Manual method users, check in here please

Hey guys. I just wanted to get a paragraph or two from the guys who have been doing the manual methods, describing their routine, time of use and results, positive, negative or neutral....Not so much a chat thread but a collection of results basically...Pics are welcome

I am on a pretty strict diet which consists of...

-3 brown, omega rich eggs
-Gluten Free Rice Krispies with almond milk
-Fruits
-Vegetables (Sometimes juiced with kale, cucumber, parsley, etc.)
-Chicken (not very often)
-Salad (no dressing)
-Fish/Sushi
-Almonds, cashews, walnuts
-Tablespoon of Bragg's ACV every morning
-Drink ONLY water or tea (No alcohol, no coffee)

Mostly anything out of a package I try to stay away from.

As for my methods...

-Brush with 100% BBB every morning, evening, and night until scalp is irritated and blood is flowing (7 months so far
-Massage with Emu oil 3x a day in the bald spots and brush the rest over my hair (1 month in)
-Inversion from a pull-up bar
-Meditation for stress relief (which is definitely helping)
-Pinching the scalp to get more blood flow (I literally see blood come out of the pores)
-Shampoo 2-3x a week with Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap


From when I started brushing until now, it is INSANE how healthy my hair is compared to back then. I have lost more on my left temple, but believe it is just falling out because it was supposed to. It's very hard to keep positive about this because it is taking to so long to see regrowth results. There are many vellus hairs growing on my right temple that started around the 5-6 month mark.

Yeah I brush my hair with a BBB roughly 30 minutes a day, stretch out my scalp 20+ times a day, massage 5 or so minutes a day on the sides (muscles). I do not shampoo my hair but maybe once or twice a month (hair does not smell bad, rince with lukewarm water). Only other thing that might contribute to good results is 1tbsp of dried ginkgo biloba leaves in my smoothies once daily.

Results; A lot of hair has grown in on my crown, hairline is alot slower but there are many many terminal hairs thickening up my hairline that are about 1/3 to half notmal size, and growing.

Pics:

ive been doign tom haggertys scalp exercises for a month now everyday. i usually do it while im sitting at work a lot all day. ive noticed my hair gets to the "greasy" point WAY FASTER than before. when i shampoo my hair one day, it literally looks greasy and oily the next day. even if i shampoo it the night before, i wake up and it is greasy. i think it means the blood flow has increased A LOT up there. now im noticing less itch. but i still will get itch if i eat the wrong thing. but it doesnt last as long. i'm going to keep doing it non stop. the grease buildup is enough for me to believe its making a difference.

SlowMoe. Have you ever tried applying scalp clay and 30 minutes later massage the scalp? Just try it! I'm not sure if this is helpful or not, but when the clay has dried the entire scalp moves back and forth very easily and in one piece. Would like to hear your comments.

Growdamnit wrote:I am on a pretty strict diet which consists of...
-Brush with 100% BBB every morning, evening, and night until scalp is irritated and blood is flowing (7 months so far

Can I ask you how long until the redness/irritation is visibly gone, after you do the brushing?

I've been considering the whole brushing thing. But I don't want to go around with red, bumpy temples all day long.

Could the brushing be done, say, before bedtime. And by the time I get up in the morning, the redness/irritation will be gone?

Major_Hairloss wrote:

Growdamnit wrote:I am on a pretty strict diet which consists of...
-Brush with 100% BBB every morning, evening, and night until scalp is irritated and blood is flowing (7 months so far

Can I ask you how long until the redness/irritation is visibly gone, after you do the brushing?

I've been considering the whole brushing thing. But I don't want to go around with red, bumpy temples all day long.

Could the brushing be done, say, before bedtime. And by the time I get up in the morning, the redness/irritation will be gone?

It takes a while. I would recommend doing it everyday and night.

SlowMoe wrote:stretch out my scalp 20+ times a day, massage 5 or so minutes a day on the sides (muscles).

Could you share with us how exactly you do your stretching and massaging.

I bought Maliniak's book. But I'm still not 100% sure whether it is stretching the muscles or massaging them that is the true goal.

Is what you are doing akin to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOQX_WyLosA

Do you feel stretching is more important than massaging?

Growdamnit wrote:
It takes a while. I would recommend doing it everyday and night.

Did you mean it takes a while for the redness to subside?
How long, would you say? 2 hours? 8 hours?

Thanks.

another note on scalp exercises: i felt my moms scalp today to see how tight it was, it was really tight actually. my scalp is now way looser than her scalp after ive been doing the scalp exercises for a month now. itching is very low right now, however i also havent had any kind of ejaculation in a week or two which i believe plays a major role in this. im trying to deal with my libido issues from propecia use which is why i am abstaining long term.

Major_Hairloss wrote:

Growdamnit wrote:
It takes a while. I would recommend doing it everyday and night.

Did you mean it takes a while for the redness to subside?
How long, would you say? 2 hours? 8 hours?

Thanks.

It's nothing to worry about. The redness doesn't last more than a couple minutes for me until it subsides. I guess this could vary from person to person, depending on complexion.

For example I get the most redness after brushing with two plastic shampoo brushes. I'd say the redness is completely gone after 10 minutes at most. I get a tingly feeling on my scalp for around 30 minutes on average (sometimes more, sometimes less), but the redness is definitely nothing to worry about. If you're really concerned, and I know this sounds silly, but brush your arm or something for a few minutes and see how long it stays red. It won't be long.

Something else I'd like to add is that I had trouble getting my scalp red when I first started manual methods. But after a while (a few months or so) it got red much quicker.

I agree completely with NeonMonk.

Hey all. This is only my second post here but I figured I would contribute since that's what this site is all about. I've been doing the manual methods for about a year now and even more so after reading up on them through this forum and I THINK I've gotten some decent results. I think my hair improved a lot in the beginning and now is just maintaining/regrowing extremely slowly. I brush for about 20 minutes a day (while driving) massage my whole scalp with my palms and squeeze my scalp like a basketball so that the tightest areas sort of bunch up on themselves (got that one from a lot of experimentation). When I massage I focus mostly on areas that I feel will loosen up my galea.. for me thats the top of the forehead, back of the head and top of the sides. If I had to guess I would say I probably spend about 40 minutes a day doing manual methods in my free time (driving, reading articles, checking email etc) so that it doesn't feel like work. Outside of that I take a maca supplement once a day and the antioxidant boost supplement from IH top 6 once a day (I've tried several supplements but I like these mostly for general health and libido). My diet isn't terrible.. but I definitely eat pretty much what I want. Stay away from a lot of sugar but I still indulge from time to time. I Workout maybe 2-3 times a week really intensely and get some sun when I can. Wash my hair everyday in the shower with plain water and shampoo once a week with Dr Bronners Eucalyptus soap just to keep it clean up there. Here's some pics of my progress from last year until now:

Before (Early 2012):

After (Last week):

My hair has stayed looking like the "after" picture for about 3 months now.. In both of these my hair is freshly cut at a number one on the clippers.. If I let it grow much longer than that my hair loss is a lot more obvious. I've been dealing with hair loss so long that I've become a master barber when it comes to my own hair and can make it look pretty clean as you can see from the second picture. As you can see I still have a hairline, it's diffusing a lot less than the hair just behind it but it's still MPB for sure. Everything besides my diffused hairline follows the norwood pattern. Anyway I hope that my progress keeps up.. I'm always checking back here for updates on how we can fix our problem.. Keep at it gents!

^ Impressive!

^^ impressive indeed.

Seems like back then you had 2 scars in the forehead which are on the second really hard to even notice.
Did you take care of them? Or is it just a lightning thingy?

panoslydios wrote:^^ impressive indeed.

Seems like back then you had 2 scars in the forehead which are on the second really hard to even notice.
Did you take care of them? Or is it just a lightning thingy?

Still visible, just less noticeable

What do you guys think re. massaging the scalp:
Is it best to stretch the muscles that hold the galea. Or would vibrating the same muscles (with a massage device) achieve the same or maybe even better?

Just lighting I think.

Allen, nice progress man. Also very well done photos from what I can tell.

Yet another testament to the manual stimulation. You definitely have good regrowth there!

Guys sometimes I wonder if manuals and brushing could speed up loss? My hair seems thicker but it seems my corners could be receding quicker since starting? I think I could have some regrowth but its hard to tell if that's just actual thinning or regrowth. Trying to stay optimistic though. There must be something else we can do?

Manuals seem to be the only thing that are semi-consistently getting actual hair regeneration. It will probably not work for all, just like most treatments. Have to respect individuality, genetic susceptibility, underlying causes etc.

I also feel it might be important not to overdo it with the brush if you're concerned..

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=10&threadid=105177&STARTPAGE=2&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear&#lastunread

Can you help me fight him?(Farrel the mod at HLH who clearly is pushing Propecia).

Thanks for sharing your link. Actually I am facing problem of hair fall and dark circles.

I think I am getting results like slowmoe is. Its either that or my temples are getting worse. I have always had a sharp cutoff where hair meets skin in my receding areas. But now I swear within the last say 20-30 days I have what I think are small hairs turning into big hairs.

I could be wrong but im hopeful. Something is different for sure. It's either my hairloss is getting worse in a way that is usually doesn't do or im making some vellus hairs go terminal. I sometimes think it's not possible and my hair is just getting worse but I swear sometimes I look in the mirror and really think these may be new hairs. I will keep my eye on it and keep up the massaging and brushing.

hairisthickening wrote:I think I am getting results like slowmoe is. Its either that or my temples are getting worse. I have always had a sharp cutoff where hair meets skin in my receding areas. But now I swear within the last say 20-30 days I have what I think are small hairs turning into big hairs.

I could be wrong but im hopeful. Something is different for sure. It's either my hairloss is getting worse in a way that is usually doesn't do or im making some vellus hairs go terminal. I sometimes think it's not possible and my hair is just getting worse but I swear sometimes I look in the mirror and really think these may be new hairs. I will keep my eye on it and keep up the massaging and brushing.

Same exact thing is happening to me.