Does 15% Minoxidil Take Longer To Dry Than 5% ? Pls Help

[Massive]

I wanna order DualGen 15% from MinoxidilMax.
Just got 2 questions.

- Do both version of DualGen 15% - with PG and 'No PG' both take longer to try than a say for example Kirkland 5% liquid minoxidil ?

- Between the two version of DualGen 15% with PG and No PG, which one takes longer to dry?

I'm fine with the PG, just wondering regarding drying times. Thanks guys, have a good day

 

[GoldenMane]

I used that same stuff for over a year. Not sure if it made any difference tbh. From what I've read the maximum amount if minoxidil that can be dissolved in propylene glycol/ethanol mixtures is about 8% w/v. While there may be 15% in the bottle, about half may crystallise out of solution so you end up with about 8.
If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me, but I haven't noticed any significant difference from my personal experience.
Propylene glycol dries slower and penetrates your skin better. Ethanol dries slower and doesn't penetrate as well afaik.

 

[transam]

I used that same stuff for over a year. Not sure if it made any difference tbh. From what I've read the maximum amount if minoxidil that can be dissolved in propylene glycol/ethanol mixtures is about 8% w/v. While there may be 15% in the bottle, about half may crystallise out of solution so you end up with about 8.
If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me, but I haven't noticed any significant difference from my personal experience.
Propylene glycol dries slower and penetrates your skin better. Ethanol dries slower and doesn't penetrate as well afaik.

so, 8% is about as much as the human skin can absorb?

 

[Jameston]

so, 8% is about as much as the human skin can absorb?

No

He means 8℅ is that maximum amount of minoxidil the solution can hold. Although I believe it 15% is possible if the ethanol percentage is high enough. Dr Lee also supplied 15℅ for yeaes.

 

[Massive]

I used that same stuff for over a year. Not sure if it made any difference tbh. From what I've read the maximum amount if minoxidil that can be dissolved in propylene glycol/ethanol mixtures is about 8% w/v. While there may be 15% in the bottle, about half may crystallise out of solution so you end up with about 8.
If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me, but I haven't noticed any significant difference from my personal experience.
Propylene glycol dries slower and penetrates your skin better. Ethanol dries slower and doesn't penetrate as well afaik.

You used DualGen 15% specifically ? Forget about the 8% and the crystallizing issues with 15% minoxidil, I've already seen it discussed plenty times. I guess I could get 10% for it to be more value for money. I've seen lab tests of Xandrox (not Dr. Lee, but the new rip off company) and their 15% minoxidil showed 11% in lab tests so for me it's still better than regular 5%. Besides, I'm gonna use it for my beard and not my hair, so I guess I could benefit from anything higher than 5% minoxidil.
Bottom line, could you please from your experience give me a comparable drying time of the 15% minoxidil to regular 5% minoxidil ? And did you use a PG or non PG version ? Thanks a lot.

 

[GoldenMane]

Yeah I used dualgen 15 from minoxidil max. Drying
G time is about 90 minutes to 2 hours, same as the spectral UHP 5% or any other minoxidil I use

 

[GoldenMane]

Thing about ethanol is it doesn't penetrate as well as pg so less of the minoxidil reaches your follicles. K9gattob uses a 30% cream which he states is effective, you should contact him about it

 

[Massive]

Thing about ethanol is it doesn't penetrate as well as pg so less of the minoxidil reaches your follicles. K9gattob uses a 30% cream which he states is effective, you should contact him about it

Thanks man. I understand you used the PG version right ? Did you get lots of flaking/dandruff with it ?
I already talked with k9gatton about his 30% minoxidil cream, it's just as easily obtainable especially for people outside the US, but I could if I wantes to using a redirecting shipping address, plus that stuff is expensive and u need to pay $50 consulation fee, although I might try it later on eventually.
Although I might be wrong on this but I think that the 15% no pg will still be more effectice than a regular 5% solution.
By the way, fo you think the PG is the main reason for the flaking ?

 

[GoldenMane]

About the same flaking as 5%. For me all minoxidil seems about the same in effectiveness, drying time and flaking. It needs to sit on your skin for a long time to absorb properly and ethanol evaporates too quickly in my opinion though I'm no expert. If you buy the normal dualgen, pg 15, then you'll probably get around 8% in solution that sits on your skin long enough to absorb which is still significantly higher than normal 8%. I imagine 10 and 15% MM dualgen have the same amount on solution -8%. Would love to see tests though...

 

[Baldyman]

When I was looking around the web for info on minoxidilmax I came across an older thread in this forum from back before the fda started cracking down on high concentration minoxidil where a user sent his dualgen 15 to a lab and the concentrations turned out to be around 13% to 15.2% depending on how old the stock was. If you do a forum search you may find the thread dated around 2010 or 2011. On another forum some guy said acid was needed to dissolve higher concentrations of min and that is why these businesses started adding azelaic acid into the solutions. As to whether higher min is any better than 5% min I have know clue. This hair loss fight seems like trial and error and hoping for the best. The 10% min looks a sweet spot to me in terms of bang for buck and risk vs reward but it's always tempting to go with a higher 15% option hoping you can get better results. 30% min sounds crazy though.

 

[Jameston]

Have you though about using it 2-3 times a day instead of upping the Percetage? Should be more effective.

 

[Massive]

About the same flaking as 5%. For me all minoxidil seems about the same in effectiveness, drying time and flaking. It needs to sit on your skin for a long time to absorb properly and ethanol evaporates too quickly in my opinion though I'm no expert. If you buy the normal dualgen, pg 15, then you'll probably get around 8% in solution that sits on your skin long enough to absorb which is still significantly higher than normal 8%. I imagine 10 and 15% MM dualgen have the same amount on solution -8%. Would love to see tests though...

Well thanks for your input man. It's a good thing to know that it takes about the same time to dry off. It does sound that 15% is a bit of a shady area, and 10% would be the sweet spot and more bang for the buck. I did a quick search trying to find the thread (or few threads maybe) that I saw in the past on HLH where someone sent his Xandrox 15% minoxidil (not Dr. Lee's Xandrox, but the new company unrelated to him) to a lab test and it came back 11%. I couldn't find it now and I don't have time to look around now, I'll try to find it later. Regarding MinoxidilMax it self, I'm not aware if anyone tested his 15% solution, but I'd like to know as well.

When I was looking around the web for info on minoxidilmax I came across an older thread in this forum from back before the fda started cracking down on high concentration minoxidil where a user sent his dualgen 15 to a lab and the concentrations turned out to be around 13% to 15.2% depending on how old the stock was. If you do a forum search you may find the thread dated around 2010 or 2011. On another forum some guy said acid was needed to dissolve higher concentrations of min and that is why these businesses started adding azelaic acid into the solutions. As to whether higher min is any better than 5% min I have know clue. This hair loss fight seems like trial and error and hoping for the best. The 10% min looks a sweet spot to me in terms of bang for buck and risk vs reward but it's always tempting to go with a higher 15% option hoping you can get better results. 30% min sounds crazy though.

Makes sense.
By the way, I plan on using the higher concentration minoxidil only for my beard. For my hair I'm using the foam and I don't plan on changing that anytime soon. Therefore I have zero concern of shedding and sh*t like that. But I completely understand people's worries when using shady higher percentages minoxidil on their hair, even if I was given a year's supply of 15% minoxidil for free I'm not so sure I would dare to use it for the hair on my scalp.

Have you though about using it 2-3 times a day instead of upping the Percetage? Should be more effective.

Trying to do that when I have time. I originally got the idea from:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/steroids/190433-saturated-my-head.html
I admit I'm greedy but I just want to give 15% a try, especially for areas like the stache and soulpatch where 5% minoxidil hasn't helped much.

 

[Massive]

Jesus. I deserve a knock to the head. Most of the answers were on MinoxidilMax's DualGen-15 page. I was just too oblivious to scroll down.
https://www.minoxidilmax.com/dualgen-15-no-pg

Q. Which product should I choose between DualGen-15 NO PG or DualGen-15 with PG?
...
The use of glycerin in DualGen-15 NO PG eliminates any scalp irritation caused by propylene glycol that is seen in ~10% users. It also slows down slightly the drying time.
...

Unless I didn't understand them correctly or they misworded it, it seems like the no pg formula with glycerin dries slower than the pg one?

Q. How long does it take to dry DualGen-15 NO PG or DualGen-15 With PG?
...
DualGen-15 takes slightly longer time than regular 5% minoxidil (such as Rogaine liquid or Kirkland 5% minoxidil) to dry due to the fact that it has larger amount of minoxidil and additional effective ingredients. If properly applied, most of the product should be absorbed within one hour. You can wash you hair 2 hours after the application.
...

@GoldenMane

Q. Two main reasons why azelaic acid is added to 15% minoxidil solution?
...
Without azelaic acid and other additives, you can only get up to 6 to 7% minoxidil in a solution consisting of propylene glycol, water and alcohol. Can one get minoxidil up to 15% minoxidil by using 5% azelaic acid? The answer is no. You can only about 10% minoxidil without additional technical increase the solubility of minoxidil.
...

So it seems like they do acknowledge the general conscious of 7%-8% highest concentration in a regular formula. Whether you can trust them, that's another story. I'll probably end up buying from them either the 10% or 15% unless I find a better alternative.

 

[Baldyman]

Yeah I missed that info myself, never more than glanced at the 15% products page. So it seems that not even azelaic acid can fully dissolve 15%. The other solution I read was to use trace amounts of phosphoric acid but really the 15% is probably unstable thus the labs showing some of them sliding down to 13%. If you're just going to use it to max your beard then yeah a lil loss in concentration probably won't make a big difference (not sure if it will make a difference for the scalp either). As for minoxidilmax meh I guess I'm willing to trust them for now, certainly more than all the other underground guys with the more exotic (and expensive) stuff.

 

[GoldenMane]

So what do MM do to get above 7-8% minoxidil solutions? Is it phosphoric acid? Somebody really needs to do a test!

 

[warner8]

minoxidil above 8% crystallizes out of solution. so if u have anything above 8% and its in a clear liquid solution and no crystals, then you are not getting the high percentage you were promised. higher strength minoxidil can exist in a cream form.

only way yo get true higher strength minoxidil is with a dr script and made by a pharmacy.

 

[Massive]

@Baldyman @GoldenMane

Upon searching older posts on the forum I found this one:

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/threads/dualgen-minoxidil.77992/

I had a long "issue" with MinoxidilMax more than one year ago, because I had just gone through a depressing shed and I wanted to be sure that their products really contained the labelled amount of minoxidil. Both MinoxidilMax and me sent several bottles to the same US laboratory. The fact is that one of their lots of 15% minoxidil, which was more than half a year old, had only 13.9% minoxidil (which is, however, still within acceptable limits). This is probably due to the lower long-term stability of 15% minoxidil. But the fresh lots were fine and very accurately dosed (14.9%, 15.0%, 15.3%). So if you don't buy stores for 1+ year ahead, you shouldn't worry.

And one more important note: Don't order high minoxidil concentrations during frosts in winter. The minoxidil will easily crystallize and you would have to heat the bottle in order to dissolve it again.

I got some DualGen 15% No PG to try.
brb grizzly adams beard in a few months

 

[barkla]

Please keep us posted. I am curious to see how it works. i am still debating if I need straight dualgen-15 or the one with topical finasteride.

 

[Massive]

Please keep us posted. I am curious to see how it works. i am still debating if I need straight dualgen-15 or the one with topical finasteride.

Sure I will keep u posted, I believe it should arrive in a week. Just keep in mind I am gonna use it for my beard, and not hair. I am already seeing slight improvement with my hair (not beard) on my 4th month with minoxidil foam, and I'm not sure I wanna move up to higher minoxidil concentrations just yet, although I'm very tempted to jump on the 15% bandwagon.

I would first like to see how my body reacts in terms of systematic absorption with the 15% minoxidil, so I'll be using it on the beard for now.

Regarding topical finasteride, I have the EssenGen-6 Plus, which is 6% minoxidil with 0.05mg finasteride per 1ml. I wanted to give a bit of a boost to my regime and I thought about adding topical finasteride in conjunction with oral finasteride which ive been taking for 7 months now. The thing is im quite 'allergic' to PG and even tho essengen-6 plus has low pg i still got itchy scalp, although not as bad as the normal minoxidil, so I quit it after a week, i dont wanna take risks with pg solution after what happened to me with regular liquid minoxidil.
Its ur choice to take minoxidil with finasteride, i would just be slightly worried that if ur alrdy taking finasteride u might see inceased shedding for a while bcuz of the higher dosage. If ur not taking finasteride at all then id just take actual finasteride instead of relying on the finasteride in the minoxidilmax solution.

 

[Massive]

Please keep us posted. I am curious to see how it works. i am still debating if I need straight dualgen-15 or the one with topical finasteride.

An update. Kudos to MinoxidilMax for their shipping speed but they sent me the wrong minoxidil. They sent me DualGen-15 With PG and I ordered without PG. I hope they sort it out for me.