How To Build A Hair Regrowth Laser Helmet

The very popular FDA tested and approved hair regrowth laser combs can cost as much as $540 and are designed to mimic the even more expensive laser treatment hoods used by hair regrowth salons.
The laser combs require the user to comb his/her hair/scalp for 10 to 15 minutes, three times a week. This method seems rather tedious and the treatment seems spotty, at best, considering the comb is in constant motion thus only treating a small portion of scalp at any one time.
I believe that a device that more closely approximates the laser salon hoods would be a better solution. But, instead of a hood that looks like the bulky old dome style hair dryers or a dentist's light, I propose building a small helmet with a built-in array of laser diodes to treat the entire scalp at one time. The prototype helmet will be a bicycle helmet with twenty 650nm 4mW laser diodes mounted in it with an appropriately sized external power supply. More details to follow. Artist's rendering below. Disclaimer: I do not know if laser combs or low level laser hair regrowth treatments actually work, I am working on this project for two reasons. The first reason is that I would like to try the low level laser light therapy to see if it actually works, but i don't want to pay over $500 for a lame laser comb. Secondly, this is an interesting electronics project to work on and, even if it doesn't grow any hair on my head, I'll have an awesome red glowing hat when I'm done.
Warning: Never look directly into the light emitted by any laser, it can cause permanent damage to your retinas and blindness.

Step 1 Schematic of Laser Helmet Electronics

The following electronic schematic is of all the circuitry to be built into the Laser Helmet. Its a simple circuit actually, just a 5 Volt voltage regulator wired to provide power to the array of 20 laser diodes connected in parallel. R1-20 are included in the circuit to limit the maximum amount of current to each laser diode, thus preventing pre-mature burnout of the lasers.
Parts required:
20--650nM <5mW Laser Diodes ($7.00ea X 20=$140.00)
1--LM7805Voltage Regulator ($0.50ea X 1=$ 0.50)
20--47 ohm 1/4W Resistor ($0.05ea X 20=$ 1.00)
1--1.0 uF 25V Capacitor ($0.14ea X 1=$ 0.14)
1--0.1 uF 50V Capacitor ($0.14ea X 1=$ 0.14)
Warning: Never look directly into the light emitted by any laser, it can cause permanent damage to your retinas and blindness.

Comments

[noahw]

Hello, and welcome to the Instructables community! It's great that you've decided to tell the world about something you've made by publishing an Instructable. We just wanted to let you know that your project still needs a little more work if you want it to be well received on Instructables. Projects that don't include certain basic elements tend not to get the attention that they deserve, and so we'd love for you to check out the list below of what makes a successful Instructable. Successful projects on Instructables include: - clearly written details of a finished project with instruction - as many steps as are necessary to explain your project - clear images that you took of your project for most, if not all of your steps - an intro image - proper spelling and grammar - appropriate cautions or safety considerations I'll give you another opportunity to make any final changes to your project before we publish it. Once you're all set to go, please republish your project and send me a quick comment letting me know that you've made some changes. I'll give it a quick final check to make sure you're on the right path, and then remove this note. Thanks for your submission and we hope to see your project published soon!

[noahw]

I really encourage you to post this in the forums. It's not a complete Instructable, but it's a great thing to talk about with other users in the forums.