Alma TED, TransEpidermal Delivery

Alma TED (TransEpidermal Delivery) for Hair Growth

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Alma TED System
Alma TED™ System.

Over the past year, I have kept hearing about the Alma TED™ ultrasound-based system for hair growth. The TED stands for “TransEpidermal Delivery”, meaning past the epidermis upper skin layer.

This device is made by Alma and it improves medication and growth factor delivery to the hair follicles. It was only in March 2022 that the company announced the launch of its new ultrasound based system Alma TED.

The device benefits hair growth via improving drug delivery as well as blood flow. On a somewhat related note, even sound therapy by itself can benefit hair growth per some findings.

Alma TED for Hair Loss

I decided to finally write this post after seeing that there is a presentation on Alma TED at this week’s AAD2023 meeting.

Alma TED Presentation
Alma TED Presentation at AAD2023.

I covered a few of these American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) conferences in the past. This time, I leave it up to the readers to go through the various hair related sessions.

The above presenter Lady Christine Cheng Dy, MD has been at the forefront of using this technology. On her website, she has a video of herself getting the painless non-invasive Alma TED treatment. It works by “using acoustic sound waves and air pressure to drive active components deeper into the skin”. This leads to better and greater absorption.

Dr. Alan Bauman, another pioneer in the use of this technology has some great videos of this treatment on his site. He is upfront that Alma TED will not grow new hair follicles, but can make existing ones stronger. He uses a growth factor serum in combination with the ultrasound delivery.

Alma TED comes with a propriety tip that is engineered with Impact Delivery™ patented technology. Unlike PRP, this non-invasive, non-traumatic treatment does not require the use of injections or needles.

Better Drug Delivery

A few weeks ago, Dr. John Cole (see his site’s section on TED), mentioned something interesting to me:

“I am very curious about using Alma TED to deliver dutasteride and finasteride. TED opens a 3 micrometer channel in the skin. According to their chief scientific director, anything up to 800 daltons should go in. Finasteride is around 400 daltons and dutasteride is 500 plus daltons.”

Dr. Cole says that he has seen great patient results from TED. On his site, he elaborates that cavitation from the ultrasound separates the skin’s collagen network of fibers. This enables the delivery of a hair care formula at up to 4mm depth into the skin via the air pressure.

He further elaborates that TED is a two step process:

  1. First you open the channels.
  2. Then, at a higher intensity, you deliver the product.

Update: It seems like Dr. Cole did a self-experiment and used Alma TED to deliver Dutasteride, Latanoprost and Minoxidil to his scalp. I did not know this when I wrote this post.

Make sure to also read my past post on topical finasteride delivery mechanisms.

Rodney Sinclair, Sublingual Minoxidil

Minoxidil as a Sublingual Tablet

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Note that the increasingly popular low-dose oral Minoxidil for hair loss (taken via ingesting pills or tablets) acts a bit differently compared to sublingual Minoxidil (taken via dissolving under the tongue). Read the bottom half of this post for more details. Top half is all updates.

Sublingual Minoxidil for Hair Loss Updates

Update: February 2023 — A HRN forum member named “Viney” is posting excellent details with photos of his hair regrowth from sublingual Minoxidil and Dutasteride. He sees a dermatologist at Sinclair Dermatology (Melbourne, Australia).

Update: January 2023 — I posted something on Twitter about sublingual Minoxidil possibly being more effective than oral Minoxidil. Below are the interesting responses from Dr. Corralo and Dr. Bhoyrul:

Sublingual vs Oral Minoxidil

Sublingual Minoxidil Sulfate

Update: December 2022 — Also see this thread on Twitter in relation to the same subject.

Update: September 2021 — A clinical trial of 40 male and female patients receiving sublingual Minoxidil (SM) for androgenetic alopecia just ended. Per the summary, SM produced a dose-dependent increase in mean terminal hair count of the frontal and vertex scalp and an improvement in hair density. There was no affect on blood pressure. Quote from reviewer Dr. Mirmirani:

“The authors suggest that sublingual Minoxidil (SM) may have better bioavailability and fewer hemodynamic effects by avoiding first-pass liver metabolism. Although the data in this study are positive, it will take more to convince me that it is significantly better than oral Minoxidil (OM). Very few of my patients on low-dose OM for hair loss discontinue the medication due to side-effects. The other consideration is cost. OM it is an inexpensive, generic drug, that is covered by medical benefits.”

Update: March 2021 — An excellent video presentation on sublingual Minoxidil from Dr. Bevin Bhoyrul from Sinclair Dermatology:

Update: July 2020 — Also from Sinclair Dermatology comes a case series report of 64 patients taking sublingual Minoxidil (0.45 mg per day) for pattern hair loss.

April 9, 2018

Sinclair Dermatology

Sublingual Minoxidil Delivery
Sublingual Minoxidil Delivery.

Earlier today, a reader named Chris posted a very interesting video about a new hair loss treatment from Australia that entails putting some kind of dissolvable listerine-style strip underneath the tongue. Chris asked me for my opinion about this treatment.

At first, I thought that this seemed like an obvious scam since the title of the video includes the word “breakthrough” in it. Moreover, the video does not even mention what ingredients are in the sublingual strip or patch itself.

However, since the famous Australian dermatologist Dr. Rodney Sinclair appears in the video, I decided to conduct further research. Dr. Sinclair (associated with “The Hairy Pill“) is an extremely well respected researcher in the hair loss world. In the above video, he is honest and clearly says that this treatment will not bring back hair in totally bald scalps.

Having said that, so far it seems that the results from this treatment on people who have moderate levels of balding have been very positive. And this got me curious about what magic concoction was in the strip itself?

Clinical Trial for Sublingual Minoxidil

I did not have to conduct much further research to figure out what this new potential breakthrough hair loss cure entailed. On Dr. Sinclair’s blog, the latest post from today discusses a new clinical trial they are conducting that is recruiting both men and women. Volunteers will be treated with low-dose oral Minoxidil that will be given as a sublingual tablet (which will dissolve under the tongue).

I would not be surprised if the tablet is actually the strip/patch that was shown in the video I posted earlier. It would be very uncomfortable to put an actual tablet underneath the tongue and wait for it to dissolve, unless the dissolution happened very rapidly. On the other hand, a strip would be much easier to keep in place underneath the tongue for a longer period of time.

I discussed oral Minoxidil for hair loss in detail last year. While I often use topical Minoxidil foam, I would not take the oral version as I do not want more body hair as a potential side effect. However, oral Minoxidil clearly seems to be a superior option to topical Minoxidil when it comes to hair growth benefits. Partly due to the sulfotransferase issue.

If you live in Australia or in the nearby vicinity, perhaps it is worth volunteering for these trials. Today I finally learnt the definition of “sublingual”.

Also make sure to read my post on extra strength Minoxidil 15 percent for other alternatives to regular dosage store-bought Minoxidil foam.