Microneedling for Hair Loss: How It Works, Effectiveness & More

Hair loss in men is common, and a quick Google search reveals all sorts of options for reducing and reversing thinning hair — topical minoxidil, hair transplant surgery, serums, and even microneedling. 

Hair loss microneedling is a process that involves making tiny punctures in your scalp to stimulate your hair follicles and promote increased hair regrowth. There’s some evidence that these dermarollers and microneedling devices can treat hair loss, though a dermatologist will likely caution that it shouldn’t be your first choice for treatment.

Below, we’ve explained how microneedling works as a hair loss treatment option, as well as other treatments with more evidence you could try if you’re starting to lose your hair.

Microneedling treatment is a minimally invasive procedure that involves using a dermaroller — a small rolling device with fine microneedles on its surface — to produce small punctures in your scalp. These micro-injuries are thought to stimulate blood flow and healing effects that could increase hair density.

For treating hair loss, this means using the dermaroller on areas with a visible reduction in hair count, such as a receding hairline or bald spots.

The purpose of microneedling for hair loss is to stimulate growth factors in the dermal papilla, or the stem cells in your hair follicles. This encouraged them to activate and start growing more hair.

A typical dermaroller used in the microneedling process contains about 200 tiny needles. During a microneedling session, these needles penetrate your skin, but only to the outer layers of your scalp — the needle length is just around 1.5mm, unlike the longer needles used for injections.

It’s thought that the mild physical trauma of having a needle penetrate your skin activates your healing response, which leads to a cascade of wound healing effects such as increased collagen production, improvements in your skin health, and  — potentially — hair growth.

Experts also think microneedling hair may stimulate and reactivate hair follicles for new hair growth.

In addition to microneedling for hair loss, this type of treatment is used for a diverse range of other conditions and skin issues like acne, scarring, wrinkles, and other signs of aging.

Scalp microneedling for hair growth is thought to be effective for several types of alopecia, specifically male pattern baldness and alopecia areata, a type of hair loss caused by your immune system attacking your hair follicles.

Some research supports this. For instance, a 12-week 2013 randomized study of 100 men in Mumbai examined the hair growth results of microneedling in humans.

Half of the participants used topical minoxidil twice per day, and the other half underwent microneedling procedures once per week in addition to twice-daily treatment with minoxidil.

According to the researchers, participants who used a dermaroller with minoxidil grew thicker hair and reported higher overall patient satisfaction. Eight months after the study, the participants still showed positive results from combining microneedling with conventional therapy.

Another smaller study looked at four men who had been using finasteride and minoxidil for two to five years without new hair growth.

The men started microneedling scalp treatments in addition to their finasteride and minoxidil treatments and showed accelerated results over six months.

If you’re wondering whether microneedling at home might be your solution to hair loss, we have to urge caution. It’s unclear whether microneedling alone is very effective.

There is little research on microneedling as a monotherapy (single treatment) for hair loss since most studies combined it with other therapies like topical minoxidil or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy.

It’s also possible that microneedling may help with some hair loss disorders, but not all causes of hair loss in men. 

In other words, the usual disclaimers for early-stage hair loss treatments definitely apply to microneedling — namely, that we need more high-quality information before we can authoritatively state that it’s an effective treatment for hair loss.

While we don’t know exactly how hair microneedling works, we do know that a wide variety of issues can cause or contribute to hair loss — and many can be treated with other science-backed options.

The most common form of hair loss in men is male pattern baldness, or androgenetic alopecia. It’s caused by a mix of genetic factors and the effects of the hormone dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. This type of hair loss can also happen to women — in these cases, it’s called female pattern hair loss.

If you’re genetically predisposed to male pattern baldness — also called androgenic alopecia — DHT can attach to receptors in your scalp and gradually cause your hair follicles to stop working.

Currently, the most effective hair loss treatments either prevent your body from creating DHT or stimulate hair growth at the scalp level, usually with topical treatments.

For example, the medication finasteride reduces the amount of testosterone that your body converts to DHT.

Meanwhile, topical minoxidil is believed to work by moving your hair follicles into a state of active, ongoing growth (as part of the hair growth cycle), although its exact mechanism of action is still unknown.

If medications aren’t your thing or don’t work for you, there are other options. Hairline restoration surgery, for example, involves moving hair follicles from another part of your body to your head and is one option for those with a receding hairline. Or you can opt for a natural-looking hair tattoo to help bolster the appearance of your hair.

Can microneedling your scalp really be the silver bullet when it comes to growing back a full head of hair, or is this treatment too good to be true? The jury is still out, but here’s what we know:

• Scalp microneedling is widely known as a skincare treatment with tangible benefits for acne scarring and sun damage. It’s also thought to encourage hair regrowth in those with male pattern baldness.

• Researchers think that, by creating tiny wounds, microneedling speeds up the healing process and stimulates hair follicles to allow hair to grow.

• While studies on microneedling for hair loss are promising, most use microneedling with minoxidil or finasteride, two hair loss treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

• Microneedling may not work for every type of hair loss, which is why communication with a healthcare or dermatology professional is so important. They can tell you if you’re dealing with male pattern baldness, telogen effluvium or other types of alopecias. 

If you’re starting to develop a receding hairline, a bald patch around your crown, or other common signs of hair loss, you have plenty of treatment options.

Our advice? Go for the science-backed treatments of minoxidil and finasteride. You can apply minoxidil either as a minoxidil foam or a liquid minoxidil solution. Finasteride is often taken as an oral medication, but there’s also a combination topical finasteride & minoxidil spray for a two-in-one treatment.

We offer both of these medications as part of our range of hair loss treatments, with finasteride available following a consultation with a healthcare provider.