Something I just realized when reading experience reports of both successful dermarollers/microneedlers and of massage proponents:
Most people who reported success on either of these mechanic manipulation-based regimens reported that they covered pretty big areas, sometimes even the whole scalp.
Maybe only covering affected areas (plus, according to the Follica protocol, 2 cm into adjacent non-affected areas) is not enough and the whole scalp should be covered by either massage or needling?
Reasons why covering the whole scalp might be beneficial:
- more growth factors released
- higher chance for a "quorum sensing cascade" (yep, pulling this one out of my a**)
- more blood flow because more repair work needs to be done
- creation/healing of more capillaries. This might actually the most important point. If you have a look at the blood supply network of the scalp, it's actually a pretty thin network with low blood pressure. If upstream blood supply (coming in from below, from the heart) is weak, downstream blood and nutrient supply (towards the top of the head) will also be. If, however, we encourage angiogenesis all over the scalp, getting more blood and nutrients to hair might be easier.
All of this is of course speculation. But there must be a reason why people who needled/massaged bigger areas (even non-affected ones) were more successful.
