Freeze branding II
I used the end of a bottle-brush as a strike and then decided it looked too much like a flower petal to do just one. I'm rather curious as to whether anything will be visible once the erythema goes away, since freeze branding is supposed to make white marks but the inside of my arm is pale to start with.
Angela: "Did you try to kill yourself?
Labels: body modification, lab, stupid
posted by xenobiologista @ 23:25
5 Comments:
I'm really interested in freeze branding, not for the scar itself, but because it is said to alter the color of hair growth above the scared area. I'm a hairy guy and this really appeals to me. Unfortunately, there are no professionals I can find who do it.
I do have a few questions for you though. How long did you leave the metal on your skin? Do you think liquid nitrogen would have worked better? What does it look like today? how long did it take to heal?
It's all but invisible now. I came to the conclusion that the thin piece of wire was too thin to hit enough tissue.
I did another experiment using a large screw eye as a strike and that was large enough. However, the scar is very blotchy so I'm probably not going to blog it. This was partly due to carelessness and partly due to an idiosyncrasy of my own skin.
Some hairs in the area have grown back and they're black =(
DO NOT use liquid nitrogen. I dug up an old paper from the 1960s in JAVMA (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Society) where they tried it on several animals and they found that LN2 was far too cold for any animals except cows and horses. Human skin is far thinner than cowhide.
If you care to give me your email address I can email you the JAVMA paper. (Just post a comment, I'll copy your add then delete the comment so it's not visible.)
Actually, I've been doing some research as well. Nickel is said to be the best metal, as it holds the temperature the longest. Liquid Nitrogen is okay, but when used on cow and horses, the brand is applied for anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds, according to all the freeze branding information I've read. On colts and foals, with thinner skin, the brand is applied for 12 seconds. My problem is how to gauge the thickness of a foal's skin to that of an adult human. As for liquid nitrogen, which not everyone has access to, a 100% isopropyl alcohol solution and dry ice is an acceptable alternative, but is dangerous due to the flammability of the solution, as well as the vapors given off.
I planned on trying a 1/4th inch thick nickel strike submerged in an isopropyl/dry ice solution and applying it with about 40lbs of pressure for 6 seconds. If the hair continues to grow back dark, then I'll up the applied time to 9 seconds, and then to 12. If the hair grows back in white, success! If nothing grows back, then the amount of time the brand was applied was too long, causing the death of the hair follicles, and will need to be scaled back in small increments.
I've spoken to several veterinarians who argue that the process won't work on humans, as the biological structure of the hair follicles on the hides of cows and horses differ than that of humans, so where as the follicle on a cow or a horse will freeze partially, killing the section that produces the coloration, in a human the entire follicle would freeze and die. I find this hard to believe since they call it horse HAIR for the fact that it IS very similar to the hair on the human body. When I asked these veterinarians how much medical training they've had on humans, the answer was always none, and when I asked how they knew the process wouldn't work, the answer was always "that’s what I've been told" so I find it hard to take their professional opinion to heart when they have no first hand experience.
If anyone else has any insights, I'd love to hear them before I go ahead with my experiment.
Based on my experience and that of one of the QOD consultants (Sean Philips) on BMEzine.com, I don't think freeze branding in humans will result in white hair re-growth. I did more extensive freeze-branding on my leg (will write up and post photos later) and while it left some decent-looking scars, the hairs in the area that grew back are definitely NOT white.
As for Mr Philips' experience see here: http://iam.bmezine.com/qod4.exe?cmd=dosearch&q=freeze+brand&subject=0&staff=0
What I learned from doing my leg:
- isopropyl alcohol turns goopy at the temperature of dry ice and resulted in blurred outlines. 95% ethanol was much better.
- extending contact time beyond 15 s resulted in excessive tissue damage ergo, more blurring.
Re what you said about what the veterinarians said: Just because hair is hair doesn't mean that you can't have different types of hair. Cows and horses have MUCH thicker skin that humans (that's why we make leather out of it, duh). It's quite possible that freeze branding a thick-skinned animal kills off the melanin-secreting cells without killing off the deeper cells that produce the hair itself, whereas in humans this may be trickier or impossible to calibrate.
Long story short...don't do anything stupid like freezing half the skin off your scalp to look like Cruella De Vil.
Detailed description of hair follicle development: http://8e.devbio.com/article.php?ch=12&id=128
Post a Comment
<< Home