Very Impressive Dermarolling And Minxodil Results - From Tressless

Headdy

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Saw some vellus growth within a month or so. It was recent loss, and I was already on finasteride/minoxidil.

Started at maybe advanced NW3... scary "shave it bro" time. Thought wounding was insane, but out of desperation got a Derminator and started 1.0mm every 2 weeks. Took about a year but recovered to maybe a little beyond NW2.5. Progress seemed to be slowing down so then added RU 7.5% 1x/day and maybe 10 days or so later could feel a rough sandpaper feeling on the temples. Experimented with stronger antiandrogens, got much faster growth but side effects. Eventually went back to original RU regimen.

Hard to say what needling routine was best, but it kind of seemed like 2.0mm every 2.5 weeks was the sweet spot. Really painful though, needed lidocaine for 2.0mm.

Stopped needling 6 months ago (2 years total). Recovered to around NW2 widow's peak + thin temples, which I'm comfortable enough with, so kind of lost the motivation. This thread is kind of motivating though.
Super nice. Thanks.
Some people needle every week with 2mm. If they really reach 2mm, I think they can get at least similar results if they do it once every 2 weeks. Sometimes less is more.
 

MinervaCGI

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I used minoxidil for a year, no response. Since needling I’ve noticed hairs around the hairline start to pop up and grow longer. Nothing on the crown yet. I cover my entire scalp with minoxidil.

Yeah my crown is stubborn too. Hairline responds within weeks.
 

ZenHead

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Saw some vellus growth within a month or so. It was recent loss, and I was already on finasteride/minoxidil.

Started at maybe advanced NW3... scary "shave it bro" time. Thought wounding was insane, but out of desperation got a Derminator and started 1.0mm every 2 weeks. Took about a year but recovered to maybe a little beyond NW2.5. Progress seemed to be slowing down so then added RU 7.5% 1x/day and maybe 10 days or so later could feel a rough sandpaper feeling on the temples. Experimented with stronger antiandrogens, got much faster growth but side effects. Eventually went back to original RU regimen.

Hard to say what needling routine was best, but it kind of seemed like 2.0mm every 2.5 weeks was the sweet spot. Really painful though, needed lidocaine for 2.0mm.

Stopped needling 6 months ago (2 years total). Recovered to around NW2 widow's peak + thin temples, which I'm comfortable enough with, so kind of lost the motivation. This thread is kind of motivating though.
Nice, thanks for sharing! Would you say you also recovered density all over? Or did you only needle the temples
 

kiwi666

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For those needling the entire scalp, a quick question: how do you use derminator with long hair? I have longish hair (5 to 6 inch) and my problem is that:

1. The derminator cannot get sufficient contact with scalp where there is still hair

2. There's no way for me to know if I needled an area properly as you can't really tell if it's inducing "mild erythema". For temples which are bald it's easy.

3. I wanted to try needling on wet hair, but doesn't that increases the risk of infection?

Thank you in advance guys

1. I have long hair and use the derminator at 1.75mm and I absolutely do get sufficient contact with scalp

2. Go over your entire balding area up and down then left and right - try 2mm if you have doubts

3. Do not do it with dry hair! Have a shower and wash your scalp thoroughly. Then use the derminator on your wet hair. Just comb it down / part it as necessary.

Don’t worry about infection. When was the last time you grazed yourself? That was probably dirtier and grubbier than any derminating session ever.

I use a 9 needle cartridge twice before replacing. I’m about to move to 12 needles this week.

Good luck :)
 
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kiwi666

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How long can you go with one cartridge for the dermapen if you clean it properly after use?

Well think about it. People use their rollers and stamps for ages and ages.

If you clean a cartridge regularly before and after you use it my sense is that you could use it until it becomes less effective (as described on the derminator website).

Personally though. I’m just going to stick with 2 sessions per cartridge, 3 if I ever ran out and was having to wait.
 

centurie

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Oh yes yes, I remember you now. Yeah you have a good amount of hair and you don't look like a hairloss sufferer at all anymore.
By the way, when you said "I'm returning back to baseline", do you mean that you are losing the boost you got by dermarolling? Or that you are getting back to your "before starting to lose hairl" state?
We were all hoping that unlike minoxidil, gains from needling are more permanent if you stick to the weekly regimen. What can you tell us about this, now that it's been over a year for you

By returning back to baseline, yes i do mean that im losing that little boost dermarolling gave me.

About how permanent gains are, all i can say is that the new vellus hair it gave me never developed in terminal hairs and eventually did fall out. I do believe that my hair would be in a much worse state now if i didn't begin dermarolling, and generally my scalp feels a lot more healthy. Overall i consider it a good addition to my regime.

@MinervaCGI
 

ToLGuy

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By returning back to baseline, yes i do mean that im losing that little boost dermarolling gave me.

About how permanent gains are, all i can say is that the new vellus hair it gave me never developed in terminal hairs and eventually did fall out. I do believe that my hair would be in a much worse state now if i didn't begin dermarolling, and generally my scalp feels a lot more healthy. Overall i consider it a good addition to my regime.

@MinervaCGI
Thanks for your response.
Guys, this is some bad news. For the first time, we've got an instance of someone losing needling gains. I know that we need more cases so we can assess whether this is a general thing but damn.... Now I'm scared
 

Bill_Russo

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Who's that?
Kitedude. Yeah, he said he stopped for some time and his temples were thinning, so he resumed his wounding treatment after trying Somebody's regime, which did nothing for him.
 

Bill_Russo

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Also, another case of anecdotal evidence worth mentioning is 2young. He kept his gains for months without wounding because he joined the military or something like that.
Both of them did it without Minoxidil, for those who don't know.
 

ToLGuy

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Also, another case of anecdotal evidence worth mentioning is 2young. He kept his gains for months without wounding because he joined the military or something like that.
Both of them did it without Minoxidil, for those who don't know.
Billy, do you know what's that guy doing right now? Did he resume needling? I heard he started to lose hair again because he actually stopped it for way too long so he was going to start the regime again
 

Bill_Russo

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Billy, do you know what's that guy doing right now? Did he resume needling? I heard he started to lose hair again because he actually stopped it for way too long so he was going to start the regime again
Last I heard is he was looking into starting Finasteride on StopAga, I believe it's the name of the forum.
 

Francesco17

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I believe we need more information on both the cases where needling regrowth was kept and those where it was lost: maybe there are factors that we have not considered, or we are not aware of.

In general, I tend to believe that Androgenetic Alopecia works, in some aspects, like cancer, even more, like aging. It cannot be stopped or eliminated or reversed forever (at least for now).

But we can slow it down. Alas, that won't work for everyone equally - but that's what ultimately sucks with alopecias. If every man balded at the same age, give or take a few years, then we would accept it without too much chagrin, as it happens with wrinkles or other more democratic signs of aging.

But for the same reason, any visible regrowth is worthwhile even when it is temporary, because it kicks the can down the road, at a point where it becomes relatively less heartbreaking, and, fingers crossed, more treatable thanks to scientific progress.
 

centurie

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Thanks for your response.
Guys, this is some bad news. For the first time, we've got an instance of someone losing needling gains. I know that we need more cases so we can assess whether this is a general thing but damn.... Now I'm scared

Again bear in mind i already have a lot of hair to begin with, i believe those with more server hair loss will see better gains than someone like me.

@Somebody has seemed to have kept his needling gains for a number of years and also made an incredible recovery. Probably has already been linked but his hair loss journey is quite impressive and he puts a lot of it down to microneedling.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...inasteride-results-7-mo-treatment-pics.44087/
 

Derelict

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Again bear in mind i already have a lot of hair to begin with, i believe those with more server hair loss will see better gains than someone like me.

@Somebody has seemed to have kept his needling gains for a number of years and also made an incredible recovery. Probably has already been linked but his hair loss journey is quite impressive and he puts a lot of it down to microneedling.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...inasteride-results-7-mo-treatment-pics.44087/

I think somebody a super good responder to finasteride and minoxidil, he only lightly rolls for more minoxidil to reach the follicles. Wounding like the person on this thread is different. But like i said he was a good responder to finasteride alone if you look at his pics, minoxidil was just the icing on the cake.
 

ImpedingReceding

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The problem with these long threads are that the information and pictures are spread out over 150 pages so we get a lot of repeat questions. Do you guys think starting a new thread where the initial post contains all progress pictures, shared studies, information on how to roll, different pens etc etc from this thread could ge a good idea?

These are the pictures from the first 50 pages. I´m currently collecting all of them
https://imgur.com/a/1ozKjDw
 

Derelict

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I believe we need more information on both the cases where needling regrowth was kept and those where it was lost: maybe there are factors that we have not considered, or we are not aware of.

In general, I tend to believe that Androgenetic Alopecia works, in some aspects, like cancer, even more, like aging. It cannot be stopped or eliminated or reversed forever (at least for now).

But we can slow it down. Alas, that won't work for everyone equally - but that's what ultimately sucks with alopecias. If every man balded at the same age, give or take a few years, then we would accept it without too much chagrin, as it happens with wrinkles or other more democratic signs of aging.

But for the same reason, any visible regrowth is worthwhile even when it is temporary, because it kicks the can down the road, at a point where it becomes relatively less heartbreaking, and, fingers crossed, more treatable thanks to scientific progress.

If it works for hair the same way it does for skin then i suspect it has long lasting results, i had very deep visible forehead lines that i got rid of using a manual stamp, after they went away i got lazy and probably didn't stamp again for a year or so and the lines were still not noticeable. I hope this is the same.
 

Francesco17

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Again bear in mind i already have a lot of hair to begin with, i believe those with more server hair loss will see better gains than someone like me.

@Somebody has seemed to have kept his needling gains for a number of years and also made an incredible recovery. Probably has already been linked but his hair loss journey is quite impressive and he puts a lot of it down to microneedling.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...inasteride-results-7-mo-treatment-pics.44087/

Thanks for pointing this out, I believe it makes a difference. I remember your pictures now - take it as a compliment, but I believe you only marginally belong here if at all. But I do agree that acting early is the best move, and I believe that norwood biodiversity is pivotal on hair themed forums
 
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