Scalp Peel frequency

So I took the plunge and did a couple of 25 % TCA peels on my scalp.

On my first peel, I only did one layer which did absolutely nothing for my scalp. So on my 2nd peel last week I did 2 layers on my shaved head and my whole scalp crusted over and peeled off revealing newer skin with what looks like much less fibrosis than before.

So I'm wondering, has anyone else here had any experience with TCA peels? And if so, how often is safe to repeat these types of peels on the scalp? I would like to get my scalp skin into a regular state of renewal by repeatedly using TCA peels and see what happens.

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

All I can offer you is a long thread where mainly women discuss facial TCA peels. It's pretty good and extensive. I learned all I know about TCA peels form this one thread:
http://www.skincaretalk.com/t/13723/tca-instructions

I did a 15% TCA peel on my face today. (I was lucky to get my hands on some really cheap TCA crystals; so I couldn't resist).
I think I should've done two layers, as I did not see any 'frosting' at all. My skin is barely red now.
Did you see frosting on your peel?

Also: is there anything that would suggest doing peels on the scalp would improve the chances of combating MPB?

'Cos if there is, I can guarantee you, I can do these peels all day long.

I was beginning to think no one was going to respond to this thread... LOL...

Well to answer your question - the first time I did the scalp peel I had no frosting at all - I only did one layer on my scalp. The 2nd time I decided I would go 2 layers and I got frosting on quite a few areas of my scalp - I especially noticed it were my hair is miniaturized or gone on my scalp. It was a 25 percent TCA peel. And boy did I peel - my whole scalp peeled really well. I am planning to do a 3 layer application the next time. I have my head shaved so it shouldn't be hard to do.

I do feel my skin looks way healthier on my scalp after the 2nd TCA peel, but I will have to see about regrowth as it has only been a week. I really want to do these on a regular basis for a while but don't want to overdo it. It will be like forcing the scalp to be in a constant state of renewal and healing - like an induced wound which we know can cause regrowth from several reports even with MPB. What I do know about TCA peel's is that they do make the skin more elastic and less fibrotic and rearrange some collagen properly- I'm hoping that within several peels the fibrosis on the scalp will lessen and give the hair a chance to regrow. I don't really know if there is sufficient evidence that TCA peels help MPB, but I do believe that they do make the skin less tight and more elastic and of course less fibrotic so I do think these things can only be helpful if anything. So it's worth a try for me, especially considering that I do think the pattern of MPB is a huge factor people tend to ignore and I feel maybe the tightness of the scalp over time could be a factor.

But I did read a thread a while ago worldhairloss about a guy doing TCA peel 25 percent 3 or 4 times in a matter of 3-4 weeks each time. He was getting regrowth of his hair to full thickness from what he said.

My other concern is what to use directly after a peel as well to help healing and rebuilding. Should I use copper peptides maybe or something else?

Major_Hairloss wrote:All I can offer you is a long thread where mainly women discuss facial TCA peels. It's pretty good and extensive. I learned all I know about TCA peels form this one thread:
http://www.skincaretalk.com/t/13723/tca-instructions

I did a 15% TCA peel on my face today. (I was lucky to get my hands on some really cheap TCA crystals; so I couldn't resist).
I think I should've done two layers, as I did not see any 'frosting' at all. My skin is barely red now.
Did you see frosting on your peel?

Also: is there anything that would suggest doing peels on the scalp would improve the chances of combating MPB?

'Cos if there is, I can guarantee you, I can do these peels all day long.

unfortunate wrote:
The 2nd time I decided I would go 2 layers and I got frosting on quite a few areas of my scalp - I especially noticed it were my hair is miniaturized or gone on my scalp. It was a 25 percent TCA peel. And boy did I peel - my whole scalp peeled really well. I am planning to do a 3 layer application the next time. I have my head shaved so it shouldn't be hard to do.

Wow, multiple layers of 25%, that's pretty hardcore.
I'm feeling foolish about my single layer 15% (on face) right now.  
How many days before you started to peel - and how long before your skin was done peeling?

unfortunate wrote:
 But I did read a thread a while ago worldhairloss about a guy doing TCA peel 25 percent 3 or 4 times in a matter of 3-4 weeks each time. He was getting regrowth of his hair to full thickness from what he said.

Did he really do a 25% peel every week?
If one were to believe the gals over at skincaretalk, this guy should've had his entire scalp and cranium fried off already.   Consensus over there seems to be to wait at least six weeks before doing a new peel.
Would you happen to have the URL for that thread where you read that?

unfortunate wrote:
My other concern is what to use directly after a peel as well to help healing and rebuilding. Should I use copper peptides maybe or something else?

What I heard is good is Emu oil. I've been using it.
I don't know much about copper peptides
Don't forget to use plenty of sunblock, though! Very important. (unless you wear a hat)

I was thinking if TCA peels have a similar effect on stimulating new skin growth like dermarolling has. But I think dermarolling goes quite a bit deeper, depending on the needle length.

I guess, if one wants to go really crazy, you could do TCA peels, followed by dermarolling by the time the old skin layer has peeled off. And use whatever topical one thinks is good, just after dermarolling, too.
But I don't know if this would just totally kill your follicles... the skin would not like it, I would think.

I've always been really interested in scalp peels for hair loss, but keep forgetting to research the best products/agents to do one.

While on the one hand, I think it would be really beneficial, there's the other part of me who looks at people with dreadlocks, cornrows etc. These people never wash their hair and a lot of them have extremely thick hair. However, these people are not affected by MPB to begin with, so who knows.

What I am thinking is that scalp peels would be beneficial for those of us using topicals and shampoos with keto. I can't help but think that these leave behind residue, to some extent. Also, I think peels would be REALLY good to enhance laser penetration for those of us who use LLLT.

The big question is, can we achieve the same exfoliation or more with brushing that those here harp about? This is pretty easy to do and costs nothing, except the up front cost of a brush.

TrueGround wrote:

The big question is, can we achieve the same exfoliation or more with brushing that those here harp about?  This is pretty easy to do and costs nothing, except the up front cost of a brush.

My guess would be that pretty much nothing beats a chemical peel when it comes to exfoliation.
You literally remove the outer most layer of your skin with this stuff.

Hey man,

It took me maybe a week before I started to peel. Then maybe a week or less for all of it to come off.

Sorry for the confusion about the other thread. Yeah what I meant is that he did a peel, then waited 3-4 weeks, then did another peel, waited 3-4 weeks, etc.

Here is the thread:
http://www.worldhairloss.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/603

Let me know what you think...

Major_Hairloss wrote:

unfortunate wrote:

Wow, multiple layers of 25%, that's pretty hardcore.
I'm feeling foolish about my single layer 15% (on face) right now.  
How many days before you started to peel - and how long before your skin was done peeling?

unfortunate wrote:
 But I did read a thread a while ago worldhairloss about a guy doing TCA peel 25 percent 3 or 4 times in a matter of 3-4 weeks each time. He was getting regrowth of his hair to full thickness from what he said.

Did he really do a 25% peel every week?
If one were to believe the gals over at skincaretalk, this guy should've had his entire scalp and cranium fried off already.   Consensus over there seems to be to wait at least six weeks before doing a new peel.
Would you happen to have the URL for that thread where you read that?

unfortunate wrote:
My other concern is what to use directly after a peel as well to help healing and rebuilding. Should I use copper peptides maybe or something else?

What I heard is good is Emu oil. I've been using it.
I don't know much about copper peptides
Don't forget to use plenty of sunblock, though! Very important. (unless you wear a hat)

I was thinking if TCA peels have a similar effect on stimulating new skin growth like dermarolling has. But I think dermarolling goes quite a bit deeper, depending on the needle length.

I guess, if one wants to go really crazy, you could do TCA peels, followed by dermarolling by the time the old skin layer has peeled off. And use whatever topical one thinks is good, just after dermarolling, too.
But I don't know if this would just totally kill your follicles... the skin would not like it, I would think.

unfortunate wrote:Hey man,

 It took me maybe a week before I started to peel. Then maybe a week or less for all of it to come off.

Sorry for the confusion about the other thread. Yeah what I meant is that he did a peel, then waited 3-4 weeks, then did another peel, waited 3-4 weeks, etc.

Here is the thread:
http://www.worldhairloss.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/603

Let me know what you think...

It seems this guy has/had fibrosis. And that he was trying to better the fibrosis by use of TCA peels.
I couldn't find much on what fibrosis (of the scalp) is.

But if fibrosis is what was causing his hairloss, then I do not know how much use TCA peels would be for the rest of us.  

Would be very interesting to see more people do this, so we could compare results.

Well I plan on doing my next peel this weekend as my scalp is recovered from the last. I am going to be following it up with rejuveplex + AHK CU 2.5 percent that I have coming in soon. Hopefully that will aid in recovery and regrowth.

Major_Hairloss wrote:

unfortunate wrote:Hey man,

 It took me maybe a week before I started to peel. Then maybe a week or less for all of it to come off.

Sorry for the confusion about the other thread. Yeah what I meant is that he did a peel, then waited 3-4 weeks, then did another peel, waited 3-4 weeks, etc.

Here is the thread:
http://www.worldhairloss.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/603

Let me know what you think...

It seems this guy has/had fibrosis. And that he was trying to better the fibrosis by use of TCA peels.
I couldn't find much on what fibrosis (of the scalp) is.

But if fibrosis is what was causing his hairloss, then I do not know how much use TCA peels would be for the rest of us.  

Would be very interesting to see more people do this, so we could compare results.

unfortunate wrote:Well I plan on doing my next peel this weekend as my scalp is recovered from the last. I am going to be following it up with rejuveplex + AHK CU 2.5 percent that I have coming in soon. Hopefully that will aid in recovery and regrowth.

The TCA will will certainly aid in penetration of the topicals.
Question is if its as good/better/worse than, say, a 1.0mm Dermaroller.

Dermarolling could be done more frequently than a peel. And is less messy.

Please let us know how you do with the peels.
How long did you wait from your last peel to do the current one?

I'll definitely keep ya updated. I'm not sure about dermarolling but I don't like the idea of making the scalp bleed like that.

The last peel I did was about 3-4 weeks ago. So I think that is going to be my rough interval from here on out.

Major_Hairloss wrote:

unfortunate wrote:Well I plan on doing my next peel this weekend as my scalp is recovered from the last. I am going to be following it up with rejuveplex + AHK CU 2.5 percent that I have coming in soon. Hopefully that will aid in recovery and regrowth.

The TCA will will certainly aid in penetration of the topicals.
Question is if its as good/better/worse than, say, a 1.0mm Dermaroller.

Dermarolling could be done more frequently than a peel. And is less messy.

Please let us know how you do with the peels.
How long did you wait from your last peel to do the current one?

unfortunate wrote:I'm not sure about dermarolling but I don't like the idea of making the scalp bleed like that.

You don't make the scalp bleed at all, unless you use a 2.0mm needle length.
I've used a 1.5mm myself. No bleeding whatsoever.

Interesting... So is it just breaking up fibrosis?

Major_Hairloss wrote:

unfortunate wrote:I'm not sure about dermarolling but I don't like the idea of making the scalp bleed like that.

You don't make the scalp bleed at all, unless you use a 2.0mm needle length.
I've used a 1.5mm myself. No bleeding whatsoever.

unfortunate wrote:Interesting... So is it just breaking up fibrosis?

Sorry, I don't know what fibrosis of the scalp exactly is. (which also is why I don't know if I have it or not)

But deep dermarolling is supposed to stimulate collagen growth.

Well wiki says it's "Fibrosis is the formation of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or tissue in a reparative or reactive process. This can be a reactive, benign, or pathological state. In response to injury this is called scarring and if fibrosis arises from a single cell line this is called a fibroma. Physiologically this acts to deposit connective tissue, which can obliterate the architecture and function of the underlying organ or tissue. Fibrosis can be used to describe the pathological state of excess deposition of fibrous tissue, as well as the process of connective tissue deposition in healing"

I guess one theory is that the attack on the follicle creates fibrosis, which in turn makes it harder for the hair to grow back each cycle. Like a miniature scarring over the scalp or a deposit of some sort. I also think this may be another reason that minoxidil works to an extent to stimulate hair growth - it supposedly breaks collagen cross linking and possibly fibrosis (always worked for me but horrible sides). I am hoping that tca peels can help restructure those deposits and cross links without destroying good collagen in the process like minoxidil does.

Major_Hairloss wrote:

unfortunate wrote:Interesting... So is it just breaking up fibrosis?

Sorry, I don't know what fibrosis of the scalp exactly is. (which also is why I don't know if I have it or not)

But deep dermarolling is supposed to stimulate collagen growth.

unfortunate wrote:
I guess one theory is that the attack on the follicle creates fibrosis, which in turn makes it harder for the hair to grow back each cycle. Like a miniature scarring over the scalp or a deposit of some sort. I also think this may be another reason that minoxidil works to an extent to stimulate hair growth - it supposedly breaks collagen cross linking and possibly fibrosis (always worked for me but horrible sides). I am hoping that tca peels can help restructure those deposits and cross links without destroying good collagen in the process like minoxidil does.

Do we know how deep down the fibrosis occurs?
TCA peels don't go near the depth where follicles reside, AFAIK. But maybe that's not necessary.

Not exactly sure of the technicality of it all, but all the research I have done says that 25% and above area considered medium to deep, whatever that means. So I am not sure exactly what the means in reference to the depth of the follicles.

Major_Hairloss wrote:

unfortunate wrote:
I guess one theory is that the attack on the follicle creates fibrosis, which in turn makes it harder for the hair to grow back each cycle. Like a miniature scarring over the scalp or a deposit of some sort. I also think this may be another reason that minoxidil works to an extent to stimulate hair growth - it supposedly breaks collagen cross linking and possibly fibrosis (always worked for me but horrible sides). I am hoping that tca peels can help restructure those deposits and cross links without destroying good collagen in the process like minoxidil does.

Do we know how deep down the fibrosis occurs?
TCA peels don't go near the depth where follicles reside, AFAIK. But maybe that's not necessary.

Not exactly sure of the technicality of it all, but all the research I have done says that 25% and above area considered medium to deep, whatever that means. So I am not sure exactly what the means in reference to the depth of the follicles.

Major_Hairloss wrote:

unfortunate wrote:
I guess one theory is that the attack on the follicle creates fibrosis, which in turn makes it harder for the hair to grow back each cycle. Like a miniature scarring over the scalp or a deposit of some sort. I also think this may be another reason that minoxidil works to an extent to stimulate hair growth - it supposedly breaks collagen cross linking and possibly fibrosis (always worked for me but horrible sides). I am hoping that tca peels can help restructure those deposits and cross links without destroying good collagen in the process like minoxidil does.

Do we know how deep down the fibrosis occurs?
TCA peels don't go near the depth where follicles reside, AFAIK. But maybe that's not necessary.

Major_Hairloss wrote:

unfortunate wrote:
I guess one theory is that the attack on the follicle creates fibrosis, which in turn makes it harder for the hair to grow back each cycle. Like a miniature scarring over the scalp or a deposit of some sort. I also think this may be another reason that minoxidil works to an extent to stimulate hair growth - it supposedly breaks collagen cross linking and possibly fibrosis (always worked for me but horrible sides). I am hoping that tca peels can help restructure those deposits and cross links without destroying good collagen in the process like minoxidil does.

Do we know how deep down the fibrosis occurs?
TCA peels don't go near the depth where follicles reside, AFAIK. But maybe that's not necessary.

Had an interesting thought regarding this... I read somewhere that the way the skin works is that the dermis where the hair follical is, keeps pushing cells upward to the higher layers of skin like the epidermis over time. The TCA peel usually removes the epidermis or a portion of it, so then the dermis is forced to push upward and re-layer itself where the follicle resides.

Now, on the other hand, we know that the process of dht eventually leads to damaged follicles through some pathway takes time and does not happen overnight. So what if forcing the dermis to move up and regenerate where the follicle resides causes the built up damaged tissue to move upward without giving the old dermis enough time to get damaged/accumulate dht etc again....? In theory it sounds like it wouldn't be a bad thing but would require repeated peels...

Just an update, so far I have down 2 X 2 layer peels at one month intervals. I did my last one a week ago and the scalp feels perfectly normal again but is starting to peel. I plan to do my next in the middle of august.