Switchable Zones and Soreness… an Added Benefit to Laser Therapy for Hair Loss (???)

Quick Update 2016:

I may have been wr-wr-wr-wrong (yes, a Fonzie reference) about what is causing the soreness (the whole "switchable zones" thing), but it is true that SOME PEOPLE feel a lot of "muscle soreness" in the scalp when the lasers are really penetrating! Not all people experience this, and I've found that it doesn't make a difference with results, but the people that DO feel the soreness do seem to be on a definite track!

I've also found that the Polysorbate 80/ethyl alcohol mix really increases the likelihood of it --perhaps from some sort of "unknown" reason, and not necessarily because of enabling more thorough penetration.

Curiously, I've found a correlation between those that feel soreness and those that don't with Propecia side effects! Those that DO get sexual side effects seem to be the same ones that feel the laser soreness, and those that have NEVER felt the sexual side effects do not feel the soreness! That's not exactly uber-scientific, but my sample pool was from about three dozen people, and the correlation was 100%. So, maybe it's just how some of us are wired --like a greater nerve sensitivity thing!

Anyway, I do not support switchable zones because of a few reasons, and I'll do an article on that soon! You are welcome to email me at omg@​overmachogrande​.com to find out more!

By popular demand, I have spelled out my theory of "Switchable Zones and Soreness"! Many of you see me reference this in the forums, but if you haven't been following my discovery process of this phenomenon since December 6th, 2007, then you may be a little lost.

I put this in my third set of instructions, "Wiring of the Laser Messiah", but I wanted to put it on it's own since many people are interested in this! ...plus, it gets a little "buried" in those instructions!

Let me first add some upates... Since the completion of the "Laser Messiah", I have indeed confirmed that the soreness is NOT due to overlapping regions (like we speculated it could be). Plain and simple... it's due to using "zones" versus "all at once" coverage. [I was wrong on this at the time I wrote it because I wasn't counting on increased tolerance! Let's not focus on me being WRONG, though, ha ha, and let's quickly move on!]

Now... I still am not sure how much of a benefit -if any- this gives to us in regards to fighting hair loss, but the fact remains that those of us that do our treatments this way seem to have much quicker results than others. THAT is why we are pursuing this, and that is why I don't think this "scalp exercising" benefit should be ignored. So, here is my full description of this....

As you already know... I wrote the "Laser Messiah" instructions to include "switchable zones":



Now, let's cover the history of how I arrived at this......

When I made my first laser helmet, I didn't know if any of this would work... meaning, I didn't even know if the diodes would LIGHT UP! Yeah, and of course I wasn't *sure* that it would regrow hair, either! lol... Well, of course the answers turned out to be a resounding YES for both of those, but pre-December 6th, 2007 (the day I first threw on the switch of my first laser helmet) I was reluctant to sink a lot of money into something I wasn't sure about.

So, after I made my first tin foil template to get the size of my balding areas I wanted to treat (see my "Determining the Number of Diodes" PDF)...



...I stared at it and realized that I could make a "cluster" that I could move three times to cover everywhere:



...thus saving me MONEY! I only need 1/3 the diodes (which were still $4.00 apiece at that point, not $3.00... thanks again Nidhogge for getting us a deal).

So, I got the gutter guard and marked the area that fit my "cluster" size that I drew on that piece of paper:



...And I came up with a number of 68 diodes, with rows in a pattern of 8 x 7 x 8 x 7 x 8 x 7 x 8 x 7 x 8. Also, to accommodate the "bowing" that occurs from sticking so many diodes in a piece of plastic like that...



...I thumb-tacked the diodes to a wooden frame that had an arch in it to somewhat replicate the curvature of my head. So that is the story of how I originally determined the number of diodes I used for my first laser helmet... and the main reason was MONEY! I just didn't want to potentially waste a whole lot of money that -at that time- I wasn't even sure would even function!

Ok, so I started to use it. I found VERY QUICKLY that, WOW... my scalp muscles were getting SORE. ...And it wasn't the skin or the tissue getting too much stimulation (I was using it 20 minutes in a section, which worked out to be somewhere around the 4 or 5 joule mark if not a little more, so it was a good amount of time), it was the SCALP MUSCLES. Yes, the muscles that are even BELOW the depth of the follicles.

Well, as you know, I was 1) the only one doing this for a while, and 2) people that go to laser clinics DON'T POST IN FORUMS (why should they... they regrow their hair!), so I though that was the way it was SUPPOSED TO BE! I *assumed* that laser therapy must also exercise the scalp muscles, and no one told me any differently! I thought that everyone would be experiencing this same thing.

Well, after a few months, others started to make their designs and use LLLT, too, and they took my advice about what I felt were flaws of my design (my flaws were that I felt I wasn't getting even enough coverage because the cluster was at varying height above my scalp -which could be solved by resting it on brush bristles- and I felt that I was potentially overlapping my cluster sections too much and therefore giving too much energy to some areas-which could be alleviated by having a device that gave "FULL COVERAGE" to everywhere at the same time). So, they were using full coverage devices with lots of diodes... but WEREN'T GETTING SORE. At least not like I was. Then, the lasermax users started reporting that they weren't getting sore, either.

This was extremely baffling to me! I assumed that if I was getting sore by moving a cluster three times, they would get MORE SORE by exposing a larger area at once. What the hell? Was it just that I had week scalp muscles or something?? This was confusing! Plus, it's not like my soreness was happening only on the overlapping zones... it was the entire scalp muscles!

This is where it gets really interesting... Jdp710, who also had a cluster of 68 (technically 67 because one of his burnt out, but I'm still going to call it a "cluster of 68") started reporting the EXACT SAME THING I DID. He would get very sore also!

And to reiterate... this soreness is NOT from overexposure with the lasers. Take this into consideration... people can use their "full coverage" devices for 45 minutes, and still don't get much, if any, soreness. When they do that, they are getting probably way too many joules over their entire treatment area, too! Yet, no soreness! However, when jpd710 and I do something like change the time period of each of our three zones to 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes... it becomes almost UNBEARABLE to do it because of the soreness of the muscles! It's like you are trying to bench press "triple wheels" with your scalp muscles or something! Literally, I *couldn't* do it for 30 minutes in each section -I've had to stop short every time I've tried it- even though the people with full coverage devices -laser helmet or lasermax (and probably clinical laser devices, too)- could easily do it.

Now, lets add this data to the equation: people that have clusters with a lot less than 68 (anywhere from 20-40 diodes or so), DON'T REPORT SORENESS EITHER. So, it seems that the cluster has to be a big enough size to do this, and the 68 is big enough, and 20-40 is too small.

HERE IS THE CRUX... Jdp710 and I (as well as a few others out there that don't post in forums but I speak with through email) have reported QUICKER, MORE PROFOUND RESULTS THAN OTHERS DOING THIS. I'm obviously not saying that the others *aren't* getting results -they clearly do, and the laser clinics OBVIOUSLY do- but I'm just saying that the people that are reporting this soreness 1) have clusters that are pretty big, 2) they move it at least three times, and 3) are getting QUICKER results!

Yes, this absolutely could all be coincidence. I am completely aware of that! ...But I don't think so. There is too much other corroborating data that we can take from the other devices that back this up. That's why I've formulated this hypothesis:

If you have a BIG ENOUGH cluster of diodes and move it several times, it makes enough energy to stimulate enough area of the scalp muscles that -EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE STILL ONLY GETTING THE PROPER 3-6 JOULES AND NOT GETTING TOO MUCH ENERGY- the device has an EXTRA BENEFIT OF BEING A "SCALP EXERCISER"! The scalp is still getting a FULL HOUR (or whatever the TOTAL treatment time is) of working out. AND... the added benefits of this extra stimulation could very well equate to much more production of N.O., S.O.D., etc. and all the other things than you otherwise wouldn't get as much of, and these are things that people far smarter than me have decided must be present for a good hair re-growth environment!

Yes, that's right... it's a "scalp exerciser". I'm sure that most of us are familiar with the scalp exercise guru and forum at http://hairloss-reversible.com. If not, to sum it up... there is a guy that maintains that scalp exercises will prevent baldness and regrow hair. Now, he *could* be right for all I know, but I -and most other people that have tried them- don't know because doing scalp exercises are a royal pain in the ass. To have to do something like that for 20-30 minutes every night or three times a week for a long enough period of time to show benefits is NOT in my interest! Now... the few people that HAVE DONE these for at least six months *do* report some results, that can't be denied... it's just sticking with them for most people is a burden, not fun, and just not "do-able". Therefore, the sample pool of people that do scalp exercises for a long enough period of time is really to slim to make any solid deductions.

However, with this "moveable cluster" thing that we have stumbled across, not only are we potentially doing "scalp exercises", we are "working out" the scalp muscles far better than those scalp exercises could EVER DO. I've tried those scalp exercises on that website for about two weeks (and I stopped them from boredom), and I can personally attest that there is no way you can get your scalp muscles as sore as this by them.

Once again... in case you've already forgotten, the people that report the soreness are the ones with the large, moveable clusters (68 diodes), and we are the ones that are reporting the quickest results. Yes, none of this is PROVEN... but the evidence is showing a trend! If you've paid attention to the evidence I've shared and what has been going on in the forums, you probably have seen the trend, too. So, although not scientific YET, it's still based on actual observations using it, and it's definitely a solid hypothesis.

Therefore, in summary, I felt it was CRUCIAL to make a device that would have "switchable zones" so I could continue to check this. Plus, with a device that has diodes over the entire scalp, you are eliminating the risk of overexposure due to the fact that there aren't any "overlapping areas" anymore! PLUS, if for some reason we find that this isn't worth it or just want to save time and treat the areas all at once, we have that option!

The choice is YOURS with this design... you can use the "switchable zones" or you can use it as a "full coverage" device! I feel this device has the most options, and potentially could benefit you in a "brand new way" that other laser devices don't. That's only my opinion, but like I said... it's one based on evidence that people have reported.

So, you certainly don't have to build it this way, but I hope you do. I'm looking very forward to hearing what other people report about this in the future!

-O.M.G.