My Hair Regrowth Journey
A little of my history: I'm 43 now (July 2024), when I was in college, in my young 20s, I would go home for Christmas and each year my mom would point out that my hairline was receding. Her dad was completely bald on top and she has had thin and thinning hair most of my life. This first picture, on the left, is where my hairline was at the end of college when I was 27. I had the same hairstyle then and cut my hair myself, and I still do, so my hair was roughly the same length as it is now. The hairline has continued to recede and the top has started thinning to a noticeable degree, as seen in the second picture, on the right, which was taken April 16th, 2024, two days after a haircut. My daughter took this picture of me and was likely the trigger to wanting to do something about the progressing hair loss.
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Here is my journey:
These next pictures were taken on June 4th and 17th, 2024, 7 and 20 days after starting the protocol. In the first, I was just doing a selfie to see where the highest balding spot was located. I've noticed that just brushing my scalp and using the roller (aerator), my hair stands up straighter off of my scalp which has potential to give a false appearance of improvement. In the second, I thought I was beginning to feel some new growth that felt like fuzz and took a picture to see if it would be visible on camera and realized it was not. I still don't know if the fuzz I felt that day was new growth or me just hoping or deceiving myself. It also shows the extent of my receding hairline.
These first images below were taken on the day of my haircut where the top was cut to 7/8". I plan to repeat this height with each haircut. This was the 26th of May, 2024, two days before starting the Adegen protocol. I paid for 3 months of product (Topical Formula 15). See my "Summary of the Adegen Protocol" at the end of this blog post.
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These next pictures were taken on July 14th, 2024, 7 weeks after starting the protocol. The first 2 are showing 7 weeks of hair growth. The next 2 show the hair cut which immediately followed:
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I feel like there is a difference in image quality from May 26th to July 14th, although it was the same camera, or the lighting may be a limiting factor, and it was a different photographer. I plan to add pictures each time I give myself a haircut till I'm satisfied with the growth or for up to two years.
Overall, so far (July 14th) I feel like there is new hair growth at my receding hairline that feels like fuzz, but it doesn't appear to be showing up in the images very well yet. The balding at the crown may be filling in a little already but its not obvious enough yet to be considered significant and may be considered a camera or image quality difference at this point.
These next two pictures were taken on the 22nd of July, about 8 weeks after starting the protocol. I did this because I realized I did not have a good reference for the regrowth of my receding hairline so I decided to use my eyebrows and my four fingers as the reference line. If my hair fully fills in to my index finger it will be great regrowth. If it grows in to my middle finger it will be complete regrowth to my teen years.
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Today, on August 11th 2024, I cut the hair on the sides of my head and not the top; so these pictures below are really only showing 4 weeks of growth. No significant difference.
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My plan at the moment (mid August) is, after my next full haircut, which will be around the same time as I run out of the Topical Formula 15, if it looks like there is a noticeable difference in hair growth, I will take a break from that product and only continue with the shampoo and brush, or just the shampoo, for anywhere from a week to a full haircut cycle; I will take more pictures at the one week mark. If at that point it still looks like a noticeable difference from my first pictures in May, I will continue using this product. The purpose for the break is to get my hair, or scalp, to calm back down from standing up high. Ever since I started, either from the brushes, the roller, or both, my hair has been sticking straighter up off of my head which can give a false appearance that my hair is thicker or more dense, at least it feels thicker or more dense; once I give it a break, I expect, if there has been true growth, then it will be fully apparent.
Today is September 29th, 2024, and last week, September 22nd, I took the 6 pictures below with my haircut. This was 17 weeks (4 months) from starting the protocol. I did not take any pictures today because I did not stop using the scalp brush. Based on what I am seeing, it does look a little thicker or more dense but not that much. Given that three months is the minimum amount of time to expect to see any changes, I am assuming that there have been some changes. However, I am not satisfied that it is enough. I can't say it didn't work and I can't say it absolutely did. I plan to continue to take pictures with each haircut. I have reduced the topical formula frequency to once a week since my hair cut and probably only have enough left for 2-5 more applications. I am going to continue the scalp brush daily and when I decide to invest in the topical formula again, I will continue its daily use at that time. At the bottom of the blog post, I will summarize my experience with Adegen.
Today is September 29th, 2024, and last week, September 22nd, I took the 6 pictures below with my haircut. This was 17 weeks (4 months) from starting the protocol. I did not take any pictures today because I did not stop using the scalp brush. Based on what I am seeing, it does look a little thicker or more dense but not that much. Given that three months is the minimum amount of time to expect to see any changes, I am assuming that there have been some changes. However, I am not satisfied that it is enough. I can't say it didn't work and I can't say it absolutely did. I plan to continue to take pictures with each haircut. I have reduced the topical formula frequency to once a week since my hair cut and probably only have enough left for 2-5 more applications. I am going to continue the scalp brush daily and when I decide to invest in the topical formula again, I will continue its daily use at that time. At the bottom of the blog post, I will summarize my experience with Adegen.
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On October 21st, 2024, I passed a milestone that I was hoping to reach. A patient of mine commented on my hair, stating that she thought it was thicker than usual. I have not been telling most people about my hair regrowth journey and that was true of this patient. As of this date only one person has commented on my hair that did not already know that I'm using products for that purpose.
These next two pictures were taken on November 29th, 2024. They are like the ones taken on August 11th, 2024, where I cut the hair on the sides of my head and not the top; so, these pictures below are really only showing 8 weeks of growth on top. The first picture looks better in both the receding hairline and it looks thicker, which is normal after two months of hair growth. and the second looks worse and it may be because I blended at 5/8" there. These are update pictures but not really progress pictures because they cant be used for comparison.
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Summary of the Adegen Protocol the way I applied it:
I purchased a "3 month supply" of the Adegen protocol for $500 as shown in the picture below, which lasted me 4 months and I still have unused product left.
In the picture, the front 3 bottles are the Topical Formula 15 which uses droppers to put the product onto the scalp. I used it daily with only about 5 days off total and still have about 5 days worth of product left. I wasn't always consistent about how much I put on, with a minimum of 1-ml and a maximum of 2-mls each time. I usually put it on right before bed and I sleep in a way that it doesn't really get on my pillow. Some days I could put it on earlier in the evening and it would be mostly dry before going to bed. Sometimes it felt like it would build up and I would have to scrape it off with my fingernails. I don't think this was visible to people but I could feel it and occasionally it bothered me.
Rollers
The tools on the left are the rollers; I refer to them at the beginning as aerators because it seems like a fitting analogy. I only used one in 4 months, so I still have one unused one left, but I used it before each application of the topical formula, meaning daily. I don't think I was supposed to do it daily but I did. I think it was supposed to be used once every 2-4 days. The rollers have tiny needles on them which are very short and thin, maybe like acupuncture needles. The purpose may be to stimulate some increased blood flow, but I understand the primary purpose of the roller is to increase penetration of the topical formula deeper into the scalp to the hair follicles. It doesn't really hurt if done right but sometimes I used the roller too much and caused some redness on my scalp that looked like really tiny dots of blood. That wasn't recommended but I did it anyway. Over the past 2-4 weeks it started to hurt a little with each use so I should have switched to the second roller but I did not. If I had used the roller at the proper frequency, it probably still wouldn't hurt today. I'm guessing the tips of the needles have started oxidizing which can dull the pointiness.
Shampoo
The 3 bottles in the back are the shampoo bottles. The ones I got didn't have the dispenser on the top. I don't use a lot of shampoo and in the past 4 months I have not yet finished one bottle. It looks like I still have a third of a bottle left, which means for me, this is about a year and a half supply of shampoo. I use one dime-sized drop, twice each time I shower. The first one I apply right before I brush and the second I apply and let it sit on my scalp for 5-10 minutes as I finish cleaning the rest of my body and rinse it off last. I consider this shampoo as nutrients for the scalp rather than a hair cleaning product, only because at the beginning my hair seemed greasier than usual on days I didn't use my regular shampoo. So in reality, I applied shampoo three times when I showered, the first was for cleaning the hair and the other two I described above. I have since tested that greasy feeling again to see if it still feels greasier without my regular shampoo and found that it does not; but applying a cheaper shampoo first did reduce how much of this fancy shampoo I used.
Scalp Brushes
The tools on the right are the scalp brushes. I use them each time I take a shower, mostly daily. As instructed, I scrub my scalp vigorously in multiple directions with the first application of the shampoo. The primary purpose of this is to stimulate increased blood flow to the scalp and, if I understand correctly, this is the most central and most important aspect of the whole protocol; meaning, if using the scalp brushes was all I did, it alone has the potential to stop hair loss and stimulate hair regrowth. The second purpose is to exfoliate the scalp to help the nutrients from the shampoo and the topical formula get deeper into the scalp tissue and hair follicles. I did this process vigorously enough that it usually hurt. I noticed it hurts more on mornings when I used the roller the night before. The more time my scalp had to heal from the roller the less the brushes hurt me. I occasionally used a metal cat brush on my scalp because it seemed to exfoliate better and help remove the caked on topical formula better but I assumed it wasn't good for the health of my scalp so I didn't do it that much (4-8 times over the four months).
I believe there was an unexpected side effect of the brushes; this was increased oiliness of my scalp. I usually noticed this in the middle of the day but it didn't seem to affect my hair much or at all, possibly because it was standing straighter off of my scalp and didn't come in contact with the oil as readily. I noticed it most in the receding hairline area. I assume either the increased blood flow to the area increased the nutrients to the sebaceous glands allowing them to produce more oil or the vigorous nature of brushing stimulated the sebaceous glands to produce more oil. It may also be related to the topical formula or the roller because once I stopped using them daily, I didn't notice this middle of the day oily effect as much. I assumed the increased oiliness was a good thing and healthy for my scalp. If I didn't wash my hair daily, I wonder if it would have made my hair greasy.
This is the recommended protocol as published by Adegen:
This is the recommended protocol as published by Adegen:
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