Iāll try to be thorough in responseā¦
Yeah, I use Dr. Pen M8 with 16 pin cartridges. I use 1 cartridge per session. For me, a session is my entire face and neck plus the MPB (male pattern baldness) zone, which all takes ~1.25 hours. If I was only doing my scalp, itād be 25 minutes. I increase needle depth to 2mm for my face and neck, .5mm around eyes 1x/month. The other 3 weeks I only use .5mm for my forehead, face and neck (painless and easy)
My hair is pretty long, so itās a lot more difficult for me than for a guy with a ānormalā guyās haircut. Because Iāve used minoxidil and finasteride for 20+ years, Iāve kept a lot of hair- Norwood 2a, but deeper like Norwood 3 at worst spot on each side. Iām doing my entire forehead up tp my hairline for the skin/collagen benefits, then about an additional 2 inches into my hairline and also the crown area. Again, though, pretty much all guys do more area than me, as itās quick and easy (pain aside) when you have short hair. They do the entire potential MPB hair loss area. A lot of them are younger, so many are just doing their scalp and arenāt worried about microneedling benefits for their face.
I use 5% lidocaine on my forehead, temples, nose the once/month I use the deeper 1.5mm depth in those areas. I only have it at the start of my hairline because, again, my hairās too long and itās a mess- so I just deal with the tolerable pain which, for me, isnāt bad in my hair- itās the forehead/hairline thatās uncomfortable. FYI: all the women who microneedle their faces buy stronger (I think 15%) lidocaine from South Korea where thatās OTC, vs 5% here. Iāve never bothered. IF I wasnāt doing my forehead, I wouldnāt even bother with it, and sometimes skip the lidocaine entirely to save time (you put it on, wait 30 minutes, wash it off).
Iām going to do rapamycin with green tea extract powder DMSO mix- maybe a little before and a little after because idk (women put their copper peptides, etc on after). Minoxidil makes my heart race when I combine it with 1.5mm microneedling. The protocol is to skip minoxidil the day you microneedle, or just apply it in the morning, microneedle at night. skipping minoxidil.
This is a pretty good video from an MD: Microneedling / Derma Rolling for Hair Regrowth - YouTube btw, he also recommends and prescribes Loniten to his patients- 2.5-5mg for men because itās superior to topical minoxidil.
Heās conservative as youād expect. The consensus on the forums is the 1-1.5mm depth once per week. Combined with minoxidil and finasteride, countless have seen good result with this regiment. There are hyper-responders and (few) poor responders. An alternative thought some advocate is .3mm daily (and immediately apply minoxidil), combined with anywhere from weekly to monthly 1-1.5mm deeper microneedling. I wouldnāt go less than once every 2 weeks on the 1.5mm during the first 6 months. They may be onto something with the daily .3mm combined with immediate topical minoxidil- Iām just too lazy to do this daily.
For a rabbit hole of hair loss treatment, thereās /tressless. Lots of progress photos. Hereās a hyper-responder who used dutasteride (shuts down DHT much more than finasteride) and minoxidil only. Incredible- and had he used Loniten and microneedling, heād have done even better!
