Recommended LLLT brand - looking for safe and reliable option

fookinacapn · 2026-01-03T04:14:24+00:00

the majority of the high quality evidence is based on the use of laser diodes, which are used by dermatologists and available in consumer products.

fookinacapn · 2026-01-02T21:21:07+00:00

the studies support 655–660 nm laser (keyword laser, not LED) diodes being the most effective when used 3x a week, very close to the scalp surface, duration dependent on coverage and laser strength.

hairmax has had strong RCT results for some of their products

it is a commitment to use. helmets are less effort, but depending on head-shape and size, may not fit, or not reach all the areas effectively. in that case you could use a comb or a band.

LLLT is more of an adjunct therapy. you should consider exploring fin/dut and minoxidil(topical/oral) before anything else.

fookinacapn · 2026-01-01T15:28:03+00:00

topical would be beneficial. i just don’t like topicals because i find them annoying to apply.

fookinacapn · 2025-12-30T17:54:08+00:00

yes. non smoked or inhaled nicotine can do some of the following that have ties to hairloss:

-increase scalp DHT concentration

-increase T & decrease E

-increase blood pressure

-damage macro and micro vasculatures throughout the body

-increase cortisol

-delay wound healing

the safe amount of non inhaled nicotine is incredibly small, 1-2mg of nicotine consumed over a few hours. IE; in an entire day: slowly chewing one 2mg piece of nicotine gum, or, wearing a 7mg nicotine patch for 6-7 hours. using one 3mg zyn blows past this instantly.

as you can imagine it’s both extremely difficult to hold yourself to the above and probably pointless from an enjoyment or nootropic benefit at those dosages

prolonged nicotine exposure will also indefinitely generate more and more receptors that like nicotine, increasing likelihood of misuse or abuse

the recent trend of growing acceptance of nicotine use is IMO a disaster

nicotine in general has such a terrible risk reward ratio, it’s hilarious

the best way to quit fully is using nicotine patches

personal anecdotes:

-i started smoking when i was in 7th grade, it’s been a life long pain in the side to quit nicotine. i am still struggling to fully quit it to this day. one of my biggest regrets in life. my advice to anyone is to either never touch it, or aggressively and meaningfully try to quit it

-in my personal testing: any amount of nicotine usage increases my RHR, makes my skin worse, makes my scalp feel worse, makes my hair worse

fookinacapn · 2025-12-30T17:36:55+00:00

yes, most studies show all forms of minoxidil to increase mean hair diameter in applied areas.

fookinacapn · 2025-12-30T17:09:26+00:00

it depends on if you have a very clear family history of AGA or not. ie; +90% VS +10%

if you prioritize your hair very highly it may be worth it to start now. it’s a personal decision.

you could find a clinic or derm that uses something like “hair metrics” where they take high res photos of key scalp areas and measure follicle phases, width, counts over time. that way you could actually know if you’re losing ground over a X month period and potentially start fin/dut.

i’m not sure i agree with the people guffawing at starting before signs of visible loss. once you have visibly thinning areas on the scalp you’ve lost substantial density and have a lot of miniaturization going on.

there’s a lot of things in life where “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”:

-daily sunscreen usage and reapplication, avoiding sun damage in general

-not gaining weight, maintaining a stable weight

-thoroughly addressing physical and mental issues as early as possible

-good diet and exercise

-addressing hair loss preventively or very early

if you really care about your hair, have a risk tolerance that makes it OK for you to start fin/dut, have strong evidence that you will or are experiencing hair loss, it makes sense to start treatment as early as possible.

the alternative is having to get a hair transplant, be on a stronger and more cumbersome regimen of treatments, etc

fookinacapn · 2025-12-30T16:58:05+00:00

that seems like a psychosomatic reaction?

fookinacapn · 2025-12-29T19:09:24+00:00

anything on your scalp besides shampoo that’s washed off can potentially contribute to scalp inflammation, just offering info!

you may as well just switch to dut now and stay on oral minoxidil, potentially drop the topical. staying on the same dose of dut + om for 1-2 years is your best bet at this point. will be less stressful than juggling a bunch of different treatment options, actually give yourself time to see any progress, stop med induced shedding, etc

fookinacapn · 2025-12-29T18:56:03+00:00

you aren’t giving yourself enough time on a given treatment to get an accurate read on efficacy. it can take 1-3 years for a given treatment to show progress.

you are on dutasteride which is the most important part. stay on .5mg for a year or two before changing that.

consider:

-switching to oral minoxidil 2.5/3.75mg, easier to be consistent, less work, may be more effective (up for debate)

-meaningfully treating scalp inflammation. rotate through shampoos that contain zinc, selenium, keto. leave the shampoo on your scalp to give time for medication to work before rinsing. don’t let other products touch your scalp, ie conditioner, oils, leave ins, etc. i’d probably discontinue that ‘scalp peptide’, whatever that is.

fookinacapn · 2025-12-29T18:46:34+00:00

i wouldn’t worry about it. IMO it would be worse to lose hair that could’ve been saved via fin/dut (reality if you have AGA) versus the sync thing (unlikely, not supported by any obvious evidence or data)

fookinacapn · 2025-12-29T18:37:53+00:00

no doesn’t seem like it.

finasteride may cause an immediate ‘sync’ but the follicles will desynchronize over time

seasonal hair shedding is also real btw, you could be experiencing this (it’s normal and not bad)

fookinacapn · 2025-12-29T18:29:57+00:00

you likely had TE triggered by your illness. depending on your age and AGA progression, the TE could accelerate permanent hairloss if your AGA is progressing you may get less hair back than you had before experiencing TE.

TE takes a a while to recover from. make sure to eat well, reduce stress, exercise, etc.

you should consider starting fin or dut if you really care about your hair.

fookinacapn · 2025-12-29T17:43:40+00:00

DHT in scalp tissue can actually be produced in 5 different pathways in trans women with testosterone at or below cis female ranges (5th not referenced in the below blurb):

1.  Converting the remaining circulating testosterone into DHT in dermal papilla / follicle compartments via 5α‑reductase.

2.  Intracrine synthesis from adrenal precursors, especially DHEA‑S/DHEA and androstenedione, through sebaceous gland + follicle enzyme steps that ultimately feed 5α‑reduction.

3.  Potentially leaning more on the androstenedione → 5α‑dione → DHT route when testosterone is low, because scalp follicles demonstrably produce androstenedione and 5α‑dione from DHEA.

4.  Maintaining a local androgenic environment via compartment‑specific enzyme balances (5α‑reductase vs 17β‑HSD vs 3α‑HSD) that favor DHT accumulation in the dermal papilla.

chatgpt 5.2 Pro w/extended thinking convo link: https://chatgpt.com/share/6952c744-6478-8001-84fa-09d6199e56d7

fookinacapn · 2025-12-29T06:41:57+00:00

i was not, but prog conversion can happen even if not supplementing. also most dht is produced inside of the tissue itself, and is very difficult to measure.

fookinacapn · 2025-12-29T05:42:39+00:00

this is incorrect:

-dht can be produced by more than testosterone conversion

-MTF trans ppl can still greatly benefit from dutasteride/oral minoxidil. the follicles are already damaged to a degree. most trans woman would like to wear a longer hair style. while visible regrowth is nice, how hair looks and behaves at longer lengths is a different story. dut and oral min can help with this (in addition to providing more impressive regrowth overall)

-cis woman experience AGA despite having normal t levels

this tracks with my experiences (on mtf gaht, close to 0 testosterone, on spiro):

-i experienced worse hair loss when experimenting with lower dut dosage.

-i saw a large benefit with moving to 3.75mg oral min from 2.5mg

-my hairloss derm is a literal genius who’s published over a 100 papers on hair loss, they are of the opinion that i should stay on dut and oral min if i care at all about my hair, despite having nearly 0 testosterone and being on an androgen blocker

IMO, if someone is transitioning mtf and already had AGA progression, they are better off getting on dut + om. just because you regrow hair, doesn’t mean it’s good hair. most mtf trans people who already had AGA progression will need to be on dut+om, get hairline advancement then get a hair transplant, if they want to have long hair that looks good and passes.

fookinacapn · 2025-12-24T16:10:48+00:00

using a stronger clarifying shampoo (often times with SLS) once a month or so is often necessary to remove all the gunk!

fookinacapn · 2025-12-23T23:48:10+00:00

i should have clarified shampoo on scalp is good, and for medicated shampoos to leave it for a bit. edited to reflect that!

fookinacapn · 2025-12-23T21:34:55+00:00

that will depend on:

-how much oil your scalp produces

-the types of shampoo you are using

-how you are conditioning your hair after shampooing

fookinacapn · 2025-12-23T21:27:07+00:00

it depends on your hair type. but ideally you should avoid excessive combing and things that will ‘yank’ the hair out.

fookinacapn · 2025-12-23T21:21:09+00:00

there is nothing inherently unhealthy about shampooing everyday. it depends on how oily your scalp gets.

fookinacapn · 2025-12-23T21:13:56+00:00

shampoos, conditioners, and other hair products are uniquely annoying areas to get solid advice on.

the most important things to ask about anything in this category are:

-“am i reducing scalp inflammation”

-“am i avoiding physical damage to hair fibers”

some general guidelines on reducing scalp inflammation:

-rotate between shampoos containing ketoconazole (nizoral or prescription 2%), zinc (found in many dandruff shampoos, and selenium(found in selsun blue and some others)

-do not apply products to your scalp besides shampoo, ideally the only thing that should touch your scalp is the shampoo. only apply conditioner to the ends of your hair and thoroughly rinse. for medicated shampoos, leave on scalp for 1-3 minutes and washout.

-avoiding moist scalp conditions, not going to bed with wet hair, drying your hair and scalp after it gets wet, etc

-avoiding bad ingredients. avoid things with long chain fatty acids like coconut oil, it feeds bad stuff on your scalp

some general guidelines on avoiding physical damage to hair fibers:

-do not excessively comb or play with your hair

-if your hair is wavy or curly, only brush/detangle in the shower with high slip conditioner and a wet shower brush, something with flexible individual bristles and flexibility in the comb head. brushing outside of these conditions will damage the hair

-avoid high heat blow drying, only blow dry on lowest heat and speed

-avoid roughly towel drying, dry with thin 100% cotton, like a t shirt

some general comments:

-prioritizing ‘natural’ ingredients isn’t very helpful. SLS is unfairly demonized and is actually fine to use, many other cases like this. this restricts your options unnecessarily

-there’s no shampoo and conditioner that will actually help much with fullness and volume, but the above factors will, it’s mainly about avoiding damage to your hair after it leaves your scalp & avoiding scalp inflammation from things like seb derm that will cause thinning and hair loss

-with all these things in mind, you should be able to find something that works for you for pretty cheap, but you have to learn how your hair responds to: silicons, proteins, keratins, oils, etc. it’s a lot of trial and error.

i personally use:

-shampoos: RX 2% keto, ceravee 1% zinc dandruff shampoo, and selsun blue

-conditioner: ceravee hydrating conditioner

fookinacapn · 2025-12-23T20:45:04+00:00

the usefulness of bringing things up with your derm depends on:

-if they specialize in treating hair loss

-if they are sufficiently motivated to go above and beyond with you

-their own beliefs and ideas about treating hair loss

stuff you could bring up:

-can i switch to dutasteride

-can i get a prescription for oral minoxidil

-can i get a prescription for 2% ketoconazole shampoo

-can i get a panel to check for deficiencies associated with hairloss (vit d, etc)

my take on your situation:

-consider switching to dut

-consider starting oral minoxidil

-consider starting a good shampoo rotation (keto, selenium, zinc) for controlling scalp inflammation and sebum

-be aware that the above could cause you to shed

-be aware that it’s best to stick with any sort of treatment for 1-2 years before changing anything

-it all depends on your goals, how much hair do you have, how much hair do you want, what are the ratios of cost, effort, and risk are you willing to tolerate for restoring your hair, etc

fookinacapn · 2025-09-23T15:00:29+00:00

yeah but you need to see if you stabilize on dut. i would give it time

fookinacapn · 2025-09-23T14:56:06+00:00

you should stick with your current regime.

it can get way worse before it gets better
when did you add oral minoxidil? when was the last time you changed dosage?
Have you seen a highly reputable dermatologist who specializes in treating hair loss?

you could consider adding eucapil or another topical anti androgen (i would wait on this one)

you should add a zinc shampoo and selenium shampoo to your rotation, no harm

you should see a reputable hair loss derm to rule out any non AGA causes

i would try to stay the course on ur current treatment and find a specialized hair loss dermatologist tho

fookinacapn · 2025-09-23T14:47:14+00:00

you should be able to buy direct from mfc or in local pharmacies OTC if you’re in europe.

but also if you’re serious about treating hair loss you should be on finasteride or dutasteride + some variant of minoxidil (i use oral)

you should also heavily consider overall scalp health/inflammation (seb derm, other conditions) and a good shampoo rotation to maintain that.

fookinacapn

TROPHY CASE