Little bit of an update. Been wounding since November I believe? Every 5-7 days with a couple of 10 day spans sprinkled in there. (If someone wants to break this into a decimal or percentage, please feel free
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1.5mm on scalp
.5mm on face and neck (sometimes deeper if I know I won't see many people for a few days since I work from home)
1.5mm-2.0mm on face belmishes (ice pick scars, acne cysts - not sure what to call them)
Hair: the fuzz on my lower temples is getting longer. My broscience opinion is that this is due to the increased minoxidil absorbtion.
When I add topicals to my hairline I've noticed it has a "wet fuzzy" look to it, whereas before it was wet on slick scalp. I hate the "it feels/looks like something's happening" posts but honestly that's the only way I can put it.
Face: this is where I am noticing significant changes...the acne cysts that I've been needling have all but disappeared. Like I have a hard time finding traces of them when I go to needle them. The ice pick scars are almost all faded as well. I don't believe it's had a noticeable impact in terms of wrinkle reduction but it may have. To me if I need a microscope to see results, well, those aren't results. But after the initial dull and obviously beat up look right after wounding when it heals after a couple of days, my face looks amazingly bright and fresh.
I finally had time to put all of the things I've ordered together and have been using that topical for about 2 weeks now. I usually put kirkland foam 5% on about an hour after wounding and the homemade topical 12 hours after. Homemade topical consists of:
60% ethyl alcohol
20% vegetable glycerin
10% PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil
10% distilled water
.5% Sandalore
Zinc Sulfate/B6 P5P (Worm's zix mix)
Finasteride - Not sure what the percentage was. I had a ton of bottles since it was on autorefill so I dissolved and strained it in ethyl alcohol and added to the mix.
For my face I have a homemade cream that I make that consists of almond oil, coconut oil, beeswax, vitamin E, shea butter, and vitamin C (from Acerola powder). I mix the vitamin C in weekly batches since I've read it degrades when exposed. I heat it in a small glass jar over the stove till it is in liquid form (do this while I'm needling) and then add the vitamin C, mix it dill mostly dissolved and put some on my face immediately after my session and put in the fridge for next use.
Side note: I had a session last night and made a point to push down to full contact with the skin/scalp. Not like putting all of my weight into it or anything like that, but making sure the entire head of the cartridge is flush against my skin. I feel like I haven't been doing this every time I needle. The reason I know this is it hurt like an absolute mother f___er, but I feel like that's how it is supposed to be used, otherwise there is no consistency of depth when wounding over the scalp. I can't comment on this with the dermapen (I use derminator) but I know for a fact that a regular dermaroller doesn't give you this same type of consistent wounding depth, at least it never felt like it did when I used a dermaroller. And I had been using it for 4 years (only on my face though and very inconsistently).
I don't check this very often so if anyone has specific questions it might be best to DM me. I try to read through but just don't have the time anymore to go through pages and pages of people bickering just to get to relevant questions and info lol.
And before anyone asks: no, don't have pictures, and not taking pictures. When I try they never turn out and honestly if I have to go through a bunch of steps to show what's happening, those aren't results worth taking a pic of anyway. IMO results don't need a f__ing microscope to be seen, at least for my purposes of restoring my hair.