Fox243

It's kinda crazy that this is now the most viewed and most replied on thread on the site. Hopefully the "wisdom of the crowd" will take us somewhere!

Yes, only I can edit -- others can suggest

The doc is close to ready. I will share it here and people can help make edits: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s3JkF9woMIebkXbpE_UxrjBfNy9i7AuBclDqn9HGrAo/edit?usp=sharing

I have a verteporfin packet. Let me finish updating it over the next few days and then people can reach out.

I think I'll wait another week before asking him b/c I don't want to annoy him, but will provide the update here if I am allowed to.

I do have some contact with Dr. Bloxham, but I want to give him time to share his updates. Making an hour long video as he did for the last one takes days of effort and he's juggling that with his day practice. But anyways, I have no more information than the public does at this current stage.

One is not a trial fwiw – it’s just a patient who wants to use vert for his normal procedure, as I think all patients should be doing now

I mean the issue here is "waiting" until they find the best dosage. Who is "they"? Dr. Barghouthi and Dr. Bloxham? It might take years for them to find the best protocol on their own. Who knows if they will even do trials after this, as they've already paid so much out of pocket that we shouldn't expect them to do anything else? We need more doctors to try, as part of a global trial. Rather than reaching out to doctors asking them to try verteporfin, I think its more important to emphasize that you will only get a HT with verteporfin. If they see enough patients only willing to get transplants with verteporfin, then they will understand the demand will only be there for doctors who offer verteporfin trials.

I mean people can go for surgery whenever they want. I personally think we're very close to the ideal dosage based on the literature (and based on the 0.4 mg/cm^2 results by barghouthi). In terms of when this will be widely accepted and 95% there, it really depends how much people spread the word to their doctors. If someone is able to convince their doctor, I can help their doctor onboard, as melvin and I are currently doing for Dr. Pittella. Honestly though, I wouldn't be getting a HT before we see further testing of verteporfin and the only way to expedite that it is for people to spread the word.

I’ve been going through a lot of the literature and I personally think an experiment with better measurement is the best thing for us to do, now that we have a better idea to measure things. I think it’s unlikely the recipient area testing would be as successful b/c it seems like you need to wound the skin deep enough for it to figure out whether to go into a pro-fibrotic state or scarred state.

Not sure if this counts as advertisement, so Melvin can take it down if it is, but here's a blurb I wrote a while ago: Research for androgenic alopecia receives almost no funding despite extremely high demand from the hair loss patient community. We believe that patients deserve both better solutions and governance of the solutions they fund. HairDAO is a patient-owned, mission-driven organization that has raised $3 million USD whose mission is to solve hair loss. Our members consist of the best hair loss doctors, researchers, and laboratories in the world. Join HairDAO to solve hair loss and be paid for your work. Feel free to DM me if you want the discord link.

They have no incentive as it's off patent. I think HairDAO might end up funding a trial soon anyways though, so I will see.

No, I'm not affiliated with the company that sells verteporfin. I make no money from this. I just want to see more testing done for verteporfin and am dismayed at the lack of progress being made across the world. It is definitely way to soon to say I can go to NW1 with verteporfin, but it is not too soon to say it does something beneficial and has no downside. It has a very favorable risk-reward profile.

In the past few days, we've clearly seen that verteporfin has major upside (significant regrowth and reduced scarring) and no downside. Why are people still considering getting a HT without verteporfin? If you do, you may be scarred forever. I think verteporfin could really take off if people keep mentioning it in their hair transplant consultations and suggesting that they'd only get a transplant if they could use vert. They can connect their doctor to people like Melvin or me (I'm in constant contact with Dr. Bloxham, Dr. Barghouthi, and Dr. Pittella's nurse, sharing with them all the protocol and research we've developed together). Happy to provide my contact info over DM. With verteporfin, anybody could theoretically get to a NW1 without needing to take meds.

Potentially, but there's been no research showing that it can be effective on old scars iirc. I think it should work, but that's pure speculation.

Trust me, even after studying this for 1.5 years, I'm still shocked. But I, like you, am extremely analytical and this is the #1 shot at greatly increasing our chances for more hair. It only hasn't caught more attention mainstream b/c it requires surgery, but the audience at HRN is the perfect candidate for it. The way I see it, people using verteporfin have got nothing to lose and only things to gain.

If I were you, I'd try to wait for more trials with verteporfin or if you're impatient, I can try to ask Dr. Barghouthi to use verteporfin for you. We are not sure if verteporfin can be used on old scars, which is why it might be important to use it on the few grafts you have left. I've been leading the verteporfin efforts for 1.5 years now, and I'm happy to help you over DM.

There's also a huge difference between Zarev and Eugenix. Zarev has 3 hour long consultations with extremely detailed measurements where he does every part of the procedure while Eugenix is like most other top HT clinics. You will be sacrificing ~15% of quality when choosing Zarev vs the standard package at Eugenix or any other shop (H&W, etc)

Yes, Dr. Barghouthi has gone above and beyond, way more than what I would’ve ever thought for a first trial. Remember he has no obligation to be sharing anything with the public. He could’ve just shared the results in the end and got a 5 year waiting list and doubled his prices once he perfected the technique. There’s nothing wrong with being critical – in fact being critical is what leads to improvements. However, the criticism should be constructive and not dooming - feels like a lot of criticism is trying to nitpick every little detail and making a mountain out of a molehill.

Dang we might be cured bois

He’s been lagging with the videos. The video you’re referring to is the day of the operation. His newest video just released the one month results. He will be releasing the 3 month results over the next few weeks.

We’ve only seen one month of results – think we need to wait till month 4 or so for a better assessment.

Hi @DrTBarghouthi, would love when to hear when you think you could share the photos.

Thanks for the writeup. Why did you not use beard grafts?

Agreed, the FUT should actually have a better chance of regrowing hair because of increasing Shh signaling in a deeper wounds. It’s similar to how unsuccessful attempts have been made to apply Verteporfin after microneedling – the deeper the wound, the better the results.