Transcription
What's up guys? I wanted to do a quick video on hair loss prevention. If you guys don't know, it is a very prominent subject on my channel. At a point, it was probably one of the most frequently discussed topics where I dive into all the new treatment options, you know, novel drug candidates and pipelines, etc. And I do still stay on top of it.
So I felt like today, of all days, was a great day to revisit the most effective treatment options as well as a heavily overlooked one that I have talked about before, but I think needs more attention. If you guys don't know, at a point, I had very, very significant androgenic alopecia. It was at an early age, too early 20s, debilitating stuff where you do not even want to, uh, you know, really be on camera, be walking out and about with a severely receding and diffuse thinning hairline. It was pretty rough, you know, thinking about where you're going to go from there when you're in your early 20s and already that far gone.
But I dedicated myself to figuring this stuff out. And fortunately, it's not that hard to figure out once you actually understand the mechanisms at play. And I wanted to quickly go through some of the heavy hitters that are basically the main needle movers that either will prevent you from getting to a point where there's any cosmetic representation of loss whatsoever, or if you need to recovering lost ground is what we're also going to be talking about mainly today.
So first thing we're touching on again, these aren't, these are going to be like a quick summation of the like Big Three, and then we're going to get into microneedling, which is what this video is mainly about. So, Ketoconazole is a little shampoo over the counter, very, very low barrier to entry with essentially no side effects unless you have some like topical irritation. But it's a very, very mild and weak anti-androgen, but primarily it's like an anti-fungal and just a good shampoo.
Secondly, you have Minoxidil. So Minoxidil is the primary growth stimulant that you guys are probably well aware of. And it works even well on your beard. Like you can actually permanently grow a pretty damn good beard even if you're somebody who otherwise had like sparse nothingness previously. I've seen amazing before and afters on the beard as well as on the scalp. Very, very effective product. And an actual repurposed, really outdated and primitive blood pressure medication that was repurposed into a topical and works extremely well and is relatively benign, but not side effect free. Definitely watch some videos on the side effects and commitment to that routine before you just go down that road because you will need to stay on it long term if you do use it. But it is the most effective growth stimulant available to date that I'm aware of. And that's going through hordes of literature and guinea pigging myself with tons of stuff. And if there was something better, I would probably know about it by now.
But anyways, part of this video is also how to make this work better and if you're a non-responder, turning yourself into a responder. We'll get to that shortly. And the heaviest hitting part of the Big Three, five-alpha reductase inhibitor like Finasteride or Dutasteride. And you should definitely watch my video on "Should You Take Finasteride? Yes or No" before you decide if you just take it and talk to a provider, medical provider, obviously.
And then outside of that, I would say part of like the Big Four would be an effective topical anti-androgen like Piroctone Olamine. It looks very promising. Um, or previous to that, and probably the most cost-effective still, but not benign in side effects, nor is there a clinical safety parameters that really outline it to be something you can just blindly trust. But RU-58841 also very effective in my experience. So that pretty much rounds out what I would consider to be the Big Four. Although the fourth, the anti-androgen, is not necessarily an approved item yet. However, it is effective nonetheless. And in the, you know, experimental space, a lot of individuals have used it successfully in order to lower their five-alpha reductase inhibitor dosage or remove the need for it entirely. And rather than using a topical anti-androgen as an adjunct, they use it as a replacement through competitive antagonism of androgen receptors in the scalp. So that is a very promising therapy. Once Piroctone Olamine gets approved as well for human use, that's going to be great.
But in addition to that, getting ground back is a totally different animal than preventing loss. And when you have five-alpha reductase inhibitors, topical anti-androgens, you're essentially preventing miniaturization from expediting and getting worse. However, getting back ground on dead zones, especially, that is something that can typically only be accomplished through Minoxidil if you're a good responder. Or if you're not a good responder, using something to either enhance sulfotransferase enzyme activity if you're deficient. So that would be like compounding Tretinoin into Minoxidil, and you could do that through a prescription via compounding pharmacy.
But in general, the more most effective thing I've seen to enhance Minoxidil results and is typically going to be the most, the biggest needle mover, no pun intended, is using a microneedling device. This is something that will not only, you know, focus... there we go. This is something that is not only going to enhance the absorption of Minoxidil for those with a less favorable scalp environment, but in addition to that, it recruits growth factors to the area. And there is even some literature that suggests it may enhance sulfotransferase enzyme activity as well, which is also currently what you need to convert Minoxidil to the active Minoxidil sulfate in the scalp, which is what is active and actually facilitates the pro-growth properties.
Now, getting significant regrowth with Minoxidil can be accomplished in those who do. They are often very satisfied with the results, but some just don't respond whatsoever or are poor responders. And those individuals can see not just a doubling of results, but a multiple-fold increase in results. And that is what I want to go over with microneedling devices. Which if you've seen my hair loss videos, you probably know I've talked about these devices for a long time. There are very few that I think are high quality. And I've spent a very long time vetting out this one. This is now the official Intelligent Microneedling Device, and I'm stoked to bring it to market because I've been talking about this stuff for years. And there are very few of these things that I will talk about as high-quality devices with high-level versatility, precision, and even achieving proper depth. Because sometimes these things are highly variable in what they show on the measurement versus what is actually being translated in the needle shooting under the thing.
So this is a depth variability of zero upwards of 2.5 millimeters. Are you going to need to go that high? Almost certainly not. It also has a speed that goes from level one up to six, so you can be very efficient about getting your scalp microneedling done quickly, or elsewhere if you're working on scars, wrinkles, what have you. But my main interest is in the hair loss prevention space and utilizing this for enhancing Minoxidil absorption and literally five-xing the results in some individuals, or at minimum, typically I will see like a 1.5 to 2x in results. And also, we have a cost-effective alternative available now, the Intelligent Derma Roller. We have a 5.5 millimeter depth as well as a 1.5 millimeter depth. And the study we're going to be mentioning in a minute here is using 1.5 millimeters once a week, which is is a bit more painful, but is ultimately the one that is reinforced in the literature. And it's a lot easier to adhere to because it's only once a week. Whereas 0.5 millimeters may be more useful on a frequent basis if you're trying to enhance the absorption of topicals frequently. But 1.5 millimeters once a week is what shows in the literature of these pretty substantial results that I'm about to go over with you.
This is a randomized evaluator-blinded study of the effect of microneedling on androgenic alopecia, a pilot study. In here, they had 100 patients. 50 of them were given Minoxidil. They were told to use Minoxidil twice a day, standard application, five percent solution applied morning and night. The other 50 patients would use a 1.5 millimeter depth roller. Whatever you want to use, personally, I prefer the devices because they are way faster and you tend to ease up on pushing on your scalp when you are physically inducing pain into yourself with this. As long as it's on your skin, you know what's hitting the depth you want. Whereas with rollers, one of the downsides is you will subconsciously start to ease up in your pressure because it is painful and you're the one who's controlling how much it is resting on your scalp at the end of the day.
With that said, I ensured that we have a very wide base. This is a deficiency I see among a lot of the rollers out there, as they will have like literally one-third of the width. So you have to go over the spots, you have to spend way longer on your scalp to actually mow the lawn, so to speak. And basically, the wider it is, the faster you can get more surface area done when you're doing it manually. So that is why I prefer with the manual rollers, the wider surface area with more needles get the job done faster because when you're self-inducing pain and you're subconsciously controlling the depth by the pain you're inducing, you want to get it done as soon as possible. With this, though, it's great because the depth is handled literally automatically. You don't have to do anything and you just have to make sure it stays on your scalp and the depth at which you're holding it. It's not going to matter how hard or soft you're really holding it at the end of the day. It is a predetermined length that will go in at the speed that you determine based on the settings. And you can fire through your scalp rather than sitting there with like a stamp or a roller that's too thin for 20 to 30 minutes, which is what is otherwise typical for most devices out there.
But in this study, they gave individuals either a 1.5 millimeter rolling session once a week with application of Minoxidil as typical on the other days, or versus 50 patients that just did two Minoxidil applications a day with no microneedling. The group that had no microneedling technically had more drug exposure via sheer application amount to their scalp because they had a seventh day in there per week where they're applying drug. Whereas with the microneedling group, on that seventh day, they are not applying drug because they don't want to get it directly into their bloodstream on the day they are self-inducing wounding.
But in the groups, the differential between mean hair count was quite staggering. They had here at baseline versus 12 weeks. The Minoxidil only group going from a baseline of 201 to 218. Whereas we had with the derma rolling and Minoxidil group going from a baseline of 226 up to 317. So the change from baseline hair count at 12 weeks in the microneedling treated group plus Minoxidil was 91.4. Whereas in the Minoxidil treated group only, it was only 22.2. So this is still the same drug being applied twice a day, five percent Minoxidil, but just by microneedling, you are seeing literally like over 4X the results. Quite dramatic.
And you can see this reflected in the patient before and afters. Minoxidil only group, pre and post-treatment, almost no visual difference whatsoever. Patient number two, perhaps some difference. In the microneedling plus Minoxidil group, though, it is pretty damn staggering. The before and afters like this guy literally went from having very blatant hair loss to cosmetically not nearly as significant and absurd amount of regrowth that is very impressive.
So for me, there is almost no bigger ROI than something that you can do to your scalp once a week for 10 to 15 minutes and literally like four X's your results potentially. So for me, this is one of the most worthwhile things that's not an additional drug. Rather, it is a micro-wounding procedure that seems to be well-tolerated and have high-level safety data behind it. Seemingly, it is used in cosmetic procedures all the time, there's vampire facials, etc. It gives us a very well-known treatment. And it is something I have long utilized in my routine for the recruitment of growth factors. And it's something I even want to be more consistent with because I have been hit or miss with it. But it is something that I think moved the needle, no pun intended, very significantly and goes heavily overlooked.
And especially for even beard growth too. Some people that do the Minoxidil applications on the beard and try and get some significant change out of that that don't respond, microneedling can be a game changer for that as well. So I'm stoked to finally have a high-quality product that I can bring to the Intelligent lineup, have my own microneedling device roller. These are great devices. The roller doesn't catch your hair nearly as much as other rollers in the industry too. I used to find that the manual rollers were almost unusable because as I would go through my scalp, I would be ripping hairs out of my head. So not only is the width of it superior, getting more surface area done at once with more needles, but in addition to that, you are not catching your hair and literally pulling it out, which is the complete opposite of what you want to be happening. You want to keep your hair and not be ripping it out every session.
And with the pen, this is the best device I have come across that has a less than $100 price tag. Like this is comparable to the most premium device that I have used and I had used to date. Short of this, I had tried 10 plus other devices and this is the one that had the most versatility, accuracy, speed differential between zero to maxed out, and what you could actually get out of it. The performance, the versatility, everything about it is what I would want to see out of a microneedling device. And I would say at a very cost-effective price point because oftentimes these things can run into the hundreds of dollars range. And being sub $100 with still the quality that this thing produces, it's kind of unmatched in my opinion. And I'm stoked to have it available in the lineup.
So anyways, if you guys want to try it out, it is now up for sale. And let me know what you guys think. Take pictures of your before and afters and your progress. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what this thing can do. And dig into the literature too. Some of the stuff on before and afters for acne scarring, etc., it's very promising. And there are very few things that move the needle for hair loss prevention, and this is one of them. So don't overlook it. It can be annoying to deal with once a week, but you know, it's more annoying getting a hair transplant. And that's not, that's not an unviable strategy. But this thing is something that is increasing the growth of your actual hairs naturally produced and may otherwise be an option to try before you go down that road because you may never even need to get there to begin with. I've seen some people do pretty significant procedures that otherwise just never optimize their hair loss prevention protocol first. And it's definitely worth giving it a try and seeing what you can do, uh, with your own growth factor production and whatnot first.
So anyways, hopefully you guys learned something from that. And hopefully you guys enjoy the products. I'm stoked to finally have something I can bring to you guys that I feel represents the quality that I've spoken about on my channel before in this domain. And it is available in the Intelligent shop page. So you can check it out. And I'll talk to you guys soon.