I gave it a go this morning. I used a 30 gauge (maybe it's not called gauge) diabetic lancet and poked maybe 50 "holes" in my right temple. Even though the diabetic lancet is only about 4mm long, it still drew blood.
It was just an experiment to see how deep I could go before seeing blood. Next time I attempt this, I'll put something over the needle to control depth. I figure if I only go 1mm deep, I should be just fine. The thread on HLH says you can hear a pop of sorts when you are at the correct depth, I found that to be true (I went deeper than the pop though).
And I disagree that needling can cause perm damage to the follicle. I could see if we were talking about poking a wide very deep hole in your scalp, but 1mm of penetration is just enough to get through the outer layer of skin to increase minoxidil penetration. Derm's use needle therapy to break up fibrosis in scar tissue and to rid people of acne scars. If you search around, you'll find tons of before/after pics of people that have their scars turned almost invisible. Of the pics I've seen, most are breaking up acne scars on the face; and they still have the ability to grow facial hair after the needle therapy is done.
I'm going to needle my right temple 1x/day for a month. Since I apply minoxidil 2x/day, I'll continue that too (to both sides of temples of course). In a month, we'll see which side is improving the most.
I figure I'll use a small piece of cardboard to control depth. Maybe I'll devote some time to figuring out a way to combine more lancets together to make needling go quicker, though it only took 1 minute this morning.
I was also thinking that if I could find some syringes, maybe I'd try injecting minoxidil 0.5mm under the surface of my skin. Though, that does sound sort of crazy. :shock:
And i mean that in the best way. But definitely give us a trip report afterwards. I just don't want to hurt myself to grow hair, even if it does work.
