HigherDose Red Light Shower Filter Review (2026): Filter Needed | WIRED

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Rating:6/10

Open rating explainerInformation

WIRED

Very effective chlorine filter. Multifrequency red light therapy in the shower. Handy-dandy water-resistant remote control, with a timer. Claims to remove some heavy metals and mineral hardness. Disco in the shower!

TIRED

Independent testing not available for review. Dose is variable depending on distance from showerhead. Remote buttons difficult to see, requiring trial and error.

Have we reached peak red light yet? Red light therapy—a fairly recent trend touted for everything from hair growth to smooth skin to muscle relaxation—has blossomed into a half-billion-dollar industry over the past half-decade. This has ranged from red light saunas and red light masks to red light hats, mats, heaters, and pads.

So maybe I shouldn't have been surprised to see wellness company HigherDose turn up with what it's calling the world's only red-light shower filter. "Combo I never saw coming,” agreed my colleague Nena Farrell, who has spent the past year or two assessing the effects of various red-light-emitting objects on her skin, scalp, and hair.

HigherDose's new showerhead includes a 10-stage shower water filter that removes chlorine and perhaps other chemicals and heavy metals from the water. It also has a glowing ring of red and near-infrared light, which promises to boost “glow, circulation, mood, and skin & scalp health.”

The red lights also have the fun side effect of turning your shower's overall vibe into something between discotheque and darkroom. At $600, it's also priced a bit like a nightclub, though this remains in line with many other red light therapy options.

After around two months of testing, I can't say for sure that I look any younger or hairier, but I will say my mood is a little better while I'm showering. And my shower does glow. And I can vouch for at least some of the effectiveness of its water filter.

But given that my top pick shower filters cost a third to a quarter as much, it's troubling that red light therapy dose is likely to vary widely—and that HigherDose was not able to provide sufficient documentation for some of its bolder filtration claims.

Put on the Red Light

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Unlike many health fads, red light therapy is a rare case in which TikTok influencers and clinicians share similar interests at the same time.

Red light therapy belongs to a broad class of treatments that medical researchers optimistically call “emerging.” Cinicians at Stanford University and elsewhere don't see much potential for harm, and indeed a lot of potential promise, in using red light therapy to help spur thicker hair growth or reduce wrinkles. For both hair growth and skin blemishes, WIRED reviewers have anecdotally also seen good results with some devices.

But we're still mostly in the “throwing gum against the wall” phase. Researchers don't seem to have agreed on appropriate dosing. Theories run rampant as to why red light works at all (mitochondria maybe, or maybe better blood flow or collagen production). Proposed benefits have proliferated in the medical literature and especially on the marketing websites of red light therapy companies.

Which is to say, any particular health or dose claims should be taken with a grain of salt. But as an industry standard, home red light devices tend to max out at an irradiance of 200 milliwatts per square centimeter.

This is also the irradiance of HigherDose's showerhead. Company reps say this leads to an optimal light density at a distance of 6 to 18 inches, the assumed distance of your head from the shower. (I'm tall and my shower's short, so my head might be a little closer than this depending on where I'm standing.)

Anyway, it's easy to see the appeal of combining red light therapy with a shower. A lot of red light therapy devices have a hard time fitting into normal routines—something I noted the first time a colleague showed up to a Zoom meeting while wearing a terrifying red light mask with demonically glowing slits where her mouth and eyes would usually be.

Red light therapy requires that you set aside time and space—something I already regularly do to shower. The showerhead is recommended for sessions from 5 to 15 minutes. And while the latter is a long stretch under the water for some, I've always been a somewhat slow and meditative shower-taker. If anything, a 10-minute red light timer actually helps me jump out before I self-pickle.

Notes on Design

Video: Matthew Korfhage

It's worth noting that the design of the HigherDose red light showerhead is a bit ingenious. It's also, in its own way, a handsome device.

For obvious reasons, “showerhead with lights” occupies a pretty narrow sliver