The subject comes across once in a while, but to many type 1's the change in hair color is as important as the skin darkening, especially for real gingers like me. In a way it could be considered a "cure for gingerness."
I've experimented with different dosages and noticed the change in hair color is dose depending. I never got higher than 1mg a day and at that point lashes and body hair "start" darkening although a slightly higher dosage would even be better in regards to live a "normal" life as a non-redhead.
I just notice that the hair darkening part is often ignored on this board, but going from loading to maintenance and back to loading could give dark - back to lighter - back to darker growth which is very notiecable and unnaturally looking.
That's also the reason why I'm looking forward to topicals like forskolin or topical melanotan 2 to see if this part could be controlled with it much easier.
Just hope to elaborate on this as for many of us it might as well be an important part in enhancing our looks.
Also very interested in an alternative for the hair darkening effects of MT2. My ginger beard goes black on MT2 which I really like almost as much as the skin darkening effect.
Would be really great to find an alternative to keep my beard black while not dosing on MT2.
What you mentioned about going from loading to maintenance is true for me my beard will be jet black from daily doses and within 2 weeks of going to 2 or 3 doses a week it goes back to a very light brown color with some of the ginger hairs starting to grow back. I have had people ask me before why my beard is black one week and light the next I have actually just started back on daily injections to get my beard dark again.
Certainly is a topic would like to see discussed more and a possible topical solution discovered
It's absolutely dose depending and an M2 effect having a big impact on how we look, especially for those with natural light and - or red hair.
We can keep talking about tanning and how much we need but I think most people want to look natural. A redhead with pale beard, lashes,...will look fake when being dark skinned.
The forskolin ( and maybe melitane or topical M2) could give be the answer.
Cool topic Djen. Do you feel your response to hair color changing is unique or occurs in the majority (with genetic backgrounds similar to you and I)?
Certainly agree that hair darkening is a plus. In my experience synthetic melanocyte stimulating hormone removes the strawberry and leaves the healthy blond. I fear that dosing melanocortins with specific aim to alter hair color leads to diminishing returns rather quick...a tan may develop too dark & might outshadow cosmetic benefit.
Up until this year I would have agreed with the hypothesis that dosage amount correlates with hair darkening. Now my belief is that dosage frequency has just as much to do with results....
Well I've lowered the dose for a while without changing the frequency and it got lighter.
The weird thing is]The thing is: higher doses are required for hair darkening and consistency is important.
For skin you can say]
Before melanotan, I dyed my hair regularly and even with the best products I constantly got the question: do you dye your hair? With melanotan it's very natural. The only thing is I'm going grey and M2 doesn't seem to darken them, at least not on the doses I tried so far. That's also why topicals would be a good alternative to target a specific area.
Is it odd in your opinion that I not once noticed melanotan usage changing hair on my head? A few dark hairs on the body sprout up, my beard grows dark and the back hair the wife trims/shaves could be darkened...all of which are hardly noticeable...and always appear natural. I am shocked to learn about experiences when hair starts growing in a total different color. How red is your hair to begin Djen? What color do you go for when you dye it?
well to be honest, my hair was orange. I've had it natural just a few times as an adult and when I entered a restaurant or a shop, people started laughing. As a kid even teachers thought I was some sorta walking, talking joke.
It's a color you barely see, really the brightest orange you can imagine. When I dyed it, I wanted it to become brown, but most of the time it got too dark. With melanotan it looked more natural, it turned medium brown.
Topical M2 might work systemic, maybe topical forskolin or melitane is different. Really about time to investigate it.
I've always had that extraordinarily blonde hair, like the kind of blonde that brunette girls get when dyeing, so they can move to Miami to drink and party. The most fake blonde you can go, except for me it's natural. With MT2 I see it turning just slightly darker, so it doesn't look fake. I only experience this on my head. Facial hair is practically see through, so I have to shave it all off so it doesn't look like I have incredibly small spider webs all over my face.
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I've always had that extraordinarily blonde hair, like the kind of blonde that brunette girls get when dyeing, so they can move to Miami to drink and party. The most fake blonde you can go, except for me it's natural. With MT2 I see it turning just slightly darker, so it doesn't look fake. I only experience this on my head. Facial hair is practically see through, so I have to shave it all off so it doesn't look like I have incredibly small spider webs all over my face.
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it's probably dose depending, a higher dose would most likely turning everything darker.
the thing is; I have never gone any higher than 1 mg. At that point my facial and head hair was a medium to dark brown, but my lashes, eyebrows and body hair had only gone from yellow to dirty blonde, it was darker than the original lashes but still didn't match the color of my head hair. Most likely something like 1,2 mg would cause a deeper darkening so you look "cured" from gingerness. The thing is: you would need to maintain it constantly, skipping a week would give you an awkward look for a while and a topical would be more practical to treat "smaller" areas for this purpose.
I regularly dye my lashes but the irregular growth makes it look very odd after just two days already. People underestimate what it does to have a normal look.
And that's the thing I don't* like about the whole melanotan, forskolin,....thing. A traditional doctor will say: use hair dyes and sunless tanners but in the end you look fake. They consider your will to do it at a pigment level as crazy as what Michael Jackson did and often see you as a freak but in the end: I don't want to look like a freak. I want to look normal.
I think it should be normally possible - at least based on my own but still not really extensive experience with MT2.
I´m not sure if you (Djen) are male or female but you should have some experience with either beard --> dark color or "genital hair" --> dark color when on MT2. In other words what you regularly and completely shave will rise again but in dark color as long as you dose regularly (every day, then perhaps every other day).
High doses (1+ mg) are IMO not required, what is IMO more important is regular and decent dose (0.4mg - 0.5mg).
The only problem is that if you are girl/female then shaving your head can be a bit problematic or just too big obstacle unless you are fan of Sinead O´Connor.
Anyway anything I shave went dark and anything I don´t shave stayed more or less the same (blond hair on arms/legs) so thats why I see the obvious pattern here. I also did not have much sun exposure at the early weeks (damn weather, I refuse sun beds) and that could also be the factor. I really liked the theory of one guy on some other phorum where folks discussed whether "loading phase" is actually needed. His theory was that it is useless as it only creates moles]So if it is not your skin what gets dark, the more can remain for all the hairs. That is it ...
I'm male and have been through all the stages of: daily high doses, daily lower doses, EOD, weekly, biweekly,.... and in my case dose was the most important thing in darkening. Daily lower doses only darkened the hair on my head so the other features didnt match it. I did everything for a long period of time. With shaved hair, lashes growing out, shaving body hair, so up to 1 mg doses I know what it does to my body and I know to what extent the hair on each part of my body gets darker.
I did notice that the side effects went away after a few days, even on higher doses.
The reason why I started this topic and why additional topicals would be a positive thing is that many redheads just want to adjust their new skin type to a new hair type without the use of unnatural looking dyes.
don't know how reliable it is but the product troppo mentions on the LEF forum seems to have cured a ginger: http://ask.lef.org/224/How-to-reverse-grey-hair?PageIndex=132* also check page 131
when I do not get sun for several years, then my hair turns pink. So the sun is important for hair color.
I'm on day 54 and cumulative 25mg. When I was on 250mcg/ED, my head hair starts darkening, later my beards, and later my pubes hair. Other hair is unchanged.
I'm at the beach for 4-7 hours every day and my hair (head, beards, pubes) is now black (was light brown before MT2).
I'm on 700mcg/ED now, still without significant sides. I hope that my light eyebrows and eyelashes are dark.
I also think we shouldnt forget that weight is an important factor as well. 0,5 mg in a small woman equals 1 mg in a tall and heavier man.
In my experience lashes and eyebrows need more M2 to darken and probably even more than what I've used so far to match the head hair darkening.
Would be great to understand the mechanism. Why head hair already darkens on low doses and you probably need high doses to reach the same effect on eyelashes. That would most definitely make a topical so worth it.
Hi Djen,
I totally understand you
I'm a redhead, and I would do anything to find a way to get darker hair.
These days I'm using hair dying products that has ashy shade (7-1, 8-1), but it looks better when I used MT2 and got my hair naturally darker. actually, I really like my hair color when I used MT2- it gave me a darker ginger shade- really unique and beautiful.
I hope we could find an alternative because Im really exhausted from coloring my hair (plus, I got scratching and itching in my head, which is a sign of allergic. and I tried a lot of products).
it's so good to know that people understand this problem and go face the same kinda insecurities. We should work on this as a team. The topicals have been proven to turn pheomelanin into eumelanin, so there's definitely a way to make it work. If somehow anyone would know a dermatologist ( an openminded one as most are not), formulator, scientists,....don't hesitate to talk about it. It could help us further.
I also fully understand the problems that is to be a redhead gingers. I have light brown hair and ginger-orange bodyhair, and I HATE it. Especially I hate red beards. So I always have shaved all the red hair off.
Doctors do not understand this problem og said, do not take sun. But it helps a lot if I take sun, my hair colour go darker, also without melanotan.
Redheads are beautifull if the skin is light brown/golden.
Melanotan really helps redheads with sun allergy, rosacea, and so one.
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