A laser plus a serum raised hair density about 25 percent, small trial finds

Poke tiny holes, then add the serum. Doctors in Hamburg tested a laser and growth factor serum for thinning hair on 30 adults. A month after treatment, hair density rose about 25 percent with the serum. With the laser and red light alone, it rose about 5 percent [1].

Hair density means how many hairs grow in a small patch of scalp. The team counted them on close up photos [1].

Here is the main caveat. This was a small first test, and the companies that make the serum and the laser supplied them. The treatment was also not compared with approved hair loss treatments [1].

The work was led by Lynhda Nguyen of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, with Stefan Schneider and Katharina Herberger. It was published in Lasers in Medical Science in 2026 [1].

How was the treatment tested?

Everyone in the trial had pattern hair loss, the common kind that thins the crown or pushes back the hairline. Of the 30 adults, 21 were women and 9 were men, aged 29 to 65 [1].

The laser does not burn away the skin. It makes rows of tiny channels in the scalp, which let a liquid soak in more deeply. The serum holds growth factors, small proteins the body uses as signals to tell cells to grow [1].

Chance, like a coin flip, put 10 people in each of three groups. One got the laser, the serum and a red light lamp. One got the laser and the serum. The third got the laser and the red light, with no serum. Each person had three visits, six weeks apart, and the serum groups also used a serum and shampoo at home [1].

The people being treated knew which group they were in. The two doctors who counted the hairs did not, which makes the counts fairer [1].

What did the study find?

A month after the last visit, hair density was up 25.6 percent with the laser, serum and light, and 22.7 percent with the laser and serum. It was up 4.9 percent with no serum. Hair also got thicker in both serum groups, and slightly thinner in the group without it [1].

Six months on, both serum groups were still about 22 percent above where they started. The group without serum was about 7 percent up. Adding red light made no clear difference, though people who got it said they were happier with the result [1]. The authors wrote:

Preliminary evidence suggests that NAFL-assisted delivery of biomimetic growth factors is a safe and effective non-invasive treatment for AGA.

Nguyen and colleagues, Lasers in Medical Science, 2026 [1]

In plain words, the authors think this early result looks good. NAFL is the type of laser, biomimetic means made to copy the body's own signals, and AGA is the medical name for pattern hair loss. Early evidence from 30 people cannot settle whether it is safe and effective [1].

No one had a serious side effect. Two of the 10 people in the group without serum had mild itching and dandruff that went away in a few days. One person in one serum group and two in the group without serum did not come back for checks [1].

Who paid, and how does it compare?

The paper says the serum's maker supplied the serum products and paid the ethics review fees. The laser's maker lent the laser and the red light lamp. Two of the three authors have been paid by the laser's maker to give talks. The paper says neither company shaped the design or the analysis [1].

The trial was registered on a public website in July 2025, after the last people had already joined, so the plan was not posted before the trial began. The registry entry also lists a patient rated improvement score as a main measure, while the paper treats patient views as a side measure [1][2].

Nothing in this trial was compared with approved treatments, and there was no fake serum. A 2017 review notes that the US Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, had approved two medicines for pattern hair loss, minoxidil and finasteride [3]. The authors point to other studies where those medicines raised hair counts by about 13 to 24 percent. Those were different studies in different people, not a side by side test [1].

This study does not show that the serum works better than approved treatments, or that the new hair stays past six months. It does not show how much the home serum and shampoo mattered, since nobody tracked their use. What it does show is that, in 30 adults, a laser followed by a growth factor serum raised hair density far more than the laser alone [1].