Topical Cetrizine for Hair Loss instead of Finasteride (Propecia)

Jasperdje

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hi guys, anyone else experiencing painful pimples from cet? just curious, i developed around 5 big ones. not shedding , but it seems my hair is feeling stronger & my scalp darker.

YES! cetirizine lowers your immune system so it's easy for bacteria to develop acne. I'm using cetirizine for almost 1 month now 10mg a day and have pimples overall, my immune system is f*cked up, not because of cetirizine but other medication, cetirzine just lowers the immune system and for me it was all to much. I'm on a antibiotic now and i'm clearing up. It's important to eat good, lots of vegetables and fruit tot keep your immune systeem good.
 

casperz

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Checking in, wanted to report a few things. I've attached a picture that shows clear rings on some of my longer
existing vellus hairs, it almost looks to me like the follicle is sputtering as it restarts growth. This is happening with a lot of
hairs now. The second pic shows how some of the small vellus hairs are thickening at the base. After almost 80 days of Cet
I think at the very least it's a replacement for Finastiride and the big3. We will know in about 3 months if it's better than that.

Since some of frontal hairs have been dormant for 20+ years I would expect it would take several hair cycles over 2 or 3 years to see
the complete results. The small hairs in front are growing but very slowly, on the vertex the seem to be growing like normal hair. My bald spot on the vertex has gotten much smaller and is not looking nearly as thin as 3 months ago. Overall I think we are in a wait and see mode but nothing has discouraged me thus far.

I'll take pictures over the holiday and update next week, Dec 1st will mark 90 days of Cet.

Two questions that were asked:

No side effects to report, after the initial shed (which was severe) all shedding has stopped. I was not sleeping well the first couple
of weeks but that has returned to normal.

I don't think minoxidil has any effect on my hair by itself. I've been using it since 2007 and only saw regrowth when
it was combined with other things (Keto/finasteride/RetinA/etc). I plan to stop minoxidil sometime next year after about 6
months of Cetrizine.

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Am I the only person applying Cet to actual hair as opposed to slick bald wastelands? Cause im on day 4 or so and have lost half my temples and hairline from this... went from looking 26 to 32 in a week.... beware

Everyone should expect a massive shed to start based on my experience but shedding has always been assume to be a positive thing as the hair comes back stronger and thicker. At least that's the way minoxidil and Finastiride has worked.

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I am getting more bumps on where i am applying Cet.

I might consider dropping it until its proven to work, i will give it a few more days yet.

Are you using PG or just Cet and water? My scalp looks like baby skin and is much improved from pre-cet but since starting my new mix with PG I am having a slight amount
of itch and a few bumps.

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hello.
how many mg of cetirizine are you using and how many ml of water?

600mg Cet/60ml water was what I started with.

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I believe I'm jumping on this train, but can someone please answer some questions. Why are you dissolving it on water!? Why not use a standard vehicle (Ethanol/PG)?
Also, whats the relation between minoxidil and Cetirizine, should they be applied together or separately?

Cet is only dissolveable in water. I apply Cet, let it dry for a minute or two and then minoxidil.

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hi, im new here.
Most off the people that using cet have sideeffects as drowsiness.

Not me, alert as normal and had trouble sleep the first few weeks.
 

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orez

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YES! cetirizine lowers your immune system so it's easy for bacteria to develop acne. I'm using cetirizine for almost 1 month now 10mg a day and have pimples overall, my immune system is f*cked up, not because of cetirizine but other medication, cetirzine just lowers the immune system and for me it was all to much. I'm on a antibiotic now and i'm clearing up. It's important to eat good, lots of vegetables and fruit tot keep your immune systeem good.

mine dried up after a week. i'm still not so sure about the whole immune system going down, but your case is really curious ... i do eat healthy. stay healthy man.

- - - Updated - - -

Checking in, wanted to report a few things. I've attached a picture that shows clear rings on some of my longer
existing vellus hairs, it almost looks to me like the follicle is sputtering as it restarts growth. This is happening with a lot of
hairs now. The second pic shows how some of the small vellus hairs are thickening at the base. After almost 80 days of Cet
I think at the very least it's a replacement for Finastiride and the big3. We will know in about 3 months if it's better than that.

Since some of frontal hairs have been dormant for 20+ years I would expect it would take several hair cycles over 2 or 3 years to see
the complete results. The small hairs in front are growing but very slowly, on the vertex the seem to be growing like normal hair. My bald spot on the vertex has gotten much smaller and is not looking nearly as thin as 3 months ago. Overall I think we are in a wait and see mode but nothing has discouraged me thus far.

I'll take pictures over the holiday and update next week, Dec 1st will mark 90 days of Cet.

wow! your results are really encouraging! i wish i had access to a camera like yours, just to check on what's going on up there. i'm on my 2nd week and i don't know if i'm fooling myself or my scalp is looking a little darker.

any effect on your existing hair btw? i've thinned all over this 10 years, and i'm wishing i'd perhaps get more volume from this.
 

what

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Tomorrow will be the 4 week mark for me. I've observed, like others are reporting, a pretty severe shed that started shortly after i began taking Cet and seems to be continuing unabated into my fourth week. My hairline and temple regions are taking the brunt of this. Last night i was looking in the mirror and realized that my hair looks like sh*t. Much worse than when i started this treatment.

I have noticed that a few vellus hairs near the hairline have become more prominent...longer and maybe thicker. But, i haven't seen any new vellus hairs popping up at all.

To be honest, i'm getting very discouraged with this and wondering if it was a mistake. I know the theory that gets bounced around the forums that shedding is good, the hairs will only come back thicker and stronger. But, i'm not sure we've seen any evidence that this is true for Cet. Honestly, i'm not sure i've ever seen it for finasteride or minoxidil either, at least not with myself.

The problem i'm having right now is that i've gone through the german forum. Using google translate you can't get a "feel" for what they're saying. And i didn't read too much that was encouraging. The one poster who's pics are in this thread (minox86??) seems to have stalled out on growth. His temples are fuzzy now and weren't before - which is impressive, no doubt. But, his temple pics were shot a ways back, if i'm not mistaken. If Cet was truly working i think he'd be observing those vellus hairs starting to do something by now. I didn't see him post any info saying that was happening. In fact, i felt like he was saying not much is going on at all. Again, i don't speak german, so maybe i'm interpreting it wrong, but that was the gist of what i could ascertain.

What i found disheartening was that nobody on the german forums is reporting about their existing hair. If it were getting thicker, and/or shed hairs were now coming back in, I think they would be reporting on it. But i didn't come across any such information.

I don't know, i guess it's still way too early. Probably need more like a 8-12 month timeframe for an accurate assessment. But, damn this is rough to go through.
 

zeroes

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Are you using PG or just Cet and water? My scalp looks like baby skin and is much improved from pre-cet but since starting my new mix with PG I am having a slight amount
of itch and a few bumps.

Water only. Thinking of using pg though. It doesn't itch or hurt, I think they maybe pimples or acne.
 

cuprous

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Regarding these side effects I decided to do a little match on oral vs topical just to see if we might be killing ourselves.

Pfizer's white paper on cet says volunteers taking 10mg/day for a week or so had an average daily peak plasma level of about 300ng/mL. The human body has around 5L of blood in it. 300ng * 5000ml = 1,500,000 ng of cet in your bloodstream. That's 1.5mg or 15% of the original dose. The rest is presumably dispersed into organs, not absorbed or already being eliminated into urine.

casperz mixture is 600mg/60mL which is on the high end. Assuming he uses 1-2 mL per application he's getting 10-20mg theoretical exposure. The question then becomes how much is absorbed through the skin into the blood. According to this oft-cited study with rabbits the peak plasma concentration for a 10mg application (formulated in different ways) was 60ng/mL.

I would be surprised if rabbits had even 0.5L of total blood so that concentration in humans, assuming skin absorption rates are somewhat similar, would be more like 6ng/mL or 2% of the plasma levels present from an oral dose.

So either our water and alcohol formulations are vastly more absorbant than the three formulations used in the study or systemic absorption should be very low.

I did this review due to people claiming fatigue and "excruciating testicle pain" upon application of cet. Not saying the experience isn't real, just prompted me to review.

I'm not a Doctor, my math is probably wrong, do your own research.
 

baldnesssadness

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try it atleast two months before you decide to quit or continue... And to the ones who use this orally i wish you good luck, i gained both weight, and had problems with my sleep.And my hair fell out faster than ever when used it orally too. But when i started using it topicaly i didnt shed... maybe it was because i used it orally before. Guys.. dont give up after such a little effort.. use atleast two months... casperz didnt see growth at once and neither did i... the more people who try this.. the more we can be secure of using it.
 

Chromeo

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The problem i'm having right now is that i've gone through the german forum. Using google translate you can't get a "feel" for what they're saying. And i didn't read too much that was encouraging. The one poster who's pics are in this thread (minox86??) seems to have stalled out on growth. His temples are fuzzy now and weren't before - which is impressive, no doubt. But, his temple pics were shot a ways back, if i'm not mistaken. If Cet was truly working i think he'd be observing those vellus hairs starting to do something by now. I didn't see him post any info saying that was happening. In fact, i felt like he was saying not much is going on at all. Again, i don't speak german, so maybe i'm interpreting it wrong, but that was the gist of what i could ascertain.

I believe the poster you mentioned (Minox86) also confessed in the thread that he had (mistakenly in my view) lessened his minoxidil use to one application every two days, believing Cet to be the more important and effective topical of the two. I believe now that both Cet and minoxidil should ideally be used together for optimum results. Cutting down the minoxidil applications may have led to a slowing down of the good progress he was making at the beginning. Minox86 realised his mistake and has said he will be returning to twice daily applications of minoxidil as recommended.

Again, it's only my opinion that both should be used in tandem, I'm no expert. However, I have to say I've been using both and I can't believe it when I look in the mirror and see those little dark hairs beginning to sprout from those areas that have been slick bald for 15 years or more. It's quite remarkable.

I've certainly not experienced any testicular pain, drowsiness or any of the other things some of the posters here have enquired about. Just new hairs popping up. I might be one of the lucky ones for once, who knows? I'm definitely sticking with this regime for the long term. Given the visible results in just two weeks, I want to see what it can do given over a much larger period of time.

I'll keep you all updated with any progress. Good luck to all of the guys getting on this and to those sticking it out. Fingers crossed you'll start seeing some good results too, soon!
 

casperz

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I've been off of minoxidil for 20 days now, do u guys recommend i get back on it? I'm on my 21st day of cet

From what I can tell everyone that is getting results is using minoxidil/cet, not cet alone.

- - - Updated - - -

I believe the poster you mentioned (Minox86) also confessed in the thread that he had (mistakenly in my view) lessened his minoxidil use to one application every two days, believing Cet to be the more important and effective topical of the two. I believe now that both Cet and minoxidil should ideally be used together for optimum results. Cutting down the minoxidil applications may have led to a slowing down of the good progress he was making at the beginning. Minox86 realised his mistake and has said he will be returning to twice daily applications of minoxidil as recommended.

Again, it's only my opinion that both should be used in tandem, I'm no expert. However, I have to say I've been using both and I can't believe it when I look in the mirror and see those little dark hairs beginning to sprout from those areas that have been slick bald for 15 years or more. It's quite remarkable.

I've certainly not experienced any testicular pain, drowsiness or any of the other things some of the posters here have enquired about. Just new hairs popping up. I might be one of the lucky ones for once, who knows? I'm definitely sticking with this regime for the long term. Given the visible results in just two weeks, I want to see what it can do given over a much larger period of time.

I'll keep you all updated with any progress. Good luck to all of the guys getting on this and to those sticking it out. Fingers crossed you'll start seeing some good results too, soon!

I'm not sure why some people are seeing dark hairs very quickly and others are just getting the shedding but I think it's a mistake to give up too quickly. I had some heavy shedding but then it just stopped cold and I've not shed since.

- - - Updated - - -

Tomorrow will be the 4 week mark for me. I've observed, like others are reporting, a pretty severe shed that started shortly after i began taking Cet and seems to be continuing unabated into my fourth week. My hairline and temple regions are taking the brunt of this. Last night i was looking in the mirror and realized that my hair looks like sh*t. Much worse than when i started this treatment.

I have noticed that a few vellus hairs near the hairline have become more prominent...longer and maybe thicker. But, i haven't seen any new vellus hairs popping up at all.

To be honest, i'm getting very discouraged with this and wondering if it was a mistake. I know the theory that gets bounced around the forums that shedding is good, the hairs will only come back thicker and stronger. But, i'm not sure we've seen any evidence that this is true for Cet. Honestly, i'm not sure i've ever seen it for finasteride or minoxidil either, at least not with myself.

The problem i'm having right now is that i've gone through the german forum. Using google translate you can't get a "feel" for what they're saying. And i didn't read too much that was encouraging. The one poster who's pics are in this thread (minox86??) seems to have stalled out on growth. His temples are fuzzy now and weren't before - which is impressive, no doubt. But, his temple pics were shot a ways back, if i'm not mistaken. If Cet was truly working i think he'd be observing those vellus hairs starting to do something by now. I didn't see him post any info saying that was happening. In fact, i felt like he was saying not much is going on at all. Again, i don't speak german, so maybe i'm interpreting it wrong, but that was the gist of what i could ascertain.

What i found disheartening was that nobody on the german forums is reporting about their existing hair. If it were getting thicker, and/or shed hairs were now coming back in, I think they would be reporting on it. But i didn't come across any such information.

I don't know, i guess it's still way too early. Probably need more like a 8-12 month timeframe for an accurate assessment. But, damn this is rough to go through.

Sheds are always hard, hang in there.

- - - Updated - - -

any effect on your existing hair btw? i've thinned all over this 10 years, and i'm wishing i'd perhaps get more volume from this.

The area just below the vertex where all the runoff goes is much thicker, if there was an easy way to do my entire scalp I might.
 

Cob984

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so i guess this makes it pointless for me to try cet alone, aight im dropping it then
 

Diamond Dave

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so i guess this makes it pointless for me to try cet alone, aight im dropping it then
Not so fast Cob. I am using Cet alone with distilled water and having great success. Been about 5 weeks now for me and have had no shed and zero sides. My current batch is 900mg Cet with about 3 ounces distilled water.
 

BrightonBaldy

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ok, im still confused about this separation of citrizine from the filler in the tablets

google is not much help, anybody here willing to shed some light?
 

ukmale24

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I just crushed 60mg of cetirizine hydrochloride and put it into my bottle of folligen which is about a 1/3 full. Also just poured 20ml of 2% sodium cromoglicate in there as well.
 
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