I am copy-pasting my post from the Follica thread because it is relevant here as well.
Wound density for quorum sensing, as implied by the leaked Follica trial documents, would explain a lot of things. It would be a very elegant explanation for the success of
@Somebody / Alex and of
@chen . Why? Because they rolled mildly but daily. Even if they only had a needle density equivalent to that of a 9 or 10 needle cartridge of a typical electromechanical dermapen, they would still have a lot of simultaneously "active" wounds. Some wounds would be inflicted on day one, some others close by on day 2, even some more on day 3... thus, they subsequently increased the wound density in the areas they rolled. Depending on how quickly the tiny needle wounds closed, they would have a wound density increase of somewhere between factor 2 to 4.
Maybe very dense wounds bring skin back into a state where it thinks it needs to regenerate anew - and anew, depending on the area, will mean creation of new hair follicles.
This would be a parallel to BBQ guy, who - as we all know - had a case of complete skin regeneration which led to hair regrowth in the areas he burned.
Now some questions remain though:
- Density: Is there a possibility that wound density can be too high? (For many common needling devices, there are cartridges of around 35 needles or even of more than 40 needles).
- Depth: What is the right depth? We know from the PDFs of Follica's trial documents that Follica's first two trials were done successfully at 0.15 to 0.25 mm, which is much less than the Dhurat or Chinese study. Even though the depth was much lower there was still some neogenesis-like processes, though they did not complete and/or they were killed off again by the progression of Androgenetic Alopecia after 6 months. Now I'm wondering if there is harm in needling at greater depth than the Follica trials, given (a) for neogenesis, 0.25 mm seems to be sufficient but for destroying perifollicular fibrosis we would need to go to about 1.0 to 1.5 mm, and (b) that even at greater depths of up to 1.5 mm the upper/shallower layers of the skin would be wounded too, so I don't see why the neogenesis-inducing effects cannot be reached as well by needling deeper. And as I said we would have the added benefit of tackling perifollicular fibrosis as well.
- Frequency: As neogenesis-like processes were still measurable at 3 months after needling (though a little weakened already) but killed off after 6 months, I guess the optimum needling frequency would be shorter than once ever 3 months - perhaps once every 2.
Perhaps some of you might remember, I tried needling every two weeks at 1.75 mm (w/ daily usage of minoxidil) for almost 6 months without any improvement at all. However, all my cartridges were 10 needle cartridges. I just ordered some 36 needle cartridges and will start experimenting again - probably in January 2020. My experiment will be according to the following regimen, though of course I accept suggestions for improvement:
- Frequency: once a month
- Depth: 1.5 mm
- Needle density: 36 needle head for TBPHP needling device
- Topical: minoxidil 5% once daily
Any thoughts on wound density or on my new experiment regimen?
). and you use a circular motion in all balding areas as you needle, using the derma pen. it's constantly stamping the scalp. would that be the same as using a higher needle / denser cartridge? since you're moving it around more areas are being stamped as if you had a denser cartridge.