Gadgetine

12 years later, back on this forum. Giving it one more go

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Innermind

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Hi All,

So, its been awhile, 12 years since my last post.Had a 1500 hair hair transplant 17 years ago, 300 fue into scar 4 years later, used finasteride/minoxidil/tricomin/emu oil for years ... lost hair, full nw6 ~25 years old. Stopped using everything about 13 years go.

I've decided to give it one more go. Despite all the time and now a full NW6, I have a ton of vellus hairs in my nw6 area. Perhaps finasteride/minoxidil and everything else kept the little guys alive to a small degree. So... I have decided to give it one more go.

I will not use minoxidil. After getting off minoxidil, the cloudiness of the world disappeared. Its hard to explain, but perhaps I had sub clinical or very mild Hypoprolactinemia. I will never go back to it, ever.

finasteride didn't do anything, just had rebound boners when I stopped which was pretty good for a little bit, so it was affecting things. I don't want to affect systemic hormones again either.

Anyway, based on all the hype around derma rolling/needling/stamping and what I have been seeing in the forums and research articles, I'm going to try derma stamping. I will also use caffeine shampoo 3x weekly as some studies suggest equivalency to 5% minoxidil.

Therefore my treatment over the next 6 months will be:

- 0.75-1 mm derma stamp once every 14 days. Until redness and some spot bleeding
- Hims caffeine shampoo 3x weekly
- daily multivitamin men's


Did my first derma stamp treatment 2 days ago. At first I wondered why people were complaining about pain, but about half way through I started to feel it and by the end I wanted it to end. Took 20 min total until mild redness and some spots here and there with blood.

Will post pics if I see regrowth.

Cheers
Innermind

PS. My theory as to why Follicabio won't ever go to phase iii -- Investors don't want to take the risk. If all you need is a 20$ dermaroller/stamp and some minoxidil(not even), everyone will just diy it for a price cheaper than most co-pays.
 
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Innermind

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Alright, I'm back....1.5 years later. I have regrowth. Its mostly all vellus hairs. But its all over the nw6-nw3 area. Meaning, if these vellus hairs regrew completely I'd be nw3. It took this long to start seeing the hair, probably started noticing at year 1, but now its really visible. I can actually cut the vellus hair with a #1 clipper though it doesn't get much longer than that, never have I ever been able to do this since my 20's, now I'm 40. I am posting after pics, which aren't great but you can see the 'vellus fuzz' in the nw4 area (the light shinning on my front forehead prevents good view of that area). I will post more pics if I can get better ones.

I know cosmetically its not much. But from what I am reading, just using micro-needling alone (well, also caffeine shampoo 3x weekly for), 2-3 years to see full benefit as opposed to using minoxidil with micro-needling which comes in quicker. That's at least a theory I've read, but I don't want to use minoxidil.

Anyway, I'm convinced that if I had done this in my early 20's I'd still have most my hair and I was using minoxidil back then too. Debating if I should use minoxidil or do another round of micro-needling with minoxidil and other things like red light (no finasteride or dutasteride, just not messing with hormones, even if topical). At this point in my life not too concerned about regrowing my hair, but it still would be nice.

Routine to see what I have:
1. microstamp 1.25 mm all over Norwood 6 area once every 14 days until red and minor spot bleeding (each location got 5-6 stamps), 16 total treatments
2. keeps caffeine shampoo 3x weekly, let sit for 2 min on scalp
3. occasional use of topical pumpkin seed oil (maybe 2-3 x weekly at night for the first 16 weeks, then stopped)

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NathanN23

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Welcome back! It’s really interesting to hear about your journey and how you’re giving it one more shot after all these years. The fact that you still have a ton of vellus hairs in your NW6 area is promising—definitely worth seeing if they can be reactivated.

Derma stamping seems like a solid plan, especially since you’re spacing it out every 14 days to allow for proper healing. Have you considered adding a topical growth factor serum post-stamp? Some people say it enhances results by supporting collagen production and follicle stimulation.

Also, I’ve read mixed things about caffeine shampoo—some say it works best as a leave-in rather than just a rinse. Are you massaging it in for a few minutes before washing it out? Might be worth experimenting with.

Looking forward to your updates and pics if you see progress! Hope this round of treatment works out for you.

Cheers,
Nathan
 
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