Well that's a much better post than screaming at people and calling them stupid for not being able to afford/and or being able to get a hold of the stuff from the patent (both situations applies to me). As I've said before, there are many reasons for deviations.
I know you're as anxious as everyone else to see something conclusive, or at the very least see a continuation from this plateau of information we seem to be at, but it's not terribly considerate to first chastisise people for deviating from the patent, and then turn around and express your appreciation for what these deviations (once tested) might teach us all about the mechanism behind the procedure. It gives an unstable impression, that probably belies your insight into this, and just leads to annoying forum-bickering.
This thread is pretty big already, but a good one. It would be a shame if it got swayed off course. It would be good if we all could try to keep our tone to eachother civil.
Anyway - I didn't know these natural EGFR-inhibitors also inhibited WnT. It makes me wary of ordering that pure EGCG.. as it is, I'll probably hold off from it. I got some results with dermabrasion and lithium ona very small scale. It *seems* adding caffeine helped the whole thing a little further (though nothing spectacular by any measure).
It should be noted that I *did* pluck about 10 minituarized hair in that area, so the extra good regrowth I got could very well have come from that (as that sets of stem-cells).
Personally, I'd probably explore the scalp peel + lithium + caffeine route for atleast 2 passes on my head. Best case scenario, it could (if the results are even all over my head, and if they are cumulative) be worth the trouble.
Also - if the phenol study is to be believed (and Elaine's hair-study as well), just disturbing the scalp skin slightly results in hair coming out of their rest-state into an active one. So that is both a factor in all this, and also some consolation for those that tried deviations of the patent that did not result in much regrowth.
Again, it is of some note that the second time I dermabraded a virgin temple, I did so very lightly, and still got better results (for aformentioned reasons perhaps) than my first time around. The whole thing was healed completly within a week, which goes well in hand with peels that are just below a medium peel, such as 20% salicylic acid - which I will be buying. So here's hoping that gives fruit.
It might be presumptious of me, but just by looking at the mouse-study, it seems that WnT-signaling might not have quite the same impressive regrowth/new-growth effect in humans. Or perhaps lithium is just a pretty mediocer substitute for the more precise "WnT proteins" Follica reportedly are using.
Anyone who is jumping into this as an at-home remedy should probably adjust their expectations accordingly. For me, it's probably enough to have another tool to use every other month or so (peel+lithium) to perhaps very narrowly turning the tide of hair-loss, rather than waiting out a sliding descent (just being on propecia).
Let's keep discussions going (and with caution to everyone else jumping in), and let's also try to be on the look-out for people who have gained access to gefitnib and are trying it out in any capacity. I only visit this forum and very briefly read another one, so I probably won't be super-up-to-date like some of you guys
That's probably where the really interesting new info will come from (as Follica put their smarty-hat on and shut down the whole talking-to-outside-people-thing they got going a couple of months ago).
People have probably put green tea extract on their head for at least a decade (as green tea is one of those "catch-all" remedies people are bound to try), and if it noticably grew hair, we would probably have seen some info on that by now, at least in a study or two.
Though I realize the fundamental flaw in that kind of thinking (X *probably* did Y, therefore I shall not even try Y).
