Lighting the Way to Hair Regrowth: Exploring NIR OLED Therapy
- Hailey Kim
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
“I’m not bald. I’m just taller than my hair.” “His head is brighter than my future.”
While often used in comedic punchlines, the true struggles and sufferings behind hair loss are not something anyone can judge without having experienced it themselves. Alopecia (the medical term for hair loss), suffered by over 50 million men and 30 million women in the United States alone, is not only prevalent but also has been documented throughout human history, yet no single remedy has been discovered.
Indeed, multiple attempts to address hair loss have been made and are in practical use, with pharmaceutical treatments and hair transplants being notable options. These conventional treatments, however, entail ineluctable, critical consequences. Pharmaceutical treatments, for example, require prolonged use of medication, which may engender side effects. Hair transplants are not only costly, limiting universal access to treatment, but also invasive. Then came photobiomodulation (PBM), which is non-invasive and non-pharmacological, yet is still based on LED – leading to a non-uniform light dispersion, reducing its effectiveness – and lasers – making it too rigid to serve as a wearable.
Overcoming these limitations, a research team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) proposed a non-invasive, textile-based Near-infrared (NIR) OLED wearable as an alternative.
The NIR light therapy functions by targeting the human dermal papilla cells (hDPCs). These cells are located at the base of hair follicles and serve as the primary command center for hair growth, cycling, and regeneration. NIR light, typically within the 700-900nm wavelength range, is able to penetrate deeper into the skin compared to visible light due to reduced scattering and absorption. This allows the light to reach the dermal papilla effectively, where it triggers cellular activity through the aforementioned process, PBM. PBM functions by delivering light photons to cellular components, specifically the mitochondria, to boost ATP production. As a result, hDPCs show increased proliferation while cellular senescence (a state in which cells are unable to proliferate despite being in optimal conditions).
The previous limitation to using PBM, as stated before, was resolved by the use of thin, silver layers instead of conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes to improve mechanical resilience and ensure controlled spectral tuning, overcoming the critical shortcomings of typical PBM devices.
The experimental findings strongly support the effectiveness of this NIR OLED-based therapy. A significant reduction of anti-aging effect was shown, with a reported 91.6% reduction in senescence-associated markers following exposure to the device. Moreover, the customized wavelength (around 730-740nm) produced stronger biological effects than both red light and non-optimized NIR light, implying the importance of precise wavelength targeting for maximizing therapeutic outcomes.
Overall, KAIST’s textile-based NIR OLED therapy stands as a novel approach in non-invasive hair loss treatment. While further in vivo and clinical studies are required to confirm long-term effectiveness, this innovation offers both practicality and improved efficiency compared to conventional treatments, signaling another big step toward remedying alopecia.
Citations
기자김소현. “KAIST 최경철 교수팀, 모자처럼 쓰는 탈모 예방 OLED 개발.” IT비즈뉴스, 2 Feb. 2026, www.itbiznews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=203067.
Di Micco, Raffaella, et al. “Cellular Senescence in Ageing: From Mechanisms to Therapeutic Opportunities.” Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, vol. 22, no. 2, Dec. 2020, pp. 75–95. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-020-00314-w.
Zhang, He-Li, et al. “Dermal Papilla Cells: From Basic Research to Translational Applications.” Biology, vol. 13, no. 10, Oct. 2024, p. 842. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology13100842.
Comments