LaserComb's promise of thicker, healthier hair is put to the test

ROSS WERLAND
Chicago Tribune

For me, hair loss is up there with losing fingers. And no one in my family has died with a full head of hair.

But I've been fighting back on the march to midlife. Twice a day for about four years I've been spraying minoxidil on the crown of my head, which is the only place on the skull where the substance supposedly works.

For two years I've been using Nioxin shampoo to fight the buildup of dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, kind of the Dutch elm disease of the scalp.

Between those things and a daily biotin supplement, my hair seemed to be holding its own, but I couldn't bring closure to a very thin patch on the crown. I could see the dreaded shine.

The tool

HairMax LaserComb, $645; http://www.lasercomb.net/.; (800) 410-4247.Time magazine named it one of the Inventions of the Year for 2000.

Manufacturer Lexington International of Boca Raton, Fla., has been marketing it as a way to make hair "thicker, fuller and healthier."

"We have to be very careful about saying `regrowth,' " said David Michaels, managing director of Lexington. But "we're getting incredible feedback from our clientele," with about 90 percent of users seeing "some benefit." So he is hopeful about the trials.

"Hair changes as a person ages," he added. "It gets finer, weaker, more brittle. We have seen the laser comb work exceptionally well with seniors."

The results

Here's what I found after six months of use for about 10 minutes every other day.

My hair does indeed seem thicker, and it seems that there is significantly more to work with on the crown. More important, my wife and two grown sons think it's thicker. Mind you, all three of them would love to have made fun of me, but they couldn't.

I'm convinced enough that now I have to return the loaner and buy one of the dang things, which currently lists for $645.

Becoming a monk would have been cheaper.