are you wearing the hair piece in both pics? I can't tell
you are not even a NW2 yet. Unless you are wearing the hair piece in that picture, which I can't tell. If you have seen your hairline recede at all, hold a ruler up to your face and measure the distance from the bottome of the tip of your nose to the top of your eye brows. then measure the distance from the top of your eye brows to your hair line. Divide the second distance by the first distance. It should be about 0.8, though a few people are lower than that. Also watch your temples and make sure they don't look thinner than the center and are not more than 1/4 inch higher than the center. And another big one is to look at your vertex every few months. I've read posts by men who never knew there vertex was going until it was too late. My brother was one. From what I can see you are not loosing any hair. If you do get concerned and want to save your hair with propeicia but can't handle the side effects, make topical finasteride. This will give your follicles a higher dose while giving your body a much lower dose that you can handle. Most of the DHT damage in your hair is done by the DHT in your follicle, not the serum. The testes and some glands make testosterone, which goes to cells, which is where the 5AR molecules are which make DHT. They make what they need, and some leaks into the blood and is constantly replaced. Propecia nocks them out in hours, and DHT levels drop fast as well as the Liver gets rid of the small amount in the blood. You only need a topical because only the local DHT intracellular DHT really matters. The rest is maybe 10% of the problem.
In studies with ground up proscar pill paste, almost no good results came. This is because the paste is so think that the finasteride in all but the very bottom surface can't diffuse through the paste to the surface of the skin. Absoption is better in liquids or thin lotions, not pastes.
My topical finasteride (not the pastes that don't work) is good fro people who get side effects from Propecia but might tolerate very small doses or just want a higher concentration to their follicles. Shedmaster wanted more detailed directions, and I think this thread is more on this topic than my original post.
Since 5% minoxidil is close to the saturation point (7.5%), I would not want to risk precipitating more by putting some pill powder in it. Maybe some sugar would dissolve and compete with the minoxidil. The 2% minoxidil should be fine, though.
Step 1:
Cut a pill up as many times as is convenient with a pill cutter in 30 seconds or a minute without making a powdery mess or having difficulty. Just make small chunks with the closed top pill cutter so they don't get all over the place.
Step 2:
Dump the chunks in a shot glass or somthing with a small diameter for holding a small amount of fluid. It must be strong enough for grinding.
Step 3:
Add a few drops of 70% isopropyle rubbing alcohol to the chunks. This helps them break and keeps chunks from flying.
Step 4:
Use the handle of fat handled fork (one of those with plastic handles you can get at a 99 cent store) or some other medium hard, non-porous, rounded rodlike object that fits in the vial or shot glass but is not hard enough to scratch the glass. Very important if you don't want to get cut. Plastic is better.
Step 5:
Use that handle to grind the chunks up very good. Make a fine powder paste. Any chunks that are not fully crushed contain finasteride that will not get dissolved in the next step.
My homemade topical finasteride (not the pastes that don't work) is good for people who get side effects from Propecia but might tolerate very small doses or just want a higher concentration to their follicles. Shedmaster wanted more detailed directions, and I think this thread is more on this topic than my original post.
Since 5% minoxidil is close to the saturation point (7.5%), I would not want to risk precipitating more by putting some pill powder in it. Maybe some sugar would dissolve and compete with the minoxidil. The 2% minoxidil should be fine, though.
Step 1:
Cut desired number of pills (see bottom of post) up as many times as is convenient with a pill cutter in 30 seconds or a minute without making a powdery mess or having difficulty. Just make small chunks with the closed top pill cutter so they don't get all over the place.
Step 2:
Dump the chunks in a shot glass or somthing with a small diameter for holding a small amount of fluid. It must be strong enough for grinding.
Step 3:
Add a few drops of 70% isopropyle rubbing alcohol to the chunks. This helps them break and keeps chunks from flying.
Step 4:
Use the handle of fat handled fork (one of those with plastic handles you can get at a 99 cent store) or some other medium hard, non-porous, rounded rodlike object that fits in the vial or shot glass but is not hard enough to scratch the glass. Very important if you don't want to get cut. Plastic is better.
Step 5:
Use that handle to grind the chunks up very good. Make a fine powder paste. Any chunks that are not fully crushed contain finasteride that will not get dissolved in the next step.
Step 6a:
If you have a shot glass:
Fill the shot glass half or 2/3 the way with 2% minoxidil or 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol. (5% might not dissolve it fast or you might loose minoxidil as a powder.) Hold it with one hand and seal the top with the other. Shake vigorously for 10-20 seconds. Put it down and let it settle for however long it takes while you rinse off your hand.
Step 6b:
If you just have a minoxidil bottle and ground the stuff on something else:
Use some 2% minoxidil or 70% isopropyl alcohol to rince the paste into a minoxidil bottle. Wipe and stir up the paste as needed so that you can rinse it off the grinding surface without using more than 1/3 a rogaine bottle volume of 70% alcohol or 2/3 a rogaine bottle of 2% minoxidil to rinse the paste into the bottle.
Step 7: Once it has settled enough that you see powder on the bottom and most of the volume is transparent liquid above it (it helps if used a clear vial or shot glass instead of a rogaine bottel), pour most of the liquid into anther rogaine bottle while being careful not to shake up the powder. You need to leave the behind, though a small amount is OK. If it shakes up, let it settle again, and next time use your rogaine dropper to suck the top off one mL at a time without agitating the powder on the bottom.
Step 8:
Rince the remaining powder down the drain. Probably 90% of the finasteride is now in your bottle.
Step 9:
Add minoxidil 5% or 2% to your new solution, to increase the minoxidil concentration. If you can't handle the 5%, use 2%. If 2% is too strong for you, then you should have just used the 70% isopropyl alcohol. The propylene glycol in rogaine is what irritates your scalp, but it also is what makes absorption go so well. This is a trade off that you will have to decide on. Your bottle now probably has 4.5mg finasteride depending on how well you ground it and shook it. You can dilute this with your other minoxidil or isopropyl alcohol to the amount you can tolerate without side effects.
Dosing:
To probably give your scalp the same finasteride concentation that 1mg/day orally would give, and give your body the same concentration that 0.05mg/day orally would have, the solution you would make from full proscar pill or 5 propecia pill should last you 50 days. Round it to 60 if you want and just dilute the bottle with a fresh minoxidil bottle.
This means you grind proscar or propecia pills per month. Proscar has more finasteride and less filler and will give you better solutions because less will be stuck to the filler.
To probably give your scalp the same finasteride concentration that 20 mg/day orally would give, and give your body the same concentration that 1 mg/day orally would give, whatever solution you made from one full Proscar pill or 5 propecia pills should last you 2.5 days. You need 12 Proscar pills or 4 finasteride pill for one month. It is hard to make less than a bottle, so the topical better not break down in a month. I use 4mL 2x a day, so I can use 3 pills and one bottle for 1 week if I want.
Minoxidil 2% and 5% are available at walmart in the equate brand for $17 for a 3-month supply. Proscar is $85-110 for 30 tablets.
Topical dutasteride is easier. Just squirt 4 capsules into month supply of minoxidil or 1 capsule into a week supply. This amount won't should be very therapudic and is the maximum dose guaranteed not to touch the 5AR1 in your brain. Higher doses are probably safe too.
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While 1/3 of testosterone in patches is absorbed, and testosterone is very similar molecularly to finasteride, only 2/3 of finasteride is absorbed in the intestine, and is diluted in the body for systemic effects and used by the prostate, while the hair problem is in the follicle's own DHT production.
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Disclaimer/validator
Bryan agrees with me that both topicals are safe, but doubts I have any proof that finasteride or dutasteride are stable in Rogaine or will be absorbed or will not be swept away by the blood before entering the follicles if they are absorbed. I plan to use both topicals in case one is not absorbed, and use them in 1 week batches to reduce the chances of break down, even though I doubt it will occur with the dutasteride.
