Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsIt really works!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2022
I have tried many remedies to improve my thinning hair over the years. Here is my story that describes what worked and what didn't work for me.
Bottom line about the laser cap: it works! - in combination with other treatments, as I will report.
I am a female, mid 70s, never had thick hair, but it started thinning severely after menopause. Several years ago, when my hair loss became really noticeable I decided to go for hair transplant surgery. I knew it would take 12 to 18 months for the hair to grow back in, but I got impatient within a couple months and started using minoxidil (5% foam) once a day in the area on top of my head where thinning was worst. After about a year the results were looking pretty good. For several more years I continued using minoxidil, but eventually it was clear I was once again losing hair. Obviously the hair transplant worked initially but did not give permanent improvement, and the minoxidil was not sufficient to prevent hair loss.
I lost faith in minoxidil at this point, and switched to the popularly advertised supplement Viviscal. I used Viviscal faithfully for a full year (stopping minoxidil). I saw that my hair loss got much worse over this time. I was seeing severe bald spots on top of my head and was pretty desperate. My conclusion about Viviscal is that it had absolutely no beneficial result in my experience.
Based on my experience so far, I concluded that the surgery worked, but the results were not permanent. My underlying condition caused me to still lose hair. I believe minoxidil probably slowed the rate of hair loss somewhat. I reached that conclusion since after I stopped minoxidil completely and switched to Vivisical, the rate of hair loss became much worse.
After that year using Viviscal I was pretty desperate and decided to try the laser cap. This was 6 months ago. I stopped Viviscal, went back to using minoxidil same way as before (5% foam once a day), and started using the laser cap as instructed, 25 minutes every other day. I also started taking a biotin supplement (5 mg per day) at the same time.
The way I gauge hair loss is by "combing" my wet hair with my fingers every morning and checking how much hair comes out on my fingers. During the Viviscal days, my daily hair loss was significant. Within a few weeks of starting the laser cap/ minoxidil/ biotin hair loss dropped a lot, and within a few months it dropped to virtually zero.
I will say that I found the minoxidil led to pretty significant dandruff and scalp itching within about a month's time. I switched to a popular dandruff shampoo and increased my hair-washing frequency to 4-5 times a week. The dandruff & itching came under control pretty quickly and has not been a problem since then.
After about 3 months of using the laser cap I started to feel a little fuzziness under my fingertips when I rubbed the top of my head and thought it might be a sign of new hair growth. I started to see gray hairs emerging and had to color my hair a little more quickly than I normally would. But that was a good thing!
After 6 months, I am definitely seeing good hair growth on top of my head. Other people, including my doctor, have also commented that my hair is looking better. However – and this is interesting – I realized my hair is quite thin in the upper back of my head, where I was not using minoxidil (even though the laser cap does hit that region). I also notice some other thin hair areas in spots where I was not applying minoxidil. This leads me to believe it is the combination of the laser cap and minoxidil that gives the good result. I am now using minoxidil over a larger area.
I hope to see improvements in these other thinning areas over the next several months and will update this review.
I feel like there is a farming analogy here – when you are farming you have to first prepare the soil by tilling or aerating or something like that. You also need fertilizer. I see the laser cap as "preparing the soil" and the minoxidil as the "fertilizer". Not sure about the biotin contribution but I continue to use it.
I plan to keep using the laser cap indefinitely but probably after I feel I have reached my personal best for hair growth I will cut back on minoxidil. If hair loss starts to become apparent I think I will notice it right away and can increase the minoxidil.
One complaint I have about the laser cap is that it does not stay in place during use unless I keep my face pointed slightly downward (which is awkward). If I face forward, the cap tends to slip to the back and fall off unless I hold it in place. There should be a better way of keeping the cap from slipping backward when the user is facing forward.
I also have a concern about the power cord. No matter how careful I am with it, the cord forms "kinks" which I have to carefully untwist every time. So far this has not caused a problem but I think that eventually this could be a failure mechanism. I would suggest either a different type of wire that does not kink so easily, or else change the design so the wire can be easily replaced if it becomes necessary.
I am very pleased with my hair growth using the laser cap.
