Hello guys. I wanted to share you my experience of using SMI as monotherapy for 6 months ( from +/- 06/15/2021 to 12/13/2021 ). I post it on the research subforum as it is the most visited subforum and as the subject is about an experimental drug. My discord pseudonyme is Sc0tt1sh.
APRIL
- I started SMI few days after receiving it ( we had to figure out what vehicle we had to use ). This was approximately in mid april. For one month, wich I don't count in my journey, I used a PEG400 - Ethanol based vehicle. It didn't work because of the lack of penetration.
- At the same time, I was using minoxidil 5% topically since 3 years, and I microneedled regularly, about once every two weeks.
- I started with 0.2mL on each temple at 0.625% once then twice a day.
MAY
- Then, in the middle of May, we figured out that we needed a DMSO/Ethanol dominant vehicle for SMI to penetrate skin layers. So I changed my 50/45/5 - PEG400/Ethanol/Tween80 vehicle to a 40/45/10/5 - DMSO/Ethanol/PEG400/Tween80 one. And then results started to come one month after these changes.
- Parallely, I stopped Minoxidil and dermarolling few days following this vehicle reformulation.
- I switched to a 1.25% concentration.
JUNE
- Results started to come out in the end of June. Before photo wasn't good but we could see a difference.
Here is my before Photo, around middle of May : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/0ngh.jpg You can see a little point that served as a reference to compare pics.
Here is the first pics I done, the 02 and 09 of June: https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/pi2b.jpg
And the most interesting pic of June, where we started to see the early changes : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/r7uq.jpg
As you can see, vellus were elongating more than thickening, and it started to fill some areas that were uncovered by hair since 1/2 years. My phone has a shitty objective, details aren't visibles, but I can assure you that there was a real cosmetical difference by the end of june.
- My shedding almost stopped.
JULY
- This month was the greatest when it comes to regrowth. My vellus were thickening and growing.
Pic : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/3n9m.jpg
AUGUST
- It continued to bring some growth. I took a pic the 8th august : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/i31k.jpg
- Then, it started to limp. I think it was due to 2 things. I became less consistent and, more importantly, I changed my ethanol source, I came from a 99% pure ethanol to 70%, I didn't have the choice. I think it had some bad impact on the dilution of smi, it made some weird vesicles in the batch, probably because of the presence of water in the 70% ethanol.
- Then, I started to shed again. It's not relevant to talk about September, nothing happened unless shedding.
OCTOBER
- I restarted using a proper vehicle with 99% pure Ethanol, and continued with 1.25% concentration solution.
- I took a new baseline. Right side : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/q5m0.jpg and Left Side: https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/6and.jpg
- As you can see, I lost almost all my gains.
NOVEMBER
- I increased the concentration to 2.5%.
- Took new pics : Right: https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/uqcq.jpg Left: https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/k8mn.jpg
- *painful*
DECEMBER
- I continued with the 2.5% concentration.
- Pics: Right : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/fpmp.jpg Left : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/83c9.jpg
- It gets worse and worse.
So, given the fact SMI doesn't work as monotherapy, I just added WAY at 0.4% concentration yesterday and restartde to microneedle today. I will probably add other things, but I'm pretty sad it didn't work. I knew it was risky to try SMI as monotherapy, but I really wanted to see if inhibiting prlr with a little inhibitor like smi could halt hairloss by isolating this drug. It is probably too weak, given his nature of competitive inhibitor and the fact it doesn't have a really strong affinity to PRLr compared to Prolactin.
Also, my experiment doesn't show that prlr inhibition isn't going to work. It shows that a "weak" inhibitor of these prlr is not sufficient to silence the PRL signalling efficiently. Some hypothesis (from @pegasus2 and others on the discord servers) suggest that we need to silence almost 100% of the PRL signalling to promote hair regrowth substancially. It seems to be the case.
I tried to make this as short as possible. If you have questions I'll answer it with pleasure.
Thanks for reading.
APRIL
- I started SMI few days after receiving it ( we had to figure out what vehicle we had to use ). This was approximately in mid april. For one month, wich I don't count in my journey, I used a PEG400 - Ethanol based vehicle. It didn't work because of the lack of penetration.
- At the same time, I was using minoxidil 5% topically since 3 years, and I microneedled regularly, about once every two weeks.
- I started with 0.2mL on each temple at 0.625% once then twice a day.
MAY
- Then, in the middle of May, we figured out that we needed a DMSO/Ethanol dominant vehicle for SMI to penetrate skin layers. So I changed my 50/45/5 - PEG400/Ethanol/Tween80 vehicle to a 40/45/10/5 - DMSO/Ethanol/PEG400/Tween80 one. And then results started to come one month after these changes.
- Parallely, I stopped Minoxidil and dermarolling few days following this vehicle reformulation.
- I switched to a 1.25% concentration.
JUNE
- Results started to come out in the end of June. Before photo wasn't good but we could see a difference.
Here is my before Photo, around middle of May : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/0ngh.jpg You can see a little point that served as a reference to compare pics.
Here is the first pics I done, the 02 and 09 of June: https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/pi2b.jpg
And the most interesting pic of June, where we started to see the early changes : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/r7uq.jpg
As you can see, vellus were elongating more than thickening, and it started to fill some areas that were uncovered by hair since 1/2 years. My phone has a shitty objective, details aren't visibles, but I can assure you that there was a real cosmetical difference by the end of june.
- My shedding almost stopped.
JULY
- This month was the greatest when it comes to regrowth. My vellus were thickening and growing.
Pic : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/3n9m.jpg
AUGUST
- It continued to bring some growth. I took a pic the 8th august : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/i31k.jpg
- Then, it started to limp. I think it was due to 2 things. I became less consistent and, more importantly, I changed my ethanol source, I came from a 99% pure ethanol to 70%, I didn't have the choice. I think it had some bad impact on the dilution of smi, it made some weird vesicles in the batch, probably because of the presence of water in the 70% ethanol.
- Then, I started to shed again. It's not relevant to talk about September, nothing happened unless shedding.
OCTOBER
- I restarted using a proper vehicle with 99% pure Ethanol, and continued with 1.25% concentration solution.
- I took a new baseline. Right side : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/q5m0.jpg and Left Side: https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/6and.jpg
- As you can see, I lost almost all my gains.
NOVEMBER
- I increased the concentration to 2.5%.
- Took new pics : Right: https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/uqcq.jpg Left: https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/k8mn.jpg
- *painful*
DECEMBER
- I continued with the 2.5% concentration.
- Pics: Right : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/fpmp.jpg Left : https://zupimages.net/up/21/50/83c9.jpg
- It gets worse and worse.
So, given the fact SMI doesn't work as monotherapy, I just added WAY at 0.4% concentration yesterday and restartde to microneedle today. I will probably add other things, but I'm pretty sad it didn't work. I knew it was risky to try SMI as monotherapy, but I really wanted to see if inhibiting prlr with a little inhibitor like smi could halt hairloss by isolating this drug. It is probably too weak, given his nature of competitive inhibitor and the fact it doesn't have a really strong affinity to PRLr compared to Prolactin.
Also, my experiment doesn't show that prlr inhibition isn't going to work. It shows that a "weak" inhibitor of these prlr is not sufficient to silence the PRL signalling efficiently. Some hypothesis (from @pegasus2 and others on the discord servers) suggest that we need to silence almost 100% of the PRL signalling to promote hair regrowth substancially. It seems to be the case.
I tried to make this as short as possible. If you have questions I'll answer it with pleasure.
Thanks for reading.