Weeks of June 27th and July 4th, 2016

Next Monday is the 4th of July, America's Independence Day(!), so I'm going to make this the Weekly Update for BOTH WEEKS! Although I don't have much planned, I'll be probably at the inlaws' pool (sort of a lose/win, I guess! Ha ha!), eating hot dogs, and celebrating this great country! PLUS... I need to make some more site changes (basically, I need to make these weekly notes more prominent), so I want to give myself some more time before I make the next update!

Anyway, I'll be IN TOWN, making helmets, and answering emails for these next two weeks, so I'll definitely be here on the other end of your email!

Scalp Biopsy shows that LLLT massively reduces tissue inflammation of the scalp

So, if you want "Smoking Gun" proof that laser therapy does something that no other treatment does (and why frankly EVERYONE should be using it), then check out the work done by Dr. Crassas in France:

Dr. Crassas treated subjects with laser therapy for three months (and you can see the Sunetics G in the picture, which, of course, has the exact same diodes as the Laser Messiah!), and then performed scalp biopsies and determined the amount of tissue inflammation. It was dramatically reduced after laser therapy! Dr. Maricle (cmaricle​@aixiz​.com) was involved in this study as well, and I'm going to get more of his findings before I make the "full article" on it, but this is great!

Say what you want, but laser therapy actually reduces chronic scalp inflammation which, of course, it a big problem with MPB!

Here is an animated gif:

LLLT does something that no other hair loss treatment does: it HEALS the scalp and reduces inflammation!...and I'll explain what you are looking at. This is biopsied scalp tissue, and it's basically sliced horizontally so you are seeing a cross section from top view. So, those big oval areas are SLICED hair follicles from top view. Basically, if you flew in an airplane over a clear cut forest and look straight down over an area with some tree trunks, this is similar to what you would see -except, of course, this is under the surface of the skin!

In the animated sequence, the first picture is "before", and the second picture is "after". The third picture is the zoomed in version of that same "before", and the fourth picture is the zoomed in version of that same "after". ...And no, it is obviously NOT the same area in each picture because those areas were, well, BIOPSIED!!! It can't be reused because it's no longer a part of the subject, and it's in a medical waste bin (hopefully).

You are to focus on the RED (actually kind of magenta/pink, too) areas, because THAT is the inflammation of the tissue. If you do that, you will see that there is dramatic reduction of inflamed areas, and I'm assuming he found that in all subjects (but like I said, I'll get all the details and do a full article at some point!).

I made that background that retro-green color because of color science to help you see it, by the way! If you take the "complimentary color" of one color (meaning the opposite side of the color wheel), then that first color will POP. So, I took a sample of one of the red/magenta colors, found it's complimentary color (retro green), and made it so you can more easily see the inflammation:

This is the same sort of thing done in many movies, by the way, where they turn the skin orange and make the background colors teal:

I just mentioned that just in case you wondered why the blockbuster movies are always colored that way! It emphasizes the actors! Of course, they jack up the orange, and the magenta/red was NOT jacked up in the inflammation pictures.

Back to LLLT, many of you have seen one of my favorite animated gifs before that essentially demonstrate the same thing, although on a short term scale (vs. long term as in the study above):

So, burn your hand?? Ice it, then shove it under the laser helmet. My wife did that and it worked phenominally.

So, obviously laser therapy does things that other treatments can't. Sure, steroids like cortisone can reduce the itch and inflammation, but it's temporary, fleeting, and we all know terrible for hair loss long term because it thins out the scalp. This is why LLLT is often enough for many people to get results -it heals the tissue, it stimulates mitochondria to produce more ATP, and as a result, "things work better". More healing, follicles can produce thicker hair, etc.

Unfortunately, hair loss can be a myriad of problems, though. Obviously, there is inflammation, lack of blood flow, androgens, sebum blocking the follicles and causing more inflammation, fibrosis and calcification, scalp tension, fungus, and a million other things that can contribute --and some of them affect certain people more than others which is absolutely why you can have one person respond great to a treatment and one person not respond at all. So, the idea would be to treat as many of them as possible (WITHOUT using minoxidil and propecia, by the way, and if you need me to go into that more, please email me!).

This leads us to the next part...

Scalp Massager!

This next part comes from a FANTASTIC TIP from a customer of mine (who shall currently stay anonymous!), and I think it can have a big impact on us:

One of those things that people DON'T TREAT -but often instinctively know that they should- are the scalp tension and blood flow aspects of baldness. Everyone knows that people with slick bald MPB heads have tight scalps full of tension and without much blood flow. This has even been proven by an autopsy surgeon (will have to get the link), and there was an old treatment in the 70's and 80's (that has fallen out of favor for whatever reason -probably because of Propecia dominating the scene in the 90's) where doctors would block certain veins/arteries, causing the blood to flow more heavily though the scalp -and allegedly it worked.

The idea for scalp massaging for hair loss has been around for eons -and most people find Tom Hagerty's website when they are first starting hair loss research. I'm sure you've seen that over the past few years, a more advanced form of scalp massaging has made the rounds called "detumescence therapy". One of the websites that people often find is this:
How I Thickened My Hair and Advanced My Hairline with a Simple Massage Technique (and no Drugs) -jdmoyer​.com

There are people selling ebooks on the topic (and I may actually have one, although I have no idea where on my hard drive) and I'm guessing there are youtube videos on it (and Immortal Hair's Forum has had some discussions on it) -so if you really wanted to pursue it, then you could definitely find out how.

Also, many of you have previously found the original article from male​pattern​baldness​.net where David Hatch looks at hair loss from an engineers point of view. His page is unfortunately gone now (not by his decision -he contacted me once, very happy that I had it reposted [with pictures inline!]), but I have it at my [temporarily frozen and not-updated] WorldHairLoss site here:
THE MECHANICS OF MALE PATTERN BALDNESS: AN ENGINEERING APPROACH, by David M. Hatch

The problem with scalp exercises, detumescence therapy, scalp massagers, et al is COMPLIANCE! Enough people haven't stuck with them long enough to truly determine the effectiveness!That David Hatch article is great and really lays out what is probably a major contributor to hair loss. It shows diagrams of how muscles are pulling your scalp tight (and this increases with age), and it's not hard to understand that it'd certainly be more difficult to grow healthy, strong hair in a tense, taught environment. Couple that with inflammation, androgens, etc., and it's a powder keg of hair loss whoop-ass.

Now, laser therapy obviously helps with blood flow -and probably relieves some tension as well due to the muscular aspect of it (and how some people, like me, experience D.O.M.S.)- and I, of course, always recommend using the niacin spray to increase blood flow as well. BUT... even though I know scalp massaging or "DT" would be beneficial, I don't do it! It's time consuming, somewhat confusing, and speaking for myself:
...laziness wins out!

I do definitely think it would help most everyone -how much, I'm not sure, but it still should be a "positive". Probably not enough for this to work on it's own --I reference the full myriad of problems again!

This is the "problem at large" with scalp exercises, massages, whatever, no matter what type... COMPLIANCE! I don't think that enough people stick with it long enough to really get an indication of just how much it will help us (although logically it SHOULD!). I'm not an expert on scalp massaging and DT --AT ALL. Not even remotely! ...but I know this from all the people that I talk to (and when I look at why *I* haven't done it): COMPLIANCE IS THE ISSUE! I think that lots of people want to do this, but wow, hearing the regimen involved, it's just not fun.

Ok, so where am I going with this? A customer recently clued me in to a possibly GREAT SOLUTION. It's called the "Pure Therapy Scalp Massager", and it sells on Amazon. Here is their official video on YouTube:
https://​www.youtube​.com/​watch​?v=otjDRHr​SXHM

...but they don't specifically market it for hair loss, but maybe they should! I have had once since Thursday, June 23rd (so five days right now -and I've used it eight times), and it definitely is doing what I think, at least, is a big part of DT.

I am no expert on detumescence therapy whatsoever, but I do know that a vigorous "kneading" motion is done during at least one part of it. I know that "Nidhogge" has said that this part is difficult because it hurts your hands.

So, I have two animated gifs here that really show the extent of this:

...and the closeup:

As you see, the scalp is REALLY MOVING. Those "feet" are really pushing into the scalp, and you can get it in a "good spot" and practically your entire scalp is shifting around.

The "feet" themselves are kind of "grippy" and flexible (the rubber feels like some rubber dishwashing pads I've used) and the little ends of the feet do at least a tiny bit of "micro-dermabrasion", too. How do I know that? Ha ha... well, I did a "scalp peel" with glycolic acid on Saturday after using it, and wow, I felt it!

Anyway, micro-dermabrasion ("wounding") shows benefit for skin and hair. There is no doubt it's really stretching the skin, too -which SHOULD alleviate the tension and promote blood flow. What's very profound here is that when I finished using it the first time, my scalp was an INFERNO. It was red hot with all the blood flow --and I instantly jumped in the shower and used my laser helmet to take advantage of that!

To my recollection, in all my 20+ years of fighting hair loss, I have never had anything cause this much blood flow (EXCEPT, of course, for niacin flushes -but that's a bit different!). I think it was so profound to me because of the combo of the motion (obviously) and the micro-dermabrasion (also obviously) together. It was just off the charts! The last time I did it (this morning), maybe it felt a little less?? ...but then again, I only did it for 10 minutes and not 20, so, that could be it.

Oh, because the feet are rubber and the thing is waterproof, I'm assuming that this could be used to help massage in oils -but I don't know, I suppose that could somehow irreparably gunk up the feet over time. Won't hurt for me to try it with coconut oil, though!

Here is the main thing, though... it's EASY. I can keep it right by my sofa, and I use it twice a day (at least in the mighty five days I've had it), 10 minutes in the morning, and 20 at night. I'm probably going to use it before the shower on my laser days like I did the first time, and I'm going to use it every night while I'm vegging out, watching TV.

The customer that alerted me to this also gave me the link for this study (allegedly in which a similar massager was used):

Standardized Scalp Massage Results in Increased Hair Thickness by Inducing Stretching Forces to Dermal Papilla Cells in the Subcutaneous Tissue

..and HERE IS A .PDF that I have hosted in case that page ever disappears (which is something that I've learned I need to do all the time!).

Also, he gave me the link to this article that has a video of a lecture on it:
Dr. Rei Ogawa’s mechanotherapy, Tom Hagerty’s scalp exercises and dermarolling

People are being pretty brutal with the study here in Immortal Hair's forum:
Effect Of Scalp Massage On Human Hair In 9 Healthy Men - ImmortalHair.org Natural Hair Regrowth

...but, I largely discount what anyone says on any forum because I'm a VETERAN of them, and I know what happens in them! Outright negativity, inserting motives that might not be accurate, personal motives of the individual, having their wives yell at them earlier that day and taking it out on someone else, etc. etc. etc.! So, look, do your best to find out the details yourself without any sort of sway from forums. They often truly can be terrible.

Plus, you have to remember that this DT treatment should be used as a PART of a bigger picture -not just the sole method! Some people were talking about actually LOSING HAIR at the 12 week point with detumescence therapy, and I have to say that this sounds like the point where follicles in the telogen phase would be waking up and converting to anagen -so, those telogen hairs have to go. People with MPB have more dormant/telogen phase follicles than normal people. Most hair loss treatments, even well-meaning natural ones, just don't work worth a damn so most people DON'T KNOW that yeah, when your dormant follicles "wake up", the hair in telogen phase just doesn't start magically growing again --it has to go, and it's replaced with stronger hair, which can take a while to surface and become viable, too, so you are talking about long (and UNFAIR!) turn-around times! So, I think that's what that is all about -and frankly, it sounds promising because of that.

Plus, it's doubtful that anyone that is already truly taking care of their scalp -meaning: scrubbing vigorously in the shower, taking the time to really rub in topicals, and using scalp peels- is going to experience much temporary hair loss from the machine itself like the people in the study. Reason being: those hairs ready to fall out would already BE GONE because of the vigorous activity you put it though! Heathy, growing, ANAGEN hairs don't just up and fall out (unless you're using minoxidil, of course. Stay the heck away from minoxidil) --the hairs that fall out are READY to fall out, and it's a sign that you aren't doing enough scalp stimulation if you, for example, scrub really hard in the shower one day, look down, and see ten hairs! Newsflash: those hairs had already stopped growing and were slated to fall out. It's just they would have fallen out over a period of weeks vs. one shower. Man, I try to take such good care of my scalp that at any time, I know that I can rub my hands through my hair and only rarely see a telogen hair stuck to my hands!

So, in summary, I think that the true profundity (meaning: actual REAL RESULTS from REAL PEOPLE --not just "studies") of scalp massaging is still a bit UNKNOWN because of the compliance issue. Hopefully, this scalp massager will help with that! I think it absolutely makes sense to use it, and I am definitely excited about adding this -but, I'll be clear: at this point I have no idea if this scalp massager, scalp exercises, or detumescence therapy will give me or anyone else noticeable results! I will recommend this to other people to try --and I definitely would like to see other similar scalp massagers! This "Pure Therapy" one is very nice: it's waterproof, looks good, rechargeable --things which we don't really need, and a device that plugs in, is ugly, and can't be used in the shower might be a lot cheaper! :)

Ok, have a great two weeks, and Happy Independence Day!!!
-John (O.M.G.)
omg@​overmachogrande​.com