I’ve been in touch with the Spanish authors of the paper on using laser devices for LPP (see previous post) and the US makers of Hairmax laserband. The Spanish device used in the trial is not available in the UK. If you are using the Hairmax Laserband 82, available from the shop on this site, you would need to use for 12 minutes in each area on a daily basis to achieve a similar energy level as the cap design that they used. This is obviously a lot more than the recommendation for pattern hair loss, but you could cover the whole of the head in half an hour. One of my patients has recommended using for a couple of minutes, switching the device off and on and then using for 10 mins, as the machine cuts out after this time. Hairmax have since brought out another device, called the Hairmax Regrow MD which has 272 lasers. This is a cap based device, but it is fixed in size so may not be so suitable if you have a very big head. This machine has slightly more sophisticated lasers that switch on and off repeatedly, preventing it from over heating. Its’ output is very similar to the one used by Spanish colleagues, so one would use this for 20 minutes every day. Whilst it is more expensive, it does represent very good value. A year ago these devices cost £2-3,000.
It’s important to note that the benefits were only seen at 6 months and it is likely you will need to continue with this device, but it may be possible to decrease the frequency after 6 months. I would be interested in getting real world experience so please get in touch if you find these devices useful.