Do Beard Rollers Work For Patchy Facial Hair?

If you’ve been searching for methods on how to fix a patchy beard, you’ve no doubt come across the idea of using a beard roller to make it happen...

HOWEVER, the question still remains, does derma rolling work for beard growth OR is it a big marketing ploy for businesses to make a tonne of cash off of our insecurities around not being able to grow adequate facial hair?

In this post we’re going to take a deep dive into the science behind beard rollers & why they are said to be an effective solution for upping our beard game.

Then, after looking at the cold hard facts, our founder Thomas In Action is going to be taking part in a 6 month experiment using a beardroller on his patchy facial hair to put all the theory into practice.

Over this 6 month experiment we’ll be adding Thomas’ results to the bottom of this post so you can follow along with the journey and Thomas will also be posting updates on his YouTube channel.

6 Month Beard Roller Results

Video Transcript

Hey guys and welcome back!

So this 6 month beard roller update is well overdue and

for anyone new to this series, this is part 3 of a 3 part series

Where I explored the science behind using a beard roller for increasing facial hair density and then embarked on a 6 month experiment to see if it would work for me.

And even though I started this project before I took a big break from YouTube and was meant to check in at the 6 month mark (which would have been back in March this year)

I thought it would be better late than never to update you on how the rest of my beard roller experiment went, share my results with you and give my legitimate 2 cents on whether or not I’d actually recommend that you try one of these…

Plus I hate being the guy who starts but neer finishes… so the fact I’m making this update makes me not that guy.

I’m just late… that’s all.

So if you’re keen to find out the details make sure you keep watching and don’t forget to give this video a massive thumbs up for the Altube Yogarithm.

SIDE NOTE: I got quite a few comments on my 3 Month Update saying I talk way too much and that I should just get to the point

which, let’s be real, I do have tendency to talk a lot, but I also enjoy being thorough with things so I’m not sorry about it

but I did want to acknowledge that I read those comments and for those of you who do get sick of me talking, I have included timestamps in the description of this video so you can skip ahead to my results.

So when I started this experiment in September of 2021 my initial goal with this whole operation was to simply look at the science behind why these things are even said to help promote beard growth and then should upon finding sufficient evidence that it could actually work, I thought I’d give it ago.

And if you watch episode 1 of this 3 part series, you’ll see there was a ton of factors indicating that this would be an awesome thing to try,

There is significant evidence of derma rollers activating the hair growth cycle in men experiencing pattern baldness in that study I found.

It's also a fact that derma rolling is primarily used for stimulating the skin's natural healing process, keeping your skin looking more youthful & healthy thus creating a great environment for new hair to grow.

The other notables were things like genetic limits and good lifestyle balances.

All the things I covered in episode 1 pointed to the fact that I really needed to give this a go.

And off I went.

By the 3 month mark, I was personally a little bit over the whole idea of needing to rub a barrel of microneedles into my face for 20 minutes 3 times a week…

I think I initially underestimated how much extra time it would take me to execute per week & because I don’t like spending a great deal of time in the mirror anyway, the experience wasn’t fun, like other routines can be… you know.

But I did see A RESULT. I noticed a heap of new vellus hairs starting to grow higher up my cheek…

Which was absolutely not what I signed up for but there was certainly a noticeable difference and it was clear that something was happening.

Then just after my 3 month update I took a nice big break from creating content which is why this video is so late.

But even though I wasn’t making content during that time I did still continue using my beard roller for the remainder of the experiment, so to the end of march.

And come the time of assessing my results after the 6 month period, not much had changed since my 3 month update if I’m completely honest with you.

If anything there might be a few more vellus hairs hairs that joined the party and the ones that had appeared prior are now definitely terminal, they’ve gained that thick coarse beard hair feeling

But in relation to achieving my goal of filling in my patchy facial hair in these areas, I don’t feel like this experiment was a success for me at all.

Am I glad I gave the beard roller a shot?

100%, because I had enough substantial evidence to suggest that it could work in my favour and if I didn’t try, I would never know if this was going to work for me or not, right?

If you want something to change you’ve gotta put the feelers out and have a go otherwise you progress at all… I atleast now know this isn’t something for me haha.

Could I have given it a bit more time? Like pushed the experiment to a year? Yeah, sure, but to be honest, I feel like 6 months was a decent test period and the fact I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the whole process, I’m actually not bothered enough to keep testing it.

I’m happy to leave it where it is.

Would I recommend you give this a shot? Absolutely.

Everyone who tries this is most likely going to get a different result, there’s tonnes of guys out there who swear by these, I’m obviously not one of them and that’s solely based on my personal experience,

But like we discussed in episode 1, as long as there’s evidence that your genetic limits can support decent facial hair growth, the other factors that go into this can all be manipulated with a bit of lifestyle tweaking on your end

and you really don’t have anything to lose except the $20 buck you pay for the beard roller if it doesn’t work.

SO yeah,

Anyway, that brings my beard roller series to a close!

As you can see, I’ve decided to go fro a completely different look anyway, I’ve chosen some light stubble around my jaw to give my round head a bit more shape and I’m rocking this mo which personally I’m love… Even if my dad did say I look like a 70’s pornstar… I still rate it.

As mentioned earlier, better late than never!

and I hope that you’ve got some value from me sharing my experience.

If you do try this out I’ll be super keen to hear how you went with it and I’d love you to leave me a comment.

Don’t forget to smash the thumbs up button for Altube Yougarithm if you liked this video and on a final note,

I’m not back here full time.

As mentioned in my previous video where I shared my brand new hair, I’m going to be making updates here sporadically when I can/ when I feel like I have something important to share so feel free to subscribe if you’re into that ad if not, I totally get it haha.

I do really appreciate you all coming back to visit me and I’ll see you next time!

Good bye!

The Science Behind Beard Rollers & Microneedling

In science, the real term for “beard rolling” is actually known as microneedling or collagen induction therapy.

This type therapy is performed by using a device, like a beard roller (aka a derma roller) with hundreds of tiny needles to create multiple superficial injury sites in the surface layers of the skin which activates the skin’s natural healing process.

When the skin’s natural healing process is activated, nutrient rich blood is sent to the area leading to the forced production of new collagen in the skin making it appear more radiant and healthy. This is why microneedling is so popular amongst women looking for anti aging solutions as the results of this forced collagen production can lead to:

Reduced wrinkles & fine lines.
Improved firmness.
Improved clarity & tone in the skin.

This modality has also been proven as an effective treatment for things like:

Reducing irregular pigmentation and patchiness.
Reducing stretch marks visibly.
Healing acne scars.
Minimising enlarged pores.

So it’s clear to see why using microneedling to induce collagen production alone can be beneficial on multiple accounts.

However, new collagen production isn’t the only event occurring under the hood when these little injury sites are created in the skin.

An in depth study from the International Journal of Trichology shows that the process of microneedling also stimulates the activation of several growth factors needed for new hair production.

A Bear Roller works by stimulation of stem cells and inducing activation of growth factors.

In the most simple terms, the nutrient rich blood that is sent to the injury site after treatment allowing the body to create more collagen also produces more of the proteins needed for strong healthy hair as well as stimulating the cells that are responsible for regulating the growth cycle.

The study was performed on 100 men experiencing mild to moderate male pattern baldness and they were then randomly split into two groups.

The experiment was carried out on the vertex of the head (the crown area) and 1 group were given 5% minoxidil to use twice daily with the addition of weekly microneedling treatment for 12 weeks and the other group were only given the 5% minoxidil to use for the same amount of time.

If you’re unfamiliar with minoxidil (AKARogaine) and are interested in learning more about it’s effectiveness on hair loss, you can read this study from the Journal of Drug Design, Development & Therapy.

After both groups completed their 12 weeks of treatment, the results pretty much spoke for themselves.

82% of the men in the group that were given the minoxidil & the derma roller reported more than 50% improvement and only 4.5% of the minoxidil only group reported a mild difference.

Group 1 - Minoxodil with No Beard Roller

(Images cited from The International Journal of trichology)

Furthermore, the microneedling group also consisted of some men who had previously used minoxidil on it’s own with unsatisfactory results but saw significant results after introducing the derma roller.

Studies do also show that using minoxidil on it’s own can certainly be effective but can take upwards of 6 months to show any significant results so the fact that these men were seeing results in just 12 weeks after implementing a derma roller is pretty astounding.

To back up this study a little bit further, here’s an informative video we came across during the research phase of putting this post together by Dr Vikram Jayaprakash and Dr Russell Knudsen from The Hair Loss Show on YouTube that explains the science behind derma rolling and stimulating hair growth on the scalp in a simple and easy to understand format.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to The Hair Loss Show, where two of Australia's leading hair restoration surgeons, Dr. Russell Knudsen and Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash, discuss issues relating to hair loss and the medical and surgical treatment of hair loss in both men and women.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Hi, everybody. Welcome to Episode 26 Of The Hair Loss Show. I'm Dr. Russell Knudsen.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

And I'm Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash. Today's episode has been requested quite a few times, so we thought we'd add that to the list. A lot of you have commented on it and we've promised that, so here's today's episode and it's on derma rolling.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Okay.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

All right? So-

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Why don't you write that up so we can... So, people can-

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

See what we mean by beard roller.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

All right. So, beard roller is a device that you can buy and it is self-explanatory. Derm means skin, rolling means rolling something across the skin. So, these are devices that are designed to use little needles that you roll across the skin that actually puncture the skin. And that sounds horrible and it's not painless-

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

No.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

But, there's a logic behind it. It sounds like a torture, really. But, in fact, there is a logic behind it.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

Yeah. And the same logic is used on a number of different fronts. So, for example, laser therapy, not laser in hair, but if you're doing laser resurfacing of the skin. In essence, what you're doing with the derma rolling, is you're making small little punctures. Small, little injure points to the skin surface. And in doing so, what happens is there's an increased blood flow to the area. There's an increase in growth factors and inflammatory mediators that come to the area, that essentially stimulate the hair in that area to grow.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Stimulate the skin, [crosstalk 00:01:56] and hair is part of the skin. So, basically it's a controlled, superficial injury to the scalp with the hope that by initiating a healing process, the growth factors won't distinguish between healing the skin and strengthening the hair. So, the thing to understand about beard rollers is that it comes at different depths.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

Why?

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Why?

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

Why is the question? And the answer to that is different people have different dermal thickness. And so, you may need a longer needle to cause the same outcome. But, also the other flip side of that is if-

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

More injury.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

More injury. But, the larger the needle the more injury caused, the more injury caused, the more growth factors and inflammatory markers come to the area. But, like you've said, the flip side, or the dark side of that is the potential for injury there.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Okay. So, if people are saying, "Well, what would be the ideal depth?" Well, the short answer, is the target area you're trying for in the skin, is typically around about between one and one and a half millimetres under the skin. Because that's where the stem cells in the bulge area reside and this is what initiates growth in the hair follicles. So, it sends signals to the base of the hair, but it comes from this zone, what we call the bulge, which is around about one to one and a half millimetres under the skin.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

So I've drawn rudimentary sort of picture of a [crosstalk 00:03:31]

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

It's not down here, it's up here. All right. So ideally for hair, what you would do is you look for something in the one millimetre depth range or the 1.5 millimetre depth range, because that means that the injury is in the area where the bulge area and those stem cells reside.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Now, if you're doing the skin rejuvenation, which is another reason why people use beard rollers as a skin rejuvenation, you don't necessarily have to go quite as deep for your skin rejuvenation, because you're trying to work on a different part of the skin.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

But I would argue, yes, they come in needles that are either half a millimetre deep or one millimetre deep, or one and a half millimetres deep, I would argue that you certainly don't need anything more than one and a half millimetres deep, but something in the one to one and a half millimetre range makes sense.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

But the risk of that is that the longer the needle, the more likely you damage the hair follicles.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

That's where you wouldn't go, see down here we're at the three, three and a half millimetre mark, you do not want to be down here.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

But I mean, different people, we don't know where that is. [crosstalk 00:04:41]

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Well, we operate on a lot of patients sot's rare to have somebody with a bulb if you like, that's at one and a half millimetres. That's pretty rare.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

But you can. One of the things that you can cause with derma rolling is a temporary shed. Because if the needle is here, that's fine but if you slice through the hair follicle-

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Not only that if you put enough inflammatory factors in there, then you can shed just as a response to the inflammatory factors. So more is not necessarily better, I guess, is what we're saying here. So this is not something you spend an hour a day doing. I mean, that's really just not a sensible protocol to do because you're just overdoing it, right. It takes 24, 48 hours for all that healing to really kick in. So my advice is you wouldn't want to do this more than two or three times a week, and you just don't want to overdo it, right? Because if you over inflame the area, you may be doing more harm than good.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

So the next question then is, I mean, do you recommend it as part of your regular routine?

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

The closest thing that it is to in the way it works is PRP platelet-rich plasma. That's the closest example. And one of the things, we've talked about PRP before and said well it's a bit confusing, because one of the things we don't know about PRP is whether the needle going in to inject the PRP is doing more good than the PRP itself that's injected. So the very fact that we have to inject PRP in the scalp means we're essentially doing a beard roller process. So I don't rank them at the top end of our treatment chain because they are mildly invasive, right. We actually are doing something painful, it is penetrating the skin, which is not going to cause infection. If you've got a clean beard roller you're not going to cause infection, but you are penetrating the skin. And if you're creating too much bleeding with it, well, you're potentially doing some damage. So I'd say it's a kind of an add on that we can use for some people once we've tried other things that are less invasive.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

So, I mean, I think that's the important thing. We're not against derma rolling by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not probably the first thing that we would suggest on our armoury of management plan of how to manage an individual [crosstalk 00:07:08]

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

This sits on the stimulation side of the equation, but we're behind things like minoxidil and laser therapy.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

That's right. So derma rolling, good, it stimulates the hair. So you can get a good outcome that way. There are risks to it though. You can experience a short term shedding if you damage the hair follicle in that process. And there's no real way of controlling that or preventing that, it just depends on where you [crosstalk 00:07:35]

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Well, the thing to remember about people with balding is that the skin is thin as part of the miniaturisation process, everything in the skin is miniaturising as part of the balding process. So we know that the depth of skin in the bald areas is not quite the same as healthy skin where we have no hair loss. So we have to be a little bit careful. I know this is a self initiated treatment, and you can buy these things on the internet, which is absolutely fine, but a little bit is good too much, maybe not.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

And the last thing I'd say about it is I do see people who are doing derma rolling, and it's got to be used in the right area as well. So you've got to have an area that has some early miniaturisation. If you've got a bald patch, doing all the derma rolling you want is not going to regrow hair.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Exactly. So that's either at the hairline for people who have lost their hairline. If you're in an area with no hair, forget it. Remember what we said before, if the hair shrinks to less than 50% of its original shaft thickness, the diameter, then we can't make it a fully healthy hair again.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

So again, you're looking to put the beard roller through the mildly thinning areas rather than the true bald areas. And as long as you do it carefully comb your head with a bit of separation, maybe wet your hair before you do it would be good too because that does tend to clump the hairs together for you. So do it with your hair wet, it might make it easier to roll through the area so that you're rolling in the one direction, forward, backwards or sideways. I think forward backwards is easy for most people and wet your hair beforehand and don't cause too much bleeding.

Dr. Vikram Jayaprakash:

Good. So hopefully that answers your questions about derma rolling. Please, if you've enjoyed the videos, carry on watching, please give us a like and subscribe and forward it on to whoever you feel might benefit. But thank you very much for watching and we'll see you on the next episode.

Dr. Russell Knudsen:

Thank you guys.

The Effectiveness of Derma Rollers on Beards

Ok, so let’s review....

Microneedling has been proven effective for boosting collagen production in our skin and stimulating the hair growth cycle on our scalp, but can all this information be translated to our beards as well?

Theoretically, it makes sense right?

Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of scientific studies out there with evidence to support this but it’s clear to see how one might come to the conclusion that it could actually work...

The fact that there’s also a TONNE of anecdotal resources from several beard enthusiasts on YouTube that push the idea of derma rolling being an effective method for beard growth also makes this idea seem a little more promising.

Here’s a few YouTube videos we found during our research to support this idea from well respected YouTubers including Trav White, Dan C Bearded & Paul D'Onofrio from GroomReviews.

Trav White: How To Grow MORE Facial Hair (WITHOUT MINOXIDIL)

Trav White:

So, my beard has always been patchy and it's mainly been in the sideburn and cheek area. And I've had a patchy beard since I was able to grow one. For as long as I can remember, I would always have to shave the patchy parts on the sideburn and the cheek and have this disconnected beard style, because my sideburns and the cheek parts just would never grow into a full beard like I always want it to. And I'd always see pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal or Chris Pine with these full beards and I would just wish that my patches would grow in. So, finally one day I decided to stop ignoring it and try to fix it but I didn't want to use me minoxidil, which for those who don't know minoxidil is Rogaine basically. So, I don't have anything against people using minoxidil and I have seen it be incredibly effective on patchy beards on other men but I've also heard horror stories, right?

Trav White:

Of guys getting heart palpitations, blood pressure dropping too low, their heart starts spontaneously racing. And I do have a family history of heart disease. And my heart already has PACs and PVCs pretty much daily. I have seen a cardiologist for it and was told that they're totally benign but I still just try to limit anything that can potentially mess with my heart.

Trav White:

So, I decided to go a natural serum route that I actually created myself based on tonnes of different studies I've read. And for the last 60 days I've been doing a daily beard patch fix routine and I've started seeing new vellus hairs growing where the patches used to be. Now to be clear, it's still is patchy. Like it's not fully in yet as much as I want it to be. And it's definitely not where I want to be yet. But for the first time in my life, I have started seeing my patches begin to fill in and that I've never seen before. So, this video's meant to be a quick tutorial on how I've been able to do that naturally without using any minoxidil. Let's get into it.

Speaker 2:

Oh.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Oh.

Trav White:

What's up guys? Trav right here. Welcome back to the channel. We cover the science of style and grooming. If you enjoy those types of topics, please hit that like and subscribe button. And also, come on over to my Mannered Manes beard and hair growth community on Facebook. If you have any questions or any struggles, that's the place to ask it. So the link is in the description. Also, there is a super loyal 16% of you guys, watching these videos who are subscribed to my channel and I really appreciate that. I am on a goal to hit 60K subs by the end of 2021 and 84% of people who are watching my videos are not subscribed. So, even if a small portion of those guys smash that subscribe button, we would hit that goal and I'd really appreciate it. So, if you find this video valuable then definitely, please hit that like and subscribe button it's totally free and you can unsubscribe whenever you want.

Trav White:

So, the first thing I need to introduce you to is a beard roller. What is a beard roller? This is a beard roller. So, it is basically a microneedle roller with hundreds, 540 to be exact, of small needles that make micro punctures in your skin, in your hair follicles. So, the beard roller needles can come in a wide variety of lengths. Ranging from 0.25 millimetres all the way to one and a half millimetres. However, if it's a one millimetre or higher needle length, then those are reserved for professional aesthetician use and not an at home DIY use. And these lengths are used for more than just hair growth. Estheticians use one millimetre or higher derma rollers on people's faces who want to get rid of things like acne scars or wrinkles, as it does help promote new collagen growth over time. So, there are many uses for a beard roller outside of beards.

Trav White:

They're used quite a bit in skincare. But getting back to beards, I would suggest using a 0.5 millimetre beard roller for beards. And it's a little longer, it can reach the root of your beard follicles better to promote more blood flow. And I don't think 0.25 or 0.3 millimetres are quite long enough. You also want to make sure that it has titanium needles as opposed to stainless steel. The titanium needles do stay sharper for longer and you won't need to replace it as often. So, a common question I get is, "Can you use your beard beard roller on your scalp as well, to fight balding?" So, your scalp hair follicles are much deeper than your beard follicles. So, if you want to use a beard roller for hair loss on your head, then I'd recommend using at least a one and a half millimetre needle length and using a dermapen instead of a beard roller. A dermapen goes in vertically and it punctures. And it's much more effective than rolling because the rolling ones tend to tear the follicle as it rolls across the scalp.

Trav White:

Whereas dermapens tend to enter and exit vertically much, much cleaner. But getting back to beards, most beard rollers for beards are sold on Amazon between 0.25 and 0.5 millimetres. Again, I'd recommend getting the 0.5 millimetre one. I'll leave a link in the description for the exact one that I bought so you guys can use it. But another common question is, "How do beard rollers work to promote hair growth? What is the science behind all of this?" So, the theory is that the needles make tiny punctures in the skin and in the follicle and this triggers vitamin and hormone-rich blood to flow to the damaged area to heal it, resulting in new collagen and keratin production in that area. And if you do this enough times, over time, you can essentially wake up the dormant hair follicle and begin the telogen phase of hair growth, which can stimulate new vellus hairs, where there wasn't any before.

Trav White:

So, there is actually evidence showing that this is effective on hair regrowth in men with male pattern baldness and they're even more effective when they are paired with minoxidil on your scalp. So, it does make sense to translate some of those results to beards as well. But I wasn't able to actually find any study that just focused on beards and microneedling, but I did find plenty of studies on microneedling on your scalp and it promoting hair growth. I'll leave those in the description as well if you want to fact check me. Another common question I get is, "Will this beard roller cause bleeding?" No, it won't. It's not painful at all. It feels like slight pressure on your face, but it doesn't break the skin blood barrier, it doesn't cause any sort of pain. It all happens beneath the surface or the deeper layers of your skin.

Trav White:

So, how do you use a beard roller? So, step one is you're going to want to sterilise it. You want to soak it in 70% isopropyl alcohol for 60 to 90 seconds before applying it to your face. Just to make sure that the needles are clean. Step two, you're going to roll it on your face in three different sets of 10 to 20 rolls across your beard where you're seeing patches. You're going to do 10 to 20 horizontally, you're going to do 10 to 20 vertically, and then you're going to do 10 to 20 diagonal rolls. So how much pressure should you apply? I would say, not much. The beard roller will do most of the work. You don't need to shove it in your face and really get in there. You just need to place it gently and roll it up, down left, right, diagonal in all directions, 10 to 20 times each until you've really punctured that patchy area.

Trav White:

So, step three is going to be, to rinse it off with warm water and then sterilise it again afterwards in that 70% isopropyl alcohol. This time, I would leave it in for three to five minutes and then store it safely in a beard roller case. I have this one right here that came in the packaging on Amazon. As you can see, it's just stored nicely in this case here. Treat this like you would treat a toothbrush, right? This is yours. Don't share this with anyone. You don't want to share a needle with someone, right? So, you don't want to share your beard roller with anyone as well. So, step four is that, now that you've made the tiny punctures in your beard follicles, this is when applying that growth serum is really going to be most effective because it can penetrate deeper into the root.

Trav White:

So, most of your beard growth kits on Amazon will also come with usually a biotin oil or a turmeric oil or something to add on, that they sell. They sell serums within their beard kits. And that's cool. You guys can use that if you want. Those may or may not stimulate beard growth. I haven't read too much studies on those. Now, this is my minoxidil-free beard growth serum that I created and it's getting low. So, I do need to refill it. But essentially, this is the recipe. It's two tablespoons of cold pressed, organic, pumpkin seed oil. And this is going to be used as your carrier oil, right? I put this in this little container that I found from Amazon, which by the way, I'm going to link to everything in the description. So you guys can go get it for yourself.

Trav White:

I chose pumpkin seed oil as my carrier oil because I did read a few studies about it having hair growth effectiveness in mice. And so I figured, "Hey, it's worth trying." And then for the next three oils, I added peppermint oil, rosemary oil and lavender oil, right? And if you do get the therapeutic grade essential oils, it's really important that you dilute them in a carrier oil, like a fattier oil, before applying it directly to your face because the therapeutic great essential oils can really irritate your skin at 100% potency. So I dilute them. I put about five to seven drops, in about two tablespoons of pumpkin seeded oil. Then I take a soft bristle toothbrush, I dip it in the oil and I gently massage it into the area that I just microneedled. I also do this to my patches on the days that I don't microneedle as well.

Trav White:

So, I apply it once in the morning, once at night, before bed for about 30 seconds every single day. And then, on the days that I do use a beard roller, I apply it right after I dermaroll the beard patches. So, how often should you use your beard roller? So, for the 0.5 millimetre needle, I use it three times per week. I use it Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But if you've never used a beard roller before, I'd recommend starting out with a two time per week schedule, once in maybe the beginning of the week and once in the end of the week, just to see how your skin responds to it and to give those punctures a chance to heal up. I'm going to pull up a picture right here. Here's a before and after of my beard after using a beard roller for 45 days, three times per week and applying my growth serum, one to two times per day, every single day.

Trav White:

So, as you can see, even though my patches are still visible, there is new growth that has started slowly coming in on those patches. And I'm on day 60 now and if you look at the results of where I am now, there is new vellus hairs growing, my sideburns are much thicker, my cheek is much thicker here. Same on this side, this side's even moreso. The patches are just filling in a lot more. This is my much thicker than it's ever been. My sideburn is thicker than it's ever been. It's definitely filling in to a degree it's never filled in before. These used to be just bear, just no hair at all. So, there's definitely been new hair growth and it's been really cool to see. But I am on day 60 now, right? And the results are pretty much still the same as day 45, but I am keeping the faith that more will come over time.

Trav White:

It may take up to six months of consistent application to really see results. One mistake I do see a lot of guys making is that, they give up after 20 to 30 days because they aren't seeing any results really fast, right? Stimulating new hair growth is a very slow process and it takes a lot of time. It will probably take me four to six months to really see results coming in. And I'm sure the results will probably be faster if I did start using minoxidil instead, maybe, maybe not, I don't know. But again, I'm trying to stay away from the minoxidil use and keep in mind that these results are totally anecdotal, right? These are my results in one study. And you may or may not get the same results, but it's definitely worth a shot if you're wanting to fill in your beard patches.

Trav White:

So, I'll link to all of the products that I use in the description. I found everything on Amazon. So, you guys can just go shop on Amazon and get it. It's not expensive at all. I am happy with my progress so far and I am very excited about continuing to do this. It's become a habit. It doesn't really feel like a chore anymore. And hair growth has always been a marathon, not a sprint and filling in beard patches is the same thing. And you might be too young also. That might be something, as a younger guy trying to grow a beard. If you're 18 to 25 and you have a tonne of beard patches, you might just need to wait. I'm 30 years old right now and I still have patches. So, some guys need to wait till they're 35, 40 for a lot of their beard hair to start coming in much thicker. So, don't lose faith guys. Keep it up. And again, everything's linked to the description. If you guys like this video, give it a thumbs up and I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.

Dan C Bearded: Minoxidil & Dermarolling - The TRUTH!

Dan C Bearded:

Hey guys, welcome to my channel. My name is Dan C Bearded, and this is the channel where I take pride in covering every aspect of having a beard. If you like beards, consider subscribing to the channel. I would greatly appreciate that. If you don't like beards, that's okay too. Thanks for stopping by today for whatever reason that may be.

Dan C Bearded:

Well, since the beginning of my channel and my beard journey, one of the most popular topics revolves around this thing called minoxidil, AKA Rogaine, using it on your face and then also a little aspect that goes with it, which is dermarolling. Now, this is one of the biggest niches in the beard world, on YouTube, on Facebook, there are huge groups, huge followings that are all about minoxidil. Now I've done a tonne of research, but I've never done a dedicated video on minoxidil or dermarolling for the simple fact that I've never tried it.

Dan C Bearded:

I didn't think it would come off properly, me giving this information, and a lot of people being like, "Dude, that's easy for you to say. Look at that beard. Look at it." I know. I understand. That's why I've never made it. So I wanted to go out and find someone that I trusted that I really respect that does use minoxidil and is really big into research and I found my buddy, George, who runs the YouTube channel called The Bearded Boost. Please go check that out. Support him. Give him a subscribe, especially if you are into minoxidil, especially if you want to follow that journey and learn all about it because there is science behind it. There are possible side effects. The results do vary, but George is going to do a great job breaking down every aspect in a really kind of packed in video. And if you like that, then go explore his channel and rather than just having this video, you're going to have a whole library full of knowledge. So we're going to go check in with George, then I'll be back for the conclusion.

George:

Hey guys, what's up? My name is George. Welcome to Dan C Bearded's channel. Now in this video, we're going to discuss minoxidil. What is minoxidil? Well, minoxidil is often marketed at Walmart, Target, and all those big chain grocery or our drug stores as Rogaine. Rogaine is a very interesting thing because many times we just pass over the aisle saying, "Hey, that stuff doesn't work for the hair," and yada-yada. And so you might not even think twice, but let's hear out the story. So Rogaine was originally invented in the 1980s as an initial attempt to lower participants' blood pressure. Now after a couple of studies and after a specific amount of time went by, they started to see something. It wasn't exactly lowering blood pressure, but what it was doing is actually regrowing hair in specific areas, specifically the vertex of the scalp, also known as the crown.

George:

Now fast forward a couple of years later and it is now marketed without a prescription over the counter as a regrowth formula. What does that mean? Well, it's not exactly going to grow new hair, but it will regrow hair that was originally there. Now, why would you care about that? Maybe you're bald. Maybe you have a beautiful set of hair. So why would you care about minoxidil? Well, I'm going to tell you why right now. Unlike when you're regrowing hair on your scalp, understand this. When you're on minoxidil for your hair, you need to consistently be applying it, otherwise what happens is whatever amount of hair you regrew will fall out. The main reason why you are going to see a handful of people on YouTube, on Facebook, on Instagram posting their minoxidil beard journeys is because of how potent it is in actually growing facial hair. Despite our genetic limits or our genetic barriers, we can actually grow hair using minoxidil because of the process that it takes the hair.

George:

What do I mean by that? Well, it goes through a couple of phases. The main ones being vellus, transitional, shedding, and terminal. So unlike when you are applying to the scalp where you have to apply consistently or risk losing whatever has regrown, when you're applying minoxidil to your face, what happens is that it'll go through the phases and once you hit what is called a terminal phase, whatever hairs turn course, dark and thick are actually going to stick around forever. Once you get off the minoxidil, what's going to happen is that you're going to proceed to keep growing it. It now becomes your natural hair. So the words of minoxidil beard journey or just that, it is a journey to get to the terminal hair. And of course, it's not like minoxidil was going to give you a beard necessarily like then C Bearded, but it'll definitely take you to those genetic limits that otherwise you would've never reached.

George:

So we go through the vellus stage, we go through the transitional stage, that then falls out and sheds. And then that's when the terminal hairs hit. Now again, minoxidil does work for your facial hair with your genetic limitations in mind of course. Now moving forward from that, it can't all be fun and games. There are some downsides. Some of the downsides include the time that it actually takes for minoxidil to take your hairs from vellus, to transitional, to shedding, to then terminal. Guys, the minoxidil beard journey sometimes takes six months, eight months, one to two years. Now, for those of us that are more impatient, things like a hair transplant will definitely be much more beneficial for you. But if you can wait it out for a year, for two years, maybe even three years, you will definitely see amazing results and be able to keep mostly all of the gains that have turned into what is called terminal.

George:

Now, because it is a drug much like taking Tylenol, much like taking anything over the counter, we have to be very, very careful with how we are doing it and making sure that we are doing this in a responsible way. It's a drug. So how your body responds to it is completely individual to the individual. Yes. What does that mean? Well, maybe you don't experience side effects, but maybe someone like me does. Maybe your neighbour doesn't experience side effects, but his neighbor's neighbours do. Minoxidil does give hope to the patchy bearded individuals such as myself who are going through it, but it doesn't come without a price. What is the price? Well, like I said earlier, there are side effects and it does take a really long time. So now let's get into some of the side effects. They include face bloating. They include heart palpitations. They include unwanted hair growth from all different sides of where you originally grow hair. So for example, for me, I saw some hair growth around my years that I didn't have before.

George:

I've been on the minoxidil journey for about six months. I documented all on my YouTube channel and have seen a couple of side effects, some of which include heart palpitations, some of which include lots of hair growth in my ears, as I said earlier. Now most of these side-effects have gone away over time. Heart palpitations, for example, is noted by many users to go away within the second month or by reducing the amount of recommended minoxidil that you are applying to your face on a daily basis. As a side note, guys, your minoxidil results itself will also be contingent on your genetics. Around this area specifically, I seem to be growing what are called vellus hairs as mentioned earlier. Now, the vellus hairs seem to be growing around here, around here, around my neck, around here, but they seem to be completely missing around here.

George:

Now, that might just mean that that is my specific genetic limit, rather no amount of minoxidil is going to grow new hair here where my genetics don't allow it. Now, apparently my genetics do however allow for my moustache to connect to my cheek contingent on all of these vellus hairs going, what is called terminal. Now, as I go further into my beard journey, I will likely shed off most, if not all of the vellus hairs, they will then transition over to terminal status, in which case they become more coarse. My whole point of telling you guys this is not to scare you with the side effects and not just to brag about the little bit of results that I've had, but also just to inform you guys. This is a channel. This is a platform that Dan has created based on just that, giving you guys the best information possible.

George:

Me personally, I try to do as much research as possible and although it is limited in terms of exposure, minoxidil is very effective. It's very effective. And I have a number of people, not only on YouTube, not only on Facebook, that are on the minoxidil beard journey and have much, much better results than I do. But the only difference between them getting those results and myself is that they were on the minoxidil beard journey a lot longer than I have been so far. Now guys, a lot of times when you are on the minoxidil beard journey, the beard roller is a common tool to use. Now, why would you want to use microneedling on your beard? Microneedling, AKA dermarolling, AKA collagen induction therapy was initially intended for that, to produce collagen, in which case your face will reduce the wrinkles, in which case you will reduce the acne scars, and in which case you are battling one of the common side effects of minoxidil, which is dark circles around the eyes.

George:

Why does minoxidil produce dark circles around the eyes? Well, minoxidil is commonly known as a collagen inhibitor and because it is a collagen inhibitor, you will often see individuals using a beard roller in an effective way to reduce the dark circles and increase the amount of college that they are producing. Now, do you have to use a beard roller with minoxidil? No. There are a number of people that don't experience that side effect, therefore will never touch the beard roller to begin with. Me personally, I use it sometimes. Sometimes I don't. It's not really essential. It is just a supplement to my minoxidil beard journey. All right, guys. So guys, thank you so much for hearing me out. If you made it this far into the video, I appreciate you. I appreciate Dan for willing to actually collab with me. I do run a YouTube channel. So if you guys want to go and check it out, learn a little bit more on minoxidil, be my guest. It is The Bearded Boost on YouTube. So, thank you guys and now I'll give it over to Dan.

Dan C Bearded:

I think this is one of those videos you need to go back and watch 2, 3, 4 times. Not because I need the views, but hey, I'll take the views. Give me all the views. But mainly because there is so much information packed in a short amount of time. I don't know if you guys realised it watching it that first time, but George crushed it. George, from me to you, thank you, man. You put so much content into that short video clip. I really appreciate it and I also appreciate everything you do for the community. So again, thank you my friend. It does not go unnoticed. Now, guys watching out there, please leave a comment down below.

Dan C Bearded:

First and foremost, have you tried minoxidil and what was your journey like? What was your progress? Did you have side effects? But also give us information. Don't just say, "Oh, it sucks. I didn't get anything out of it." Well, were you consistent? Were you doing what you were supposed to? Make sure you include all of that down below. Hey, did you try dermarolling? Is it not for you? I call that aerating the face. When somebody comes out and aerates your lawn or you do it yourself, that's what I think it is. But again, I've never tried either of these so I've never felt really good or really right making a video and say this happens and this happens because I just haven't tried it, but I'm so glad that I have someone like George to be able to talk to you guys.

Dan C Bearded:

Hopefully George will be down in the comments commenting from his channel, giving you guys the answers you're looking for, or at least that he knows and he's capable of. So please, anything, minoxidil, dermarolling related, this is the video. Let's ask. Let's explore. And who knows? Maybe your questions will lead to a future video on this topic. So thank you guys. Thank you, George. Again, if you're new to the channel, consider subscribing, go subscribe to The Bearded Boost. Dan C Bearded, stay bearded and stay positive.

GroomReviews: Derma Roller - Patchy Beard Growth Solution?

Paul Donofrio:

The beard roller, my thoughts, questions, and reach out to the community, coming up next.

Paul Donofrio:

What's up, guys? I'm Paul Donofrio back with you from GroomReviews. We're getting you comfortable, confident and clean in grooming. And this channel, we're bringing you everyday grooming product reviews. So if you're new here, be sure to subscribe and make sure to hit that notification bell to stay on top of all of our latest videos. You can also check us out on our website at groomreviews.com.

Paul Donofrio:

For this video, I decided to put my beard trimming on hold so that I can let my beard grow out a little bit more for better demonstration on a future product video. That said, I want to switch things up and focus on a product that I'm hoping many of you out in the GroomReviews community have had a chance to use and can share your experience and results. I'm talking about the beard roller.

Paul Donofrio:

I wanted to put this video together and reach out to you guys in the GroomReviews community, [inaudible 00:00:58] a recent conversation I had with a friend who's really struggling with his inability to grow a full beard. He has a lot of patchy areas and it's just really wearing on him and taking a toll mentally. He told me he's been trying to use beard supplements, beard growth supplements, doing a whole horde of things and it's just not working for him. And he came out and he asked me, he said, my next step is I'm thinking of using the beard roller. What do you think about it? And I honestly looked at him and I said, what is the beard roller? Because I've never heard of the beard roller before he mentioned it.

Paul Donofrio:

Now for many of you out there, I'm sure you've known about the dermalroller for a while now, but for me, this is just something that's been off the radar. And I'm just getting into the research on it and trying to understand how this product is working and what the results are that people are getting out there. For those of you in the same boat as myself, let me explain a little bit about what I've learned about dermarolling, also known as micro-needling.

Paul Donofrio:

The beard roller is basically this rolling drum here, and it's lined with hundreds of these micro-needles. And it's attached to a handle, and this is used to roll across your skin. These needles are meant to create tiny little injury sites along the surface of the skin, which then prompts the body to kick into gear to repair and heal those areas.

Paul Donofrio:

The top layer of our skin is the epidermis and right underneath that is the dermis. That's where we have the blood circulation, the blood flowing, feeding to the skin, as well as the components of collagen and elastin. Collagen basically build strength. The elastin creates that elasticity. When we're using this and we're getting in there and we're poking those little injury sites, it's basically activating blood supply to move to the area, the collagen to move in, and the elastin to move in, which creates a better environment to regrow hair, fixed skin that may be loose or you might be wrinkly, and it's just an overall healthy way to work into those areas that may not have the best things going right now.

Paul Donofrio:

The beard roller does come in different needle sizes. From what I've seen, it comes from anywhere from 0.2 millimetres up to about three millimetres, but if you're using it at home, you want to stay within the 0.2 to 0.5 millimetre range. That's good if you're trying to use this on the beard or you're trying to use it on the face, but anything above that, you want to have a specialist handle it. You don't want to be doing this yourself. You can go too far in and actually cause more damage than you intended. So the beard roller that I have here, I actually picked up on Amazon for around $12 or so, but the needles on this are 0.25 millimetre, and they're titanium needles that are built into this device.

Paul Donofrio:

Now with use of this product, there are several key instructions you want to keep in mind. The first thing you want to make sure is that you're sterilising these needles in order to prevent infection. You want to make sure you have an alcohol solution. You put this in it for about five minutes or so, and make sure that these are just sterilised and clean before and after you use. You want to picture this almost as you're using a toothbrush or something of that nature. You don't want to be sharing this with somebody else. This is your personal device, and that's how you want to treat it.

Paul Donofrio:

It's also recommended that you first wash your face with some kind of antimicrobial cleanser to remove your oils and dirt from your face so as you're not actually rubbing it all over when you're using the product. So when you're using the beard roller, make sure you're applying gentle pressure against the skin. This isn't meant to puncture and cause bleeding. So if that happens, you're pushing too hard, but you are meant to feel some slight pressure on there. It shouldn't hurt you while you're using this, but you will feel the needles against the skin.

Paul Donofrio:

As far as rolling direction, there's three directions that are recommended when using this product. You want to be going horizontal to side to side, vertical up and down, and diagonal. So when you're doing this, you want to do probably five to 10 rolls on each area. You want to make sure you're going with the roller. You're not twisting it. You're not turning it. It's going to cause more damage to the skin with these needles that are in here.

Paul Donofrio:

Right now I'm just going to jump in and I'm going to test this out on my beard, just to show you guys the different directions to use this product. So here's using the beard roller horizontally. You pick a spot, go in, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And move up to the next one, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Just gentle pressure, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Now, if you want to go vertical, pick another spot. So we'll go in here, and now we'll go diagonal.

Paul Donofrio:

As far as how much to use the beard roller, what I'm seeing is as a beginner, you want to probably just use this once a week, see how the product's working on your skin, see how you're reacting to it. And then after you get comfortable with it, you can move to probably twice a week. So as far as using this on longer beard hair, what I'm hearing out there is that you can wet or dampen the beard first, that will reduce the risk of actually getting these needles stuck and pulling at your hair while you're doing it. Another method is you can actually just trim down the beard to a length that's manageable, where it doesn't have a chance to stick, or you can just shave it to the point where it's just down in the skin and you can really see those areas where you don't see any stubble growing, and that's the areas you want to attack with this.

Paul Donofrio:

Another thing that people with long beard hair prefer to do is just go in the direction of the beard hair growth. This reduces the risk of it snagging on the way back up. So they'll just come up here, and they go down, 1, let's stop, go back. Just like that. Some people have said that using minoxidil, which is the male pattern baldness solution, when they use that in combination with this beard roller, they see great results, increased hair growth. Whoever out there has used this with minoxidil, please let us know your experience, your methods, your result, and how you're doing to this point. From what I've read, you should not dermaroll and then use minoxidil right after that. You should wait at least 24 hours before applying the minoxidil so you don't have an increased heart rate and things of that nature.

Paul Donofrio:

Aside from hair regeneration, the beard roller is really best known for its skin rejuvenation benefits and its overall healthy benefits for the skin. A few of the do nots with the beard roller are do not use this if you're having an acne breakout, make sure you don't use this on the lips or the eyes, do not use this on open sores or wounds. Make sure if you're allergic to metal, you don't want to be using this, be cleaned in that alcohol solution and you keep it to yourself to reduce the risk of infection.

Paul Donofrio:

When you've finished using this, I've heard some mixed results on what you should be doing. Some people are saying put on some kind of vitamin serum or you can put on a cleanser, wash it up. Others say give it some time to settle in and then put some kind of topical solution on there. But that again is something where I defer to you guys out there in the community. Let me know what you're using, what's working for you and what kind of results you're seeing.

Paul Donofrio:

On this channel I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not going to pretend like I'm an expert in every product that I'm using. With this product, I definitely know the time it takes to use. I know what it's going to take for people out there to get experience with it, test it out and see results. It's not something I can just use right now, one time, two times and give you guys a review of and say, Hey, this is a product that's working great, go out and buy it. This is really a product that takes months to figure out, is it really working?

Paul Donofrio:

That said, I feel this is an opportunity to reach out to you guys in the community who have experience with the beard roller, who may have been using this for months or even maybe even years, and you're seeing great results with it. That's what I want to hear about in the comments. I want to hear, what's your experience? What are your methods? Is there a particular method that's working better than another? Are you seeing great results or are you not seeing great results? Anything we can do to help strengthen this community. I want to help those people out there that are struggling right now with patchiness. And I can't really do that myself based on the time period, but I think we can all come together as a whole and make us stronger with the support of those of you out there who have experience.

Paul Donofrio:

All right, guys, thanks so much for sticking with me. I greatly appreciate you guys, help me out and support me on this video. If you have an experience with the beard roller, please let us know in the comments below. Make sure to check me out on Instagram, @groomgeviews. I appreciate you being here, and I'll catch you next time.

Other Beard Growth Factors

Upon conducting a bit more research into what makes a beard grow, this medically reviewed article from hairguard.com states that beard & pubic hair in men is primarily controlled by our hormones, specifically dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

DHT is a converted byproduct of testosterone that is produced mainly in the liver when testosterone is exposed to an enzyme called 5 alpha-reductase.

DHT is responsible for the development of male sexual organs and is expedited during puberty in men which is what signals the body to start the transition of vellus hairs on our face and body into terminal hairs, resulting in the appearance of pubes, beards & other bodily hair.

(Image cited from labs.selfdecode.com)

What’s even more interesting is that DHT is also the hormone that scientists believe is responsible for male pattern baldness which actually starts to make this whole concept seem a little confusing.

If DHT is the underlying cause of creating 1 problem but solving another, how does a derma roller fit into this picture as an effective solution for both?

The simple answer is microneedling should only be looked at as 1 component in effectively treating both problems by stimulating the growth cycle and the other factors of both issues must be looked at individually in order to get the results we want.

We found a study that explains more on the role of DHT in male pattern baldness which you can read more about here but in order to keep things simple, let’s stick to exploring the effective components of growing a beard for now.

Which as of this point in the post, includes using a derma roller to stimulate our growth cycle and having healthy levels of DHT circulating through our bodies.

So with these 2 things in mind, it would make sense to say that using something like a derma roller to stimulate our beard growth cycle, we’d also need to have a healthy supply of DHT in our system to pull this operation off successfully…

On top of that, this medically reviewed article we found from healthline.com suggests that looking after yourself and maintaining a healthy lifestyle by doing your best to:

Reduce stress.
Get enough rest.
Eat a balanced diet.
& Take good care of your skin.

can really pay off when it comes to maximising your beard potential.

This all makes complete & utter sense if you think about it because:

Stress creates more cortisol in our bodies and cortisol reduces testosterone.
We get our energy and nutrients from our food which means if we want to have adequate hormone production that’s certainly gotta play a role.
Rest helps our body make utilise the things we’re putting into it efficiently.
Our skin is the housing unit for the hair follicle, therefore the better condition it’s in, the better the environment our hair has to grow.

The article then continues on to say that our genetics are also largely responsible for how much facial hair we can actually grow.

So simply put, if your genetic limits don’t allow for you to grow a fully fledged beard, then it’s not really viable to say that you’ll be able to achieve a beard like Greg Berzinsky...

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Greg Berzinsky (@berzinsky)

But how do we even know what our genetic limits are?

Good question!

A great place to start would be to look at any male family relations you have and observe how much facial hair they can grow. It may help to ask them about what kind of facial hair changes they’ve experienced in their life and when those changes occurred.

Doing this will most likely give you a good indication of where your genetic trajectory is headed.

It’s also important to note that if the outlook from what you see in your male relatives doesn’t look too bright in terms of being able to grow a beard, it’s possible they themselves aren’t doing everything in their power to try and maximise their beard potential.

I.e they might not be using a derma roller or taking immaculate care of themselves, therefore their genetics limits aren’t being pushed to their potential, so the possibility for you to make some sort of beard gains might still be there.

You just won’t know until you put all of this theory into practice.

The Implications of Using A Beard Roller

Every resource we’ve read & watched during the research phase of this project expresses the importance of hygiene when it comes to using a beard roller on our skin.

Just like junkies sharing needles, it’s not cute & sharing your beard roller with others is something that you want to avoid at all costs.

Ideally you should treat it like your toothbrush and keep it clean after and before every use because although the needles are small, they’re literally penetrating the surface of your skin and if you’re not sterilizing your beard roller properly, you’ll risk things like infection and other undesirable implications by not doing so.

The best practices recommended for keeping your beard roller sterile are soaking it in isopropyl alcohol for 60 to 90 seconds before use and then again for 3-5 minutes after use to kill any remaining bacteria that might build up on needles.

It’s also recommended you store your beard roller in a clean case to ensure it stays clean between uses.

Other implications to keep in mind with using a beard is ensuring you use the right length needles.

The longer the needles the more intense the injury sites become & although the method of microneedling involves causing damage to the skin in order to activate the natural healing process, too much damage can lead to over stimulation and actually cause hair to fall out prematurely.

Dr Russell Knudsen from The Hair Loss Show on YouTube touches on this in the video we cited earlier in this post.

He also states that in order to activate the hair growth cycle, we want to ensure the needles are just long enough to penetrate to the bulge area of the hair. In the scalp, the bulge area sits roughly about 1.5mm below the surface of the skin so it’s more suitable to use a 1.5mm derma roller when treating the scalp.

However, because the skin on our face is far thinner than the skin on our scalp, using a 0.25mm - 0.5mm derma roller on your beard is more suitable.

How To Use A Beard Roller At Home

When it comes to actually administering the treatment, you’ll want to do multiple passes over each patchy area for maximum effectiveness.

It’s recommended that you do 10 - 20 rolls in each target area in 3 different directions. Horizontally, vertically & diagonally.

Here’s a quick video from Thomas to explain:

Video Transcript

Well, good morning, everybody. So, it is the morning after I actually did my first dermaroller session.

I had a few things going on last night where I was like, "Ah, I can't like do this and explain what's going on," so I thought I would do the session and get a little bit of B-roll to illustrate what needs to go on. And then I thought I would wait until this morning to elaborate on that.

So, yeah, what I did was I ended up doing the session on my beard and also on my forehead, you can see my forehead's still a little bit red. And the feeling that I have is my face feels almost as if it was sunburn, just where it's like a very faint sting.

I'd say it's got to do with the dermaroller creating the micro-injuries, and now my skin is beginning the healing process. But, nonetheless, it didn't turn out too bad. I was quite red after it, both on my beard and on my forehead, but, yeah, overall pretty simple and easy. So, in this part of the video I just wanted to explain just a few important things about when you're doing dermarolling.

So, first of all, needle length is a really important thing to take into account. With the dermaroller study that we saw from the International Journal of Trichology, the dermarollers that they used in that study were 1.5 millimetres in length, and the reason that they're that long for using it on something like the scalp is because the skin on our scalp is a lot deeper than the skin on our face.

And I did see in the research phase, as well, a really good video from the Hair Loss Show, with two doctors here from Australia, I can't remember their exact names right now. They elaborated that the effectiveness of dermarolling actually happens when the needles can reach the bulge area of the skin, so that's around where the hair follicle sits and where the hair growth cycle occurs.

So, in the scalp 1.5 millimetres is great for that, but when we're using dermarollers on skin that is thinner, i.e our face or our beards, something shorter is far more practical for that kind of thing.

And most beard rollers that are on the market, they'll be about 0.25 millimetres to 0.5 millimetres. The one that I have, is there a 0.5 millimetres. Yeah, I don't feel like my skin's too damaged, like I was just saying before, it just feels like very slight sunburn. And I'm guessing the more I do it the more used to it my skin will get.

The other thing to cover is frequency, so how often should you be doing this? Well, it's recommended anywhere from two to three times per week. I'm gonna start off slow because I've never done this type of thing before, I'm just gonna start by doing it twice a week.

I'm gonna go on Mondays and Fridays. Yesterday was a Friday so we've begun the process, and then on Monday I'll do my second session, and then the following Friday I'll do it again. And the reason you shouldn't be doing it daily, or anything, and you should be leaving a gap in between each session is because, like we've discussed, dermarolling is causing tiny injuries.

So, just like when you're at the gym and you tear the muscle, you need to give it a couple of days to repair and then work at again so it gets stronger and stronger. And that's kind of the same idea with this.

So, yeah, spacing it out properly is good. The other thing to take into account, too, is obviously hygiene. So, these are little needles that are penetrating the skin, they're going underneath the surface layer of the skin and it's very, very important that your skin and the dermaroller are clean before you attempt this.

So, when it comes to cleaning, using something like isoprobic... I think that's how you say it. Isopropyl, that's it, isopropyl alcohol is a really good solution for cleaning your dermaroller. What you wanna do before use is dip your dermaroller into a pot of isopropyl alcohol for about a 60 to 90 seconds. And then after that, I just took it out, put it upside down, let it dry off a little bit. And whilst that was happening, then I cleaned my face.

Cleaning your face thoroughly is a good idea too, because if you've got dirt and gunk already sitting on the surface of the skin, when you puncture it you could risk pushing that gunk into the skin, which can cause all sorts of yucky infections and crap like that.

Then, when it comes to actually rolling it on your beard, it's recommended that anywhere from 10 to 20 rolls on the areas that you're trying to treat is best. Now, again, because this was my first time doing this I just went with 10 rolls in each section. And you also have to take into account the direction that you're rolling in.

So, for example, if we're looking at this side of my face here, we've got vertical, diagonal and horizontal rolling that we need to do. And that's 10 rolls on each area you're trying to treat. So, if I'm going vertical and I do my 10 rolls here, I then need to move along and do 10 roles here, and then move along and do another 10 rolls here.

If I'm doing diagonal I'll do 10 rolls this way, then move up 10 rolls this way. And then when I'm going horizontal I'm gonna go 10 rolls, 10 rolls, 10 rolls.

That's how we wanna make it work. And afterwards it is normal for your skin to feel a little bit agitated 'cause you've just pretty much injured it. A little bit of redness is known to be normal. Yeah, it's pretty much as simple as that.

And then after you finish your session, as well, it is really important to sterilise the dermaroller again. So, popping it back into isopropyl alcohol is a good idea too. This time for a little bit longer, three to five minutes should be enough to kill all of the germs on the dermaroller, and then after you finished with that storing it back in your case so it's very clean and sterile and ready for the next use.

And by sterilising it again before you use it, that way you're making sure all bacteria is definitely dead and gone before you're putting it into your skin. You wanna kind of treat it like a toothbrush, you don't want it going into all of these different dirty places from bag to bag, to place to place, it's just gonna pick up more bacteria.

Keeping it clean is probably the most important thing if you're gonna go through with this. So, yeah, the last thing I wanted to touch on, as well, is aftercare. Everything I've read pretty much indicates using like a beard serum, or something soothing, on the skin is best practise to help soothe the skin afterwards.

I did also read that you shouldn't clean your skin again for a minimum of four hours after doing dermarolling, okay? So, once you've done your whole face, if that's what you're gonna do with this thing, like I am, then you should wait about four hours and then you can clean your face again, and off you go.

During the next three months I will be documenting here and there, just having little sessions, maybe giving a look at my progress, that was the other thing I wanted to mention. It is also important to make sure you do get some sort of before and afters, all right?

There's no point in going through with something like this if you're not gonna measure results, so I did get a little pan of what it currently looks like now, and then as the six months unfolds I'm gonna compare the footage that I got last night with the footage that I get in six month's time. And I'm hoping that the density is gonna pick up in my face. But, again, we won't know until we get there.

So, yeah, the next check-in that I'll be dropping should be around December. When I asked Google what date it would be in three months, she said, "The 27th of December." Now, that is around Christmas time, I don't know how on the ball I'm gonna be with content making at that time so my first check-in might go live sometime in January, which will at least be over three months and we'll be able to see if anything's happened.

And, obviously, we'll continue on with the journey. That's pretty much in a nutshell my first session, feeling good about it, it wasn't too tricky it didn't take too long, and I'm looking forward to doing that check-in, all right?

Now we're gonna flick back to my other setting and I'll wrap up this video. Thanks for watching.

Beard Rolling In Review

So now we’ve done our diligence and taken a good hard look at all the supporting scientific and anecdotal resources available to support that using a beard roller might be an effective solution, let’s summarise what we’ve learnt.

Beard rolling is modality also known as microneedling/collagen induction therapy that has been scientifically proven to induce new collagen production in the skin and stimulating hair growth hair growth factors by creating multiple superficial injury sites that activate the skin’s natural healing process.
Although microneedling has been proven to stimulate the hair growth cycle, there is no scientific studies to support that using microneedling to expedite beard growth but there are multiple anecdotal resources from influencers backing the idea.

Beard rollers have also become a popular cosmetic retail item indicating there’s a market for this and it would seem dumb for business owners to invest in an idea and product that doesn’t get results and expect it to be a sustainable business model which suggests their products must work to some degree.

Beard rolling should only be looked at as 1 component that MAY contribute to growing a thicker, fuller beard and should NOT be looked at as a 1 stop shop solution.

Other factors that play a role in growing a healthy beard include our genetics, hormone production and taking good care of yourself to ensure your body has all the things it needs for growing strong healthy hair.

Adequate hygiene when undertaking this kind of therapy is paramount and you should never share your beard roller & keep it clean before and after every use by soaking it in isopropyl alcohol.

The recommended needle length for your beard rollers should be between 0.25mm - 0.5mm for best results.

Recommended usage of your beard roller is 2 - 3 times per week to ensure the skin has adequate time to heal in between treatments.

10 - 20 passes over the target areas in a vertical, horizontal & diagonal direction is recommended for best results.

The hair growth game is a marathon not a sprint so expect to wait upwards of six months to see significant results so patience is key.

Wow, that’s a lot of information to take in right? After reviewing all of the above, it’s clear to us that a beard roller is certainly worth consideration if you’re serious about growing more facial hair.

Obviously, the other factors we’ve covered in the post also play a large role in making this whole pulley system work so if you’re going to give beard rolling a go, you should also think about how you’re going to accommodate those other factors in your lifestyle before pressing the play button just like Thomas In Action did in his introductory video at the top of this post.

And that brings us to the end of the post for now.

Make sure you bookmark this post for later as we’ll be sharing Thomas’ 3 month update which at this point in time is due in December!

You can also subscribe to Thomas’ YouTube channel to stay up to date with his beard roller experience by clicking the subscribe button below.

We hope you enjoyed this post for now and we look forward to seeing you in 3 months!

Beard Roller Results: 3 Months Later

Video Transcript

Hey, guys, and welcome back to the channel. Today, I'm gonna be checking in with my three-month update of using a derma roller to try and thicken up my patchy facial hair.

If you're brand new here and you've ever wondered if these beard roller thingies actually work, you've come to the right place because three months ago, I wondered exactly the same thing. And from there, out of my sheer curiosity, I decided to explore the science behind these.

And based on my findings, I was actually very intrigued and decided to test it out over a six-month period, just to see what happens.

So, you are joining halfway through the party, and if you wanna go back and get the full scoop on everything I found out about these things, episode one will be linked in the description box for you. And also, just before I forget, I'd love you to smash that love button today if you like what you see for the Altube Yougarithm, because that means that my content will reach more people.

Anyway, today's video is really going to be covering my honest thoughts about using this thing over the last three months because there is a lot of thoughts that I've had. And then later on, I'm gonna be covering the results that I've noticed in the last three months. So buckle in.

Picking up from where we left off, over these last three months, I've tried to be as diligent as possible with using this thing.

The commitment I made initially was to perform two derma roller sessions per week on my facial hair. And what actually ended up happening was Wednesdays and Sundays seemed to the days that work best and sometimes Thursdays as well, because let's be real, a lot of the time, I just forgot. It's a new thing that you've gotta add into your routine and personally, I don't love fussing around in the bathroom for any longer than I have to. I'm an in-and-out kinda guy.

Mm, In-N-Out Burger. No, but really, one derma roller session ended up taking me anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. And that's just my facial hair. If you did watch episode one, you'll know that I originally was keen on testing this derma rolling sequence out on my whole face just to see if I could get a better glow in my skin as a bonus.

But if I had of stuck to that, I would've been stuck in the mirror for well over an hour every time I did a derma roller session, and spending an hour in the mirror is just completely against my values. So it didn't end up happening, okay?

The facial hair is as far as I'm gonna go with this. So if we're talking about my honest opinion, the first thing I now think when I look at these is like, "Wow, that's 20 minutes I'm never gonna get back." And that might be because I am a lazy groomer, I don't know, but that's how I feel about it.

The other thing I found a little frustrating about my experience with this was the aftercare process. So after a derma roller session, you're meant to whack your beard serum on to help boost the growth cycle.

And then you shouldn't wash your face for about four hours afterwards so the skin has time to calm down and it kind of prevents further irritation, from what I've read. But the thing is, in my normal routine, cleaning my face is usually the last thing that I do before I go to bed, and I feel weird if I go to bed without a freshly-washed faced. I don't know if I'm just a weirdo, but I'm really weird about it, hey. So on the nights when I use the derma roller, I've kind of gotta swap around my whole routine because you have to have a clean face before you actually do the derma roller session, and you can't wash for four hours after the session. So if I'm doing that just before bed, it really kinda fucks with my rhythm.

And yeah, okay, I could just make the time in the morning after washing my face to do my derma roller session, but the mornings for me, they're like, go, go, go, man. There's no extra time in the morning to fluff around.

So doing something like this really works for me better at nighttime, when I can take my time with things, I can really do things properly, because when you gotta spend a lot of time on something, I just hate rushing, it's something that I'm not a fan of.

So that's one thing that really kind of pissed me off. Speaking of clean faces though, I do think this would be a perfect time to introduce today's sponsor, which is Tiege Hanley. Tiege Hanley are my go-to face wash heroes.

As I was saying earlier, I'm an in-and-out kinda guy and it's almost like they were thinking of me when they developed their product line. It's that uncomplicated, I could probably do it with my eyes shut. Although, I probably wouldn't recommend that.

The skincare system I currently love using from them right now right before bed is the level three system, because it's got everything that I need and nothing that I don't. I've got a gentle daily facial cleanser. I've got an AM and PM moisturiser.

A twice-a-week exfoliator scrub. I also get some eye cream. And my most recent favourite is the Super Serum, which gives me that really fresh, firm feeling before bed on days when I'm not derma rolling. And what makes everything really quick and easy is each system comes with a step by step guide that shows you how much product to use and in what order to use it, so you get the best results and save money by not wasting product.

It's a win-win scenario. There's also no locking contracts so you can cancel your subscription at any time, and all Tiege members inside the US get free shipping, and they also do worldwide shipping for a small fee. The other notable thing I need to mention about Tiege Hanley is they've committed to a closed loop recycling plan which involves post-consumer recycled material in their packaging, in an effort to reduce their environmental impact.

They're also making it easier for Tiege members to return their packaging so that packaging can be recycled into new packaging, instead of being chucked into landfill. And honestly, after all of the shenanigans that went down at COP26 this year, I think it's the most imperative time for us as consumers to look at what brands we're investing in, because businesses have a huge responsibility in how the economic system works.

So the fact that Tiege have started doing stuff like this makes me even more proud to talk about them on here as a sponsor today. If you'd like to give Tiege Hanley a try, you can click the link in my description box to get started for just 30 bucks, and they'll also chuck you in a free gift with your first box.

But for now, let's get back to my thoughts on derma rolling. So other than the process being a little bit more time consuming than I'd like and that it's messing with my routine a little bit, I must say, the pain of using one of these isn't as hectic as I thought.

After my first session in episode one, I described the feeling as a sun-burnt feeling the following day. But the more I've been using this, the less irritated my skin is becoming the next day.

Now, that is kind of a double edged sword too, because if we look at the science behind how these things work, initially, what we come across is this thing is supposed to purposefully make injury sites, micro injury sites on our skin, which then causes the body to start the healing process as well as the hair growth cycle.

So technically, my thought was, if my skin's getting used to this, does that mean it's becoming less effective? I just wasn't sure. So I guess it's another point that I need to go and research a little bit more on. And I want you to leave that one with me 'cause I'll get back to you in the next episode about that.

Anyway, so that's kind of what my experience with using one of these things has been like in the last three months. But the real question is, is it working and have I noticed any differences? Well, the short answer is yes, I have noticed a difference, but not in the way that I typically hoped. Let me explain.

So my original goal with this whole thing was just to see if I could increase the density of my hair in the patchy areas, like down here. And what I understood from all my research prior was, by doing the derma roller session, we were gonna wake up any dormant hair follicles that could possibly be sitting underneath here to help bring more hair out.

And in all honesty, there doesn't appear to be a blatant difference in the density of the hair here. However, there is significantly more hair starting to appear higher on my cheeks.

Now, I've always shaved my cheek line to remove any stray hairs that would sit above here. I used to have have six or seven that would sit above the line that I would shave. And that's the reason I used to get rid of them because they looked kind of outta place.

What I'm noticing now is, on these cheek areas that I'm talking about, it is starting to feel stubbly, it's not six or seven hairs anymore, and I'll be very interested to see what it looks like in another three months. It did also cross my mind that I might be noticing better results up here rather than down here because the derma roller has direct needle-to-skin contact in this area.

Whereas the needles, when I use it on this area, kind of have to go through a layer of hair which could have made it less effective. Again, I'm not sure, and I may even shave my face completely bare for this next stint so the needles have an even distribution on the skin.

I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see, but in review, I'm still keen on continuing this and that, I shall. Thank you so much for watching this far in the video. If you did like what you see today, please make sure you give it a thumbs up up for the Altube Yougarithm.

And yeah, this is my last video for 2021, by the way. How scary is that? 2022 is just around the corner. I really do feel like next year is gonna be a great year. And I guess that's another thing, we're just gonna have to wait and see. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss my next update, and I'll see you next time. Catch you later. Oh, am I sweaty? I think I'm sweaty. Bye.