Wearable textile-based phototherapy platform with customized NIR OLEDs toward non-invasive hair loss treatment

Hair loss presents a widespread clinical and psychological challenge, yet conventional pharmacological treatments often incur systemic side effects such as hormonal imbalance and mood disturbances. To provide a non-pharmacological alternative, a wearable textile-integrated near-infrared (NIR) organic light-emitting diode (OLED) platform was developed with emission closely aligned with the action spectrum of human dermal papilla cells (hDPCs). By employing a top-emitting microcavity structure, we tuned the emission peak of the NIR OLEDs (around 730-740 nm) to align with the hDPC activation spectrum, thereby enhancing photon delivery to the follicle niche and enabling irradiation at wavelengths that promote hDPC photoactivation. This non‑invasive, skin‑conformable textile‑based device exhibits mechanical resilience to repeated bending at a radius of 2 mm, low heat generation to prevent skin burns, and waterproof performance under water immersion. In vitro, NIR irradiation from the customized microcavity‑tuned OLED device significantly reduced senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity by 91.6% and increased hDPC migration, with greater effects than those observed for red light and broad full‑width at half‑maximum (FWHM) NIR irradiation groups. These findings suggest that microcavity-tuned textile-based NIR OLEDs can serve as scalable, biocompatible platforms for non-invasive wearable phototherapy aimed at hair-follicle modulation and future hair-loss management.