I used up my spironolactone shampoo months ago. I thought my hair had gotten thicker, but I don't know if that was from using nizoral/spironolactone combo every day and was just the nizoral doing that, or if it was just an illusion since my hair was growing out.
I did not make more yet because i was worried about whether there were any reactions or if it stayed fresh. But those worries were just in theory. I never smelled or saw anything weird. The shampoo just immediately took on and kept the minty smell of the spironolactone tablets. After re-reading this thread, and seeing that some docs made a spironolactone/keto combo, I guess I'll give it another go. spironolactone is more stable at pH 4.3, and I think keto is more stable closer to 6, but that does not mean they break down right away at the other pH; it might just mean you have to use it up in smaller amounts and can't leave it on a store shelf for a year.
The reason I put some PG in my shampoo was to keep it liquidy, since a lot of powder will probably make it too thick. I also know that PG dissolved spironolactone, though i don't use much PG, so it is not a big dissolving factor. Just better than water, and very mixable in the shampoo.
Recipe for 1% spironolactone: gride up 18 100mg spironolactone pills as finely as you can. Any small chuncks might not dissolve and will result in less spironolactone in your shampoo. 80% of those pills is just cellulose, which will not dissolve. Don't worry if it sits at the bottom. But some spironolactone might get attracted to it again later, so you need to stir it up now and then. This adds about $5 and some labor to the cost of your 180mL nizoral bottle. I try to leave it in my hair 5 minutes, but I don't time it. Just depends how long it takes me to clean my body. I'm not going to stand in the shower doing nothing.
I'm going to add a little white curcumin, egcg, apple poly, tea tree oil, and rosemary, totally at most 1%, to my piroctone olamine shampoo (ginger bodyshop, on amazon). I rotate that with the nizoral.
I might use a 2% peppermint essential oil, 1% lavendar essential oil, 90% everclear, 7% DI water spray on my virtex once a day. Not sure if I want to buy that stuff or not. But I am going to get rogaine foam for just my vertex, and try to make it last more than a month per can. They are $13 per can now.
