see a difference. The problem is its 20 mins in each area not total for the entire scalp. The key is patient education on laser and correct usage.

We of course use not only photo’s and microscopic photo’s to gage the success but we use a hair check system. This measures a 2x2 sq. centimeter of the worst area. It is measured so we get the exact area again to track the success. The unit gives us a read of the exact amount of density and we re-check every 6 months. This gives us a more comprehensive look at the patients density and their loss. This way it’s not just the photo’s that we are showing . But its something tangible showing they are having success or not.

[Blake Bloxham]

Carly,

 

Thank you for the information. Has Dr. Friedman ever really considered conducting a legitimate research experiment with LLLT?

 

From the information you've provided above, it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to set up a study and add some real legitimacy to the LLLT argument.

 

It would be great to investigate this further!

[RCWest]

If her hair was falling out after it reached 2 inches, it must be cycling every 4-5 months. Something made a difference here.