Are ALL "LASER" hair combs, wands, devices ALL the same???
Some important points to consider when purchasing OR renting a LLLT laser hair comb device.
1. Total Laser Power & Power Per Centimetre are different.
Simply adding more 5mW laser modules to a basic design does not mean you have more powerful LLLT laser treatment, more modules may treat a larger area at one time, but the MAXIMUM laser power per treatment area is still only 5mW and in most cases much less. A simple analogy is to see further at night, you require a more powerful torch light, by using 2, 4 or ever 6 low powered torch lights side-by-side, you can not see further into the darkness. Similarly, adding more 5mW laser modules may exposure a larger area at one time but does not result in more powerful treatment. Only by using MULTIPLE & STRONGER laser modules do you receive more powerful treatment and deeper penetration by the laser light energy into your skin. For LLLT to be most successful, the laser energy must penetrate below the base of the hair follicle.
2. Design of Laser Module:
Basic laser modules are constructed with a barrel design, they are typically black and around 1" long cylinders. The light and radiation amplification is produced at one end of the barrel, and the laser beam is channelled through a series of focusing lens to ultimately emit a concentrated laser beam from the end of the plastic barrel. Very similar concept to how a telescope channels light through a long cylinder. They is essentially an analogue design. A newer concept in laser module design, is a digital and solid state laser scattering module. Electronic components within each laser module evenly disperse the laser energy. Laser scattering modules are easily identifiable as they are smaller and more solid than the older black plastic barrel designs used in most LLLT devices. Here is one comparison:
3. Quality of Laser Modules:
There are medical quality laser modules (found in medical devices) and there are consumer quality laser modules (found in toys, video games, laser pointers etc.) There are also several grades of laser modules such as A-grade, B-grade, C-grade and D-grade. Over all performance, life time, consistency of power levels and consistency of wavelength are all key factors in determining the quality and grade of a laser module. Another less known difference in laser modules is what we call the "warm up factor." Some 5mW laser modules we have tested take between 10-15 minutes just to "warm up" and reach their peak power outputs. Meaning during the first 10-15 minutes of your 15 minute session with low grade 5mW laser modules you may be receiving much less than the advertised 5mW. Low grade laser modules also fluctuate in their wavelengths, meaning one batch may be 600nm and another 615nm and another 630nm. Unfortunately a key factor in determining laser module quality is simply cost. A-grade 5mW laser modules may cost 5-10x more than D-grade laser modules.
Laser comb core design: More and more laser comb products are appearing on the market, most cleverly advertise 5mW power output, or even multiple 5mW laser modules or single 10-25mW laser modules or a total of 45mW or more. However, how this laser energy is distributed is just as important than the total laser power. On one side of the spectrum many of the cheaper products have NO dispersion method included in their design. Meaning they simply install laser modules that give little actual coverage of your scalp. On the other side of the spectrum, other designs use either plastic mirrors, plastic lens or plastic fibre optics to disperse single laser beams into smaller parts - resulting in over all low power per centimetre and a measurable loss of power in the splitting and refraction process. This is very simple to calculate, for example a design using a single 5mW module dispersed over 10cm with plastic light pipes has a maximum laser power output of 0.5mW per centimetre i.e. next to useless. A product like this may be advertised at 5mW, but this means TOTAL POWER, not what actually reaches your scalp per centimetre. Typically this method also results in wildly uneven laser power distribution. This is a generous calculation as it does not take into account the typical 30% loss of power in refracting and reflecting laser beams.
Quality modules, although extremely expensive to use, provide even and consistent scattering of the laser energy. Actually, the provide EXACT distribution. Digital laser scattering modules are the only efficient and reliable way to uniformly scatter laser energy. The use of mirrors, lens and other plastic fibre optics, although significantly less expensive, results in loss of power and uneven distribution. Again, we can prove this as laser combs using plastic mirrors have outputs between 0.5-4mW per beam. Some brands have one single a 1, 2 or 5mW laser spread over a larger surface, resulting in extremely low over all power and exposure.
Batteries or Mains Power?: 2x AA batteries do not last long in toys, battery laptops and large and heavy and last only around 60 minutes. A couple of rechargeable batteries can not possibly power a medical quality devices for much longer than a few minutes a full power.
