The FLOWBEE…  A hair loss sufferer’s best friend! (Also a mention of Grapefruit Seed Extract)

Since I have your attention, I thought I'd bring up a couple of off-topic, non-laser items that I'm absolutely THRILLED about!

THE FLOWBEE: Every balding person should own one! You can give yourself a stylish haircut that rivals any barber or Super Cuts, and you don't have to suffer the indignity of having someone messing with your balding head!

GRAPEFRUIT SEED EXTRACT: I have allergies and perpetually congested sinus cavities deep in my head, and this is truly one of the most incredible things I have ever done for it!

Both of these things have helped me quite a bit, and I think you should check out what I have to say about them...

Flowbee:

First, dudes... I got a FLOWBEE! Yes, for those of you that remember.. this was heavily advertised in the 80's on infomercials, and it was the butt of a lot of jokes. It basically uses a vacuum to pull the hair up into the electric razor blades.

I'll cut to the chase of why this is good, and probably just like you are now... I completely didn't realize why I should be interested in this and what the benefits were. I saw that a few people on the forums mentioned they had been using it for years, and then I looked into it on my own and found out how amazing it really is. Mainly, it allows for LONGER HAIR STYLES, and you can still cut it evenly -including perfectly tapered sides! For those of you already experienced with attempting to cut your own hair, you already know how profound that is! lol...

Look... I look HORRIBLE with short hair. So, if I want to save myself the embarrassment of going to get my hair cut, the only "do-it-yourself" options are to use clippers. Well, the longest most clipper sets allow you to cut your hair is about 1". I modified one of the attachments to cut about 2", but it was horrible and didn't work very well. I pretty much had to PUSH the hair over the blade to get it to cut, so it was very uneven. Plus, the tapered attachments are WAY TOO SHORT. We are talking almost military here, which is just NOT ME!

So, the Flowbee lets you cut in 1/4" increments from 1/2" all the way up to 6". Like I said, it has a tapered option, too, that makes your sides look PERFECT! It's also pretty wide, too... it cuts in a 2 1/2" tall strip, so that's a lot of hair that that you can perfectly taper above your ears. [I shamelessly stole this graphic from the Flowbee site, by the way. I'm not that grey! lol...]

As a lot of you know, I freaking MURDERIZED my hair last month. Actually, I wouldn't shut up about it on the forums and email! lol... See, I can grow my hair a lot longer now because of the results I've had from the lasers -so I wanted to keep it longer- but I screwed up so bad it ended up slightly shorter than it was when I first started my laser treatments! UGH! As you know, longer hair "covers" better, so it was a definite shock (but it was a great opportunity to take my 10 month before/after photos that I posted at Regrowth when you can clearly see the profound difference I've experienced... all because of lasers).

So when I got the Flowbee yesterday, I ripped open the box and proceeded to fix the horrible job I did last month. Since my hair only grows so much in a month, I obviously had to cut it shorter that I wanted to this time, but I'll tell you how I did it: First, I cut my hair to 2" at the top. Then, I used the tapered attachment and cut from the "part" of my hair down on each side from 2" to 1 1/2". I also brought that around to the top part of the back of my head. Then, I changed the taper to 1 1/2" to 1" and did the bottom of my hair over the ears. I continued that around the back also. Finally, for the bottom of the back, I used just the tapered base without any attachments, which was 1" to 1/2".

Let me tell you... although it's shorter than I like, it looks absolutely professional. A HAIR STYLIST COULD NOT HAVE CUT THIS BETTER! lol...

So, I'm looking forward to actually being able to cut my hair LONGER after it grows out! What's funny is that in the past, I've hated getting haircuts so much, my hair has traditionally been shaggy most of the time. Literally, sometimes I've only gotten three haircuts a year at the most (with me cutting the bangs and maybe over the ears a little bit myself). Now, once I get it to "target length", I can give myself haircuts every month and keep it at that exact same length, but it will be EVEN and not shaggy looking! What I think I might do is every month I'm going to just add half an inch onto all of these settings, cut it again, and then I can keep it even as it slowly grows out again.

I really think that this is an amazing thing, and I have NO IDEA why it's not in every single Wal-Mart or Target in the USA. Beats me! This is truly fantastic for us MPB sufferers that either don't like going to get a haircut or like to keep our hair longer than what normal clippers can do!

Ok, since I've already stolen one Flowbee picture, I might as well steal another:



Oh, I should say that actually *I* didn't buy it... my friend bought it for me sort of in a "barter" agreement for me helping him put together his website. I've been talking about it so much that he said he'd buy it for me if I helped him, so I said "HELLS YEAH!". lol...

Grapefruit Seed Extract:

As you may know, about every six months there is a new thing on the forums that gets everyone in a buzz. Grapefruit Seed Extract is currently one of those things, and a lot of people are using it for hair loss -specifically to fight demodex. Look, I'm not getting into the demodex discussion AT ALL here on this site! lol... I'm staying out of it because people can become complete idiots about this topic. Oh, I will say that any possible way that GSE can help hair loss would more-than-likely already be achieved with a laser helmet (more on that later).

I will tell you this, though... GSE is a PROVEN super-strong anti-fungal substance. The crap wipes out micro-fungus completely. There is no doubt about this.

Well, this is where it gets applicable to me and my life. The Mayo Clinic has done studies in which they have found that a significant amount of sinus problems are due to FUNGUS, not to allergies like previously though. I am a lifelong sufferer of congested sinus cavaties. Every morning ever since I was a kid, I have woken up to a feeling like my head is about to EXPLODE. I, of course, have been told it was allergies, and at one point in my life (I think my early twenties) I went to an allergist and was prescribed horrible anti-allergy medicine and decongestants that totally fucked with my system. Jittery, light-headed, and flaccid is no way to go through life, son!

Anyway, JPD710 at Regrowth informed me about the Mayo Clinic studies and the anit-fungal properties of GSE, and said that I should take GSE internally as well as make a nasal spray and see what happens. Well, I tried it. It comes in liquid form, so I started taking 15 drops mixed in a shot of orange juice twice a day (trust me... it's HORRIBLE tasting and extremely potent, and Orange Juice is the best way to mask it), and I've occasionally done the nasal spray (I mixed a few drops into water, but man... it's SO ROUGH that I can't tolerate it much. I don't do this frequently!)

Here's the deal... In only TWO WEEKS, my lifelong sinus problems have been RADICALLY REDUCED. It's almost completely GONE. I'll repeat that... TWO FREAKING WEEKS! I've been using it pretty close to about a month now, and it's still great!

THE BEST PART ABOUT ALL OF THIS?? I bought a bottle of this from my neighborhood Vitamin Shoppe for $7, and it'll probably last me three months if not a lot longer! If you have sinus problems like me.. you NEED TO TRY THIS.

Ok, remember up above when I said that "any possible way that GSE can help hair loss would already be done with a laser helmet"? Let me explain something interesting... the Mayo clinic -as most of you that are halfway paying attention to the hair loss world around you already know- has also found a link between micro-fungus and both acne and BALDNESS. YES... male pattern baldness! Not as necessarily the CAUSE, but as a contributing factor, and that it is present on most people that suffer from these things. Well, I had acne as a teenager, MPB now, and obviously I had the sinus problem which was essentially cured (so it seems) by an anti-fungal. That tells me that this fungus thing might have some merit in my case.

So... what do we know about lasers? They kill fungus. That's proven, and I think I even show that in some of those studies over in the left hand column over there. Plus, about the whole "demodex" thing... although I've never seen any studies on lasers and demodex, we know that demodex can't tolerate light, and frankly I'd have a hard time imagining that mites could survive months and months of this laser treatment. Again, though... I'm not getting into the demodex debate because people FLIP OUT on this subject, and most people seem to lose site of what a "contributing factor" is and forget to hold things like DHT to the same standards when presented with evidence regarding that topic (for example, "My brother, wife, and dog have the same demodex, so why aren't they bald, too?" Ok, jackass, your brother has the same DHT, too, and he's still not bald. Explain that, and I'll use the exact same argument you give for DHT, but turn it around and use it flawlessly with Demodex. The point is... we don't KNOW for a fact what causes MPB.)

Ok, back to the point... if you aren't like me and haven't had horrible, routinely congested sinus cavities that makes it feel like your head is going to explode when you wake up all your life... well lucky you! lol... I'm jealous of you because I've suffered a really long time from this. Man, I'm *almost* a morning person now!

If you ARE like me, you need to try this. If it works, not only will your sinus cavities be nice and clear in the mornings... you'll have even more evidence that most doctors and companies really don't know what the hell is going on with the human body, and they work only to alleviate the symptoms and not the underlying problems. Who knows... one day that mentality might be just what it takes to make you proactive enough to do something that saves your life.

Ok, those are two tips I thought I'd pass along this time! Stay tuned for more, but for now... back to lasers!

-O.M.G.