The point of topicals is to give your scalp first shot at the meds before your prostate hogs it all and your body gets side effects. While everything you put in your scalp eventually will probably get to the rest of your body, you can treat your hairs and make sure that DHT inhibitors take a few 5AR's with them when they go to your body, thereby reducing side effects.
1. Pores are the highways for topicals. Many topicals can penetrate skin, but entry through the pores is much faster. This is why rats absorb more than humans and the scalp absorbs more than your hands. (sorry guys with near shiny heads)
2. Liquids are almost always absorbed better than solids no matter how thin the solid is. And if the solid is thick, any part not touching the skin (like the second layer of solid and everything above it up to the surface of the solid) is not going to enter the skin. Pastes are very similar.
3. The contact time is also a factor. If the liquid dries up in 2 minutes, that means the active ingredient had only 2 minutes to penetrate the skin. I hope it all went in. The reason minoxidil should be left on for 4 hours is so it has more time to enter, though about 75% of the amound that will enter has entered after 2 hours.
4. The drug must be soluble in the carier vehicle (the liquide you are using). If it is not, you just won't get it on, or the active ingredients will be solid.
5. The higher the concentration and amount of drug you use, the more that will go in until the scalp is saturated, but also the lower the percentage of the total drug that will make it in. If you use 1mg/mL and 80% goes in, then perhaps if you use 30 mg/mL only half will go in, but you still get 15mg instead of 0.8 mg.
6. Mixtures of liquids evaporated faster than pure liquids, and solutions of dissolved solids evaporate slower than their pure liquids. The higher the boiling point of a liquid, the slower it evaporates. So isopropyl alcohol is slower than ethanol, and water is slower than isopropyl, and propylene glycol is slower than water, and glycerol is slower than propylene glycol, and a water/ethanol misture is slower than pure ethanol but faster than water, and (at 50%) is closer to the ethanol's rate than the water's.
7. If you put a think topical on your head, only the part in contact with yoru scalp will be absorbed, and this layer is thin. In order for the rest of the active ingredients to enter, they must diffuse through the past to the surface of your skin, and this is extremely slow if the past is thick or the active ingredient is not soluble in the paste. It is like trying to walk from new york to san fran before your next show. The only benifit is their is a little time release if you leave it on for 12+ hours, but it will probably dry by then and be useless. This is why I strongly recommend liquids.
8. The ingredients I listed are generally safe. Infact, the glycerol in dutasteride is safe enough to swallow that small amount. If you leave your arm in a vat of isopropyl alcohol for an hour, you'll absorb enough to make you sick. However, the amount used on your scalp is probably OK.
The alcohol in Rogaine is ethanol, the same stuff in beer. Because of my inability to know which liquids will go through the scalp, I recommend you stick to rogaine and 70% isopropyl alcohol. Do not use the kind of rubbing alcohol that is ethanol with some methanol. Not only will it evaporate faster, the methanol is more toxic than isopropyl alcohol, though is thought generally safe at this low dose.
9. I don't know why minoxidil is absorbed or how much is aborbed, and why propylene glycol does not go through the skin (at least in large amounts). Molecule size is not the only facter here. However, I do know that 4g of a 12g testosterone patch will go through the skin near a blood vessel in 23 hours. I also know that Dutasteride and Finasteride are similar to testosterone (this is how they fool 5AR to grab them instead of Testosterone. do a google image search to see the similaries), and that both do penetrate the skin. I do not know how much could make it through.
10. To make topical dutasteride, squirt a few capsules in Rogaine or 70% isopropyl alcohol. To make topical finasteride, thurough grind proscar, wet with rogaine, grind some more, mix in with rogaine or alcohol, shake well, let pill particles settle. If it is powder and there are no chucks, most of the finasteride should be disolved. Pour off the liquid into another rogaine bottle and try to leave the chucks behind, as they will interfer with absorption on your scalp. I recommend 0.5 - 6 pills per month, depending on what side effects you get.
1. Pores are the highways for topicals. Many topicals can penetrate skin, but entry through the pores is much faster. This is why rats absorb more than humans and the scalp absorbs more than your hands. (sorry guys with near shiny heads)
2. Liquids are almost always absorbed better than solids no matter how thin the solid is. And if the solid is thick, any part not touching the skin (like the second layer of solid and everything above it up to the surface of the solid) is not going to enter the skin. Pastes are very similar.
3. The contact time is also a factor. If the liquid dries up in 2 minutes, that means the active ingredient had only 2 minutes to penetrate the skin. I hope it all went in. The reason minoxidil should be left on for 4 hours is so it has more time to enter, though about 75% of the amound that will enter has entered after 2 hours.
4. The drug must be soluble in the carier vehicle (the liquide you are using). If it is not, you just won't get it on, or the active ingredients will be solid.
5. The higher the concentration and amount of drug you use, the more that will go in until the scalp is saturated, but also the lower the percentage of the total drug that will make it in. If you use 1mg/mL and 80% goes in, then perhaps if you use 30 mg/mL only half will go in, but you still get 15mg instead of 0.8 mg.
6. Mixtures of liquids evaporated faster than pure liquids, and solutions of dissolved solids evaporate slower than their pure liquids. The higher the boiling point of a liquid, the slower it evaporates. So isopropyl alcohol is slower than ethanol, and water is slower than isopropyl, and propylene glycol is slower than water, and glycerol is slower than propylene glycol, and a water/ethanol misture is slower than pure ethanol but faster than water, and (at 50%) is closer to the ethanol's rate than the water's.
7. If you put a think topical on your head, only the part in contact with yoru scalp will be absorbed, and this layer is thin. In order for the rest of the active ingredients to enter, they must diffuse through the past to the surface of your skin, and this is extremely slow if the past is thick or the active ingredient is not soluble in the paste. It is like trying to walk from new york to san fran before your next show. The only benifit is their is a little time release if you leave it on for 12+ hours, but it will probably dry by then and be useless. This is why I strongly recommend liquids.
8. The ingredients I listed are generally safe. Infact, the glycerol in dutasteride is safe enough to swallow that small amount. If you leave your arm in a vat of isopropyl alcohol for an hour, you'll absorb enough to make you sick. However, the amount used on your scalp is probably OK.
The alcohol in Rogaine is ethanol, the same stuff in beer. Because of my inability to know which liquids will go through the scalp, I recommend you stick to rogaine and 70% isopropyl alcohol. Do not use the kind of rubbing alcohol that is ethanol with some methanol. Not only will it evaporate faster, the methanol is more toxic than isopropyl alcohol, though is thought generally safe at this low dose.
9. I don't know why minoxidil is absorbed or how much is aborbed, and why propylene glycol does not go through the skin (at least in large amounts). Molecule size is not the only facter here. However, I do know that 4g of a 12g testosterone patch will go through the skin near a blood vessel in 23 hours. I also know that Dutasteride and Finasteride are similar to testosterone (this is how they fool 5AR to grab them instead of Testosterone. do a google image search to see the similaries), and that both do penetrate the skin. I do not know how much could make it through.
10. To make topical dutasteride, squirt a few capsules in Rogaine or 70% isopropyl alcohol. To make topical finasteride, thurough grind proscar, wet with rogaine, grind some more, mix in with rogaine or alcohol, shake well, let pill particles settle. If it is powder and there are no chucks, most of the finasteride should be disolved. Pour off the liquid into another rogaine bottle and try to leave the chucks behind, as they will interfer with absorption on your scalp. I recommend 0.5 - 6 pills per month, depending on what side effects you get.
), but for an interesting study that seems to disagree with your claims above, read the following:
