Review: HigherDose Red Light Hat

I haven’t had a full head of hair since I was 15.

A bad reaction to a cheap shampoo I tried made my scalp itchy as a teen, and what started as scratching the sore spots turned into a condition called trichotillomania, or hair-pulling disorder. It's similar to biting your nails, but instead of your nails, it's an impulse to pull at your hair. I've battled bald patches of my own making for the better part of two decades, and my sensitive scalp tends to break out easily or get itchy and trigger the behavior.

Given that, I volunteered to test HigherDose's Red Light Hat to see if it could help me. Red light hats are similar to red-light therapy masks for your face, but they're designed to improve your scalp health and hair growth. Could it be true? Would I be able to fix some of the damage I'd inflicted on my own head?

After months of testing, I was surprised to find that it did help. While I wouldn't call myself cured, my sensitive scalp didn't have any bad reactions to getting light-treated almost daily, and instead I found myself getting fewer itchy spots and reaching to pull less often. I also noticed improvement around my roots, and my hairstylist said she saw strong new growth that didn't look damaged from my pulling, as it usually did.

Head Case

Photograph: Nena Farrell

HigherDose's Red Light Hat uses a single wavelength of light—650 nanometers of red light—to increase blood circulation to the scalp. That increased circulation is good for your hair follicles and scalp, and using it “may lead to decreased hair loss, optimized hair follicle function, and increased growth." The wording “may lead” is key here; the red-light treatment doesn't promise any improvement but introduces the possibility. You'll wear it for 10 minutes a day for 16 weeks straight to potentially see results, and HigherDose recommends using it at least three to four times a week to maintain it after finishing the initial four-month treatment.

It's similar to how red-light face masks work. These masks are usually worn for about 10 minutes and always have a light wavelength level in the 600-nm range (usually 630 to 660), like the HigherDose hat does, but you'll also see masks with higher infrared-light levels that promise healing and reduced inflammation. The hat delivers only the main red-light therapy level and features 120 medical-grade LED bulbs arranged in a half circle for easy wear around your head.

The technology is FDA-cleared, meaning the FDA has determined that this device is substantially equivalent to an existing legally marketed device. HigherDose specifically states that the hat uses “FDA-cleared technology known to stimulate hair growth and improve scalp health," but this is not the same as FDA-approved, which goes under much more rigorous testing. FDA-cleared is the only status we've really seen with red-light devices, though, and it's the same status you'll see on our red-light mask recommendations.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

It's fun that the HigherDose hat really does look like an actual hat. There are other devices we're testing that look straight off a Star Wars X-Wing, but I could easily wear the HigherDose hat out in public and get zero looks or questions. You can barely tell it's lit up while I'm wearing it; the only giveaway is the small battery pack on the back of the hat. You can also remove the battery pack easily if you want to wear the hat without any tip-off that it's a gadget. There's an adjustment strap in the back and even a cutout that I could put a ponytail through while the battery pack is attached. It's a legitimate baseball cap that hides 120 light bulbs inside.

Using this hat also reminded me of using an infrared brush. Infrared brushes lock in moisture, so some days that I wore this hat, my hair felt a little oily afterward (usually because I was procrastinating on wash day). I usually tried to wear this hat before taking a shower, since it would lock in more moisture, and my hair leans on the oily side at the roots. However, depending on your hair texture and oil level, this may not come up.

Growth Chart

Photograph: Nena Farrell

I took a quick, crappy picture my first week of using the HigherDose hat. You can see a scraggly regrowth section in my part line, along with a healing scab that was a clear irritation spot that targeted my compulsion to pull. That photo is from September. Compared to photos I took in January, you can easily see a difference. Thicker roots, fewer patches, and a troublesome short patch had grown in nicely in my weeks wearing the hat. My scalp looks better, and the overall texture of my hair looks smoother.

I saw my hairstylist in both October and January and asked if she noticed any differences. She confirmed she didn't see any irritation or bad reaction to weeks of red light on my scalp, and as early as October, she noted she saw healthier-looking regrowth than usual. (Since I rip out my hair, there can be damage even in my regrowth sections.) She's a longtime friend who's used to seeing my hair in all kinds of patchy conditions, but we were both happy to see how well my scalp and hair were doing after using the cap.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

So did the hat help my hair grow or keep me from pulling at it? My scalp has been clearly happier since using the HigherDose hat, which can help keep my itching and pulling at bay and let my hair grow in the way it wants to. Even frequent workouts or a weird wash schedule haven't irritated my scalp as easily as these events usually would. There's no way to be sure if I should credit the treatment to just helping my scalp and letting my hair grow as it would have, or if it also helped my hair actually grow.

But I think it's a good sign the regrowth is doing well, too. It's hard to guarantee what everyone's experience will be, but as someone with a sensitive scalp at the root of my problem, I've been really happy with how HigherDose's hat has helped.