One Year Update

Today marks one year since I have been boar bristle brushing in order to stop this curse that has been laid down upon me. I have noticed that since one action causes a reaction, there must be a reason why I was receding at such a young age.

Ever since reading this forum, I have been intrigued with solving my hair loss problems naturally. I have been through mental ups and downs about the situation and have contemplated if hair was even that big of a deal. While it may not be, there had to be SOMETHING that was causing my shed that my body did not like. As I calmed myself and looked at the whole picture, I had to break everything down and start from scratch. I had to make life changes.

My current regimen consists of:

-Boar Bristle brushing my scalp vigorously every morning and night. (Since September '12, one year ago from this post)

-Inversion, massaging, and pinching (Anything to loosen and get blood to my scalp)

-IH top 6 along with Garden of Life Probiotic (past 2 months)

-VERY clean diet. Staying hydrated throughout the day with JUST water. I have avoided dairy, gluten, and sugars for a while, but never stopped COMPLETELY like I am now. I also work in a juicing place and get free, cold-pressed, organic juices everyday. (Avoid all dairy, gluten, refined sugars, and anything that is not organic [last 3 months])

-Exercise 6 days out of the week. Some exercises are much more strenuous than others. Depending on how my body feels.

-Avoid stress as much as possible by meditating or doing a hobby I love. (This one is especially hard because of the difficulties life throws at us. I have dealt with a parent's suicide last year and many other stressful times in my life. Hair loss seems like a never-ending circle of stress, but try to reduce that feeling as much as possible.)

-Derma-roller once a week (Last 2 weeks)

-ONLY cold showers with washing my hair with organic soap.

-ACV (With the mother) everyday orally.

-Aiming for 7-9 hours of sleep every night.

-Loren Pickart Emu Oil (Recommended by Slowmoe) every morning and night (Last 3 months). Was using different brand when I started brushing.

As far as my physical condition is concerned, I have no fat on my body.

Brushing in this past year has SIGNIFICANTLY (I cannot stress this enough) improved my hair health. As far as regrowth is concerned, a bunch of vellus hairs have started popping up ALL over my temples (where my loss is.) So far, I believe I am attacking this beast from all angles and expect to see my hair come back.

EDIT: Oh, and to anyone who says that brushing causes damage SERIOUSLY needs to take their theories back to the drawing board.

has your hair thickened or maintained this last year?

Yes to both.

were you losing ground before you started this?

Yes, albeit you will lose hair before you grow new.

Something I've been doing the past few months that my velous hairs on my hairline seem to be enjoying (more have gone terminal) is a vigorous massage,rub etc with a wooden comb with fat teeth. it gets it really red and I find it also helps me get better "pinches" on tight parts of my scalp when I use it in one hand along with my other.

What length of dermaroller are you using? I use a 1mm but only every two weeks (for a couple months now) as I had read that at that length it can cause scarring if done more often? I found the .5mm didn't get enough penetration FWIW.

Great to hear your success!

I also think the stress is a huge factor in frontal loss andhave been working on that a lot lately. Organization to a level that I never dreamed of is actually helping me with this. It's a fair bit of work to get started but so far it has cleared my head so insanely I'm loving it. When I think about what I need to do the next day I blow my mind that I can forget about it because I know the right triggers are set to remind me and I can always refer to my lists so I have no open ended loops to concern myself with, just lots of next actions I can do whenever I am ready.

For me this is a very different way of living. I also come on the internet A LOT LESS!

I used the 1mm dermaroller the second time last night. I guess I should roll less often. I bled a lot...a lot.

The recent microneedle studies suggest rolling with a 1.5 mm once a week to release growth factors. Some people have gotten success with a smaller roller. Once a week should be fine and you probably don't have to brush as much if it works.

After I dermaroll, I pinch the temples and blood seeps through my pores. (A little graphic, but I think this might be helping the healing.)

I just rolled my temples on Monday, and last night, dead skin started showing up all over. Today, I have peeled off a whole layer of dead skin. The same exact thing happened last week.

Maybe the ticket is to get rid of all the excess dirt, dead skin, and chemicals that formed this hardened mess on our bald spots.

Growdamnit wrote:After I dermaroll, I pinch the temples and blood seeps through my pores. (A little graphic, but I think this might be helping the healing.)

I just rolled my temples on Monday, and last night, dead skin started showing up all over. Today, I have peeled off a whole layer of dead skin. The same exact thing happened last week.

Maybe the ticket is to get rid of all the excess dirt, dead skin, and chemicals that formed this hardened mess on our bald spots.

What do you mean by "hardened mess"

I used to have bad acne above my hairline when I was a teenager. I have a feeling that caused sebum to harden in my follicles and dead skin to stick around. I have a feeling that is correlated to my current hair loss.

Hey growdamit, thanks for your update. Couple questions:

1) What kind of massage are you doing? Is it the kind ferox referenced in his initial post?

2) What was the timeline for your shed regrowth phases. For example, when I first started brushing I noticed thickening of the hairline and maybe just a tiny bit of shed. Now, Im 4 months in and my temples seemed to be noticeably thinned out (parts of them, still some strong terminal ones in there), but it happened kind of quick, so Im pretty sure its a shed allowing for new growth. But it definitely has me concerned, not to much though. So yeah, just wondering what your experience was as far as this goes.

3) Do you brush vigorously the day after dermarolling? I want to incorporate dermarolling, but am concerned that vigorous BB brushing the day after might mess with the healing process and lead to scarring? What are your thoughts on this?

Feedback much appreciated, thanks!

sizzlinghairs wrote:Hey growdamit, thanks for your update. Couple questions:

1) What kind of massage are you doing? Is it the kind ferox referenced in his initial post?

2) What was the timeline for your shed regrowth phases. For example, when I first started brushing I noticed thickening of the hairline and maybe just a tiny bit of shed. Now, Im 4 months in and my temples seemed to be noticeably thinned out (parts of them, still some strong terminal ones in there), but it happened kind of quick, so Im pretty sure its a shed allowing for new growth. But it definitely has me concerned, not to much though. So yeah, just wondering what your experience was as far as this goes.

3) Do you brush vigorously the day after dermarolling? I want to incorporate dermarolling, but am concerned that vigorous BB brushing the day after might mess with the healing process and lead to scarring? What are your thoughts on this?

Feedback much appreciated, thanks!

I massage my forehead, the sides, and back of my head. I also pinch the bald patches.

I don't remember exactly when I lost more hair and saw vellus regrowth. I remember seeing a shed fairly early during the brushing. Everything I read up until this point has proven that you NEED to lose hair in order to gain.

I do not brush vigorously after dermarolling. The tenderness of the scalp after rolling is intense. While I agree that brushing the scalp to get blood flow is great, I try not to overkill it by brushing after rolling.

Just don't worry and know that you're doing everything you can. In today's world, everyone, including I, am guilty of being conditioned to instant gratification. With that being said, you must know that the visual results you want will not show right away.

Growdamnit wrote:I used to have bad acne above my hairline when I was a teenager. I have a feeling that caused sebum to harden in my follicles and dead skin to stick around. I have a feeling that is correlated to my current hair loss.

That wouldn't explain your temple loss though... right? What was your hair loss situation before your regrowth? How tight was your scalp before regrowth? BTW (idk if I said this already) but congrats on your progress! What is your current regimen??

Thanks for your reply growdamit.

More specifically, I was asking if you brush
The day after rolling or do you give a days rest after rolling?

Complexx,

It might be a reason why I lost hair early. My scalp was extremely tight before I started massaging. I had dry, curly, brittle hair. Now, I have wavy, shiny, clean hair. My current regimen is the first post in this thread.

sizzlinghairs,

I brush every morning and night. That includes traveling, staying at a friend's house, whatever. I brush the day after rolling.

Thanks grow.

When you massage, is it similar to the style explained in this link? http://www.bocaratontribune.com/oleda-talks-2/

Thanks again

I can't see the link, but I just massage the whole head for about 5 minutes a day. It's very vigorous.

During this past week, I started shedding significantly. Hopefully this is the turning point of my new regrowth.

Hey man, thanks for e update.. Do you still get itching o your head at all? If no or if its reduced a lot, at what point did you notice a slowdown in your itching? I have been doing scalp massage and notice a decrease in itching, but not all the way.. However I think like u I have new hairs, but not sure what to make of them if they r there if I still have the itch, you know?

Hmm, weird the link wont open now

Basically the massage is described as placing your fingers at different places on the scalp, pressing down, and doing circular motions moving the *actual skin* of the scalp around, while pushing down, in the circular motion. The person reccommends to focus on the bald areas, doing longer massage there.

Is this essentially what you're doing?

sanderson,

My head hardly itches anymore. The itching stopped around 8 months into my routine.

sizzlinghairs,

Yes, this is what I was doing. I am pretty sure I watched that video when I first stumbled onto Ferox's method the first time. So, in accumulation to that technique, I incorporate other massages to coincide, and hopefully get a better chance at positive results.

Thanks grow.

Would you mind sharing briefly your other modes of massage? Is it basically pushing up and down instead of circling and using nails instead of finger tips, etc?

I massage with my fingertips like that one video. I also scrunch up with my palms on the sides of my head. If you have a towel rack, leave it hanging, bend your head down below your waist, put the hung towel over your head and get a nice firm grip on your scalp. From there, move your scalp vigorously to get blood to your head. I can tell that one works because my lips look like they have lipstick on them from the amount of blood.

Remember to breathe properly while massaging, as it helps relaxation.

Word, thanks sir.

you really expect your hair to grow back??