Topical spironolactone Users

Felk

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Thanks bro!

Its a cream then, not a lotion? How much does that end up costing you per month?

I've been digging around old threads concerning homemade spironolactone and found some great stuff. There's a hairlosshelp thread which socks posted a link to here, in which bryan, dave001 and old baldy all post there recipes for homemade spironolactone. http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/mess ... adid=52540

Also, I found a site http://www.cemproducts.com/ which sells a 230ml 5% spironolactone lotion for $60. Thats the same price as genhair.com's 2% lotion. The catch is, you are supposed to be using it for research purposes, however in an old thread i dug up DiceHasHair and a few others all ordered it, so i guess there's a way round.
 

momo

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Almost every spironolactone thread ends in how to get it for cheap, or how to make it, rather then their success with it. Maybe no one is brave enough to shout "the king is naked"?
 

still_trying

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momo said:
Almost every spironolactone thread ends in how to get it for cheap, or how to make it, rather then their success with it. Maybe no one is brave enough to shout "the king is naked"?

BUMP to this - i've ordered dr lee's 5% spironolactone, very unsure whether to get on it yet (i've been on finasteride and minoxidil for less than 6 months, maybe i should wait 3-4 more months to see their effect and then change my regime??)

anyone else with positives from using spironolactone over a long time??

thanks
 

Rage

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I've been on spironolactone after qutting finasteride.. and it doesn't do jack :(
 

Old Baldy

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Rage said:
I've been on spironolactone after qutting finasteride.. and it doesn't do jack :(

Bummer, it always fascinates me how different we can react to the same da** chemical.
 

momo

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Old Baldy said:
Rage said:
I've been on spironolactone after qutting finasteride.. and it doesn't do jack :(

Bummer, it always fascinates me how different we can react to the same da** chemical.

Well, other than you, and maybe another guy, I never heard of people who claimed to have success with spironolactone, let alone seen pictures showing success with it. Btw, i'm 2 month on it, still can't make a statement about its effectiveness, but I'm going to keep using it at least two more. The only reason I do this is because of the scientific evidence backin it up.. And, maybe you too, Old Baldy.
 

rawbd

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momo said:
Old Baldy said:
Rage said:
I've been on spironolactone after qutting finasteride.. and it doesn't do jack :(

Bummer, it always fascinates me how different we can react to the same da** chemical.

Well, other than you, and maybe another guy, I never heard of people who claimed to have success with spironolactone, let alone seen pictures showing success with it. Btw, i'm 2 month on it, still can't make a statement about its effectiveness, but I'm going to keep using it at least two more. The only reason I do this is because of the scientific evidence backin it up.. And, maybe you too, Old Baldy.

I might be confusing people, but I thought Old Baldy uses or used finasteride too. Is that right?
 

Old Baldy

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rawbd said:
momo said:
Old Baldy said:
Rage said:
I've been on spironolactone after qutting finasteride.. and it doesn't do jack :(

Bummer, it always fascinates me how different we can react to the same da** chemical.

Well, other than you, and maybe another guy, I never heard of people who claimed to have success with spironolactone, let alone seen pictures showing success with it. Btw, i'm 2 month on it, still can't make a statement about its effectiveness, but I'm going to keep using it at least two more. The only reason I do this is because of the scientific evidence backin it up.. And, maybe you too, Old Baldy.

I might be confusing people, but I thought Old Baldy uses or used finasteride too. Is that right?

I quit oral finasteride. in December, 2005. As of May, 2006 I started using topical finasteride. now and then. PLUS, I use alot of other stuff. I'm a kitchen sink wacko.

Started using bayberry extract after dropping oral finasteride. (There's a Japanese study, in vivo, showing bayberry extract reduces androgens. I can't remember if it is via 5AR inhibition or AR inhibition.)

male pattern baldness still remains halted.

I will say this though, I started topical spironolactone. in May, 2005 and noticed an improvement in hair thickness within 3-4 months. male pattern baldness stopped in its tracks.

spironolactone. works for me. I must metabolize it well?

I started using topical finasteride. to hopefully get a little more regrowth from other stuff I'm using. Maybe it's a waste of time since spironolactone. seems to be all I need but, like I said, I'm a kitchen sink wacko. (I've noticed no side effects from occasional use of topical finasteride. But I don't know if it's helping either.)
 

science-jay

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Old Baldy said:
rawbd said:
momo said:
[quote="Old Baldy":e10c7]
Rage said:
I've been on spironolactone after qutting finasteride.. and it doesn't do jack :(

Bummer, it always fascinates me how different we can react to the same da** chemical.

Well, other than you, and maybe another guy, I never heard of people who claimed to have success with spironolactone, let alone seen pictures showing success with it. Btw, i'm 2 month on it, still can't make a statement about its effectiveness, but I'm going to keep using it at least two more. The only reason I do this is because of the scientific evidence backin it up.. And, maybe you too, Old Baldy.

I might be confusing people, but I thought Old Baldy uses or used finasteride too. Is that right?

I quit oral finasteride. in December, 2005. As of May, 2006 I started using topical finasteride. now and then. PLUS, I use alot of other stuff. I'm a kitchen sink wacko.

Started using bayberry extract after dropping oral finasteride. (There's a Japanese study, in vivo, showing bayberry extract reduces androgens. I can't remember if it is via 5AR inhibition or AR inhibition.)

male pattern baldness still remains halted.

I will say this though, I started topical spironolactone. in May, 2005 and noticed an improvement in hair thickness within 3-4 months. male pattern baldness stopped in its tracks.

spironolactone. works for me. I must metabolize it well?

I started using topical finasteride. to hopefully get a little more regrowth from other stuff I'm using. Maybe it's a waste of time since spironolactone. seems to be all I need but, like I said, I'm a kitchen sink wacko. (I've noticed no side effects from occasional use of topical finasteride. But I don't know if it's helping either.)[/quote:e10c7]



old baldy, i think there's a big chance bayberry is responsible for your succes not spironolactone. I've used topical spironolactone 5% + 2% twice a day for 6 months with only negative effects, that means increases loss...
 

Old Baldy

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Could be SJ. That's the problem with using the kitchen sink approach. I think spironolactone. does help me, however, I can't say for sure.

Maybe it has a synergistic effect with other stuff. If I was to use spironolactone. all by itself it might not be all I think it is?

Oh well, I'll never know the answer to that one! :)

There's just too many guys who don't respond very well to spironolactone. for me to think it's as good as I've thought. Have to rethink spironolactone. You bring up a good point that I sometimes forget (i.e. that I'm a kitchen sink wacko).

It's good to hear the members opinion of spironolactone. It (now) makes me conclude that spironolactone. will NEVER be a stand alone androgen treatment for me.

It pisses me off that finasteride. and dutasteride., as topicals, have some systemic effects (most likely) in vivo. Those are two very good drugs for the androgen side of treating male pattern baldness.

Hopefully at the very low dose put on the scalp, the side effects will be so diminished that there will be little, "if any", chance of contracting high-grade prostate cancer?

Also, there "should" be some locally beneficial effect from applying topical finasteride. and dutasteride.? But who really knows?
 

Felk

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Old Baldy said:
Rage said:
I've been on spironolactone after qutting finasteride.. and it doesn't do jack :(

Bummer, it always fascinates me how different we can react to the same da** chemical.

Well, if you look at his regimen, it says he used spironolactone 5% 3 times a week.

If someone was really going to test spironolactone, he'd have to use it twice a day. Ie 14 times a week.

So are you going the topical finasteride route then Old Baldy?

I think if I use it, i'll just add some proscar pills to my minoxidil. Makes things so much easier.
 

CCS

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rage, proscar stops 80% of DHT formation in follicles. If you get an equal concentration of spironolactone as there is DHT in your follicles, it would occupy 67% as many receptors as the DHT, having the effect of blocking less than 40% of DHT (significantly less, since there would be more DHT in solution to go after receptors, and a higher percentage of the receptors would have something: spironolactone or DHT). So spironolactone alone will not do much unless you have a good vehicle. We don't know how much is absorbed, but I doubt spironolactone is very effective by itself. It is better for complementling propecia.
 

CCS

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how to know if spironolactone does anything

If you guys want to test spironolactone, just take finasteride or what ever you use as usual, and apply spironolactone cream to just one temple and one side of your hair line, or where ever you apply it. No risk, and you can see the difference sooner and better. I will apply fluridil to one temple and spironolactone to the other.

I thought I read in one of Bryan's posts that topical spironolactone does get absorbed systemically, but is spironolactone in the skin and is metabolised to an extremely weak anti-androgen androgen in the blood, and that combined with the low dose is why you don't get systemic effects despite systemeic absorption.

The cream works better than the liquid because it does not evaporate so fast, and slowly releases spironolactone into the scalp over a period of hours. spironolactone has a short half-life. The vehicle is far more important than the concentration, as a 1% cream did well in a study Bryan posted. Perhaps the cream also gets more into the skin, but I doubt this, at least minute per minute.

According to the post, the liquid does not work AT ALL. Just add oil to it to make it a cream. You may need an emulsifier too. Just use the minimum needed non-lathering shampoo to dissolve the oil if you need to. I will use NANO.



Baldness starts when the level of DHT in follicles is higher than the amount the follicles can handle. They can handle the levels in childhood without balding. The amount produced and the amount tolerated changes as you get older, and is determined by gentics, and male pattern baldness is progressive, but can pause. So if someone starts going bald at age 20, instead of age 40, that would indicate change is happening fast, and more strength is necessary to stop it, since they will be very sensitive later. For this reason, I think Old Baldy has a more mild hair loss rate, and therefore responds to spironolactone better.


http://www.inhousepharmacy.com has 100 100mg tablets for $46, no shipping, and 300 100mg tablets for $109. In the experimental section I state how to make the cream. I don't think 5% is necessary, unless you have the money or can't take finasteride. I would rather save money and make 2% since the 1% worked in Bryan's posted study. Concentration in your follicle matters a lot, but I think there is a limit to how much your skin can absorb.
 

CCS

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how to get pure spironolactone powder

getting pure spironolactone powder is not too hard.

Assume the tablet is made of

1. spironolactone (fat soluble, water insoluble)
2. sugars (dextrin, lactose) and salts
3. insoluble stuff like starch and cellulose and talc.


1. Grind up tablet well.
2. Dissolve as much as you can in water. Discard water. Repeat once more.
3. Add ethanol to the remaing paste and water. Dissolve the spironolactone, discard the cellulose at the bottom. Let the alcohol evaporate if you want just powder, though I will use alcohol in my cream.

I looked up a spironolactone MSDS. It is not water soluble and is fat soluble. It did not say if it is alcohol soluble or how much so. This makes me worry if it will dissolve and if only half will dissolve. For this reason, I suggest people wait until I do this when mine arrives so I can weight the powder after the alcohol evaporates and tell you if it weighs what it is supposed to weight. If it does, we know it was soluble in the alcohol. I'm skeptical about 70% isopropyl alcohol working well, because of the water.
 

Bryan

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If you check a PDR, you'll see that spironolactone is soluble in ethanol, although they don't state to what degree. About a year or so ago I finally read that figure somewhere, but I don't recall exactly what it was (I know, I should have written it down immediately, and not trusted my memory). It was somewhere around 2%, I believe.

Bryan
 

CCS

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that is a lot of ethanol to have to evaporate, unless i'm going to make a 1% spironolactone solution out of it. I wonder how soluble it is in PPG. I don't want to use glycerol because iamnaked says glycerol dissolves the whole pill. I will look at the inactive ingredients and see if there even is some talk or cellulose, because there might just be lactose.
 

powersam

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so you think that the cream version of spironolactone will be better than the solution? its been said in other threads that the 2% solution is as effective as the 5% cream because it gets absorbed better ( referring to the two kinds available from minoxidil.com ).

i'm just about to buy more spironolactone so it'd be nice to get a confirmation on that.
 

Packers

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Same here. I want to know if I should stick with the 5% or move on to the 2%. Especillay since im letting my hair grow.
 
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