Sebutape obtained. Am testing 3 topicals/results next week

[michael barry]

Ive finally gotten around to getting some sebutape from cuderm.



Ive tested my sebum levels at roughly one hour and ten minutes on various parts of my forehead and face. My levels were 5 to 5+ on my forehead and about 4-5 on my cheeks.


Sebutape needs to be used on good flat surfaces to keep the tape from wrinkling, and these three places are all oily, but relatively flat so that a good measurement can be obtained.



Liang and Lau tested human forehead sebum with ECGC for 6 days. Im going to do the same thing. Im on day two now.


Here is where Im applying various things.:

1)Right forehead right above eyebrow area----lavender and water at about a 1% concentration. Previously sebum in this area measured at 5 or slightly more at 70 minutes.


2)Left forehead right about eyebrow area----beta sitosterol, basically drained from a capsule and smeared on. Ive got to get this done quick becuase the capsules are pretty old and expire in May---LOL. Previously sebum in this area measured at 5 or slightly more also at roughly 70 minutes.


3)Left cheek-----green tea with alcohol carrier. I made green tea strong, about four times stronger than green tea that you would drink, and put it with perhaps 30% alchohol.




For anybody using sebutape, you are supposed to clean the skin with soapy water or alcohol and dry it before using the tape to get a good measurement.

In the future, I might try and buy some fluridil (Im out of that at present) and test that. Cedarwood is another topical that it would be intriguing to test. spironolactone is something that spironolactone users might want to test for themselves, and I might eventually test out of curiosity. Im applying my topicals twice a day.

I expect to have to do another round with the other topicals at some point, or even the same ones with carriers (lavender for intstance might benefit from a carrier, but peppermint certainly didn't need a carrier to have a dermatological effect----just water). If I have success, we will all know that at least one of these has topical efficacy, and if not.......................we will know that in the formulations that I tried, they did not.

What I can tell you at this point that IS good news is that none of these topicals seem to be inflammatory in any way to the treated area and that is good news. Something might have anti-androgenic potency, but still might inflame the follicle enough to mitigate any good it does (think about all those Revivogen users who claim a inflamed scalp).


See you all in about a week..........

 

[follicle84]

Interesting experiment. I like hearing stories about alternative hairloss cures. Keep us updates on your progress. Good luck.

 

[bornthisway]

Looking forward to the testing. I am going to be starting RK this week, it seems hit or miss like all things hair related, worth investigating though.

 

[Bryan]

Ive finally gotten around to getting some sebutape from cuderm.

Did you get the Skin Indicators, and not the other ones?

Ive tested my sebum levels at roughly one hour and ten minutes on various parts of my forehead and face. My levels were 5 to 5+ on my forehead and about 4-5 on my cheeks.

I suggest that you NOT rely on that numerical scale they provide. Save and directly compare all the test-strips themselves. It's more efficient and accurate to put one strip right next to another, and see which one has more spots. CAUTION: over a period of time, the spots on the used test-strips do slowly fade away, so you can't keep them around for a long time. I suggest keeping them in storage for a maximum of a week or two.

Sebutape needs to be used on good flat surfaces to keep the tape from wrinkling, and these three places are all oily, but relatively flat so that a good measurement can be obtained.

Exactly. Try to avoid areas of your skin that contain large lines or creases, because that may queer the results a bit.

For anybody using sebutape, you are supposed to clean the skin with soapy water or alcohol and dry it before using the tape to get a good measurement.

Uhhh......not sure what you mean by that. Can you clarify exactly what you mean, Michael? That statement can be taken in a couple of different ways, and ONE of those ways is very very bad!

 

[michael barry]

Uhhh......not sure what you mean by that. Can you clarify exactly what you mean, Michael? That statement can be taken in a couple of different ways, and ONE of those ways is very very bad!

The directions say, and I literally quote: "Cleanse the facial areas to be evaluated with an alcohol swab or mild soap solution. Rinse and dry thoroughly.
Carefully lift the patches from the carrier sheet and appy to the cleansed skin sites. Smooth the patch till it adheres closely to the skin surface. After one hour or other suitable time period remove the patches and transfer to the black rectangles on the storage card.



Ive saved the first samples and have stuck them back on the strip tape (the back), and am keeping them in the airtight bag. I think they will be OK for a week, and thats all I need them to be good for.

 

[CCS]

I want sebetape. Can you PM me where to get it? I want to test stuff. I don't have fluridil anymore, or RU. Not saying I would have paid for them anymore anyway, unless they were very good.

I have EGCG, spironolactone pills, levender, peppermint, licorice, and a few other things.
I want to test each at 1-2%, different times, different days, different areas.

And most importantly, I want to test different vehicles to see which absorbs best, and test the pure vehicle as a control.

How expensive is the tape? If I want to do at least 40 runs, would that cost a lot?

Lavender dissolves freely in ethanol, not water. Water might disperse it if you shake it up, but the water will not carry it in, unless the small droplets penetrate on their own.

Grean tea is 120mg per 8oz cup at standard concentration. That is 0.5mg/ gram wich is 0.05%. Why not buy some EGCG for $18 for 25 grams. Or it is $12. I forget. Then you can make 1% or 2%.

Please do give us detailed reports that can be re-tested by others. Science is all about repeatability.

 

[michael barry]

CCS,

http://cuderm.com/products_sebutape_rd.php


Thats where I bought mine.




CCS, look at this:

Licorice, even though being very anti-androgenic and inhibiting alpha five reductase AND inhibiting androgen receptors, seems to do something that is bad for hair period as rat-neck hair has shown in experiments like this one:

Epilatory Effect of Glycyrrhizic Acid
Zaper, Julijana;1 Kakadjanova, Aina;1 Pfeffer, Jeannette;1
Kippenberger, Stefan;1 Bereiter-Hahn, Juergen;2 Kaufmann,
Roland;1 Bernd, August;1
1. J.W. Goethe University, Dept. of Dermatology, Frankfurt/
M., Germany; 2. J.W. Goethe University, Dept. of Zoology,
Frankfurt/M., Germany
Hypertrichosis, hirsutism and giant hairy nevus are well
known examples of abnormal hair growth with some
risk of a significant negative impact on the psychosocial
development of affected people. So far, all known methods
for hair removal are more or less effective and show
partly considerable side effects like pain, skin irritation,
contact eczema, folliculitis, and hyper-pigmentation. In
co-operation with a study group of Turkmenistan we found
a new principle of painless and rapid hair removal based on
liquorice, a commonly used herbal extract of the traditional
Asian medicine. In the meantime we defined the liquorice
compound glycyrrhizic acid to be responsible for the
epilatory effect. We dissolved 15% glycyrrhizic acid in an
aqueous solution containing 10% urea and 20% ethanol
and treated wistar rats in the neck region twice a day.
After 3 days first indications for hair loss became visible.
After 6-12 days the treated skin was nearly free of hairs
without any sign of skin irritation. Even after a periodically
long term treatment over one year no abnormality of the
skin surface was visible, but a permanent reduction in
re-growing hair quantity by more than 50%. Based on
these findings Glycyrrhizic acid is a candidate molecule
for the development of a powerful agent for painless and
permanent hair removal.




Short answer is this: I dont know, but the PERMANENT fifty percent reduction in rat neck hair would seem to indicate that licorice, despite being a particularily potent anti-androgen, also does something to hair (or body hair anyway) that lasts well after any anti-androgenic effect should have passed away upon stoppage of treatment-----seeminlgy indicitaive of being "bad" for hair period. Licorice according to a Japanes study that Ive posted over and over, both inhibited alpha five reductase and inhibited androgen receptor binding in the skin, making it a super-powerful topical anti-androgen. Curcumin, licorice, and pepperimint are used in skin lightening products if memory serves. I wonder if there is a connection there?


.

 

[CCS]

Then I'll use it on some body hairs the laser is not getting, such as the blond ones on my knees, and my neck beard. I considered using my neck beard for BHT, but I think the hairs are a bit too curly, and my neck is very visible to women, compared to my calves. If this is any good though, it could save me money on electrolysis. There are a couple other places the laser is not getting, If it is good enough, I could save a lot of money.

 

[CCS]

I went to the site. I have to set up an account before they will show me the price. How much did you pay?

 

[michael barry]

90 bucks.....................I screwed up and got both kinds of their products. One is sebutape (what I wanted) and the other measures skin scaliness.


But I have enough sebutape strips to test everything I'll ever want to test in this fashion.




I dont think they had anything under about 80 bucks. They have like 2000 strips for 200 dollars I think it was.

 

[Bryan]

The directions say, and I literally quote: "Cleanse the facial areas to be evaluated with an alcohol swab or mild soap solution. Rinse and dry thoroughly.
Carefully lift the patches from the carrier sheet and appy to the cleansed skin sites. Smooth the patch till it adheres closely to the skin surface. After one hour or other suitable time period remove the patches and transfer to the black rectangles on the storage card.

Oh no! You got the skin patches, not the Skin Indicators!

I don't have any experience with what you got. Oh, well...

 

[Bryan]

I want sebetape. Can you PM me where to get it? I want to test stuff.

I suggest the Skin Indicators, rather than the Patches (although I haven't actually used the Patches). You can get the "Sebutape Skin Indicator Lab Kit" for $40, which includes a roll of 100 Skin Indicators. That should be enough for your testing!

When I got mine a few years ago, I just called Cuderm at their office in Dallas and talked to the woman who answered the phone. She was very nice, and I just gave her my credit card info, and she sent it right out to me!

 

[Bryan]

Here's a link to a thread I started three years ago on an acne site about a test I did with Sebutape, and it even includes a link to a scan I made of the actual Sebutape test-strips that I used:

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/FINALL ... 81548.html

If you use the Skin Indicators like I did (not the Skin Patches), I suggest using an experimental protocol very similar to the one I used. I described it in considerable detail in that thread.

BTW, what I was testing in that thread is the so-called "feedback theory", which claims that washing your skin stimulates it to produce more sebum (see the last item in my signature file). It was easy to use Sebutape test-strips (Skin Indicators) to disprove that theory, and it was a lot of fun doing it!

 

[michael barry]

Oh no! You got the skin patches, not the Skin Indicators!

I don't have any experience with what you got. Oh, well...

No, I have the skin indicators......................but they also sent the scaliness indicatoirs for whatever reason. Obviously I dont need those.


I should be testing Friday. Im eagerly anticipating the results yea or nay. Fluridil and spironolactone are also things we should end up testing......cedarwood also.

 

[SoThatsLife]

Mr. Barry, do you plan to test keto and p-o, just so you could compare those to the other stuff your testing?

 

[CCS]

Those would be interesting to test. Nizoral is supposed to mostly be an anti-inflammatory, and PO an anti-oxidant. But would be interesting to see. Lavender too.

 

[Guest]

So, how did it go?

 

[michael barry]

Here is where Im at gents.


Ive tested three topicals. Ive smeared topical beta-sitosterol on warm, wet skin above one eyebrow. Ive put topical lavender/water above the other eyebrow. Ive put strongly-brewed green tea/alcohol on one cheek (about four times stronger than you'd drink).

This has went on for about 2 weeks now. Ive not missed much.



Lavender and water at this point seems to have reduced the sebum secretions a little more than the other things, but it isn't much. Maybe a 20% reduction or thereabouts
They all have had a "slight" depressing effect on sebum output, but there is no "wow" effect like peppermint had on suppressing hair growth. I honestly think that peppermint, perhaps through uptick in a negative growth factor, might be bad for hair period.





This is what Ive decided to do. Ive added alcohol as a carrier with the lavender and have added some cedarwood oil to that mix. Im going to continue to put it on one side of my forehead for another week and retest.


I will probably buy a months supply of fluridil and test it and see what kind of reduction it has in secretions at some future point. I "may" buy some green tea extract and mix it with alcohol and water in a very strong mix at some point in the future. Ive got plenty of sebutape, and want to get the possible "home" topicals tested and get it over with. I dont think I'd ever be willing to permanently use spironolactone (too much of a pain-in-the______), but I may test it at some point.


Testing one side of your forehead against the other is the best and easiest test to do. In about 7 days you should certainly have "some" result there.



I should be reporting back in about one more week with the lavender/alcohol/cedarwood results vs. the other side of the forehead.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Michael Barry, sounds good, please keep us updated like you said, I will check back on this thread in a weeks time.

In what way is peppermint bad for your hair? and would drinking peppermint tea be bad for hair too?

 

[michael barry]

In what way is peppermint bad for your hair? and would drinking peppermint tea be bad for hair too?

I put peppermint oil/water at about a 1/40 or so concentration on one half of my chin for three months over a year ago. It severely reduced the beard whiskers there vs. the other side. It was a "wow" effect. However, its taken a long time to start regrowing as well as the other side. In fact, its still not come back completely.

I dont know if its upregging tnf-alpha as someone has suggested or what, but I have a feeling that something in peppermint might just be bad for hair period. We know that peppermint is an alpha five reductase inhibitor courtesy of a Japanese study (google it) in human skin, and that peppermint/spearmint teas have been shown to be somewhat effective against hirsutism in women (Turkish study on pubmed), but if it was "good" for hair, then menthol shampoos would be known hair-growth stimulants by now. They are not, why is this? JTelecom, over at another site, has noted that when he has used mentholated hairloss shampoos in the past, his hair will look worse, not better. I guess the only way to find out would be to put menthol on some non-androgenic hair (like eyebrows) for several months and see if it had a negative effect on it...............