OverMachoGrande.com Updates/Personal Notes Feed!

“So what’s the deal with all of these clays?” Clays for Hair Loss and How They Help with LLLT! -by OverMachoGrande

2010-07-07T23:44:01-05:00

THE HAIR LOSS INTERNET WORLD has endured spectacular claims about clays for hair loss. However, once you separate the fact from the fiction, there are still very solid reasons that most people suffering from MPB would probably have some benefit from using this simple treatment. This two part video will cut through the nonsense, explain the benefits that you will get, and instruct you how to easily make your own clay treatment in a matter of minutes. Major points and additional information will covered and updated when necessary in the “Notes” section of this article. Clays for Hair Loss - Part 1: Fact, Fiction, and Analysis of Benefits WorldHairloss.org embeds videos in HD for the best quality viewing experience possible. However, if YouTube is experiencing high internet congestion -or if your own connection is slow- you may want to either 1) pause this video and allow it to load or 2) switch the playback quality setting to 720p or 480p. Clays for Hair Loss - Part 2: Making It Yourself WorldHairloss.org embeds videos in HD for the best quality viewing experience possible. However, if YouTube is experiencing high internet congestion -or if your own connection is slow- you may want to either 1) pause this video and allow it to load or 2) switch the playback quality setting to 720p or 480p. Notes Remember, there are many types of clays out there, and all of them are fairly similar. Most every site touts that their own brand of clay is superior for “x” reason –and they all can’t be right! For what we use clay for –removing excess sebum and oil- most will behave in a similar way. Bentonite clay is the most common, hence the reason it is discussed so frequently. There is nothing wrong with buying premade commercial clay products. If they are meant for your scalp, they will probably have a good amount of oils in them to protect your hair from drying out -and I can’t stress enough how important this is. UPDATE: Organic apple cider vinegar (refered to as “AVC”, and a common brand is “Braggs") is a frequent additive to clay treatments. There seems to be a good synergy between the two, and AVC has beneficial properties for the scalp and hair. When making your own, glass containers are preferable. Never use a metal container, and only use the “correct” type of plastic containers that are geared towards food and cosmetics. Each brand of clay will have it’s own ratio of water/clay powder. Also, things that you add to it could possibly change the consistency, too. No matter what, though, the clay will “firm up” quite a bit, so it’s best to leave it more liquid. You can “spot treat” or you can cover your full head, and you shouldn’t leave it on for more than twenty minutes or a half hour. You should pay at the most $10 a pound, and one pound should last a couple of months if you “spot treat” and use it only several times a week. Typical usage for LLLT users would be before your shower on “laser days”, and other users should probably only use this two or three days a week -every other day at the most. UPDATE:You will probably find that 20-30 minutes is ample time for this treatment, and any more than that could cause your scalp to get overly dry. Important: OVERUSE can cause your scalp to become too dry –which can affect LLLT and cause it not to be as effective! If you feel this happening, reduce the number of times per week and/or the duration of the clay treatment. Even though you are mixing oil and water, DO NOT use polysorbate 80 -I’ve found that this makes the clay “curd”, and it ruins the consistency! -John Christian (OverMachoGrande)

BREAKING NEWS - NEW FDA CLEARANCE FOR FEMALE PATTERN BALDNESS FOR A LASER DEVICE -by OverMachoGrande

2010-03-09T18:36:01-05:00

March 9th, 2010:I, OverMachoGrande -the chief editor of WorldHairLoss.org and the proprietor of this fine establishment you are in right now- am proud to be the first source to publicly report that a new FDA clearance for female pattern baldness has been issued for the MEP-90 Hair Growth Stimulation System -yes, a laser device. Laser Therapy -also known as LLLT- now joins Rogaine (2% Minoxidil) as the only FDA approved treatments for female pattern baldness, and obviously adds credence to LLLT as a treatment for other forms of baldness as well. Adrogenic alopecia is caused by a variety of genetic and environmental factors in both men and women, particularly with an androgen called dihydrotestosterone. The pattern of hair loss in women differs from typical male-pattern baldness. In women, the hair becomes thinner all over the head -often referred to as “diffuse thinning"- and the hairline does not recede. Also, unlike men, androgenetic alopecia in women rarely leads to total baldness. Approximately 10 percent of pre-menopausal women show evidence of androgenetic alopecia, but age increases the incidence. It is estimated that 50-75 percent of women 65 years or older suffer from this condition. This marks the second overall approval for hair loss for LLLT by the FDA, with the other one being for MPB with Hairmax Laser Comb (Lexington International). Study summary: Below are the highlights of the 510(k) summary -which is the document required by the FDA to show that a device is substantially equivalent to a predicate device. For the MEP-90 efficacy determination, each subject received a total of 36 each, 20-minute treatments with the MEP-90, over a period of 18 weeks. Results were reviewed at the 10-Week (20 treatment) and 18-Week (36 treatment) levels. • After 20 treatments (10-Weeks), 92% of the subjects demonstrated an increased hair count of ≥10% with 57% demonstrating an increase of ≥30%. 98% of the subjects indicated a medically significant stabilization of their rate of hair loss. • After the 36th treatment, 97% of the subject population demonstrated an increased hair count of ≥20%. A total of 89% of all subjects demonstrated an increased hair count of ≥30%, with 57% demonstrating an increased hair count of ≥50%. • 87% of the subjects indicated the treatments have helped their condition, with 60% reporting their loss rate has further slowed down from the 10-week period, and 65% reported their visible area of the alopecia (bald spot) had gotten smaller. • 100% of the linear trend plotting for all subjects of their Initial, 10-Week, and 18-Week hair counts demonstrated a historical rate of increased hair growth. • No subject experienced any adverse event and/or effect from the treatments. About the device, and what this means to YOU: This device is not yet on the market, therefore complete device details are yet unknown. However, sources close to WorldHairLoss.org have stated that it should be somewhat similar to the devices shown on http://www.scalplaser.com. More device details will follow as they become available. Here is the full 510(k) official summary in PDF form so there can be no confusion on this: Regards, John Christian (O.M.G.)

Fitting Instructions Video for the Laser Messiah II… -by OverMachoGrande

2009-03-09T21:04:00-05:00

I realize that to many of you out there, a hair laser helmet is a brand new concept! You probably don’t know the first thing about what to expect in terms of “fit”, etc. So, for you, here is a “Fitting Instructions” video for the helmet that I now manufacture (and you can check my last blog for details about it)… Make sure to click the “HQ” button! Also, this video is a fantastic way for you to get a closer look at this helmet. ...But go easy on me! I had a fever when I was making that video, I sound snotty, I was sweating bullets, and I was obviously completely sinking down into my chair! lol… Between every take, I coughed for about five minutes straight, too! Oh well, the show must go on, I guess! I don’t check the youtube comments -I’d rather the discussion stay in the forums- so here the thread in which we discussed this: http://regrowth.com/hairloss-forums/viewthread.cfm?f=1&t=22988. Anyway, like I said, this is a good way for you to check out what this helmet has to offer, and if you’re new to this… it might educate you a little bit and help you with your OWN DESIGN! -O.M.G.

Introducing the “Laser Messiah II” Hair Laser Helmet! …and I’ll make this one for you! -by OverMachoGrande

2009-03-07T21:25:02-05:00

The hardest part of all of this?? MAKING THE HELMET PART! ...And the two most common questions I get? “O.M.G.. will you sell me one?” and “O.M.G., will you design a helmet that has more side coverage?” Well, it was a lot of hard work and took a long time to design, but not only have I designed a helmet that has much greater side coverage, it’s a “one size fits most”, I’ll sell it to you -and it’s PATENT PENDING! lol… I can’t do online instructions for this one… no, not because I want to be a secret, but there is no real way to describe how to make this template because it took A LOT of trial and error and wasted materials -not just simply making a tin foil template and cutting it up. BUT… I *will* make this one for you, and you can ask me about it at lasermessiah (at) lasermessiah (dot) com! Let’s take a closer look… Here is an animated comparison of this new design with my old design: As you see, I’ve made the headband more narrow and eliminated the “middle section” completely, and the two sections connect together with the top part overlapping the bottom. This greatly increases the side coverage, and still has the very important headband -which alleviates diode weight and adds stability. Here are some comparisons between the two, and I don’t think much explanation is necessary here: As I said, each design is “one size fits most”, which is partually due to the new vertical adjustment made possible with the use of side flaps… Each helmet has more holes than you would ever fill (somewhere close to 600, and 300 holes would give most people “full coverage"), as well as 500 bristles for support. All-in-all, this is a “luxury helmet”. At the time I’m writing this, there is no equal to it in the entire world of LLLT for hair loss. So, if you know *anything* about hair loss -meaning you’ve weeded through the b.s. propaganda from laser brush companies and big pharmaceutical companies and realized that REAL laser therapy is by far the best treatment option currently available (and the *only* thing that works for many)- then you are either already using a laser helmet, or you want to. If the cumbersome task of building the helmet part has been keeping you from doing this… that problem is now SOLVED, baby! -O.M.G.

An unexpected Christmas present from my laser helmet to me! …Noticeable reduction of gray hair! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-12-17T08:19:03-05:00

As many of you already know… all of a sudden a few weeks ago -after one solid year of using a laser helmet- I noticed that I didn’t have anywhere close to the amount of gray hair that I used to. I still have gray hair, of course, but many seemed to have just disappeared. It really is a noticeable amount. I’ve had a really gray beard for a long time, and it “spread” over the years up to my sideburns and the side of my head around my ears. Well, I’ve used “Just for Men” beard and sideburn dye on my sideburns for a couple of years. No set time or pattern for usage… I’d just use it when I felt like I needed it. Well, I realized at the beginning of December that holy cow… it’s been MONTHS since I’ve used it! I think the last time I used it was August or September at the latest. Well, this stuff isn’t even permanent, and I groom my sideburns regularly so that hair was obviously long gone. So… no, I don’t know when or how it happened exactly, but my gray hair on my sides and sideburns is noticeably less! Sure, there are still gray hairs there, but it’s hit the “passable” point in which I no longer have to use the dye! I can’t prove it’s from the lasers, but come on… PLEASE! lol… It’s from the lasers! It took a long time though… a SOLID YEAR before I even noticed. So, maybe that will continue in the future, and you’ll be the first to know! I don’t have any sources at this point -and I’ll update this when I find them- but at least one laser clinic device manufacturer advertises that there product reverses gray hair, so there is probably some official data out there on the subject. I’ll try to find it. Ok, FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH... A few minutes ago I pulled these from my head, the top one from the top/side and the bottom one from closer around my ears. There is a CLEAR line of demarcation of grey hair that turns dark. No, I didn’t mistakenly or intentionally reverse the hairs or anything… these hairs literally went from gray to dark. I didn’t even think that was possible. I really don’t know how typical this is… maybe I lucked out finding them. Maybe these were the only two on my head, but maybe they a lot of them were like this. I did notice this all-off-a-sudden, and I noticed it after I trimmed my hair (therefore cutting off the gray tips). Frankly, it’s hard to tell what hair is like at the base in your thick side area, but these two were pretty obvious. There is a bit of an optical illusion here, the hair looks “thinner” at the tips, but actually it’s the exact same thickness. It’s the gray color that’s making it look thinner. By the way, the gray section of the longer hair is about 1/2”, and the gray section of the shorter hair is about 5/16”, just in case you want some scale. So, in summary… no, they aren’t backward. I have no idea if that’s how it transpired with all of them or not, and I certainly don’t have anyway to find out. I actually can’t even prove if the reduction of gray hair has one thing to do with lasers… but I’m assuming that it does because there isn’t *any* other reason for it. No, lol… I didn’t go gray all of a sudden or for some medical reason, either, and I’ve had a splash of gray hair on the sides and sideburns for many years! So, there you go. Other forum users have reported the same thing, so I’m not crazy! -O.M.G.

Build your own power supply! …An instruction manual to modify an ATX power supply from Hapyman -by OverMachoGrande

2008-12-04T21:04:03-05:00

This is HUGE! If there is one problem that we all share in the “world of laser helmets”, it’s that finding the correct power supply can be very difficult sometimes. The amps that our diodes require can really add up, especially when you have a couple of hundred diodes. Frankly, there aren’t many types of power supplies that can handle that many amps that are ready-made for us to buy. The few that *are* available aren’t always available internationally, they are often backordered, and the price isn’t always the most affordable. The solution? BUILD YOUR OWN! Thanks to Hapyman, we now have the instructions to modify computer ATX power supplies to suit our needs, and pretty inexpensively, too. The main benefits are that you can get them in any country that sells computer parts and it will most likely greatly surpass all of the power requirements that anyone would require. Plus, these are VERY reliable power supplies that run really “clean” and “well regulated” with no power spikes… something very important for ensuring maximum performance and a long lifespan for our diodes! Here are the downloadable instructions: Build Your Own Power Supply - Downloadable PDF ...and here is a link to the full instructions, which are located in the “Supplies” section: “Build your own power supply by modding an ATX! -Complete instructions by Hapyman” These instructions also reference another blog I made in which I describe how to make the “main cord” out of an extension cord, which is here: “Re-introducing the “Hapyman” 15 amp power supply! ...a computer ATX that you can modify YOURSELF!” See, in regards to that last link… we have to do it a little differently with these bigger ATX (and also the MeanWell) power supplies in order to retain our “independence” and still be able to move around: When you have a small adapter, you can just use an extension cord attached to the adapter and have a long range of movement because the small adapter can “come with you”. However, since these ATX power supplies are to big to be mobile, you need a long, THICK cord that goes in between the helmet and the power supply (rather than between the power supply and the wall) that can support all of the amps that your diodes need. The cheapest, easiest, and “best looking” source is probably a high-amp extension chord, in which you modify according to that blog… it’s as easy as that! So, yes, I’ve been using one of these modded ATX power supplies since August 2008 that Hapyman was kind enough to make for me, and I think it’s amazing. No problems at all, and all of my diodes are as bright as they can be -even when all three zones are simultaneously lit. Mine has the capability of TWENTY AMPS -a total of 666 diodes- which gives my current 217 diodes (which will be upgraded to 255 at some point) plenty of headroom! I know that there will be inquiries to whether or not Hapyman will be selling them, and I will update that information here if he decides to sell them in any sort of volume. I hope he does, because I’m sure there will be a big demand. ...Although let me stress, you *do* have the ability to do this! No, I haven’t made one myself yet, but I’ve seen the inside of mine and I’ve looked over the instructions and it seems VERY straightforward. If you can wire a diode, you can mod an ATX! So, with this addition to the OverMachoGrande.com site, I really feel that it’s getting close to being “complete”. This was a huge missing piece of the puzzle that is now in place! All that is really needed is me making instructions on how to make a $250 “Laser Messiah Jr.”, which I may or may not ever get around to! lol… Anyway, thanks again, Hapyman!!! The WORLD needed this! -O.M.G. PS- All sorts of models of ATX power supplies will work, but the model I have is the exact one described in Hapyman’s instructions -the NSpire NSP-250P4, OUTPUT 250W, Switching Power Supply. I have no clue whether this model is commonly found or even priced the same compared to models with similar specs. The main thing you need to look for is the maximum amps under the “3.3 volts” sections. No, you don’t necessarily need 20 amps like I have… obviously half that will suffice in most cases! Here is a picture of the label with the specs from his instructions in case you want to compare it to other models to try to find the best deal possible:

OFF TOPIC: Flowbee, Grapefruit Seed Extract (for sinus problems), and Listerine Whitening mouthwash -by OverMachoGrande

2008-11-04T18:42:00-05:00

Since I have your attention, I thought I’d bring up a couple of off-topic, non-laser items that I’m absolutely THRILLED about! Flowbee: First, dudes… I got a FLOWBEE! Yes, for those of you that remember.. this was heavily advertised in the 80’s on infomercials, and it was the butt of a lot of jokes. It basically uses a vacuum to pull the hair up into the electric razor blades. I’ll cut to the chase of why this is good, and probably just like you are now… I completely didn’t realize why I should be interested in this and what the benefits were. I saw that a few people on the forums mentioned they had been using it for years, and then I looked into it on my own and found out how amazing it really is. Mainly, it allows for LONGER HAIR STYLES, and you can still cut it evenly -including perfectly tapered sides! For those of you already experienced with attempting to cut your own hair, you already know how profound that is! lol… Look… I look HORRIBLE with short hair. So, if I want to save myself the embarrassment of going to get my hair cut, the only “do-it-yourself” options are to use clippers. Well, the longest most clipper sets allow you to cut your hair is about 1”. I modified one of the attachments to cut about 2”, but it was horrible and didn’t work very well. I pretty much had to PUSH the hair over the blade to get it to cut, so it was very uneven. Plus, the tapered attachments are WAY TOO SHORT. We are talking almost military here, which is just NOT ME! So, the Flowbee lets you cut in 1/4” increments from 1/2” all the way up to 6”. Like I said, it has a tapered option, too, that makes your sides look PERFECT! It’s also pretty wide, too… it cuts in a 2 1/2” tall strip, so that’s a lot of hair that that you can perfectly taper above your ears. [I shamelessly stole this graphic from the Flowbee site, by the way. I’m not that grey! lol...] As a lot of you know, I freaking MURDERIZED my hair last month. Actually, I wouldn’t shut up about it on the forums and email! lol… See, I can grow my hair a lot longer now because of the results I’ve had from the lasers -so I wanted to keep it longer- but I screwed up so bad it ended up slightly shorter than it was when I first started my laser treatments! UGH! As you know, longer hair “covers” better, so it was a definite shock (but it was a great opportunity to take my 10 month before/after photos that I posted at Regrowth when you can clearly see the profound difference I’ve experienced… all because of lasers). So when I got the Flowbee yesterday, I ripped open the box and proceeded to fix the horrible job I did last month. Since my hair only grows so much in a month, I obviously had to cut it shorter that I wanted to this time, but I’ll tell you how I did it: First, I cut my hair to 2” at the top. Then, I used the tapered attachment and cut from the “part” of my hair down on each side from 2” to 1 1/2”. I also brought that around to the top part of the back of my head. Then, I changed the taper to 1 1/2” to 1” and did the bottom of my hair over the ears. I continued that around the back also. Finally, for the bottom of the back, I used just the tapered base without any attachments, which was 1” to 1/2”. Let me tell you… although it’s shorter than I like, it looks absolutely professional. A HAIR STYLIST COULD NOT HAVE CUT THIS BETTER! lol… So, I’m looking forward to actually being able to cut my hair LONGER after it grows out! What’s funny is that in the past, I’ve hated getting haircuts so much, my hair has traditionally been shaggy most of the time. Literally, sometimes I’ve only gotten three haircuts a year at the most (with me cutting the bangs and maybe over the ears a little bit myself). Now, once I get it to “target length”, I can give myself haircuts every month and keep it at that exact same length, but it will be EVEN and not shaggy looking! What I think I might do is every month I’m going to just add half an inch onto all of these settings, cut it again, and then I can keep it even as it slowly grows out again. I really think that this is an amazing thing, and I have NO IDEA why it’s not in every single Wal-Mart or Target in the USA. Beats me! This is truly fantastic for us MPB sufferers that either don’t like going to get a haircut or like to keep our hair longer than what normal clippers can do! Ok, since I’ve already stolen one Flowbee picture, I might as well steal another: Oh, I should say that actually *I* didn’t buy it… my friend bought it for me sort of in a “barter” agreement for me helping him put together his website. I’ve been talking about it so much that he said he’d buy it for me if I helped him, so I said “HELLS YEAH!”. lol… Grapefruit Seed Extract: As you may know, about every six months there is a new thing on the forums that gets everyone in a buzz. Grapefruit Seed Extract is currently one of those things, and a lot of people are using it for hair loss -specifically to fight demodex. Look, I’m not getting into the demodex discussion AT ALL here on this site! lol… I’m staying out of it because people can become complete idiots about this topic. Oh, I will say that any possible way that GSE can help hair loss would more-than-likely already be achieved with a laser helmet (more on that later). I will tell you this, though… GSE is a PROVEN super-strong anti-fungal substance. The crap wipes out micro-fungus completely. There is no doubt about this. Well, this is where it gets applicable to me and my life. The Mayo Clinic has done studies in which they have found that a significant amount of sinus problems are due to FUNGUS, not to allergies like previously though. I am a lifelong sufferer of congested sinus cavaties. Every morning ever since I was a kid, I have woken up to a feeling like my head is about to EXPLODE. I, of course, have been told it was allergies, and at one point in my life (I think my early twenties) I went to an allergist and was prescribed horrible anti-allergy medicine and decongestants that totally fucked with my system. Jittery, light-headed, and flaccid is no way to go through life, son! Anyway, JPD710 at Regrowth informed me about the Mayo Clinic studies and the anit-fungal properties of GSE, and said that I should take GSE internally as well as make a nasal spray and see what happens. Well, I tried it. It comes in liquid form, so I started taking 15 drops mixed in a shot of orange juice twice a day (trust me… it’s HORRIBLE tasting and extremely potent, and Orange Juice is the best way to mask it), and I’ve occasionally done the nasal spray (I mixed a few drops into water, but man… it’s SO ROUGH that I can’t tolerate it much. I don’t do this frequently!) Here’s the deal… In only TWO WEEKS, my lifelong sinus problems have been RADICALLY REDUCED. It’s almost completely GONE. I’ll repeat that… TWO FREAKING WEEKS! I’ve been using it pretty close to about a month now, and it’s still great! THE BEST PART ABOUT ALL OF THIS?? I bought a bottle of this from my neighborhood Vitamin Shoppe for $7, and it’ll probably last me three months if not a lot longer! If you have sinus problems like me.. you NEED TO TRY THIS. Ok, remember up above when I said that “any possible way that GSE can help hair loss would already be done with a laser helmet”? Let me explain something interesting… the Mayo clinic -as most of you that are halfway paying attention to the hair loss world around you already know- has also found a link between micro-fungus and both acne and BALDNESS. YES… male pattern baldness! Not as necessarily the CAUSE, but as a contributing factor, and that it is present on most people that suffer from these things. Well, I had acne as a teenager, MPB now, and obviously I had the sinus problem which was essentially cured (so it seems) by an anti-fungal. That tells me that this fungus thing might have some merit in my case. So… what do we know about lasers? They kill fungus. That’s proven, and I think I even show that in some of those studies over in the left hand column over there. Plus, about the whole “demodex” thing… although I’ve never seen any studies on lasers and demodex, we know that demodex can’t tolerate light, and frankly I’d have a hard time imagining that mites could survive months and months of this laser treatment. Again, though… I’m not getting into the demodex debate because people FLIP OUT on this subject, and most people seem to lose site of what a “contributing factor” is and forget to hold things like DHT to the same standards when presented with evidence regarding that topic (for example, “My brother, wife, and dog have the same demodex, so why aren’t they bald, too?” Ok, jackass, your brother has the same DHT, too, and he’s still not bald. Explain that, and I’ll use the exact same argument you give for DHT, but turn it around and use it flawlessly with Demodex. The point is… we don’t KNOW for a fact what causes MPB.) Ok, back to the point… if you aren’t like me and haven’t had horrible, routinely congested sinus cavities that makes it feel like your head is going to explode when you wake up all your life… well lucky you! lol… I’m jealous of you because I’ve suffered a really long time from this. Man, I’m *almost* a morning person now! If you ARE like me, you need to try this. If it works, not only will your sinus cavities be nice and clear in the mornings… you’ll have even more evidence that most doctors and companies really don’t know what the hell is going on with the human body, and they work only to alleviate the symptoms and not the underlying problems. Who knows… one day that mentality might be just what it takes to make you proactive enough to do something that saves your life. Listerine Whitening Mouthwash: I’m declaring the END of the expensive whitening strips! They should be squeezed out of the market like a damn Hairmax laser comb! Man, this Listerine Whitening stuff is amazing. It comes in a solid white bottle, and it’s a “pre-brushing” mouthwash that whitens your teeth as much as any of the expensive white strips I’ve ever used. Plus… it doesn’t hurt, and I think it’s about the same price as other mouthwashes! So, $6-$7 bucks for a huge bottle?? I discovered something about myself over the last few years. I really place a huge emphasis on people’s looks by the whiteness of their teeth. Or rather, I suppose I should say that I really think it DETRACTS from people’s overall appearance whenever they have yellow teeth. I notice that in the first seconds of meeting someone! So, I’ve made an effort to keep my teeth white, but I’ve just become a little jaded because the whitening strips are such a pain in the ass to use, they are expensive, and they HURT. With this pre-wash, you notice the results pretty quickly. In about only two weeks, my girlfriend’s teeth have gotten so white that they almost have a BLUISH TINT to them! lol… Being that I’m an avid cigar smoker/coffee drinker, mine aren’t quite there YET, but they will be! So, there is no need to waste the money and time on whitestrips anymore. This crap is cheap and it works very well. My fight with coffee/cigar stained teeth is OVER, and it was won CHEAPLY. Ok, those are the three tips I thought I’d pass along this time! Stay tuned for more, but for now… back to lasers! -O.M.G.

Just to remind everyone, about $250 bucks is all it really takes… -by OverMachoGrande

2008-10-24T01:12:00-05:00

Hey guys… you know you don’t HAVE to spend an arm and a leg to make very effective laser helmets, right?? You do know that a cluster of 68 moved three times still works great, don’t you? If you can’t (or don’t want to) spend the money on a “full coverage” device… DON’T! Spend about $250 instead… that’s all it takes for you to make a great device that is still pretty effective! Listen up… while the “Laser Messiah” indeed is a truly great helmet and it covers all the bases that I feel a really good helmet MUST HAVE: 1) It has diode spacing based on the “gutter guard” mesh, which is about as good as we can ever hope for with the spacing, and it allows for the diodes to be as close as reasonably possible without overlapping. 2) With the brush bristle supports, the diodes are a uniform distance from the scalp that allows for equal coverage on a curved head, even going down the sides a bit. 3) With the brush bristle supports, we can “diffuse” the diodes for the most coverage possible. 4) It allows for “multiple zones”, which most of us that have used this feel is an added benefit to all of this. 5) The “full coverage” aspect makes it so the “multiple zones” don’t overlap, as well as gives you the option to do it all at once (time saver). 6) It’s very comfortable. ...I think it’s popularity has made some forget that there is a much CHEAPER alternative out there that is still very effective, and it’s based on the same design that I used for about 8 months, jdp710 used for four and a half, Justme123 has still been using for over four months, and several others that contact me by email have been using for various lengths of time -and we have had STUNNING results (check Regrowth.com for recent photo threads from both jpd710 and myself). The “Laser Messiah” is definitely a luxury helmet that is on par with -if not better than- the $40,000 laser clinic devices, but it does cost somewhere probably $650 - $700 or higher to make if you want over the “magic number” of 200 diodes (which is what a HairMax Laser Comb used to cost a couple of years ago for only NINE DIODES! LMAO!!!). I absolutely realize that price is definitely high for some people (even though it’s, ummm… a LOT LESS than $40,000!), and I hate it that some people think this stuff is only reserved for those with a lot of money. Well, THIS IS NOT A TREATMENT ONLY FOR THE SUPER RICH! Unlike the hair loss industry would have you believe, this stuff can be done VERY CHEAPLY and still give you amazing results if, of course, you do-it-yourself, and do it right! [Don’t worry… I’ll spell out what the do-it-yourself community has determined as “right” down below.] I think the problem is that forum members ebb and flow all the time, and there always seems to be a new cycle of members that weren’t present during our “discovery process” of this and aren’t aware that it wasn’t that expensive at all for me to make my first helmet (and less expensive now because the diodes are $3 instead of $4). So yes… let me spell it out for you: you don’t have to spend $650+ on a helmet… you can still make a very effective device for about $250! I will give this disclaimer, and this answers a question that you might have already: “If it was working, why did some of you guys build bigger devices??” Easy… we’ve figured out without a doubt that the MORE LASERS YOU HAVE, THE BETTER IT WORKS!!! That’s why! lol… And more than likely, once *you* taste what a cheaper laser device will do for you, you’ll end up making a stronger device, too! But that’s sort of a problem you want to have... especially if you’ve been fighting hair loss for a decade like most of us have been. Basics of what we’ve observed since December 2007... Ok, I’m going to first cover some basics -that you need to read, dammit! So many people ask me these questions in the forums, and it’s spelled out many places but I’m going to spell it out again! lol… First, we’ve found that yes… it seems like 200 diodes -or the equivalent of 200 diodes (meaning a moveable cluster of a lesser amount!)- is the “magic number” for great results. “But OMG, but OMG… the laser clinic devices only have an average of 100!” Yes, I’m aware of that! We aren’t directly comparing our helmets to the laser clinics, though. We CAN’T!!! There aren’t a bunch of forum members running to the laser clinics because they cost too much! lol… Listen, we already know that our helmets use the same diodes (the EXACT SAME diodes if you use the AiXiZ ones) as the laser clinics, and we know how to replicate their designs pretty well. Therefore, since there is no “je ne sais quoi” with these laser clinic devices -it’s just diodes and power like all other laser devices- we know that a 100 diode device of ours will be similar to a 100 diode device of theirs, right? Duh! So this is where it gets interesting… with our helmets, we are comparing the actual results of everyone’s helmets, and it seems like the ones with the most diodes are the most effective, and it takes 200 to really hit the sweet spot where people say “Oh my gosh… this stuff really works”, and fairly quickly, too. So, even though it’s not exactly “scientific”, it leads me to believe ALSO that yes… our helmets are more effective than clinical laser devices. No, I can’t prove that -HELLO, we’re all amateurs here that have to go off observations- but hey, I’m just basing that on what we know to be true about laser clinic devices and what we’ve seen about our helmets. Worst case scenario, it’s “as effective”, but like I said… it seems like the more the better, and that’s coming from people that started with the equivalent of 200 and moved up all the way to the equivalent of over 400! Ok, you’ll notice that I’m using the phrase “equivalent of” quite a bit. I want to explain that… it TOTALLY COUNTS that you can total up the lasers if you use multiple zones, as long as the cluster is a big enough size. See… we’ve also found that for the best results, not only does the total amount of diodes matter, you need a minimum cluster size! Whether that’s because it requires a certain amount of area to be stimulated for the best results, whether it requires a certain “light intensity” that only a larger cluster can bring, or what… I don’t know the reason, but when you check what all of the pioneers have said, the ones with the best results have at least a cluster of 68 diodes that is moved three times (68 because it’s a good size in gutter guard… about 4” x 3")! Even the ones with clusters around 50 don’t have as good of results. Also, notice please that 68 diodes moved three times is the equivalent of 204 diodes… it’s over the magic number! The “Rule”... So, here is the “rule” that we have established from our observations, and it really would benefit you to follow it: You need at least a cluster of 68 diodes in “gutter guard’ type spacing moved at least three times (20 minutes a section) for the cheapest but yet still most effective device you can make. That’s what we’ve found after months of looking at this. Yes, the diodes should be diffused -with the lense caps completely removed- and resting at a height of somewhere between 1.5-2cm off of the scalp. Advantages/Disadvantages of “Full Coverage” vs. “Moveable Clusters” Of course, like I said, there are drawbacks to a “moveable cluster” sort of design compared to a “full coverage” device like the “Laser Messiah”, so I’ll spell them out for you: 1) First and foremost, without a doubt the biggest advantage of a “full coverage” device is that you eliminate the overlapping problem. With a “moveable cluster”, you often (either inadvertently or because you have space issues) end up overlapping the borders of the zones. Yes, that means that there are certain areas that get way too many joules, and it could be causing a bit of bio-inhibition in those areas. However, I must remind everyone that I still got great results with it, and I was definitely overlapping areas! 2) A “full coverage” device does provide much more consistent coverage. Since you build the “full coverage” device to cover your balding areas, there’s no guessing here… you’re going to get coverage in the areas you need it consistently, every time. 3) With a “full coverage” device, you do have the option of doing either “switchable zones” (that don’t overlap), or all-at-once. That can be a time saver, and if time is an issue for you… then a quicker usage time may be a benefit for you. Now, are those advantages worth the extra price??? That is completely dependent on YOU and what you can afford! Also, if you’re one of those people that’d rather prove it to yourself first -like I was- then you probably want to start with the “moveable cluster” design, too. Once again though, lol… go ahead and assume that you if you build a “moveable cluster” design, you will one day want even more and eventually make a “full coverage” device because you will not only have seen results, you will completely understand the gravity of the benefits/advantages that I just spelled out! Oh, let me tell you some good things about the “moveable cluster”, too… Besides the obvious price advantage of being only $250 vs. $650-$700, the advantage of the “moveable cluster” design would be the POWER SUPPLY! It’s difficult to find a power supply for a few hundred diodes, without a doubt! With a cluster of 80 or less, you can use the 2.4 amp Chinese adapter on my power supplies page, which is not only readily available, it’s only about $18 plus shipping (maybe $5-$10?), and you get it in about a week! THAT is great! So now what? Design considerations... Well, I don’t have nice PDF instructions for this right now, and I might not do that at all… I might only make another blog entry that “sums” up how to do this with some hand drawn graphics, and you can reference the bigger “Laser Messiah” instructions for the details. So, you have to use your own creativity a bit. These are the main elements you have to have, and ALL OF THEM were pretty much invented, tested, and honed by Jdp710 and his “tennis visor”: 1) You need a headband for support. Jdp710 used a tennis visor in which he cut the front down a little so he could target his temples a little better. That is absolutely fine! Here is his page so you can see some pictures (pops up in a new window): “Jdp710’s tennis visor!” Or -and this is what I’d probably do even though I do love visors- I personally would chose to make a headband out of foamies and velcro, very similar to the bottom part of the “Laser Messiah” except without the 3mm foam to hold the eyelets. Mainly, just for some extra support and comfort, and the fact I can get it a little “snugger” on my head. Take a look at this picture from my “Laser Messiah” instructions: This is how I’d make the base, except that I WOULDN’T put in the layer of foam with the arrows drawn to it that says “It’s getting covered with my hair...”. Here’s an animated picture, and once again… you’d leave out that wider, horshoe-shaped piece of foam: 2) As you can see by the “Jdp710’s tennis visor!” pictures, you will need velcro strips along the outside the headband. On my design it’s be the same… just put a strip around the outside! 3) The cluster needs to be at least 68 diodes (a good arrangement is 8x7x8x7x8x7x8x7x8) can be directly mounted in the gutter guard, and it needs to have foam mounts glued around the edge that need to be somewhat close to two centimeters to space it properly off of the scalp. I would probably use three of the 6mm foam spacers. This cluster is small enough that the foam spacers should be enough and you won’t need the brush bristles. 4) The cluster may or may not “bow"… jdp’s didn’t but my original one did. I’ll think of something for this, like a bit of wire coat hanger or something. 5) Put strips of the velcro around the design so you can position that sucker into place -once again, just like jdp710’s! Remember, you will move it three times: As many of you know, I have been referring to this design as the “Laser Messiah, Jr.”, and like I said… I intend to at least have some graphics in a blog coming soon to help people with the design! Total cost?? 68 diodes are $3 a piece, so that’s $204. The adapter is $18 plus about another $5-$10 shipping. The gutter guard is about $1 - $1.50. The rest, whether you use a tennis visor or foamies/velcro can be easily done for under $15. If you want to add the “hobby adaptaplug” ends, then add another $5 or so. If you already have the extra wire, wire strippers, and a couple of other things, then that’s IT! If you don’t, you need to add another $15 or $20 bucks to it or something. All-in-all… it’s going to be somewhere around $250, which is CHEAPER than most standard laser brushes out there… but you will actually have something that will work as well as the clinical laser devices! Do you get that?! $250 for results that you would get at a freaking laser clinic! WTF are you waiting for?! It’s something that ACTUALLY WORKS. MAKE IT! lol… -O.M.G.

What a FANTASTIC WEEK for the “common person” like you and me! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-10-17T16:42:02-05:00

Yes, it was a FANTASTIC WEEK for the “common person” like you and me! We have documented, undisputed proof of outright fraud from BOTH SIDES of what is wrong in the hair loss world: the fraudulent, bogus naysayer “quacks” and the fradulent, deceptive laser device companies! First, as many of you know, there is this hair transplant doctor -and I use the term “doctor” very loosely based on his lack of research- that posted a video called “Why LLLT CAN’T Work”. [PLEASE SEE THE 10/20/2008 UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ENTRY!!!] Not only was the video debunked as total junk science (that goes completely against what 1500 REPUTABLE studies on LLLT have proven over the past 40 years) on the very first page of the thread, in the discussion that ensued he is now on permanent record for being an outright, lying fraud, as well as proving himself to be an extremely disreputable person with sociopathic tendencies and a poor character. When confronted with the facts that exposed his shoddy video and destroyed his credibility as a researcher, he repeatedly attempted to change the focus of the arguments, ducked the questions, proved that he doesn’t offer (or understand) any empirical or scientific evidence, and he resorted to telling despicable lies about the individuals confronting him with REAL evidence (he told many about me which can all be proven as false, one of which is that I fabricated the results of a very well know study -which shows that he hadn’t even HEARD of that study. Embarrassing!). ...And the best part is that it’s on permanent record for YOU to see, and any paper-thin credibility he ever had is now “gone with the wind”! One thing he does do? MAKES MONEY OFF OF YOU! He has a clear interest in you NOT understanding about LLLT. Second, and this is the “other side"… KONFTECK -a well know manufacturer of expensive laser devices (and was the manufacturer of the device that had the “Aculas” name)- has been absolutely BUSTED for false information on their site… regarding MY LASER MESSIAH (and other homemade devices)!!! lol… They even stole pictures of it from me! In response to my request, they removed my pictures, but click this thumbnail for a screenshot of their page before they changed it and you’ll see some very familiar pictures with some very UNFAMILIAR data. Here is the email I sent them: From: OverMachoGrande Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 9:22 AM To: sales@konftec.com ; info@konftec.com ; webmaster@konftec.com Subject: Remove my pictures.... You need to remove the “homemade” pictures on your webpage as they are my property. The pictures are here: http://www.konftec.com/html/EN/Laser_Helmet_comparison.html Also, I have to say that you guys are being very dishonest. You are inaccurate in describing the diodes as 2mW, and they are clearly 4mw output power -as been shown in tests. They are NOT modules used in laser pointers as you “suggest” twice… they are OEM grade, and they have a lifespan of 5000 hours, not 500. This is the typical dishonesty in the hair loss industry that I’ve been actively campaigning against for a long time now. I’m sending this email at 9:22 am EST, October 17th, 2008, and this is your warning. I expect these pictures -the pictures of the helmets and the close up of the diodes- to be REMOVED. Also, I intend to bring your deceptive actions to the hair loss forums where a TRUE comparison will be done, and I hope you keep this in mind the next time you consider doing something so ridiculous. John -Overmachogrande.com ...And that is only some of the erroneous data about my laser messiah and the diodes I used. There is much more. Also, Look at the “warranty” information, too. They took AiXiZ’s “INJURY WARNING” and put THAT in comparison to Konftec’s “two year warranty”! Ummm… those things aren’t even the same topic!!! This is amazing! So, I feel it would be only fair to ACCURATELY do a comparison of my laser messiah verses their helmet -that WAS priced something like $4500 [This company, by email, claims that their device was never this price. I, however, distinctly remember this price point -whether it was from a distributor like Aculas or whatever- and I can’t accept what they say carte blanche because of their dishonesty here. However, I don’t have a screenshot to prove that one, too, hence this disclaimer and the strikethrough on the “$4500”. I actually care about accuracy and honesty… I wish these companies and doctors did!], dropped to $3600, and now has dropped to $2112 (all in a recent timeframe)! Gee… I wonder why they felt the need to drop the price so radically and outright lie about the specs of our homemade devices?? Do I need to really answer that? lol.. US! Do you know one thing that this company does? MAKE MONEY OFF OF YOU! They have a clear interest in you NOT understanding about LLLT. lol… So, this is the KEY POINT about both of these fraudulent entities: I don’t know everything in the world, but I DO know about me and my Laser Messiah, and what BOTH of these offenders have said about us is blatantly false, and easily PROVABLE to be false. So… if THAT little sliver of info -the bit about me and my creation that I know like the back of my hand- is outright deceptive (and I’m in the position to know that… it’s ME. Duh!)... what are we to think about everything else they say?? Take it to the next step… knowing that fact, am I to believe any other junk videos/statements/responses posted by that “doctor”, and am I going to believe what Konftec says about their OWN STATS, products, and efficacy claims? No, and you shouldn’t either. Unfortunately, even though both sides of what is wrong in the hair loss industry have been proven to be lying MORONS, the victim is still us. The people that are actually trying to save their hair are all hurt by this. The only “victor” of this situation is those that attempt to educate themselves about all of this. Those that have already done so about LLLT can see all of this for what it is and are unscathed, and I hope that is you! Oh, yeah… and both those two “sides” are there to take your money, believe me! lol… By the way, if you are interested… Konftec’s helmet is vastly inferior due to coverage issues, and we’ve discussed this at Regrowth quite a bit, Here is one thread. Plus, due to the lies they’ve told about the Laser Messiah, I no longer can trust their stats. Perhaps I *should* do a comparison to embarrass them further. Until then… ...this should do. By the way, the thread in which we are “ripping this company a new one” is here: http://regrowth.com/hairloss-forums/viewthread.cfm?f=1&t=22065 In conclusion... I’ve been scratching my ever-filling-in head of hair about how such a breach of ethics and charlatan business practices can be tolerated in ANY INDUSTRY, much less over and over again -until it’s considered the “norm"- in this one. Until us… these people could get away with this stuff scot-free, and there really isn’t any other sort of “truth detector”. Why is that?? This wouldn’t be allowed to happen if we were talking about refrigerators, automobiles, or vacation packages. The only conclusion that I can come up with is this: Very few people truly care about YOUR hair loss, and that is the absolute truth. The non-balding majority of the world does NOT take you seriously. Go tell one of your non-balding friends that you are really trying to FIGHT your hair loss, and more-than-likely, they will snicker at you (or a revealing smile will come across their face). Your friends -and nonbalding people in general- do NOT care about you improving your looks. Next time you are at a bar scoping out chicks, I want you to look around at the other guys for a second… do you think that they would want you to have a full head of hair?? Hell no. I really think that “overall mentality” of not taking hairloss seriously is what is at the root of all this, and it’s carried over to the business world. People can lie (and call me naive, but I still can’t believe that people can do that and live with themselves), companies can commit fraud… and usually no one is punished and they get away with it. Well, I’m asking you to join me so that THIS STOPS. We are NOT going to let these people get away with it anymore. The only thing we can do is 1) don’t put money in their pocketbook, and 2) bring the fight right to their face and in front of everyone in the forums. Be safe out there, guys (and girls)… the more you educate yourself and the sooner you realize that certain doctors and big companies aren’t truly looking out for you -and are actually the cause of the problem- the better off you will be! -O.M.G. UPDATE 10/20/2008: OH MY GOSH. This has to do with that fraudulent hair loss doctor. According to Farrel, the admin of HairLossHelp, “This thread was removed illegally sometime today by an unknown person. It was not deleted by myself. I will continue to report on threads that have been removed illegally on this forum so that you do not think I was the one who deleted it.” http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=48&threadid=81966 THE THREAD IS GONE!!! I do know this… after pretty much accusing every other poster that was speaking against him of being ME (and I hadn’t even checked the thread since Monday morning, 10/13), I was alerted by jdp710 by email that the hair transplant doctor said in perhaps what was his final posts, “However, I can moderate my own posts, and as such I ban you all from this conversation. I will not acknowledge your posts any longer.” Did he remove it?? Is that an admission? Did he get someone to remove it?? I’d say that he definitely has motive, but probably not (I’ll explain why I think that in a second)… even though he *was* getting his ass kicked in that thread and it was hurting his “professional reputation”. Knowing what we know about him… what do you think?? Hmmm.... who would want that thread to be gone?! Could be just some trouble-maker, I’m well aware of that -people are jerks on forums- but I can only think of one person involved in that thread that wanted it to go “bye bye”. But seriously, I don’t think he did it -and my balls are way to big to be paranoid that this complete idiot is the mastermind of some conspiracy! This is why I don’t think he did it: In the hair transplant doctor’s defense… he SUCKS AT THE INTERNET. He doesn’t even know that the things he was accusing us of could be checked -fabricating studies, getting banned from other forums, being multiple users, making money off my site, etc.- so I’d say his sucking at the internet is his best defense. His lack of “internet savvy” was pretty well documented! lol… Plus, Farrel said that it has been happening from time to time. So more than likely it was just extremely coincidentally convenient. I know, I know.... you probably are thinking that “accidents” like that just don’t happen, and it’s obvious that his character and professional reputation DID receive what many would consider a “fatal blow”. ...And now the thread is gone. But seriously… the guy sucks at the internet! LMAO.... Anyway, I’m trying to find the cached versions of ALL the pages, but so far, I can only find one that only has the FIRST PAGE. Farrel says that he’s been backing up his site and he restore most of it, so I’ll put the link here when he does. ...AND PROMPTLY TAKE A SCREENSHOT! What’s the moral of this story??? TAKE SCREENSHOTS! Do you think that laser helmet company would ever acknowledge that they published the info that they did without the screenshot of the table?? Of course not. It kills me because jdp710 reminded me that we should do that, and I never got around to it. Ugh!

The importance of S.O.D., and why 5mW (yes, I said FIVE milliwatt) laser diodes are GRRRRRRRRREAT!!! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-09-29T20:05:00-05:00

“One of the truly unique characteristics of LLLT is that it has the ability to actually promote and enhance healing, not just treat symptoms. The irradiation by low-level laser light accelerates and enhances healing activities carried out by the body” -"Inflammation/Pain Reduction and Healing”, Richard Martin BS, CLT ALSO: “The SOD activity, first of all, depends on irradiation time, but not on intensity or wavelength of irradiation.” -"Influence of laser irradiation on superoxide dismutase activity of human lymphocytes in vitro”. If you know anything at all about hair loss, you already know that propecia and minox DO NOT do a good job on their own with the “bigger picture” of what is going on and what has already happened to your balding scalp. All signs point to the fact that your hair follicle is being attacked by your body -as anyone can tell by the itchiness, the inflammation, and the resulting fibrosis/calcification. While an anti-androgen like Propecia does indeed help to prevent some new damage by blocking DHT (at least temporarily), it doesn’t do anything to repair the massive damage, inflammation, and fibrosis that is already on your scalp. It doesn’t do anything to repair the damage that will continue to be caused by the DHT that *isn’t* blocked by the anti-androgen, either (nothing but castration blocks ALL the DHT!). To truly address your hair loss, you need to do more than block DHT. You need to reverse damage. ...And not only do you have to treat the symptoms, but you have to HEAL the damage. Therefore, one thing you HAVE TO DO is increase your S.O.D. levels. I’ll give you a quick background of S.O.D. that is by no means all-encompassing of the benefits, but it’ll help you understand what we are talking about if you haven’t done your research yet: S.O.D. is proven to heal and reverse fibrosis -"Antifibrotic action of Cu/Zn SOD is mediated by TGF-β1 repression and phenotypic reversion of myofibroblasts” “Studies have shown that SOD acts as both an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory in the body, neutralizing the free radicals that can lead to wrinkles and precancerous cell changes. Superoxide Dismutase has also been used to treat arthritis, prostate problems, corneal ulcers, burn injuries, inflammatory diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and long-term damage from exposure to smoke and radiation, and to prevent side effects of cancer drugs. In its topical form, it may help to reduce facial wrinkles, scar tissue, heal wounds and burns, lighten dark or hyperpigmentation, and protect against harmful UV rays.” -http://www.vitaminstuff.com/superoxide-dismutase.html “It would be ineffective taken by mouth since it is a protein and will be digested.” -http://www.answers.com/topic/superoxide-dismutase Ok, the first one is how this can directly relate to us, the second one is a typical description of what S.O.D. does that you can find in 10 seconds on Google, and the third one is important: I wanted to also spell out with that last quote that it’s really difficult to take this in oral form. You just can’t pop a pill because it doesn’t survive digestion. Also, I don’t have a link to this, but I recall that topical SOD is very difficult to keep stable so it doesn’t last long. Therefore, chances are the products on the market will “go bad” before you are done with the bottle. So… how do you create more of it? That’s easy… You make your own body produce it, and you do that by lasers. It’s well know that lasers produce a radical increase in SOD in the treatment area (as well as systemically), and I have studies that show that in the left column over there.

Happiness Is… -by OverMachoGrande

2008-09-17T14:50:00-05:00

It can’t be about hair loss all the time! Sometimes you have to take stock of the things that are REALLY important in your life, like pets that have been by your side so long that they are closer than your closest best friend! I was lucky this time, but I’m a firm believer in MAKING YOUR OWN LUCK! That applies to “real life” as well as laser helmets. If we hadn’t nailed up 230 fliers and spoken to every man, woman, and child in the neighborhood we saw, more-than-likely my cat’s cries (yes, the cat prominently featured in the “Laser Messiah” instructions) wouldn’t have been paid attention to by the neighborhood kids, and they wouldn’t have come running straight to ME to tell me they think they heard a cat in [what we found out later to be] a foreclosed, very recently abandoned apartment building. Whew… FIVE DAYS. As I type this, it would be day eight that he would have been trapped, and I hate to try and guess if he’d still be alive. I’ve checked and still no one -landlord, bank, or tenant- has been in there. Thank GOD I was proactive and luckily told the right person that told the right group of kids. Believe me, I wanted to crawl in the fetal position and just lay there (and often did that). Oh, lol… after I ran full speed to the apartment, screamed “SAILOR?!”, and he screamed right back “MEEE-YOW!!!”, they tell me that I didn’t even check to see if the door was unlocked before I nearly blasted it off the hinges! Of course, by the fact that the inside part of the wall was ripped out and almost took the entire front wall with it, I knew pretty quickly that it was! Just sayin’… So, if you’re reading this… take what you want from this and draw your own connections here about hair loss. I don’t do everything in my life like this -although I should- but by god… my hair is important to me, and my cat, Sailor, is DEFINITELY important to me, and I have done every damn thing I could do to save both. Make sure you always do the same with the things that are most important to YOU! Sometimes you only get one shot and sometimes the clock is running out, so -when you look back on it all- make sure you can lean back in your recliner chair, smoke that cigar, and say that you took advantage of EVERY OPPORTUNITY THAT IS IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE! Hey… want to know what my plans are tonight? Drinking a beer, eating salty peanuts, and most importantly playing with my best bud! Nope, lol… I already did the laser helmet this morning… -O.M.G.

Bjegunac’s 08.09.2008 update -by bjegunac

2008-09-08T15:08:04-05:00

I was hesitant to post the DIY instructions for the construction helmet until I had given it a chance to see how it performs. It failed. After 3+ months of use I did not notice any positive results. However, having bought $1,200 worth of diodes I thought it wouldn’t hurt to build the “Laser Messiah” by OMG and see if differences in design could attribute to lack of effectiveness of my own construction helmet. Although I have built the “Laser Messiah” I have not used it enough times (only 3x thus far) to be able to characterize its effectiveness. I can say that after my second treatment with this design I think I am getting that soreness feeling. Hopefully, this is an indication that good hair days are ahead. The differences in design between the construction helmet and the “Laser Messiah” are many. For one, the construction helmet does not contour to my head whatsoever. Initially I was lazy to think about the design itself and just took a construction helmet lying in my garage and drilled holes in it. This was a mistake; you really have to give it more thought then I did. The concavity of the construction helmet did not allow for the laser light to disperse uniformly across the scalp, in fact there was a lot of overlapping regions that were concentrated on a very small area. Additionally, some diodes were closer to the scalp and some where further from the scalp, there was no uniformity in spacing (very bad). The Laser Messiah does not have this problem, because the foam conforms to the scalp and the bristles ensure uniform spacing between the diodes and the target area. The lack of these characteristics in my own design could attribute to poor results (no positive results). In about 3 months time we should have an answer to this question… I’ll also take the opportunity to point out a wiring difference between my Laser Messiah and what is documented in OMG’s tutorials. With my construction helmet I connected the diodes in parallel and used the 3.x Volts @ HUGE AMPERAGE power supply. As a result of this, the diodes i took apart to fit on the new Messiah have been significantly weakened. In fact a number of them just seem to have _burned out_. I compared them to the new batch I had ordered from AiXiZ in order to add more “oomph"… Out of the 300 diodes I had in all (including new ones) I ended up using around 200+ because so many were weakened and I didn’t want to waste space on the helmet with inferior diodes. Now, in hopes of avoiding the same problem I have rewired the diodes in a series/parallel combination rather then having them all in parallel. I strung about 14 diodes in series (red wire connected to black etc...) which yields a voltage drop across that string equal to 14*3.2V(diode rating) = 44.8V (I am using a 48V @ 3.X AMPS). So I could have actually connected another diode for a total of 15 in one string to yield a voltage drop across the string equal to 44.8V+3.2V = 48V (now that I write this I dont know why i didn’t)… The current requirement is just as easily calculated, since 14 diodes are connected in series (a string) then only 30mA is necessary to drive all of them (same current through each). So if you have 15 strings of 14 diodes on each string then 15*30mA = 450mA. Now its unlikely that you will find a power supply that has a rating of 44.8V @ 450mA so if you get something like I did 48V @ 3.xA then it would be a safe practice to use resistors and dissipate any extra power that could leak as a result of some phenomenon I have no idea about (diodes are highly nonlinear devices). I actually did not end up using resistors. When I went to get them at radio shack they did not have everything I needed and so I got lazy once again. Now even with this design I noticed that the diodes get hot, but not as nearly as hot as before. Most importantly, at least for now, they seem to have equal brightness. I wonder if anyone has any comments in regards to this? I am probably using much less amperage then a similar design with all diodes connected in parallel although at a trade off of a larger voltage requirement. Usually this trade off is welcomed but… If anyone has something to add regarding the high diode temperature when in use, please feel free to share the information. Hopefully my $1,200 diode set will last longer then before, I don’t think I would shell that much money again on new ones if these burned out. Oh and.. a HUGE thanks to OMG. Your effort in documenting the DIY instructions is appreciated. Thanks!

New!! A personalized TRAVEL piece! -by Lemming

2008-09-08T04:22:00-05:00

So I recently went on a long journey and had to fly with the Lemming helmet. I was successful with bringing my helmet on the trip through my checked luggage, but it takes up a lot of space and I just hate the fact that I have to trust its safety to the airlines. I travel way too much to be doing this or to constantly send it to myself through the mail as has been suggested by some. Well, I got this creative itch after getting back and built me a new Travel Lemming. It only took a few nights and was made with nearly the same process as my original helmet. Also, I figured that since I have to do a few modifications and rewire the Lemming up anyway, I’d just build one now for my next trip and transfer some diodes to my new device. That way I won’t have to rush the mods on my helmet just so I can get back to my laser treatments. The design is pretty cool and I am excited about the pattern of it. I wanted something that would be used three times, cover all my thinning areas without overlapping, and also run in a strip down the length of my head. It has a 76 diode formed mesh (gutter guard spacing), and it will be very interesting to see if I actually get sore from this like OverMachoGrande and Jdp710 did with their 3 zone treatment helmets. The whole intent of this design is to be able to put it into my carry-on bag with ease (yes, I’ll try it), be rugged enough to withstand the rigors of air travel, and to continue to offer quality laser treatments while I’m away. Wish me luck…

Imagine Three Groups of Cavemen… -by OverMachoGrande

2008-09-05T17:51:02-05:00

The first group discovers “the wheel”, and hops on and rolls off into the sunset. The second group looks at another wheel, and talks and argues and pounds the ground about how to make the wheel roll better by making it shaped like a SQUARE… but yet they never even jump on the round one. The third group shows up late, didn’t see the first group roll off, refuses to check the chiseled stone tablets that chronicle the event, and thinks that since this other group that’s hanging around is talking about a “square wheel”, then the first round wheel must never have been tried properly either, and the first group must not have rolled off… although they clearly did. I’m spelling out for you what is wrong with some forums right now. Don’t be in the second or the third group, and especially avoid falling into the traps of the third group! Laziness is easy. Doing your own research is hard. But do your own homework, jump on that wheel, and join us in the sunset! It’s funny (yet sad) for me sometimes… I and just about everyone that’s doing this RIGHT have… 1) stopped our hair loss and are regrowing hair based on the simplest of principles (COVERAGE! COVERAGE! COVERAGE!), 2) we’ve completely laid out a logical progression over the months of the how we figured out HOW AND WHY it would work, and… 3) I’ve spelled it out that HOW and WHY in static format here on this site. Yet… people in our caveman groups “two” and “three” assume that because… 1) *they* don’t know the answer to something, 2) *they* weren’t paying attention when all of this was spelled out for them over the past year, or… 3) *they* are too lazy to do the research on their own… ....that *we* didn’t do our homework on it. There is a 100% difference in asking questions that are trying to find out information versus making “question-statements” implying that we came to our conclusions in a non-thought out, haphazard manner, and, oh yeah, forgetting about our results as well. I’m clearly talking about questions that resemble “What’s with all this diode MANIA? Maybe we should get some experts involved before we go sticking an insane number of diodes on our head.” ...or “No one answered my ‘results timeline’ question in 24 hours so I’m thinking this laser movement must be HYPE,” ...or “it seems to me that this ‘gutter guard’ mesh is overkill and would place the diodes too close together”! LOL! WTF? Were do I even start? Everything in those paraphrased “question-statements” have been covered to a ridiculous extent in the forums and on this site, and yes… it’s frankly insulting to hear that because it’s implying, once again, that we haven’t done our homework, we simply haphazardly put together our devices, and we are talking out of our asses instead of as EXPERTS, which yes… we are experts on this. Sorry, I’m declaring us “experts” now, and it’s the truth. But see? Those aren’t true questions. I don’t know what they are! lol… I’m sorry, I just can’t relate to all that. I know some people really are excited about this and want to simply find the best way to save their hair, but I just can’t relate to the people that don’t have the ability to look into things for themselves and expect to be “spoon fed”. ESPECIALLY after some of us have spent hundreds -if not thousands- of both HOURS and DOLLARS researching, testing, and laying this all out to make it a much easier process than it used to be! I have a total disconnect from that personality type, and I won’t use my energy and time to try to reach those individuals. Hey, don’t worry… if you are taking the time out of your day to read ths, you’re either a “Group One” member already, or you’re about to become one! ...And you have my highest respect as someone that can parse through the nonsense and come to the right conclusions. Here’s a secret… hardly anyone in group two and PRACTICALLY NO ONE in group three visits my site, either. As moderator of several forums, I can cross-check the IP addresses there with the visitors on this site and tell that for a fact. If they *do* go to the site at all, they must just be looking at pictures of my girlfriend or something because they don’t click on many, if *any*, other site pages. So… what does that tell you? The people that have done the research for themselves -here, the forums, and all over the web- all came to the same conclusions, jumped on that wheel, and rode off into the sunset. Groups “two” and “three” have barely done research -as proved not only by not visiting this site (which I’m sorry… this site *is* the place to go for LLLT for hair loss.) and as evidenced by the nature of their posts (anyone can see that)… and groups “two” and “three” are the ones trying to reinvent the wheel. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel. Ride off into the sunset with us. There’s beer, women, and happiness here… and that’s a FACT, JACK! -O.M.G.

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

2008-08-29T23:40:00-05:00

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. 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.

Re-introducing the “Hapyman” 15 amp power supply! …a computer ATX that you can modify YOURSELF! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-08-26T23:22:01-05:00

Let me officially re-introduce the “Hapyman” power supply! It’s a modified computer ATX power supply that can run up to FIFTEEN AMPS! ...That’s up to 500 diodes, and I don’t think ANYBODY is EVER going to need any more than that, so this more than suffices! He’s probably going to sell them, too, if he can get his hands on some cheap sources (if he does, I’ll put that in my “power supplies” section). Let’s first give the background of why this is HELLA IMPORTANT to what we are doing so we don’t leave anyone behind… Ok, to recap… my device has “switchable zones”. That means I have the option to use it one zone at a time, OR as a “full coverage” device. Now, to use one zone at a time, I can just use my original 2.4 amp power supply that I used with my first helmet. That will run up to 80 diodes, and my three sections have 73, 73, and 71 diodes so that will power a section-at-a-time just fine! However, I no longer have as many options, do I?! I can’t run it “full coverage” that way… Therefore, to make the most options available I needed a (217 x 0.030 amps =) 6.51 amp power supply. Well, as you know, choices are pretty limited in the market for 3 volt devices (or 3.3, whatever, same thing) with a lot of amps! We’ve found some sites with the “Mean Well” adapters that can go up to 7 amps, but they are frequently backordered. ...And also fairly pricey. Well, this is where Hapyman at Regrowth comes in! He modifies computer ATX power supplies to have plenty of amps, actually way more than what we need at a cheap cost. Plus, he’s going to put together instructions on how YOU can do it, too! Like I said, he needs to find some good suppliers first before he can make them for people, but when he does I’ll have all his pricing and contact information current at the top of the “Power Supplies / Adapters” page in the “Supplies” section of my left side navigation toolbar. Ok, now I want to talk about what *I* did to mine because you might be interested in doing the same thing, whether you buy one from Hapyman or make one yourself! You probably already know that for me to use ANYTHING, it’s got to be very practical for me. That’s what lead me to the creation of the first laser helmet anyway… I had to be able to move around and essentially function as if I wasn’t wearing it at all! So that means I needed to have a LONG, LONG EXTENSION CORD. I have to be able to go to the kitchen, the bathroom, my office, the den to watch “Family Guy”, whatever! So, I need to buy a 50’ extension cord to adequately cover all of those places. Unlike my adapter (and maybe the “Mean Well” power supplies), this 15 amp power is probably just a little to big to wear around, so the extension chord is actually NOT going to connect from the power supply to the wall… it’s going to connect from the power supply to the HELMET! Therefore, we are going to cut off BOTH of the plug ends of the extension chord (and yes… that’s actually cheaper than just buying the wire)! Ok, first-of-all, the 50 foot chord -because it goes such a long distance- HAS to be rated at the full amount of amps that you need! Well, I went a step further, and I got an extension chord that could handle not only the 6.51 amps that I needed, but the FULL 15 AMPS that the power supply can give. I’m not sure if it *has* to be that way, but that’s what I did just to be safe, and just for any future endeavors that may require more amps (adding LED’s for face wrinkles on the front, etc.). So, you need a “12 gauge” extension chord. Those can easily handle 15 amps. I got this one at Lowes: The have red/black ones a Home Depot, but they were out of them (I personally like the blue/black a little better anyway, even though red/black ones go with my helmet better!) So, snip the first plug end off.. ...and the other end: Cut the rubber outside back to expose the wires inside and strip them with your automatic wire strippers: Now, I had to thin out the bare wires BARELY because they wouldn’t fit into my “female disconnects”. BE CAREFUL if you do this, though, because you are reducing the total amps. Of course, with 15, I can afford to lose a little, so I think I’m quite fine… I know, I know… it’d be better if I didn’t, but like I said, it’ll be good enough and I don’t want to have to find other disconnects when this solution works perfectly! Ok, crimp on the “female disconnects”: ...and you put tape over the ends of the female disconnects (for security and support because they are going to get some pulling force), cut back the green grounding wire completely, and tape the end of the cord: As you see, it fits into the back of the helmet nicely… Now, you do the same thing to the other end, except Hapyman did all of the hard work here. I opened up the inside, and he already had the wire disconnects attached, so I simply attached the wire disconnects he sent me (15 amp ones from radio shack), and connected it to that, put the chord through the hole, and closed it all up again! Now, the extension chord is connected permanently to the power supply, and you can connect/disconnect it from the laser helmet: And that’s it! Yes, this extension chord is pretty heavy duty -and heavy! So, I *always* tie it around my waist so I don’t have a lot of weight pulling on the connectors and the helmet… ...And there you go! Free to move about a 50’ radius from my power supply, and I’m assured that my helmet still gets all the power it needs because it’s 12 gauge/15 amps! To end this, I want to show you this picture again because it’s just totally BADASS! It’s REAL, too! lol… Yep, truly UNLIMITED POWER... -O.M.G.

“WIRING OF THE LASER MESSIAH” -the FINAL STEP of building your own laser helmet with O.M.G!!! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-08-24T08:04:08-05:00

Finally! The last part of building your own laser helmet with OverMachoGrande is complete! You’ve built the helmet, you have the diodes, and you are ready to wire it! Here’s the link to the PDF download: http://www.overmachogrande.com/files/wiring-of-the-laser-messiah ...And this part, just like the other parts, require harldy any tools and/or skill! Actually, this last set of instructions is a very conclusive wiring guide, so even if you aren’t building a “Laser Messiah"… you can go through this and learn how to wire ANY sort of laser project! The “Do it Yourself” section on the left sidebar has the link to the page with the bigger pictures, so if you can’t quite make something out in the printable PDF, go check that out! Also, in this set of instructions is the long-awaited “Switchable Zones and Soreness… an Added Benefit to Laser Therapy for Hair Loss (???)” section! Please… join us in the experiment! I may still make that section into it’s own personal blog because I feel it’s something very important that just might give you a boost over any other laser therapy device out there! Just a reminder… I’m using AiXiZ diodes for this, and if your diodes are a little different, you might have to adjust my instructions to fit your needs! So… this is it for my instructions! It’s been fun making them for everyone, and I hope that I’ve helped a few people out there! I share some “Final Thoughts” in the instructions, and I’ll go ahead and say it again that I’m extremely happy with this helmet! Having completed it and actually used it, I can say that I’d prefer this helmet over any other design I’ve seen out there! PHEW! I don’t know about you, but I need a break after all of these instructions! lol… And I know some of you may be wondering, “Why did he take the time to do something like this?” Well, let me answer that with another question: WHY *HAVEN’T* YOU YET?! -O.M.G.

Build your own laser helmet w/ O.M.G: Part II - Determining the Number of Diodes (Downloadable PDF!) -by OverMachoGrande

2008-08-17T04:12:04-05:00

Ok, you want to get this LLLT thing rolling! If you’ve already built your laser helmet, determining the number of diodes you need is a pretty straight-forward task (and we ARE going to cover that). ...But what do you do if you haven’t constructed your helmet yet, you want to come up with another unique helmet design, etc.?? How do we figure out how many diodes we need for THAT?? ...EASILY! And I’m going to show you how! http://www.overmachogrande.com/files/determining-the-number-of-diodes.pdf ...also, these instructions are located on the left column in the “Do-It-Yourself” section! First of all, let me state that although determining the amount of diodes that you will need is pretty easy… if you haven’t already constructed your “Laser Messiah” or other helmet design, go ahead and expect that your final diode count will more-than-likely be a little different than the initial “ballpark” figure we come up with! That’s ok, don’t worry… I’ll prove to you in the next set of instructions that it’s REALLY EASY to add an additional few diodes to the whole shebang since we are using unscrewable “wire nuts”! You don’t even have to change the wiring hierarchy or anything. So basically, don’t be afraid to start work on the helmet just because you are short some diodes. Adding them is a SNAP! Back to business: There will be two sections in this (as well as a “secret third section” that we will get to later)… “Determining the Ballpark Number (before you’ve made your helmet)”, and “Determining the Final Number (after you’ve made your helmet)”. Obviously, if your design is different than the “Laser Messiah” and you are actually going to use the gutter guard as the diode holder (like I did with my first helmet), then “Section 1” is all you need to do, baby! Obviously, like I’ve alluded to before, the best way to do this would be to build the helmet first -in which case you can completely bypass Section 1 and jump straight to Section 2, but obviously I’m aware that things happen -like “group buys”, or simple impatience, or whatever!- and you want to go ahead and order diodes before the helmet is complete. Well, hey man… start with “Section 1”! Rock ‘N’ Roll, and let’s get busy… -O.M.G.

Downloadable/Printable PDF Instructions for O.M.G.’s “Laser Messiah” Laser Helmet! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-08-08T00:14:00-05:00

Here it is, folks… the instructions to construct the helmet -the hardest, most intimidating portion of this (now made ridiculously easy)- all in one printable document! Download it, save it, pass it around… go nuts with it! http://www.overmachogrande.com/files/laser-helmet-instructions.pdf THIS IS WHAT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR! No power tools, very limited hand tools -a hammer, a box cutter, and a hole punch (not even a saw!)- and it requires all the skill of a kindergarten class craft project! Also, it’s made with materials that are locally available from stores that are located in most every city in the U.S. -Wal-Mart, Michaels, Joanne Fabric and Craft Stores, and Home Depot! AND IT’S DIRT CHEAP. The practical knowledge that I’ve gained from my experience in do-it-yourself laser helmet projects has given me invaluable insight as to what is necessary to make an effective laser helmet. I can tell you that this one meets and surpasses all of them... The top is created to conform perfectly to the curvature of the head. The base is custom fitted around your head with plenty of padding. It’s a full coverage device with enough diode holes for any conceivable arrangement. The diodes rest on brush bristles for a uniform height above the scalp. It’s both comfortable, sturdy, and secure on your head. It looks good! ...And like I said, it’s cheap and made from commonly found materials! All of these reasons coupled with the fact that it’s so easy to make is why I’ve dubbed this design the “Laser Messiah"… it’s the savior for people that either don’t have a lot of tools and/or skill! And actually, in all likelihood it’s as good if not BETTER than most other helmets out there. I’ve divided these instructions into easy six steps, and you can easily finish each step after work, after dinner, or whenever! Think about it… you can have the HELMET -the hardest part of all of this- FINISHED IN SIX DAYS! Less than a week, baby! Man-oh-man, it’s 18 pages, and yes… TINY, TINY font, but if you can’t see a picture clearly or whatever… it’s up on my website in the “Do-It-Yourself” section. Ah yes… it’s the last month of summer, and I hear the call of the world… I won’t be poking around the forums too much until September! I realize that some of you are in the middle of making this and might have a question or two, so JUST FOR YOU… I’m setting up the temporary email address of lasermessiah@lasermessiah.com where you can ask me questions related to the construction if this helmet. Now, one day I will put together the wiring instructions for this helmet, too, even though it’s completely unnecessary because it’s so simple. However, that day isn’t today! That MONTH probably isn’t this month! But rest assured it will be complete one day! Peace out, and enjoy August! -O.M.G.

You’re a moron if… -by OverMachoGrande

2008-08-04T22:05:00-05:00

...you think that I’m in any way making money off of anything having to do with this FREE SITE and go around talking out of your ass saying that I do. I’m going to lay something flat out for you right at first here… I don’t know what sort of “nickel and dime” existence or lifestyle you’ve grown up with, but I don’t live in a world where I have to resort to making cuts or kickbacks off of something deceptive to ilk my way though life. If you do, that’s your problem. I was brought up with CLASS, and I was brought up very comfortably -something that I enjoy now as well- so I don’t have to do that. That clearly should come across without you even knowing me, and if it doesn’t… it says something about YOU, not me, and I would therefore be correct in mistrusting your judgment on most other things. I CLEARLY couldn’t care less about making whatever small amount of money would be made off of such nefarious activities, and any money I would make from my hard work on this would be simply a drop in the bucket of the REAL SALARY I command in my real life, and certainly not worth me tarnishing my forum name and reputation over. Does that sound snotty to you? Well, that’s better than sounding RETARDED accusing someone of deceptively making money when they obviously aren’t. Offended? ...I frankly don’t care! It’s true, and I wouldn’t have brought it up if it wasn’t for the occasional person that can’t see the obvious or chooses to write their own non-trusting, non “problem-solving”, and idiotic mentality into this. I didn’t just “pop out of the woodwork” talking about lasers or something with a fantastic, comprehensive website for god sakes! I’ve been a member of these forums for a LONG TIME, and I had a few thousand posts at Regrowth.com before I ever even started talking about lasers! If YOU were on those boards and paying attention, every single idea and/or revelation I had about this laser stuff was laid out in progression over many months… from when I first said “I figured out how to make a laser brush”, to “laser brushes are junk”, to “Why are clinical lasers working so well”, to “I figured out why clinical lasers work well”, to “I made a laser helmet based on clinical laser devices”, to “Oh my god, my laser helmet is working!”, finally to “OK. It’s time to make a web page on it.” And now I suppose I can add “Ok, I’m going to figure out how ANYONE can make this easily -without many tools except for a hammer, a hole punch, and a wire stripper- and make easy to follow instructions”. It’s all been there, and anyone on the board from that time that was a regular poster can and will attest to that. Oh, and for the record… I waited to make the website after 5 1/2 months of using the laser helmet, a full two months after I started getting results. So anyway, why is it so hard for people to accept that some creative person that likes to build things and has a damn good knack for graphics and webpages would want to showcase what he’s done? It’s not even really for “philanthropic reasons"… its called a HOBBY! I’ve even had many people offer me hundreds of dollars to build a helmet for them -something I could complete in a mere few hours. I turn them down EVERY SINGLE TIME. I’ve busted my ass to make it clear that ANYONE can make these. Making one for someone -even for money- is pretty much completely against what I’ve spent hundreds of hours trying to accomplish. In conclusion, if you still think I’m making money off of my FREE SITE (that I pay $6.99 a month to host) or my FREE INSTRUCTIONS… then you’re stupid, and you’re having someone who in-all-likelihood is a lot bigger and smarter than you say that to your face. Don’t use any of the products I suggest, then… unless you think I’m so all powerful that I make money off of EVERYTHING having to do with LLLT, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Radio Shack, Foamies, hole punches, Gutter Guards, etc. ...Or don’t build one at all; I don’t care! If you’re NOT A MORON, then I hope this has been entertaining reading, and it obviously has nothing to do with you. I’m sorry that we live in a world so full of imbeciles that this had to be written. If you ARE A MORON… ...I’m not like you. Sincerely, OverMachoGrande

I’m working on my Laser Helmet 2.0… Why not build yours alongside mine?! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-27T01:47:01-05:00

Lost in the wilderness about how to make your own laser helmet? Daunted by the overwhelming intricacies involved in making a device that contours your scalp and can hold potentially a couple of hundred diodes? Well… you are IN LUCK!!! ...Why not make it with me?! Because of Nidhogge’s cool-ass gift, I’ve decided to work on my second helmet earlier than I thought! I don’t even have the funds for all of the diodes, but the hardest part without a doubt is the actual HELMET, so I’m going to get started now! So, if for some reason you’ve been hesitating on this laser revolution because you don’t think you can build one yourself… why not go ahead and make the helmet part, the HARDEST PART (but also the cheapest part), even if you aren’t ready to buy diodes yet?! That’s right, make it with me. Step by step! ...And I’ll be doing it VERY SLOWLY. I’ll make updates on the “NEW!!! ...Build your laser helmet right alongside OverMachoGrande!” page in the “Do-it-yourself” section every day that I work on it, and the steps will be slow and easy. In fact, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to do this yet, so it might be extra slow! lol… Rest assured that I’m going to be thinking of the easiest way possible to do it, though! Anyway, that way if you have questions, you can ask me at Regrowth directly right when I do a certain step! It sounds like a plan to me, and I already know Gou’ald at Regrowth is going to be building it alongside me as well, so now is the time… JOIN US! By the way, a lot of these steps are going to be what Lemming lists in his instructions… why re-invent the wheel when you don’t have to! So what are you waiting for?? Expect my first update on that thread TOMORROW NIGHT, and get started making one with me! If you’ve been waiting for something to motivate you to action… this is your battle horn. UPDATES: “July 28th, 2007 - Preamble: Why I’m not actually using a “helmet” for my 2.0!” now completed and on the page. “July 29th, 2008 - Step 1 - Manufacturing the Base… a soft, padded, velcro-tightenable “helmet”. now finished! “July 31st, 2008 - Step 2 - Step 2 - Making your tin foil ‘head mold’!” - DONE! “August 1st, 2008 - Step 3 - The initial formation of the top part of the helmet!” in the bag! “August 2nd, 2008 - Step 4 - Making the diode holes in the top!” ...c’est fini! “August 3rd, 2008 - Step 5 - Adding the Brush Bristles!” -BAM! “August 6th, 2008 - Step 6 - Completing the Helmet!” -And the whole thing is finished! FINAL UPDATE: August 7th, 2008 - Downloadable/Printable PDF Instructions for O.M.G.’s “Laser Messiah” Laser Helmet! You could EASILY do one step a day and have the helmet finished in less than a week! And it’s so easy to do… a kindergartener could do it! -O.M.G.

Laser Clinic Success Rate Observations… 71% in the first 6 months, 80-90% after 1 year! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-20T02:09:00-05:00

Yep… that’s it! Those are the stats from Dr. Maricle -one of the world’s leading authorities on LLLT and hair loss- based on his observations and information gathering over his long, expansive history with this: 71% success in the first 6 months, 80-90% success after 1 year. Also, when Dr. Maricle and others looked into the 10-20% that FAIL to get results, a large portion of those failures can be attributed to user error… meaning a large hunk of that percentage is chalked up largely to folks who weren’t consistent with their treatments or as consistent as they ought to have been to achieve results within that timeframe. This is key… those aren’t STUDIES. Studies seem to have a knack for not translating well into “real life”. Those aren’t phony-baloney Hairmax laser comb study numbers, or even minox/propecia trial numbers. Those numbers are REAL NUMBERS. Those numbers represent what is actually occurring in clinics with laser devices that provide the necessary 3-6 joules of energy to thousands of customer’s scalps all over the world. Here is another key element that you have to keep in mind… the definition of SUCCESS. Laser success means thicker, fuller, shinier, younger-looking, more vibrant hair along with regrowth and keeping your existing hair. From what you know about success with minox and propecia… does that sound like it’s even in the same league? It doesn’t from what I’ve seen and heard… success with minox and propecia may mean some regrowth and a shot at keeping your hair, but at the same time –even with success on those products- people report thinner, flatter, and frankly more horrible looking hair. Just a reminder of what I personally have noticed: My hair doesn’t react well to minox. It sheds ridiculously, and even my strong existing hairs seem to thin out. After using my helmet for 3 ½ months, I used minox for a little over two months (well into the range for my bad reactions to take place), and it didn’t thin out my hair. My stronger ‘laser hair” could much better resist what minox was doing before. I know that isn’t exactly “scientific’, but it’s a real life experience and it’s not hard for me to imagine that most people would be that way. I’d imagine the synergy between proper LLLT, minox, and propecia would be simply amazing for most people! Now, let me get to the second part of this post.... I’m lucky to have access to some of the top minds of LLLT with hair loss now. I’m lucky because I can learn things that I wouldn’t be able to find out otherwise… like that there is a REASON that you can’t go online and find touting of the success rates of high-powered laser therapy! If you are a laser clinic or a laser manufacturer or anyone that stands to make any money at all off of lasers, FCC regulations prohibit it! You are pretty much limited to what… before and after pictures?? ...But even that becomes so limited when you take away the context of actual stats and observations! If you’ve been even only paying half attention to this over the years, then a bell should have just sounded in your head! NO WONDER we haven’t been able to find this stuff on the internet! Aside from the whole “Lasermax debacle”, this would be the other main reason why there is so much confusion about LLLT on the forums when there clearly shouldn’t be… we are ONLINE PEOPLE, and NONE OF THIS STUFF IS ONLINE! lol… Well, it’s been explained to me that since my site actually gets traffic and I don’t sell anything or make any money, I’m about the only place that CAN say this stuff and have it seen. The original “mission statement” of this site was to have it be a “step two"… the place you go when you already had the answers and proof you needed, and you wanted to be an “ACTION MAN!”. Well, Dr. Maricle has convinced me that I should try to make this place a “step one” site, and one of the few places that can accurately bring all of the information to the forefront of the balding community! Because I really want to do this right and have the level of proof that will convince even the biggest forum knucklehead, it’ll take a lot of time to do this –well into 2009 I’m sure- but it’ll happen! I’ve gotten great success and feel I’ve halted all further hair loss, and it’s no secret that after I get my second (and five-year-overdue) transplant sometime in 2009 to fill in areas that could NEVER grow back (those follicles are too far gone)… I want to eventually retire from the forums I’m still involved in, and perhaps maybe only make an occasional post here on this site or basic moderation duties at Regrowth. I mean seriously, why do I need to stay around? I’d be much more comfortable with this site having a complete message that can stand on it’s own without me having to post in forums when I leave it to rust! Lol… -O.M.G. PS- In the meantime, do what I’ve always said… go to the clinics, let THEM show you the proof, but don’t you dare let them sell you on a $4000 a year treatment! Come back here and make your own!

What you’ve all been waiting for… The connection between lasers and DHT revealed! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-11T15:45:00-05:00

Whether you are interested in LLLT for hairloss or not, I think everyone trying to fight MPB would be well served reading this! This is the Golden Tamale… right? The $64,000 Question? ...or is it?! Isn’t this what we’ve been told over and over that we must target to eradicate baldness? Devices as strong as our laser helmets and clinical laser devices grow hair and halt further hair loss… ALL ON THEIR OWN, without anything else. It’s been PROVEN! Therefore, there *must* some mechanism by which LLLT reduces or removes DHT. I hear “OverMachoGrande… do you know the connection between lasers and DHT?” all the time. People in forums are simply waiting on the edge of their seat to hear how lasers fit right in to what they think they know about hair loss! Yes, I know the connection. If you want to read the answer, you’d better be prepared to “let go” something you may have been conditioned to believe as an absolute truth, though. I’m serious… don’t keep reading unless you want to really learn something -and it’s not what you expect! Ready for the answer? There is NO CONNECTION between lasers and DHT -ZIP, ZERO, NADA. Out of decades of studies, there has been no bit of scientific evidence that shows lasers have anything to do with DHT, either directly or indirectly. The connection just plain isn’t there! ...and this has been confirmed by TOP EXPERTS on LLLT! WAIT A SEC… then how is it able to grow hair and halt further hair loss?? Based on the current predominant theory of hair loss… this shouldn’t be possible. A quick consensus of the “unlearned” members (I’m being very nice) of some forums out there will quickly tell you that! In fact, if you speak out that lasers can successfully combat hair loss without touching DHT, you’ll soon, ummm… get the “pulse” of those members’ feelings! Let’s just say that a Frankenstein-style lynch mob equipped with torches et al wouldn’t be that far fetched. Hmmmmm...... makes you think that the predominant theory of hair loss has some big flaws, huh! But first, let me address something that simply has to stop. Even though not one ounce of scientific evidence backs it up, you still see mention of the connection of LLLT and DHT everywhere! I did a quick Google search of “lllt therapy, dht”, and I just chose the first few responses (but there are thousands) so you can see that there is a BIG PROBLEM: http://www.aventihair.com/procedure/index.php ”Benefits of LLLT... Reduction of excess levels of skin 5-alpha reductase and dihydrotestoterone (DHT). These hormones contribute to the genetic thinning of hair.” http://searchwarp.com/swa242863.htm ”(6) Reduces excess levels of skin 5 alpha reductase and DHT which contribute to genetic thinning.” http://www.styleinfinityhtc.com/ ”How it works —Style Infinity™ HTC program works by stimulating the scalp, increasing the blood flow to the follicle where hair growth begins and blocking the harmful hair loss effects of DHT. The light of the laser is absorbed by cells, which causes stimulation of cell metabolism and improves blood flow, thus bringing life back to dormant hair follicles restoring lost hair.” http://www.querycat.com/faq/931f0af0701b4e73d326073eb3da2702 ”How does low level laser therapy work? - This increase in blood flow is crucial to promoting a healthy hair follicle. The increase in blood flow brings the important nutrients into the follicle, while taking away harmful waste products such as DHT.” http://www.exclusiveimagehairclinic.com/how.html ”How it works... If you’re looking for an alternative to drugs or surgery, this program works by stimulating the scalp, increasing blood flow, and blocking the harmful effects of DHT.” These are pretty typical. Sometimes you’ll even see a further explanation of how the stimulated tissue “shakes loose” the DHT clogging the receptors of the follicles. But seriously, folks… go ahead and crack out a rim shot -and JUST STOP IT. None of that is accurate! So, this is what is happening… some proponents of LLLT on the internet have -let’s just say- “exaggerated” a little and have tried to simply “fit” the explanation of LLLT’s success into the current predominant model of hair loss -the theory of DHT. Most people who know anything about hair loss, especially people who know the mentality of hair loss forums out there, know that it’s a “tough sell” to go against that theory… you WILL be attacked. I guess they’d rather “stretch the truth” rather than “rock the boat” by saying, “Hey… there’s OBVIOUSLY more to this hair loss thing than DHT”. I emailed Dr. Maricle about this, and he said something I found to be very humorous: “Companies in this industry making up facts to suit the results? No way - not in hair loss. I call it sociopathic medicine. They believe whatever comes out of their collective mouths.” lol… right on, Chuck! I should say this though… this one still isn’t accurate, but maybe out of all of them this one is the closest to what could happen: http://hairlosspreventioncenters.com/lllt.html “Other Benefits Of Laser Therapy… Reduces excess levels of scalp dihydrotestorone (DHT) by aiding in the normalization of scalp sebum production.” This is the deal: lasers make it so your hair shaft is smoother. A healthy follicle produces hair in which the cuticles -the shingles that makeup the outer layer of your hair- lay down more flat on the surface. Well, the “normalization” of sebum is that it can spread down the hair much more freely, making hair shinier and healthier looking. Normalizing production? No. Normalizing the spread down the shaft like it was intended? YES. Now, the meat and potatoes of this is the “faulty theory of DHT”, and the even greater fault of people accepting it as gospel. I’m not going to go into much detail here because I could spend the rest of my forum days talking about it, but I will just say that OF COURSE the pharmaceutical companies and medical industry want to promote that DHT is the “be all, end all” culprit for hair loss… it’s the one thing that they can PATENT! And for those of you that are thinking “Hey, O.M.G… NOBODY is saying that DHT is ALL of the puzzle, just a part!”, you obviously either haven’t been a part of the forums for long or have forgotten what it was like. You should go back and see how Jacob was treated when he first started bringing this up way back in the early 2000’s! One last point, yeah, yeah, yeah… I get the whole castration thing, but when you TAKE AWAY the things from the scalp that laser light can increase -S.O.D., N.O., the carrying of nutrients to the follicle, the creation of new blood vessels, eradication of itchiness and irritation, wound healing, etc.- you *also* lose your hair. There is much, much more to the puzzle than DHT blocking, and just because a company hasn’t taken a product that works in another way through an FDA trial doesn’t mean they aren’t viable. So, in summary, laser therapy in the proper dosage can regrow hair and keep it -all by itself- yet it has no connection to DHT. Amazing! This post will have served a purpose if at least one person out there stopped and thought “Hmmm....”. I, of course, think that DHT does play a big role in MPB (although very hard and inefficient to treat, and can cause very “un-live-withable” side effects), but I’ll leave you with this… do you want to spend all your time just fighting DHT like giant pharmaceutical companies, the medical industry, and forum jackballs have told you?? ...or do you want to grow/keep as much hair as you possibly can? It’s up to you... -O.M.G. PS- As a consolation prize (if you really, really wanted me to tell you that lasers reduce DHT so it would fit in with the mainstream theory)… LLLT actually has a positive impact on STEM CELL creation! Holy crap! More on that later, so stay tuned…

Diffused vs. Undiffused diodes: Are diffused diodes more effective? …That’s not really the point. -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-09T20:22:00-05:00

I thought I’d better address this since it get’s an occasional question. People wonder why I chose to use diffused diodes vs. undiffused diodes, and if I think the “scatter” under the skin of undiffused laser energy is as effective as the “blanket effect” of undiffused diodes (please see “A quick note on diodes and power” for an explanation if you don’t know what I’m talking about). Well, the surprising answer is that those two things don’t have anything to do with each other as far as my consideration for choosing diffused vs. undiffused! Let’s start with some background here so you can know exactly what I know... First, let’s look at this graphic, which is a basic interpretation of laser scatter under the surface of the skin. Undiffused lasers have a thin, tightly focused beam of energy. Yes, it’s energy scatters under the skin in an elliptical “U” shape. I’ve heard reports that say it can spread energy and positively benefit an area as large as a 1/2 inch radius surrounding the impact point. I don’t know how accurate that is -it could be far greater or far less for all I know- but we do know for a fact that it does at least positively stimulate surrounding tissue. Diffused lasers have more of a “blanket” over the surface. The energy is less concentrated, but it does penetrate as deeply, and it does cover much more surface area. Ok… which is more effective?? Here’s my answer: I’d assume that diffused lasers are, but that’s NOT why I chose to use diffused diodes! I could speculate that diffused diodes are better because I think the “blanketing effect” is a more reliable way to get an even amount of energy to your treatment areas than scattering under the surface, but that’s just a speculation and I don’t know for sure! But again, theorized effectiveness is NOT why I chose diffused diodes! Let me explain… Most clinical laser device either use undiffused diodes or “unfocused” diodes (not quite as spread out as undiffused). Also, they *all* are perched on a stand of some sort ABOVE your head. When you are getting the treatment, your head moves around a little… up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards, etc. Well, that means that the tightly focused laser beams are dancing around your head a little, and never in one exact spot for two long. What happens if you put an undiffused laser diode in a helmet? THAT’S RIGHT! When you bob your head up and down, and move it sideways, forwards and backwards… the lasers MOVE WITH YOU. They are still focused on that one spot. Thirty minutes of an intense beam in one exact spot is going to be way too much energy, no matter how much it scatters under the surface! Therefore, since the lasers are going to be mounted in a fixed spot over your head, I personally think it becomes a NECESSITY to diffuse them. By the way, I’m going to take this opportunity to say that yes… I *do* feel that helmets with diffused diodes are going to be more effective. That’s my educated opinion -and I could be wrong- but that’s what I think based on everything I’ve seen and I know. So why don’t they mass market HELMETS? Why don’t the use helmets in clinics?? Simple… it’s a very customized thing to get a helmet to both fit properly and cover the necessary treatment areas! Plus, would you want to put on the same helmet that some other bald guy just wore for half an hour, sweated in, and just took off five minutes ago?? I didn’t think so… -O.M.G.

WIRE NUTS: Wiring just got A LOT easier! …A “D’OH!” moment for O.M.G. -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-08T00:56:01-05:00

EVERY DO-IT-YOURSELFER NEEDS TO READ THIS! The time and effort you will spend constructing your helmets just got a lot less… Thank you, RosarioRose9! Your work on modifying your Lasermax 50 to an “Abominable Laser Beast” clued me in to something ultra simple that I missed… “WIRE NUTS!” lol… After seven months and one day of hard use, my wiring -which was all done with electric tape- was starting to get a little shaky. I wired it by rows, and sometimes those rows would dim a bit and perhaps even flicker. I could tap or flick the connections and the same thing would occur. Of course, I did totally expect that after a while since I always put things through tremendous abuse (electronics, women, etc...), so I knew a re-wiring was probably going to have to happen at some point. I mean, come on... it was only ELECTRICAL TAPE! lol… Well, thank goodness for RosarioRose9, because -as you see in his do-it-yourself post- he used wire nuts that he had in his toolbox. When I re-wired my helmet today, I wanted to try that, too, and simply put… it made me want to slap myself in the forehead and go “D’Oh!” Uglier? Yes. Better and easier?? ...An even more resounding YES! Here’s the new rule: USE WIRE NUTS, NOT ELECTRICAL TAPE! Had I used wire nuts originally, I would have saved HOURS: I wouldn’t have had to strip the diode wires (that was the longest part of this), I could have just twisted the caps on over the top of a group of diode wires and the connecting wire, I wouldn’t have had to mess with all of the electrical tape, and, more than likely, I wouldn’t have to have had to re-wire anything after seven months. Simply put, this is a revolutionary change! ...and everything else is the same. You merely substitute a wire nut for the electrical tape in my previous instructions. ...and still no solder or anything else necessary! So yes, this is I feel a MUST for all of you late “Alpha Chapter” do-it-yourselfers as well as the future “Beta Chapter” members (by the way, the cut-off for “Alpha Chapter” is December 6th, 2008)… this is something that we need to use from now on because it’s vastly superior and easier than electrical tape. Will it hold up after six or seven months?? Who the f*ck cares… it’ll take me 15 seconds to re-screw the wire nut! You will have to experiment with different sizes depending on your needs, but I used the dark blue ones from Home Depot, which were the smallest ones that they had for sale in uniform packaging (they had a multi-pack with even smaller grey ones). They are Buchanan Wire Connectors (WT2, 5 #20 - 3 #16 AWG 300v., Qty. 25), and found on the electrical wiring aisle. I got lucky I guess, because that size was pretty good… it fit: All the wires from each of my rows to a connection wire (rows of 7 or 8 diodes), All of the connection wires to the single wire that goes to the Adaptaplug (there were 9 total rows, so thats 10 total wires -and they were much thicker than the diode wires), The single wires to the Adaptaplug (only two wires, although I folded the Adaptaplug bare wire end to make it “thicker” to better fit in the wire nut). So, the size I used fit my needs, but there is too much variance with wire size and brands of wire nuts for me to definitively answer how many wires you can shove into each wire nut (plus, my wires were “used” and kinked a little bit), so don’t even ask! Plus, I had stripped all of my diode wires previously, so it may turn out that the original length of the diode’s bare wire section may or may not fit well as far as depth is concerned into the wire nut. The good news is that a package of 25 wire nuts was something like $1.50! Buy a couple of sizes! lol… Ah yes… sometimes when you have your mind focused on the “bigger picture”, it’s easy to miss some simple “smaller” things that can revolutionize the whole process! That’s why two heads are certainly better than one. A quick note… you can tell by the pictures that I have a little bit of electrical tape at the tip of the wires right under the wire nuts. If you are using new diodes, this probably won’t be necessary. The reason I did this is because I had stripped them before and they had uneven amounts of bare wire. This was to add a little bit of insulation/shielding over the bare wire that -as a result of the unevenness- didn’t all fit up in the wire nut. Oh, I checked… they are still safe in terms of EMF fields, and have the same 0.0 - 0.1 Gauss readings as before! I mentioned “luck” before. Hmmm.... I suppose that’s to be expected. “Do-it-yourselfers” are lucky in general… and when luck doesn’t come easy, we MAKE IT. -O.M.G.

LLLT Safety Part II - Addressing EMF fields! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-06T21:15:00-05:00

I completely forgot about addressing this before in the other safety post! It was a question that we addressed last year because YES… it seems that IN THEORY that all of these diodes could generate an extremely unsafe electo-magnetic field, and this might not be the best thing if we are wearing them around on our heads! Here is the question from EIC on my LLLT safety thread at the laser forum: “The timing of this thread is uncanny, as I’ve been thinking about the safety issue myself quite a bit recently. It seems to me that the danger many not come from the lasers themselves, but rather from the electromagnetic field (EMF) that is generated by having so many lasers so close to one’s head. There is a serious electrical current by so many lasers and those currents can generate considerable EMFs. EMFs have been associated with a cancer risk, at least theoretically. I think we ought to look at the risks of having such an electrical device directly on one’s head as opposed to the danger from the lasers themselves. I do not know enough about such things, but thought I would bring the topic up. I would hate for us to wear these devices week after week for decades, only to find that we gave ourselves brain cancer by doing so.” ...And this is a great example of how sometimes our theoretical concerns end up not being a concern at all! lol… so, yep, here’s the scoop, and I’m literally touching my EMF meter to the wires and diodes: 0.0, and somewhat common bursts of 0.1 (Gauss), which is right at the baseline reading of my home (away from the fuse box, of course). I don’t think I ever got over a 0.2, even when I was moving it around (the EMF is prone to show a false spike if you move it too quickly). Even after it was on a little while, it was still 0.0 with only the occasional spike of 0.1! So basically… in terms of EMF, cancer, etc., I’d feel confident in saying that you are as safe walking around with this on your head as you are walking around your home. I want to stress that my wiring job would probably be considered a hella poor one by the pros in regards to shielding since I’m only using electrical tape. What does that mean? That means if these diodes gave off any sort of a potential problematic EMF field, we’d know it… it’d be leaking out everywhere! But they don’t… at all! Any way you slice and dice it, these things are safe, man! Now, the ADAPTER is a little different… it will flux all around from about as low as a 0.2 or 0.3, and will climb as much to about a 1.0 (but no higher) depending on which area you hold it over (near the plug or not). That’s still very low, but regardless of what it is… that’s not on your head, and doesn’t have to even be close to your body. Pull the EMF meter literally only a couple of inches back, and it will dissipate completely. Oh, in case you’re interested… my fuse box ranges from about 16 to 40! lol… most do, and mine might even be on the low side. I’ve seen some that go to 200 (in locations that are alleged to have paranormal activity… that much EMF can trick your mind). -O.M.G.

Question: How many times should you use laser therapy a week? -ANSWERED! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-06T02:27:02-05:00

This question comes up a lot in the forums. The simple, quick answer from a summary of what you see all over the internet is that… 1) three times a week is probably the maximum amount of times that you should do it (and perhaps most beneficial… remember it’s “dose dependent”!), 2) you should have at least a full “day off” in between treatment sessions, 3) and to use it without the proper rest can cause an “acclimation of the tissue” to the therapy, resulting in the treatment being less effective. Therefore, I would think that Monday/Wednesday/Friday is probably pretty optimal, especially since you have two full “off days” to rest at the end of the week to make sure that you’ve fully recuperated by the start of next week. Now, reading that in multiple places and drawing up a three point summary is one thing -and that is definitely the advice that I stand behind- but actually putting your hands on the corroborating scientific data is another! Therefore, this section will be a “work in progress”, and when I find more concrete sources I will add them here so there will be no doubts. The first one is from the study “Effect of Multiple Exposures of Low-Level Laser Therapy on the Cellular Responses of Wounded Human Skin Fibroblasts”, and it addresses the fact that it’s definitely in our best interest to get the proper REST between dosages. Here is a chart from this study: The study states that “Laser therapy has been shown to be cumulative (the dose from one treatment lasts some time, and what “remains” of the dose is added to the dose at the next treatment), it is vital that treatments are not too close together, so as to avoid a situation where the accumulated dose eventually ends up above the biostimulating range or even in the bioinhibitory range, with consequently poorer results.” So basically, your tissue can still be “charged” with the energy and it can lead to over-doing it if you attempt multiple dosages within too short of a period. It’s safe to say from this that a full “day off” between sessions would definitely be in our best interest! Just like when you workout your body, you need to have a time period (a minimum of 48 hours) to fully recover the muscle group you just exercised in order to get the full benefits. By the way, on a side note… if you read the study you find that the biostimulation ranges were observed at 2.5 to 5 joules per centimeter squared dosage levels (this should sound familiar to you by now since it’s not far from the 3-6 average we’ve repeatedly established… and try to do that with a standard laser brush! Ha ha! Good luck!), and with an inhibitory dose at 16 joules. NONE OF THIS IS NEWS TO US! As I said, I’ll add more to this when I find this stuff (I wish I’d kept track of it last year), and if anyone has any studies (I’m talking hard scientific evidence here) I’d be happy to see them, and I’ll update the site! -O.M.G. PS - I’m sure you knew this by now, but please note that I’m NOT talking about standard laser brushes here, I’m talking about devices that actually give the proper amount of energy for biostimulation! As my “Second Cardinal Rule of Laser Therapy for Hair Loss” states… with a standard laser comb, you need to worry about getting the NECESSARY exposure -not worry about OVER-exposure. If I had to guess, I think that making an (albeit feeble) attempt at getting the proper energy trumps the “tissue acclimation” aspect.

“Would You Take a Knife to a Gun Fight?” Laser Light vs. LED Light… the DIFFERENCE explained! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-05T19:43:01-05:00

I’m glad I found this article, which was published by David Rindge in August, 2004… it sums up the differences between laser light and LED light, and in a nutshell COHERENCE is the key. It also talks about the “speckling” that occurs. Rather than re-word it, I’m just going to cut and paste the entire article because it’s pretty short and easy to read. However, I do want to draw attention to something that it seems I was very right about: “If light-emitting diodes were as effective as therapeutic lasers, they would already have replaced lasers in the clinic. After all, LEDs are less expensive to produce. Researchers and clinicians clearly prefer lasers. The library of laser therapy-related books, studies and articles is steadily expanding, whereas interest in (and supporting literature for) LEDs seems to be languishing.” I’m telling you… when MONEY IS NOT AN OPTION (meaning what is used by the top laser clinics), it is usually perfectly accurate to look at the devices the market is producing and say “there must be something to this” when it comes to certain aspects of the devices. As you know, I’ve speculated this to be the case with a few other aspects in regards to the machines used for hair loss, such as the use of 5mW diodes when they can use anything they want. By the way, the book Laser Therapy, Clinical Practice and Scientific Background seems like the motherload book out there on all-things laser therapy. It was a little pricey, though, so it’s not on my short list! Anyway, here is the article by David Rindge (www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=28513): Would You Take a Knife to a Gunfight? Some time ago, this very question was posted to an Internet laser discussion group in response to the assertion that light emitting diodes (LEDs) and other light sources might work as well in the clinic. This topic was raised again in the June issue of Acupuncture Today. In this article, we will explore how coherence, a property unique to laser light, creates a dynamic, asymmetrical energy distribution within tissue unlike any other light source. Light waves, which are aligned perfectly in space and time, are coherent. They will unite to increase the amplitude of the combined waveform, and thus, the intensity of laser light. On the other hand, light waves that are out of phase and opposed will subtract from the strength of the united waveform. If perfectly opposed and equal, they will even cancel one another out.1 Speckling Is Unique to Laser Light Together, constructive and destructive interference produce the visually stunning phenomenon known as speckling. Try this: Shine an optical wavelength or therapeutic laser, even a laser pointer, on white paper or against a wall, and observe how small bits of light will seem to dance and move with a life of their own. This phenomenon can also be detected at depth in tissue being irradiated by a laser.

Question: Is LLLT safe? Can it cause cancer? What about eye safety?? -Answered! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-07-02T23:57:00-05:00

I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t put this type of stuff up on my site because I wanted my site to be a “STEP 2”

AIXIZ LLC DEALS FOR CUSTOMERS ON THIS SITE -by Dr. Charles E. Maricle

2008-06-30T16:30:01-05:00

AixiZ LLC is a supplier to several manufacturers in the health products marketplace. While we may be involved with several companies in the the hair restoration space, we are not permitted to divulge any intellectual property. We are happy to provide the following discounts: 50-200 lasers $3 each 201-750 lasers $2.85 each 750+ lasers $2.60 each When wiring these units, make sure you connect them in parallel. Each laser will draw approximately 30mA so a 50 laser array will draw 1.5A at 3.2VDC for planning purposes. Power supply data will be available soon. We have provided direct payment links to the manager of this site. Also feel free to call us directly as follows: AixiZ Service and International LLC Main (702) 991-2067 Toll Free (888) 424-9491 Northern Europe (London) 020.7993.2961 Central Europe (Paris) 017-281-3002 Southern Europe (Milan) 02-9942-1306 Mexico (Central America) 52 55 8525 9138 (702) 974-0713 FAX FDA registered OEM importer and manufacturer Licensed Class IIIB and Class IV laser company license TX# Z02105 Federal Supplier cage code 4MF77 Member, Laser Institute of America http://www.laserinstitute.org Member, International Laser Display Association http://www.laserist.org Member, American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery http://www.aslms.org Member, Optical Society of America http://www.osa.org Member, IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society http://www.ieee.org

Question: O.M.G., does laser light penetrate through my thick hair, too?? -ANSWERED! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-30T15:26:02-05:00

This is a very common question out there! It’s usually followed with “Should I buzz my hair down initially when I’m doing these treatments?” First, before I answer that, let me “paint the proper picture” here of the mentality you should have about hair loss, because you are much more inclined to be happy when you have (and follow) the right perspective! Let me start by saying this… a chrome dome -of course- would get much more exposure than a head full of bushy hair! That’s easy to see… but look, isn’t the POINT of any treatment for hair loss to make it so we don’t have to do things like buzz our hair down?? Don’t we want to have thicker, fuller hair and not be forced by anything to compromise the way we wear our hair? If you don’t know me well yet, I’ll go ahead and outright tell you that I wouldn’t be the de-facto leader of any movement that involved sacrificing your looks! No way, man! A hair treatment shouldn’t devastate your appearance, either by making you shave your head yourself, or by using certain topicals that make your hair look horrible, look greasy, and/or thin out your existing hairs and eat your hairline for the benefit of a few thin, scraggly hairs (like minox does with me). I’m sorry, reality check… that’s NOT what I’d call an effective treatment! I wrote that because hopefully there will be a couple of people out there, struggling with what their current regimen is doing to negatively affect their appearance, that will read this and a loud and a big sound will go off in their heads, and they will say “He’s right. What’s the point of a regimen that makes me look worse.” I’ve been there, and I’ve had that wake up call. Well, trust me when I say that one of the greatest benefits of laser therapy is that it’s something (maybe one of the ONLY things) that actually makes you hair look better, not worse! In a pretty short period of time, too, like 3-6 months! AND, AND, AND… I’ve done tests on myself, and I can tolerate what were formerly damaging substances pretty well now! As you know, minox used to wreck my hair. I used Sinere’s Nanominox FMS for over three months -which is long enough for my hair to have started going “south” if it was going to- and it didn’t hurt it this time! Sure, different brand, but minox is minox, and I’ve used enough brands before that I can say that “all minoxes” used to hurt my hair! I still stopped using it, though, because I don’t want to use something that used to hurt me like that, and I think I’d be better off focusing on DHT-blocking with my topicals since I can’t tolerate fin and dut internally (bad sides!). Ok, now that we’ve covered the point that you shouldn’t sacrifice your appearance for the sake of any treatment that’s alleged to help, lets answer the question! lol… YES! It will definitely penetrate your hair. I understand that if you’ve never used a laser device before, it’s easy to think that hair would block it. Now, photographing this is a NEAR IMPOSSIBILITY! Trying to clearly show how bright light -that “washes out” a photo anyway- penetrates thick hair isn’t the easiest thing to show! lol… But at least I tried with this picture! Don’t be too critical, and don’t be a jackass. First, let me point out that this was in “Zone 3”, and I have the picture marked to show it. For those of you that don’t know, I am an “aggressive temple recessor” with hair that wants more than anything to make a “horseshoe” shape, and although my crown was getting a little thinner… I don’t think I had gotten to the point where I was losing hair, it was just thinning out my existing hairs. I say “was” because yes, my laser has completely fixed that, and I can’t tell the difference between those crown hairs and the sides and back now. So what I’m saying is that most of “Zone 3” covers extremely thick hair. Here is my attempt at capturing how it still get’s through to the scalp... It’s tough to really see it, but hopefully you can see that the areas UNDER the thick hair still are getting lit up, and that whole area is so completely washed in laser light there is no way it’s NOT penetrating! That’s a really thick area of hair, too! So yes, it penetrates the thin areas better, but it still gets through really thick areas very well! On a side note… you can also feel a little secure knowing that the THIN AREAS, the areas that need it the most, are still going to get every bit of that light! If any area has to lose some of the exposure -even if it’s just a little bit- thank goodness it’s your THICK areas! lol… Whether or not you can see it in the picture, I hope this post helps to clear up this frequently asked question, as well as helping you to gain the proper perspective on ALL type of treatments! Also, worthy of mention -VERY worthy of mention- I’ve seen data that suggests that the actual hair can act similar to a fibre-optic cable. Meaning, the energy will transfer down the hair shaft. I know that sounds crazy, but apparently that was observed, and I will post that info if I find it! -O.M.G. PS- By the way, even though light gets through, brush bristles do improve the ability for lasers to penetrate into the thick areas because it does separate the hairs in the thicker areas a little better. My current design doesn’t have them, but be assured that my next one will (for this reason, and also to provide more consistent height off the scalp).

The Lemming page is complete! -by Lemming

2008-06-30T01:25:01-05:00

...for the most part. : ) Yes it took a while to complete this, but other than a few more updates and some “house cleaning”, my page is essentially finished!! I still have to add a bit on the importance of foam spacers (give me a few days). Also, I apologize for the amount of time it has taken me to complete this. Not sure just how many of you all have been quietly cursing me to get this done already! - lol… Sorry, but in my defense I have had a *ridiculously* busy schedule with working full time and going to school at night. All I do is write research papers for this, report papers on that. I get physically sick at a computer now because I am always writing!—Yuck! Anyway, I am always good with criticism so if anyone has any suggestions (like taking out that stupid picture of the lady in a lumpy beanie), I’ll consider it… Ok, now go… — build your Laserpiece! ~ Lemming

How much do ‘diffused diodes’… diffuse?? -Laser diffusion sizes at 1cm / 2cm / 3cm! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-25T23:36:00-05:00

This post is in tandem with the post I made yesterday with the “Gutter Guard mesh printout”. Basically -as the “gutter guard” printout helps those that don’t have access to a neighborhood Home Depot have a mesh pattern similar to ours- this printout located below will help you if you just want to see the rough size of a diffused diode at the heights of 1cm, 2cm, and 3cm… perhaps for a custom mesh holder, maybe a new design that’s going to put all of ours to shame, or perhaps just to satisfy your curiosity as you are anxiously awaiting to get cracking on your high-powered laser device! Whatever the reason, I want to stress that this should probably be considered a very rough measurement, but more on that later. First… No, don’t worry! lol… I haven’t gone “metric” on you, my fellow American Do-it-Yourselfers! And the rest of you guys all over the world… I would say that the metric system *is* a much easier system to do measurements with, but I would be in danger of losing my American citizenship if I admitted that out loud! lol… Kidding, Kidding (but I see you nodding your heads out there)! Seriously, though.. the metric system is used in our laser power calculations, and the brush bristles always seem to be right at about 2cm, so there you go! That’s the reason! And yes, I used a very sophisticated, intricate, state of the art system to get these measurements to you… a 1960’s drill press, left to me -UNOPENED… still in the cool, retro, 1960’s aqua-green box (that I’m now using to store Christmas lights!)- by my grandfather! This has the same instructions as before… it’s meant to be saved to your computer, PUT INTO YOUR GRAPHICS SOFTWARE, printed out at 8.5” x 11”, and fine tuned by comparing your measuring device with my “scale”. DO NOT just print this out from your web browser! This is important, though… remember that while increasing height of the diode increases the coverage area, it drastically reduces power and therefore increases coverage time! More on that in my laser calculations page, though! DISCLAIMER: I only had one diode to do this with. Obviously, there could be differences in each diode! Also, remember that the power of the beam is stronger in the middle and lessens towards the edges. As far as I know, there is no way to really gauge that, so once again it’s a ballpark estimate! Therefore, I personally don’t mind a little overlapping of the edges because chances are it’s only helping to “even out” the power. All in all, 2cm seems to be a pretty good height for diffused diodes, and they have a good “time factor”, too (20-30 minutes will put you somewhere in the 4-6 joule range). Also, a quick note… In my laser calculations, I previously figured the size of the diodes at a 2cm height to be about 0.5cm x 2cm. Well, as you can see, the measurements I got at this time are more like 0.8cm x 2.4cm. I still think those original calculations are fine because the “fringes” do get pretty weak. And, on top of that, it’s close enough for me! When I develop the laser calculations section more and you see how things like scalp reflectability and the distance from the diode to the follicle play into the power… you’ll say “close enough”, too! I hope this helps to answer the multitude of questions that I get asking “How much do diffused diodes actually diffuse?”. -O.M.G.

Don’t have a Home Depot but want to space or calculate your diodes like us?? Look no further!!! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-24T18:50:00-05:00

Ok, for all of you peeps out there that don’t have a neighborhood Home Depot but want to arrange your diodes like most of us do-it-yourselfers have done, I decided to make a template of the mesh that you can print out! This is posted over in #6 of the “Do-It-Yourself Introduction (Revisited!) and Checklist” area as well… Plus, this is probably helpful for people in the US that *aren’t* using this mesh in the actual designs, but are still using the mesh to mark locations on their rubber, plastic or whatever material they are using to hold the diodes. Yes, you will probably waste a good few sheets of paper doing this. What you have to do is first set it so that the graphic fits perfectly on an 8 1/2” x 11” piece of paper. So, don’t print this out straight from your browser! Save it, PUT IT IN YOUR GRAPHICS PROGRAM, adjust the size, print it out, then get your ruler or measuring contraption to compare it to either the inches or the centimeters in the “scale” section. Obviously, if the scale measurement is too short, increase the size of the graphic and try again until you get it right. Then you’ll use a hole puncher or a drill or whatever to put holes in whatever diode holder you are using (that, of course, is completely up to you). Remember this… this mesh spacing isn’t perfect by any means. There is overlapping, there are little open spots, but it seems to be good enough, and it is “vertically spaced” closer than it is “horizontally spaced” which is better for how our diodes diffuse (in a rectangle with much smaller vertical height). So there it is, and this should take care of the “how far should I space them” questions! I haven’t printed this out and I’m probably not going to anytime soon, so let me know if there are any problems Good luck, and happy building, and I hope this helps!! -O.M.G.

Common question, “OMG… is this laser stuff for real?”, answered! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-20T15:57:01-05:00

I get this question a lot, so I wanted to put my response on the site. This is a question from Destro at Regrowth (great name, by the way): “OMG - got a question for ya! I was reading your site… I want to build a laser helmet and building one is not a problem but is lasers for real? What kind of results have you seen? I figure giving it a try plus since there may be a discount coming from your source I figure why not if it works!!” Here is my response, and I try to cover as many bases as I can, and I think it’s a pretty good “primer” for those of you that missed the revolution that started at the end of last year: Destro... This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve been fighting hair loss for a LONG TIME… 12/13 years I think? I want to say this though… it’s really funny re-reading what I’ve written to you here, because the things I’m saying have become “common knowledge” for this forum now during this past year, especially the past 7 or 8 months. But MAN… one year ago, this stuff was NOT common knowledge! It was all “unknown”, and it’s amazing what we’ve learned in that short of time and take for granted now… and if anybody took a 7 or 8 month break from the forums, they are probably like, “What happened?!” lol.. It’s the real deal, and this is the thing… we’ve KNOWN that laser clinics have boasted great results. I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures over the years, and I’m sure you dismissed them like everyone else did -including me- in the forums because “we were told” not to pay attention to them, it’s a scam, it’s too expensive anyway, for that price I’d just get a transplant (but still have the same underlying problem), etc… [My phrase “We were told” doesn’t mean a conspiracy, by the way. It just is a statement about the often WRONG mentality of forums, as well as showing that a few wingnuts with a couple of thousand posts next to their name can still not even know JACK SHIT about what is REALLY going on in the hair loss world.] Well, those pictures and the laser clinics never went away… in fact, they proved to be pretty typical, they started making the news, opening multiple locations in every city, etc. Those pictures are online everywhere, too. Studies have been posted that corroborated this, etc… it just stayed off the forums from the aforementioned reasons. [I’m going to do a long post on forums one day. I’ve been reading a lot on “forum mentality”, and it’s quite revealing how they function. They can be great… they can obviously also be responsible for “missing the boat” on the greatest news in a decade.] If you want proof, though… don’t rely on anyone -or even me- in the forums. Go see it yourself! Get out the phonebook, make and appointment, and go for a free consultation at one of those places, and let THEM show you the proof and the studies. Remember, those places have been around for years now, and there aren’t any class action lawsuits against them and their satisfaction rate is off the charts! But this is the crux though… we have NOW figured out what makes those clinical laser devices “tick”, and what makes them have the best results -especially coupled with other treatments like dht-blocking topicals, etc- that the hair loss world has currently seen. It started last year when I built the original laser brush. I started looking into laser CLINIC results, vs. laser BRUSH results, and -as you can guess- there was a major discrepancy. I then started looking at all the studies out there, and I kept coming across the same ideas over and over that can be summed up with these statements: “Laser results are dose dependent. The optimal range is 3-6 joules per square inch, with a minimum of 2 being required to achieve biostimulation, and 6 is better than 3.” [By the way, we did find a recent report that said 7 was better than 6, and 9 was worse than 7, but you get the idea.] So I spent a long time going through the calculations to find what a standard laser BRUSH gives… and it was eye-opening. It matched what other physicists, etc. have calculated -some on these forums- and it was something like HALF A JOULE ONLY after using it for a freaking hour, so you’d need to use it for something asinine like four hours/three times a week to get the power that the studies called for. I’ll update the calculations page on my website before the world ends, so I’ll be able to tell you exactly what it is based on the size of your treatment areas, how many diodes you have, and the size and power of the beams. Here’s the other part… I started emailing some clinics -and some other forum members gave me some emails as well, and we all found out that YES, the clinical laser clinics give energy in that 3-6 joule range. I saw that some recommended about 12 joules per week, split into three sessions. That, of course, falls into this range as well. So, what do we know so far… 1) We know laser clinics give good results, standard laser brushes give poor results. 2) We know that studies over and over come up with “3-6 joules for proper biostimulation”. 3) We know -from the laser clinics themselves- that laser clinic devices give that “3-6 joules” per session. 4) We know that standard laser brushes give a fraction of what you need. I’ll spell it out, nice and easy, on this chart, and like I said… this is may be “old hat” now, but half a year ago this was REVOLUTIONARY! lol… if you weren’t a part of Regrowth at that time, you missed a lot and are probably like “WTF??” So what else are we missing in this equation?? What still don’t we know? I bet you already figured it out… the lasers themselves! What’s different about the clinical lasers vs. a standard laser brush’s lasers? How do they get this biostimulation?? This took some digging, as well. Well, long story short, here is the answer: NOTHING! NOTHING IS DIFFERENT! It’s not higher powered lasers, it’s not something we can’t “get our hands on”, it’s not even magic… it’s just MORE OF THOSE SAME, BORING 5mW DIODES! This is also one of those things that are common knowledge now that was a completely startling discovery not too long ago! In fact, most manufactures now list them in their product descriptions (something they didn’t used to do as much… competition? Regulation? I don’t know why it is more “readily available” now.) Oh, from here is where the “Essay” part of my site comes in and explains all about the diodes, and that they are 5mW/650nm. Then you look at the product descriptions -I have the creme de la creme, the Sunetics “G” on my site- and you find that it’s the same 5mW/650 diodes. And AGAIN, add what we just learned YESTERDAY for AiXiZ, the manufacturer of our diodes… they are an OEM manufacturer of the diodes for many commercial models, and these are the same diodes the big boys use. So, what does this all mean? What is the conclusion... You just can’t deny that laser clinics have great results, the evidence is out there and it’s pretty much a no-brainer at this point. If someone disputes the evidence of the laser clinics at this point in mid-2008, then YES... what I’m saying is that they have NO BRAIN. The best news is that now we know the “inner-workings” of these devices and we can make them. That means that WE can have these results for only a few hundred bucks -and still less cost than most commercial laser BRUSHES (and the diodes should last about 16-20 years). So, yeah… this shit is for real! lol… -O.M.G.

I no longer endorse “standard laser brushes”. -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-18T19:25:01-05:00

To further prove that I’m rapidly turning into a “crazy blogger-type”, lol, I thought I’d make this entry! Please note that a “standard laser brush” refers to the Hairmax, the Amazing Laser Brush, the X5, and others like that (five to ten 5mW diodes)… NOT the higher-powered Aculas or even Mexco’s LED/ion device! Those are NOT “standard”, and have much more power. I’ve been talking about this for a few months, but I thought I would make a concise, to-the-point post addressing this, even though my entire site lays down the evidence very well and allows you to reach this revelation on your own. I’ve researched laser therapy for a long time now, and I’ve obviously devoted a large part of my free time to this year in order to help others reach the same epiphany. I’ve tried to set up my site to accomplish two things: 1) to explain how most laser devices -just like everything else for hair loss over the course of modern history- are exorbitantly overpriced, 2) and to show you there is a vast distinction between the power of laser therapy shown to have amazing results, and the power of laser therapy in “standard laser brushes” (HairMax, Amazing Laser Brush, X5, etc.). PART 1 I’m going to start by explaining one misconception here that many have (although *YOU* probably don’t because you are reading this… yes, I realize I’m preaching to the choir)… NO COMPANY is going to BACK to the FDA to get “another approval” for hair loss for laser therapy, even though the clinical laser devices have shown -without a doubt- the most amazing results of anything currently available. You must understand that point. The reason for this is two fold: First, they don’t have to. Take a time to reflect on the gravity of that statement. THEY DON’T HAVE TO. They can already legally say that their device is “based on technology cleared for approval by the FDA to regrow hair”. You see evidence of that EVERYWHERE. Man, I hear laser clinic ads on the radio everyday, and it rolls right off their tongue, usually in the first 10 seconds. I can flip through the newspaper or phonebook (for those of you younger people, “newspapers” and “phonebooks” are primitive societal information-gathering tools people used before Al Gore invented the internet… don’t worry about memorizing that, they will be gone for good soon) and see it printed right on the ads. Second, and everyone that knows anything about this process will back me up, companies don’t seek FDA approval for charitable reasons. They seek it either because they HAVE TO, or because it will help them make a PROFIT. They DO NOT get FDA approval to satisfy six or seven jackasses in hair loss forums, jackasses that don’t even have any real practical knowledge about anything anyway. They are already making lots of money and have lots of customers RIGHT NOW. Also… what would happen if they seeked FDA approval? The contents of their devices would be revealed, and more people than just you and me will realize that the only differences are more of those same $4 diodes housed in ridiculously overpriced containers (undisputed fact). Part 2 CAPTAIN OBVIOUS MOMENT: Laser clinics are popping up everywhere. Every medium sized city has several of them now, has had them for years, and all are claiming amazing results while charging extremely high fees ($4000 a year normally). Yet, there are no class action law suits against them and their success rates/customer satisfaction ratings are astronomically high. Man, the pictures that they show you are amazing! [I’ll get to that more in a minute] Forgetting about cost for a second, this is, without a doubt, the most amazing thing that we can add to our regimen. Anyone that’s seriously looked into this can’t deny that. SECOND CAPTAIN OBVIOUS MOMENT: The forums missed it. I’ll say it again, this time in all caps: THE FORUMS MISSED IT. All of them. We are FIVE YEARS BEHIND where we should be on realizing this. It’s not because people didn’t post about it, it’s because -with the confusion (and outright SCAM) brought to the marketplace with the underpowered laser devices- it was summarily dismissed and not paid attention to, went off the main page, and disappeared. This, by the way, is just one more example of forums completely “missing the boat” on something for whatever reason, but I won’t go into why forums can be such BAD places full of destructive negativity and bullying in this post. I’ll save that for later! But know this… the information, the studies, the proof, EVERYTHING has been around for years, yet it was missed and passed up by the one place where you would EXPECT people to be the most interested. Curious, huh. Yes, if you’ve understood the gravity of this “Second Captain Obvious Moment”, you should frankly be a little angry and it should change your entire outlook on most of these people that have thousands of posts by their names. And if you are REALLY PISSED -knowing that you could have kept your hair that you had five years ago- then I’ve really succeeded! Don’t worry, though… we have the power to change all of this. THIRD CAPTAIN OBVIOUS MOMENT: Standard Laser brushes, at best, give poor results. I’m sorry, having a few patches of peach fuzz and maybe thinking your hair is “a little better” after spending half an hour or an hour three nights a week without being able to use both your hands is what I consider “poor”. I throw in “at best” because you hear mostly “UNsuccess Stories” vs. “Success Stories”. It’s time to be honest about it… standard laser brushes for the most part are abysmal failures. We know the studies back up hair regrowth, but why are the standard laser brushes failing so badly? It’s simple math… they don’t give enough power to help the vast majority of people. LASER RESULTS ARE DOSE DEPENDENT! It’s been shown over and over again that to get real results, you need biostimulation. For biostimulation, you need a minimum of 2-3 joules per square inch. ...And you get BETTER results at 6-7 joules per square inch. You start getting worse results at 9 joules per centimeter than 7 joules (overstimulation), so we have identified the “window”. A standard laser brush will only give you a fraction of that. REALITY CHECK: If you are using a standard laser brush, you aren’t getting the power you need. I go into more about that on my site. One point here, to further lay aside potential confusion, the ONLY DIFFERENCE between clinical laser devices and standard laser devices are simply MORE of those very same 5mW diodes. It’s the same safe LLLT, and in fact, you can think of a clinical laser device as simply a ginormous laser brush… it’s just that it’s so big you don’t have to move it every 10 seconds like a standard laser brush, therefore you are able to get the required amount of energy in a reasonable amount of time. That’s it… that’s the ONLY difference. So: clinical laser devices give that 3-6 joules per square inch and have astonishing results… standard laser brushes do NOT give that amount (maybe 1/10th of that) and have poor results. HELLO?! Are you seeing the connection yet? lol… Part 3 - Prove it to yourself. This part is more effective if you’ve actually used or been using a standard laser brush! GO TO A LASER CLINIC FOR A FREE CONSULTATION. I’m serious… find one close to you (there will more-than-likely be a few), schedule an appointment, get in your car, and go there. Let them make their case for you. Let them show you their pictures, studies, etc. Remember, it’s not MY JOB to prove JACK SHIT to you! lol… I’m not making a dime, and my site is geared more towards the people that have realized all of this and now want to take a course of action! Yes, OverMachoGrande.com is a site for “Action Men” (or “Action Women"), not for couch potatoes or forum trolls that don’t have the drive to actually be proactive about this. THEN, think about what they showed you. Think about what I’ve written. Think about how forums -that should be on the forefront of knowledge- are actually seemingly the “last to know” about this! lol… And if you’ve hung around forums for a while or, even better, have experience using a standard laser brush, ask yourself why YOUR results or the results you’ve heard about from those things *don’t* parallel the laser clinics! My Conclusion: ...based on what I’ve said is that the results you can potentially get with a standard laser brushes just aren’t worth the time you have to spend to get them. That’s my opinion only, and if you disagree with me, that’s fine, but I hope that you took the time to really analyze what I said. I have no motives to tell you any of this. Also, this is important… I feel that in mid-2008, with all of the evidence, the studies, and the proof around us (and easily obtainable at the clinics) the BURDEN OF PROOF HAS SHIFTED! The onus is no longer on *us* to have to prove that clinics work and are vastly superior to standard laser brushes. It’s up to people that may be close-minded or naysayers to have to prove it to US that they AREN’T effective! Obviously, they can’t do that. Maybe they’ll learn something by trying, though! [Doubtful… being a “forum troll” is a personality disorder, not the result of a lack of information.] MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! Even as effective as they are, DON’T YOU DARE SPEND MONEY ON ONE OF THOSE LASER CLINICS! lol… that’s where my site comes in! -O.M.G.

Inside the $600-$700 Hairmax Laser Comb (it’s SICKENING)… -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-16T19:28:01-05:00

Well, I decided to take the picture that Calo38 at Regrowth posted and make an entry over in the “Commercial Devices” section. Here is the link: “Hairmax Revealed (It’s over, fellas...)” I just want to say that posting that page has probably been one of the most repulsive things I’ve had to do, and it literally makes me sick to my stomach. Not only because of the sheer rip-off factor, but because they’ve muddied the waters so much about laser therapy for hair loss that we were set back at least five years. I don’t know about you, but I miss my hair that I had five years ago, and yes… we are well directed to place a lot of our frustration and angst at this company. DO NOT confuse anything having to do with this piece of shit as anything at all related to what we are doing with our high-powered laser devices. For the purposes that we are talking about, there is NOTHING SIMILAR between the two. That reason alone made me not want to post this page at all. Make no mistake about it, THIS is what real laser therapy looks like: ...not that THING up at the top of this article that has less circuitry than my remote control on my coffee table, yet costs somewhere between $600 and $700 (and was the better part of a grand several years ago)! For those of you that bought one, I am truly sorry that you fell victim to this overpriced/underpowered JOKE, as well as the misinformation from the really uneducated members of the forums that kept knocking information about REAL laser treatment “off the front page”. If you want my honest advice I can sum it up in two words: “class action”. That’s how *I’d* feel, at least. I said this on the page and I’ll say it again, the onus is on YOU to spread the word and help your fellow hair loss sufferer to not only avoid this rip-off, but to educate them to what “high-powered laser therapy” really is! http://www.overmachogrande.com/index.php?/omg/commercial_lasers/hairmax_revealed/ -O.M.G.

Six Months - Itchiness LONG GONE (and apparently forgotten!)… -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-12T19:36:03-05:00

When you have MPB, you learn to live with “The Itch”. You can feel that itchy scalp, slowly burning away with an intrepid irritation that feasts on your follicles -and getting even more prevalent when your hair is either extra oily or extra dry. Some people feel it worse than others -mine was pretty bad- but regardless on how much you feel it… it’s there. All humans have DHT and most other contributing factors that can cause MPB, but us unlucky ones with hair loss have a unique reaction to them: a defense reaction in our scalp that causes our own body to inadvertently attack and irritate our own follicles to the extent of slowly snuffing them out of existence. Yep, we are genetically disposed to this horrible scenario. Well, what does it say about a treatment when all of a sudden one day you wake up and realize “Oh my gosh… my scalp hasn’t been itchy for so long that I FORGOT IT EVEN ITCHED TO BEGIN WITH!”? It says it’s an amazing treatment -that’s what it says! As expected, after six months, my hair still gets better looking every day! This is without a doubt the most amazing treatment available for at least my particular case of hair loss: extremely aggressive temple regression that wants to make a horrible horseshoe shape! To spell it out again… this is completely expected, though, as I am paralleling the results of the $4000 a year laser clinics. Why? Because my device is LIKE those laser clinics… at a fraction of the cost! Yes folks, this is the real deal. Like I’ve always said, it’s ONLY MATH AND SCIENCE, NOT MAGIC! You build it, and they will come! Or, at the very least, the ones you have will stay and return to a youthful condition again. I want to share something else that I’m really just starting to pay attention to. I don’t have an itchy scalp anymore. AT ALL. Honestly, it’s been so long that I’ve had an itchy scalp that it’s hard to think that only in January I was finishing that bottle of Bioskincare! I’m actually tempted to use the word “cured” here. Itching usually -at least with me- would go in phases of flare-ups, and I think the occurrence of them over this past six months has gradually gotten so less and less that I didn’t even really notice that it stopped (if that makes sense). It really took Mexco’s most recent forum post -saying that the yellow L.E.D. bulbs seem to stop his itch- when it really hit me that wow, it’s been months since I’ve had any sort of bad scalp itching. It’s such a distant memory that I forgot it was even a factor in my life! Now, two things: First, I guess the true test will be when it gets cooler again and I have the cool, dry environment, although it really doesn’t get that cool and dry in Florida. Therefore, I don’t really think that this is a factor here. Second, I *suppose* that this probably happened sometime soon after I started the flutagel, but right now I’m assuming it’s only the helmet since I do know that laser therapy reduces inflammation, and I never heard anyone say that flutagel is helping their itch. Anybody know anything about that? Also, it was a gradual decline if I remember correctly. So… if it indeed the laser helmet is fully responsible for this… are the lasers gradually fixing a problem, I suppose? This means that the decrease of itch is not just a direct result of laser light -if that was the case, I would have notice a halting of the itch almost instantly- it’s because the laser light is changing things internally over time. I kind of hope that’s the case, because I keep wanting the results to increase. Anyway, those are my thoughts and updates! ...And it’s so nice -now that it’s been brought to my attention- that I can finally enjoy having an itch-free scalp! It had completely slipped my mind that I even had that problem for a decade! lol… One more quick thought… unfortunately it doesn’t seem to do one damn thing for gray hair. In looking into it, I actually don’t think anything/anywhere has ever truly reversed one gray hair, though. Oh well… UPDATE: jdp710 brought this to my attention: Leukemia Drug Side Effect: Color Returned to Gray Hair - Ok, well, it looks like it is possible for at least one thing to reverse gray hair! It’s too potentially toxic to the liver and blood to use for this purpose, and it’s only effective in 5-10% of those that use it anyway… but at least it’s now proven possible to do! I guess there’s hope for tomorrow, huh… -O.M.G. PS - To usher in the beginning of my gradual “retirement” from the boards due to my success, I am no longer actively posting in HairLossTalk.com and HairLossHelp.com. Goodbye, guys!

How’s this for results… -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-04T13:16:00-05:00

Laser Therapy grows A LOT of hair (and keeps it) without any other treatments. Thanks to jdp710 at Regrowth, I have a great study over on the left over there called “Long-term (1-year) experience with LDS 100, a popular clinical laser, in the treatment of men and women with androgenetic alopecia”. It has pictures, too. First of all, this is important -it says nothing but laser light was used (no minox, fin, dut, transplants, or even changing your hairstyle was allowed)... “Principal exclusion criteria included significant abnormalities on screening physical examination or laboratory evaluation, surgical correction of scalp hair loss, topical Minoxidil use within one-year, use of drugs with androgenetic or antiandrogenetic properties, use of finasteride or other 5aR inhibitors, or alopecia due to other causes. Men and women were instructed not to alter their hairstyle or dye their hair during the studies.” And here are the results… Results. Treatment with LDS 100 led to durable improvements in scalp hair over 1 year (p < 0.001 versus placebo, all endpoints), while treatment with placebo led to progressive hair loss. LDS 100 was generally well tolerated and no new safety concerns were identified during long-term use. Conclusions. In men with MPHL and in women with FPHL, long-term treatment with LDS 100 over 1 year was well tolerated, led to durable improvements in scalp hair growth, and slowed the further progression of hair loss that occurred without treatment. No minox, no fin, great results with only LLLT. Of course… I *knew* that because of my results, but it’s nice to see it in writing, and there are many other sources of evidence out there that show this as well. But yes, make no mistake… you are still silly to JUST use LLLT! Use them all! Make no mistake, though… you can’t get these results with a “Laser Comb”. -O.M.G.

Laser clinic dishonesty in reduction of times/week during course of treatment… -by OverMachoGrande

2008-06-02T22:14:00-05:00

The frequency of LLLT treatments with professional laser clinics vary widely. Most are usually one or two times a week, and most say that you only need to use the treatment for six months or a year, and then you need to only do “maintenance visits” from then on out. HORSECRAP -and they know it! There is nothing to suggest that only one or two times a week would be preferable to three (or every other day). In fact, some LLLT peeps other than me are being honest about this: http://www.thesalonatwestchester.com/LLLT/Index.htm “Once the maximum benefit is reached, the user must continue treatments 3-5 times a week to maintain their results to slow and/or stop any further hair loss.” Here is the most simple explanation to why laser clinics say that you need to go only one or two times a week -which is contrarian to any body of scientific knowledge I can get my hands on… it’s the bare minimum where you will see some results, and it’s about the maximum that a customer will be willing to get in a car, drive to an office during the work week, wait in the lobby, then sit in a chair for 20 minutes. THAT’S WHY! These places are a business -and those laser clinic devices are HELLA EXPENSIVE. They need to sit as many warm bodies in that chair as they can to make a profit, pay for their boats and beach houses (nothing wrong with boats and beach houses, by the way), etc. Plus, they know that it’s a “tough sell” to convince people to get to their office one day a week -heaven forbid three or four. It just wouldn’t happen. “Hey, future customer… pay me $3000 for six months for the privilege to drive to my office during your lunch break three or four times a week.” Yeah, not going to happen! Also, I think that laser clinics (or the manufacturers “advising” these clinics) are pretty dishonest when they say that you need to go “x” times a week at first, but then you can reduce it to “y” times a week later, eventually petering down to none or just an occasional “maintenance visit”. There is nothing that supports that anywhere! Again… that’s just a selling point because they know that you won’t want to spend that much money for the rest of your days! This just really hit me today, and it’s so obvious that I don’t know why it didn’t hit me before! There isn’t any other type of treatment in the world were you “peter down” like this when the underlying problem is still there. Chemo? Yeah, but chemo targets something and destroys it. When it’s destroyed, it’s destroyed. Chemo isn’t a solution for cancer that keeps coming back like hair loss would. Get my point? I think the motivations are somewhat similar to the laser brush/comb manufacturers purposely giving a time that’s too short… you know, no one would want to spend 200 minutes or whatever a night using a laser brush, so they tell you to use it 30 or 45 minutes or whatever. To sum it up, I think they know that in a couple of months, the person will start getting results from the two/three times a week treatment. Therefore, they are past the “money back guarantee” threshold. I think they also know that NO ONE would use their services if they knew that had to keep going two/three times a week forever. So yes… we all SHOULD know our laser results aren’t permanent. In fact, I’d be willing to say that the results will stop almost as fast as they started. I bet that if I quit, and then in three and a half months (the time I first really noticed the dramatic improvements) cut my hair really short again, the new hair that was left would be as crappy as it was before I started the laser treatments. Even if I’m wrong about the timeframe… you know that my hair would degrade eventually, probably sooner than later. It’s just so DAMN OBVIOUS all of a sudden! lol… Man, you’ve got to keep doing this laser stuff if you still want your hair to look as good as it can! These clinics are freaking either ignorant or deceptive, and the manufacturers are *definitely* deceptive! Every laser study implies that laser benefits are dose dependent, and I’ve never seen anything that says you can taper off down the road and still get the same benefit! There isn’t a “jump start” period that you need, either. With most anything I can think of off the top of my head, you don’t go balls-to-the-wall at first and then back off to “maintain”. That’s a farce… if you want to “maintain” with working out your body, for example, you’ll be in for a real shock if you back off your workouts and think you are going to keep your current results. That’s NOT the way it works. I know -barring a permanent hair loss cure- that I will be using my Laser Messiah helmet device until I’m either dead, or too old to either care or remember what it does! [Remember though, these helmets have other benefits… remember the Alzheimer’s study?? I bet that’s the tip of the iceberg of what it can do for us… including the new findings of the systemic benefits of SOD, NO, etc. from using high-powered laser devices] That’s all for now, but guys… I’m probably right. Don’t trust those guys on the timeframe. If you can afford to spend that money every year, that’s fantastic (and can I borrow some money? lol...). If not, get a helmet -and you’ve got the same thing right in your living room that you CAN use the proper amount of time per week and for years to come. -O.M.G.

Missing part of laser article -by backspace

2008-05-17T22:30:01-05:00

MATERIALS AND METHODS Cell culture and preparation. Rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) cells were obtained from the cell bank of Shanghai Science Academe. Cells were grown in minimal essential medium (MEM) with Earle’s salts containing 10% fetal bovine serum, 2% L-glutamine (all from Gibco), in an incubator with a humidified atmosphere (5% CO2) at 37Ã‚Â°C. Cells in exponential phase of growth were used. Fluorescence measurements of intracellular Ca^sup 2+^ . The cells were seeded on the cover-slips in 12-well culture plates and allowed to attach for 12 h. Before the measurements, cells were washed with Hank’s buffer solution (KH^sub 2^PO^sub 4^ 0.06 g, NaCl 8.0 g, NaHCO^sub 3^ 0.35 g, KCl 0.4 g, glucose 1.0 g. Na^sub 2^HPO^sub 4^*H^sub 2^O 0.06 g. CaCl^sub 2^ 0.14 g. MgSO^sub 4^*7-H^sub 2^O 0.20 g, add H2O to 1000 mL), and then incubated with 10 Ã‚ÂµM fluo-3/AM (Dojindo, Tokyo, Japan) at 37Ã‚Â°C for 30 min. After three washes, these stained cells were sealed on the slides for fluorescence microscopical measurements. Fluorescence images of intracellular [Ca^sub 2+^ ]^sub i^ were made by confocal fluorescence microscopy (DSU, IX-71; Olympus, Japan). The blue light (460-490 nm) filtered from an attached xenon lamp was selected for excitation. Fluorescence signals were acquired by an attached CCD detector (Evolution QEi, monochrome; Media Cybernetics, CA) with 510-550 nm band-pass filter. A pinhole disk was assembled in the microscope with a 60ÃƒÂ—/1.20 water-immersion objective lens. Confocal fluorescence images were obtained with the resolution of 0.5 Ã‚Âµm in the z-axis and processed with the Image-Pro Plus software (version 5.1; Media Cybernetics). With such a system, the distribution and amount of [Ca^sup 2+^]^sub i^ can be studied with a good resolution in three dimensions. After 1-min irradiation, a series of fluorescence images of [Ca^sup 2+^]^sub i^ were captured with the exposure time of 300 ms in every 10 s for 2 min. To minimize the phut o bleaching effect, an ND filter (12%) was used to decrease the intensity of excitation. Measurements of histamine release. Histamine release from RBL-2H3 cells was measured by the method of fluorescence staining with the highly specific reagent o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) (Sigma, USA), as initially described by Shore et al. (19) and later improved by others (20-22). Cells were seeded in 96-well flat bottom plates (5 ÃƒÂ— 10^sup 5^ cells/well). Before laser irradiation the MEM medium was replaced by Hank’s buffer to give the lowest background in fluorescence measurements. After laser irradiation, the supernatant in each well was collected and incubated with OPA (0.1 mM, 300 Ã‚ÂµL) for 20 min. The fluorescence spectra and relative intensities of the supernatants were measured, respectively, by an F-2500 fluorescence spectrophotometer (Hitachi, Japan) with the excitation wavelength of 352 nm. The cell viability after laser irradiation was measured by the MTT assay. Laser irradiation. To study laser-induced changes in [Ca^sup 2+^]^sub i^, a 405 nm laser (Coherent, CA) was introduced into the microscope in order to irradiate a single cell. The total laser power of 0.96 mW on the cell was measured with a power meter (laser-check; Coherent). The irradiation area was about 28 Ã‚Âµm^sup 2^ (irradiation radius was about 3 Ã‚Âµm) on the focus of the objective (60ÃƒÂ—). The irradiation time was 60 s. To examine the effect of laser on histamine release, the 405 or 532 nm laser (solid laser; CrystaLaser) was used. The diameter of the beam spot on the cell dish was about 3 mm, and the irradiation power was adjusted by a polarizer from 0 to 10 mW according to the designed experiments. Cells were divided into different groups (three wells for each group) and irradiated with different light doses. One group with nonirradiation as a control was also included. Immunocytochemical detection of TRPV4 in RBL-2H3 cells. The transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) is a cation channel protein localized in the membranes of some cell lines, which can be activated by diverse physical and chemical stimuli to mediate Ca^sup 2+^ influx (23). To verify the presence of TRPV4 in RBL-2H3 cells, an immunocytochemical method was used. RBL-2H3 cells were seeded onto glass coverslips in cell dishes. After 16 h cells were washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 20 min at room temperature followed by permeation with 0.1% Triton-X-100 for 15 min. The permeation was blocked with 10% normal goat serum in PBS for 30 min. The primary antibody used was rabbit anti-rat TRPV4 (Sigma) and diluted 1:150 in 1% blocking solution and applied for 1 h at 37Ã‚Â°C. Then, secondary antibody (goat anti-rabbit IgG-FITC conjugated, diluted 1:400 in PBS [Sigma]) was applied for another 1 h at 37Ã‚Â°C. Cells were imaged by the above fluorescence microscopic system with excitation at 460-490 nm and fluorescence capture at 510-540 nm. The nuclei of cells were stained with Hoechst 33342 and imaged at the region of 400-460 nm with an excitation filter of 320-360 nm. Influence of Ruthenium red (RR) on histamine release. Ruthenium red is known to inhibit the function of TRPV4 and thus was used to examine the effect of TRPV4 on histamine release induced by laser in RBL-2H3 cells. The cell preparation and histamine assay were the same as described above. The cells were divided into four groups including nonirradiation control, laser irradiation alone, irradiation plus RR (3 Ã‚ÂµM) and RR (12 Ã‚ÂµM). The cell culture dish was irradiated with 10 mW laser (532 nm) using the beam spot of 3 mm diameter. The irradiation time was 10 min. In some experiments with measurements of [Ca^sup 2+^]^sub i^ and histamine, the Ca^sup 2+^-free saline solution (pH 7.0) was used as comparison, as the Hank’s buffer contains a large amount of Ca^sup 2+^. Statistical analysis. Each set of experiments was repeated at least three times. Fluorescence intensities at the peak wavelength of the OPA-histamine complex for each group were calculated and expressed as mean Ã‚Â± SEM. Statistical comparisons between treated groups and an untreated one (control) were determined by using one-way ANOVA and significant difference was accepted when P < 0.05.

Site Under Construction! -by OverMachoGrande

2008-05-14T18:51:02-05:00

I’ve gotten the framework up and a lot of the other basic information, but the site is still massively under construction! I put my original laser brush instructions up again, and I’m in the process of making the instructions for my laser helmet (you shouldn’t make yours like mine, though! There are much easier ways...). Also, I’ve sent out the invites for some forum members (those whose email I have on this computer… my main computer is still in the shop) to post their instructions, blurbs, or whatever they want, so that will hopefully be coming soon! Also, we aren’t going to put our email up here or enable comments or questions on the pages because I’d rather the discussion be held in the forums. Much more people will be able to see it that way! I want this site to be a permanent place to store the information after it goes off the main screen. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… “The forums?! The forums are usually full of nuts that discredit what you guys are doing because of either ignorance, jealousy, or mental illness.” lol… Ok, maybe it’s not that bad, but don’t worry, we can take it anyway! Bear with me, and check back soon for updates! They’re coming almost daily. -O.M.G.

The site is almost ready…. -by OverMachoGrande

2008-05-08T00:19:01-05:00

It’s not quite there yet, so forgive the mess! -O.M.G.