David Sinclair recommends Laser Hats for hair loss. Anyone have done a deep dive into the best ones?

[HairRun]

David Sinclair recommend lllt for hair loss. 

I am wondering which is the best value ones to buy. 

So far I've been having trouble figuring out which are the best ones. I saw that some just use LEDs, where as you want one that actually use lasers. 

There are some that sell for 700, while others sell for like 3k. There also those with a diode count. 

 

[LookMaxx]

If they worked nobody would use finasteride. 

Save your money 

[IMM1979]

9 hours ago, HairRun said:

David Sinclair recommend lllt for hair loss. 

I am wondering which is the best value ones to buy. 

So far I've been having trouble figuring out which are the best ones. I saw that some just use LEDs, where as you want one that actually use lasers. 

There are some that sell for 700, while others sell for like 3k. There also those with a diode count. 

 

I use the Original Laser Cap as an adjunct treatment. It is expensive but I found a source that sells it new at half price if you get interested. Started a thread on it but there was not much interest, so stopped posting. Have had fast growth though - can't pinpoint it is due to Lasercap but think it definitely helps.

[Melvin- Admin]

The original laser cap is the best one from my research.

[HairRun]

5 hours ago, IMM1979 said:

I use the Original Laser Cap as an adjunct treatment. It is expensive but I found a source that sells it new at half price if you get interested. Started a thread on it but there was not much interest, so stopped posting. Have had fast growth though - can't pinpoint it is due to Lasercap but think it definitely helps.

Yes, very interested! 

[HairRun]

It seems that a lot of them are pretty solid 

Dr Shapiro offered me a discount on one call HairSmart

 

Hair Growth Laser Cap272 - Low Laser Therapy Hat at Best Price – MyHairSmart

I'm trying to see if this is as solid as the other ones. But so far there I haven't seen anything in terms of studies or review so probably going with one of the established ones, Laser Cap, Cappillus, or HairMax.

This study mentions Kiieer and illlumniflow with 272 diodes for under 1000. Tempting, but I don't think there's been much studies done on them over the older 3. 

https://sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net/10.1016/j.det.2021.04.002

I can see why @Melvin- Moderator picked the original Laser Cap. Their board is really impressive, including Dr Haber from the coalition. Hairmax and Cappillus doesn't mention their board or who oversees their devices or anything like that. 

 

 

[MissMyLongHair]

The potential effect is too neglibile for how much money they cost.

[Antlor]

If you're the type of person that fidgets or has a little bit of OCD, then a laser helmet or cap might work for you. I have one and I use it daily for 25 minutes. Namely, I put it on while I am in front of my desk and typing away on my laptop. However, if you like to keep your life simple and are busy, then LLLT might not be the right fit.

I think LLLT works a little bit especially if you have not used it in a long while. If I don't have one, I probably wouldn't go out of the way to get one.

It is expensive. For instance, let's say it's $500 and finasteride is $10 annually, then you can have 50 years worth of finasteride. Not to mention the device might break down in 30 years or a better technology comes along later. In addition, finasteride is proven to be effective in slowing down hair loss, whereas in LLLT, the jury is still out. 

 

[IMM1979]

2 hours ago, HairRun said:

Yes, very interested! 

https://knudsen.com.au/shop/. I bought mine here. They are an official distributor for the original Lasercap. You can do the currency conversion and see you are saving $$$$. The caveat is you can only ship it locally in Australia. So I shipped to a friend who then sent it to me overseas. Of course shipping cost varies depending where you live but net net you are still saving around 50% for the same thing. 

[HairRun]

So far from my deep dive, all the companies might be the same. As long as they have the equivalent number of lasers and FDA cleared, they're pretty much the same. When I was discussing with Dr Shapiro, he said pretty much this and my research so far is along these lines. 

Sci-Hub | Energy-based Devices for Hair Loss | 10.1016/j.det.2021.04.002 (hkvisa.net)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8675345/pdf/jcad_14_11_E64.pdf

As far as I can tell, none of these companies actually manufacturers the lasers, they all outsource them, I suspect all to the same manufacturer. I had a chat with Cappillus and they said it's against their company policy to disclose where the lasers comes from. 

On the lasercap website they compare a bunch of brands with j/cm^2 

https://lasercap.com/lasercap-vs-the-competition/

But they don't specify what model of Capillus they are comparing. I asked on the Cappillus chat what are the equivalent measures for this and they said "It does not make sense to express this value in joules since a joule has a time component and our lasers are continuous wave and not pulsed". Which makes sense, so I wonder how LaserCap got those numbers. The only way as far as I can tell is to include the recommended time, which would be misleading since LaserCap can just recommend a longer time and I think that's what happened because if you look at the scihub link, Cappillus' instruction is 6 minutes a day and the lasercap is 15-30. 

I think if Hairmax, lasercap, or capillus had any compelling advantage over the cheaper ones, they would have mentioned it on their website. I think as long as the cap has the same number of diodes and the company selling the device is FDA cleared, it won't make a difference. I bet even the 400$ on Amazon is the same, and if you go off Amazon, you can probably get even cheaper. There seems to be some generic manufacturer that anyone can get custom made for them, like the HAIRLICIOUSLY youtube channel,  https://www.hairliciously.com/products/hairliciously-272-laser-diodes-cap-fda-cleared . 

But I'll go with illumiflow, just in case I need to return it or something. I want to go with a company that's mentioned in one of the research papers. It has a confirmed FDA clearance https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf17/K173843.pdf though I don't know if that means anything, maybe it just means it they looked at his marketing materials. Still, they been around since 2017, and probably will continue to be around, so if I need to use the warranty most likely they'll be around. A cheaper company might disappear on me. 

 

 

[HairRun]

I found another difference between the cheaper and more expensive models, cheaper ones are pulsating, more expensive ones are continuous. Not sure if that makes a difference. 

 

[HairRun]

Pulsing is actually more effective, especially for brown skin, even though it takes more time. The lasercap pages have research cited

https://lasercaplab.com/pulsed-vs-continuous-laser-care/

https://lasercap.com/prescription-strength-technology/

>Results: An increase in the per-session energy fluence by 1 J/cm2 is significantly associated with an increase in hair density by 0.23 hairs/cm2 (95% CI: 0.21 hairs/cm2, 0.25 hairs/cm2). The number of laser or light-emitting diodes is not significantly associated with change in hair density. Increasing the total duration of exposure to treatment is associated with a significant increase in hair density (β=0.53, p<0.05). Switching from continuous to pulse irradiation was associated with a significant increase in hair density (β=10.11, p<0.01)

https://sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net/10.1111/dth.14191

So could be that even the 200$ generic version of 81 diodes would work just as well, but I'll go with 272 because the did find that power does have an effect. 

HairMax also makes a 700 dollar version of the 272 diode hat the main difference is that there's no continuous option, but looking at their amazon page, they don't actually make it. It sounds like they just outsource it to the same shop that makes the generic version that anyone can buy and brand as their own like what hairaliccious had on his page. That person only has a 1 year warranty vs 5 years from illlumniflow. So illlumniflow is my top contender again. 

 

[DickSmith]

I've been using various Lasers from hair max to an ebay cap over the past 12 years. comparing photos my hair loss has almost stopped since using. Hairmax comb laster me 3 years while the ebay caps been going 5 years strong so far.