@sushi_is_cringe @wester130

All I've seen is that everyone says rosemary is better, including the Perfect Hair Health youtube channel IIRC. With peppermint, there were some studies done on mice that showed regrowth, but no studies on humans that I'm aware of. Rosemary was studied on humans and shown to be as effective as minoxidil.

I do think peppermint is beneficial. It's antifungal/antibacterial and increases blood flow. It's in the Dr Bronners castille soap I use as shampoo, so I get rosemary and peppermint. Both bases covered.

@sushi_is_cringe

Sometimes I mix it with castor oil. Sometimes I just do the rosemary and massage/gua sha. Depends on what I have time for. It's harder to wash the castor oil out of your hair than the rosemary oil.

I also make a homemade shampoo using Dr Bronners castille soap, and I put some rosemary oil in that along with other ingredients that are good for regrowth.

@Mossy

I don't know, what's the thought process @wester130 ?

Maybe you can leave it in longer than the oil since it isn't as messy and potently fragrant. I can only do one hour or two with the rosemary oil. Stuff is strong.

@wester130 Some studies have shown rosemary as effective as minoxidil, definitely a good bet. Some people reported tea made from the leaves as effective. I'm using the oil. I'm having good regrowth, but since I'm doing so many other things I can't say if it's the rosemary. I think it's helping. I can definitely feel it has an effect on the scalp after using it.

Also, diclofenac update: Still no side effects. Still using same dosage. Every other day/every few days.

I've grown basil the last few years, it's amazing in stir fry. I got almost addicted to it, I wonder if my body was craving the effects it was having without me consciously noticing

I know what I'm definitely growing again this year
I'll probably do italian basil and holy basil to test out both.

@LetTheRedeemed

You're still doing the magical thinking. Metabolism doesn't change nearly as much as you think, and all that change does is change your BMR/TDEE. It's physically impossible for you to retain weight if you are in a caloric deficit. Gym bro culture has been over this a million times.

Changes in metabolism/BMR/TDEE is accounted for when you're losing weight. You have to recalculate TDEE after losing a lot of weight. Preferably every month on a diet, or when you plateau with weight loss. The same is true when gaining weight. It's very EASY to recalculate and find your maintenance/deficit levels by WEIGHING yourself every day. When you lose weight consistently, you've found your deficit levels. Tons of handy calculators for this online.

Fat doesn't make you fat. Neither does protein or sugar. Eating over your maintenance calorie level (caloric surplus) does.

@Pooooop It doesn't matter what type of macros you're eating if you're not in a caloric deficit. You could eat pure sugar all day and if you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight.

Thyroid function being optimal will definitely help make it possibly easier to lose weight, but all that is doing is increasing your BMR/TDEE. You can leverage that to lose more weight, just like people leverage cardio and working out to help lose weight. There's so many threads from people on the old forum talking about how they got fat "Peating". No shit. You were slonking down gobs of coconut oil and honey/sugar on top of all the other food you eat and didn't add any exercise. If you told that to ANY gym bro, they'd be able to tell you why.

There's a lot of magical thinking in this sphere that calories/CICO doesn't exist or doesn't affect losing weight. It absolutely does. You have to consistently eat less calories than you're burning to lose weight. Just how it is.
Millions and millions of people have proven and science has conclusively proven that CICO is real.

Read about BMR/TDEE. Understand it. It will be EASY to lose weight after that if you're honest with yourself and consistent.

Used the diclofenac 4 times now, no side effects whatsoever. Using 1/4 - 1/2 the upper body dose amount from the dose card.

@Insr Yeah I could be wrong. I don't disagree with the overall ideas presented, just wish he was a little more straightforward with the info. Seems like he hides the "how" in his memberships.

@tubert

You need to pair it with other things. I'm doing a whole routine....
Microneedling, homemade growth shampoo, minoxidil, ketoconazole shampoo, rosemary/castor oil/tea tree oil topical massages, oral castor oil.

Just last month added (will take a 1-2 months or more to determine if these are helping): Diclofenac, regrowth vitamins, gua sha stone as a tool to better massage and move blood around in the scalp, probably will help relax any tight head muscles which can cause hairloss. The gua sha stone is amazing, anyone going the scalp massages route should definitely get one.

And only microneedle at 0.5mm, it's been studied and the depth with the most benefit is 0.5mm. Check out that Youtube video by Perfect Hair Health I linked above.