lol, you're always looking out for me when I get into crazy peel territory
Still, you can dillude TCA, and for that there could be multiple modes of usage. I'm not old enough to have developed any real wrinkles as of yet, but I can definately see where some might form in the future. I'm a big fan of multi-use stuff too. I've spent a few hours checking up on how to apply TCA, and it seems that once you hit 35% you run a high risk of scarring. 10-20% is used for acne-treatment, whereas a good medium peel lie around 25-30%.
This is very important to keep in mind, of course. Especially as TCA can be bought online for very little money, and in very high doses. One site I found sold 100%. I hope they carry a lot of instructions. Considering we have instructions on how to open a bag of peanuts, I shudder to think how 100% TCA is handled when unleashed into the general public.
I searched around (previous to your post) for answers from scalplady and such posts, but non really told of TCA. It's no surprise really - until about 3 months ago, there was no real reason to put acid on your scalp. Pioneering is so frustrating
Also (and I'm incriminating myself for asking this, as I should know the patent verbatim by now), doesn't the patent keep their level of dermabrasion as fluent as their rules for after-treatment?
Kinda like a covering-all-your-bases modus operandi, as many patents do.
I know that peels of this kind are used on the face, but beard hair looks, feels and behaves differently from scalp hair. My beard hair is much thicker and of a completly different color-palette than my scalp hair, so it stands to reason that it can withstand much more damage. Also - beard hair is something most people shave off as quickly as it appears, making damage to it a non issue.
Or maybe I'm thinking too much about the sci-fi concept of acid, as in corroding *everything* it touches. Still, I know that certain harsh chemical treatments for hair such as bleaching agents (an acid, is it not?) can with repeated uses make hair fall out in big chunks. Don't know much about it really, I'm just relaying what I pick up from aesthetically geared reality shows. Who am I to argue against veteran hair-dressers?
If I'm asking incredibly dumb questions, then you just have to forgive me. If for nothing else, I am asking them now, so that knowledge is out on the table and nobody else has to wonder. In case you didn't catch it, I am using dermabrasion and peel (unwisely) without much differentation here.
Still, I think we need a (bloodless) wound, as opposed to just a skinburn-peel. The trick is of course to find the perfect level just beyond repair, and a foot into regeneration. Perhaps I should pour over the two or three other experiments on rats that resulted in hair-growth, and see if there's anything to gain.
I was lying in my bed sortof musing over it all, and I wondered to what degree Follica's method (and ghetto-versions of it) is actually creating new hair, and to what degree it's just waking them up. There is now *alot* of data (including one done by one of the founders of Follica, prior to Follica's formation) that all say that damage of the skin - to what capacity we do not know - is a strong alarm-clock to dormant hair.
I guess the net-result will be the same, but it would be discouraging for people with advance hair-loss if the majority of the effect is just kick-starting old hair, as some of that hair may be beyond a wake-up call. What I continue to fail to understand, is how embryonic activity on a very surface level of the skin, can lead to formation of actual hair deep down in the skin. Is the new hair created on the surface in reaction to lithium and whatnot, and then migrate down? Does communication on the skin merely give the body strong instructions for creation?
Seeing how it seems Follica themself barely have a real explanation as to why it happens, I doubt I'd have any chance of figuring it out. But there is something with the whole procedure that makes me think waking up sleeping hair is a much bigger component in the overal effect, than actually creating new hair.
But then again, I know very little. And the human body is strange. I wonder to what capacity stuff like minoxodil actually work in the sense of having their own unique capacity and effect, and to what effect they just irritate the skin enough to awake dormant hair.
Hopefully you won't have to disturb the skin as frequently as minoxodil (if the analogy holds true).
I don't think you have to really worry about experimenters.. actually the last month or so there seems to be atleast 10 people on various boards doing variations of this. And those are only the visible ones. I'm kinda strapped for cash as is, but I did take 5-6 photos (as best I could) of temple areas. If I get anything cosmetically substantial, it should show up even on a crappy photo. I now also have a before-photo, which I lacked the last time around.
I'll probably buy some TCA or perhaps something similar, and test it out on most part of the scalp. Haven't decided if I want to add lithium and green tea extract as a twice-daily wash yet. Probably need some DMSO to get it to absorb, so there's that to purchase also.
My front seem to rapidly go the way that my temples have gone, and I guess that spurrs me on. The "new" hair from needling that I took photos of are still going strong though. Still thinner than the rest, but they're all pretty long now. So I guess that's good news.
The beauty of this whole procedure (and science) is that not only is it simple, but given some modification, lie within reach of pretty much everyone. So getting people into an enthusiastic and experimental mode doesn't require much cheerleading to begin with. It also serves for an excellent source of alternative (and cheap) ways to perform the procedure, which give a pretty good mark on what works and doesn't - even though the why oftentimes get alittle clouded.
And it's something practical to do - instead of waiting as hair slowly fall off in rapid succession.
