It seems someone has got around to pre-treating the scalp with laser prior to finasteride application under laboratory conditions, we look closer.
Fractionated Laser
First developed in 2003 fractional laser treatment was proposed as a new method for treating skin that needed resurfacing. Suitable for clients suffering from wrinkles, acne chicken pox or transplant/surgery scars, it has also been used to treat freckles and other issues with pigmentation.
How It Works
Fractionated laser is different because it enables surgeons to treat thousands of tiny locations at once, importantly it leaves untouched healthy skin between the treatment areas which promotes swift healing of the treated areas. Typical recovery time from this type of treatment is 24 to 36 hours. The laser treatment itself is believed to enhance the properties of topical medicines by accelerating their effectiveness through increased blood supply to the “wound.”
Laser/Finasteride Study
Combination therapies are increasingly common in hair loss clinics. So it should come as little surprise that someone has taken the time to investigate the potential upside in treating patients with laser followed by finasteride … one of only two FDA approved hair loss medicines and maybe better known under the brand name Propecia.
A Brazilian team took four androgenetic alopecia sufferers, that is four men with inherited baldness, and treated them with a “non-ablative erbium glass fractional laser” prior to applying finasteride and some other growth factors (fibroplast growth factor; insulin-like growth factor; vascular endothelial growth factor and copper peptide). Each patient received a total of eight treatments. The team report that photographs taken 2 weeks after the course has finished showed improvement in hair regrowth and density with no significant side effects reported.
HIS Hair Clinic
We won’t get too excited just yet. Not least because four patients is as small a study as we have ever read about. That said, the underlying technology of fractional laser has definitely earned it’s stripes in the field of skin repair, and the benefits (and risks) of finasteride are well known. So we will continue to monitor progress and report back with advances as and when we see them.
If you would like to discuss your hair loss situation with one of our team of friendly experts, simply complete the contact form at the side of this page or click here to find your nearest clinic.
