ResearchSafe

RU-58841 scalp irritation after 6 weeks, normal or am I reacting to the vehicle?

Posted by nomad_brandon in Safety & Side Effects - 1 points, 5 comments.

Been running RU-58841 topically for about six weeks now, mixed at 50mg/mL in a standard PG/ethanol/PG vehicle, and honestly the first month was fine, scalp felt normal and i started noticing less shedding in the shower around week three which was the whole point. But the last week and a half i have been getting this low grade itch and a bit of flaking right at the temples and crown, nothing crazy but definitely noticeable, and the skin looks a little pink after i apply it at night.

For what it is worth it does not feel like the early shedding people talk about with finasteride, it is more like a contact dryness than a purge. I am wondering if it is the RU itself building up locally or if my skin just got sensitized to the propylene glycol, since i have read PG can be an irritant when you use it daily long term.

Anyone else hit a wall like this around the 5 to 7 week mark and figured out whether it was the compound or the carrier? Did dropping the concentration help, or did switching the vehicle fix it for you?

Comments

  • tiredmira: Yeah, six weeks is right around when I hit it too with a similar vehicle. For me it was basically the PG, not the RU itself. I dropped to a lower concentration first and the irritation stayed, so that kinda ruled out the compound building up. Then I switched to a PG-free carrier (just ethanol + a bit of DMSO) and the itching cleared in like four days. Flaking took another week to fully settle. If you wanna test it without rebuilding the whole formulation, try applying plain PG/ethanol on the s
  • retired_coldplunge: That PG-free switch is a smart call, fwiw. I never ran RU but I had the exact same timeline issue with a minoxidil vehicle years ago, and the plain PG test is what clued me in. Took about three nights to confirm. Does the DMSO carry its own irritation for you at all? I have heard mixed things on scalp sensitivity with it. 😎
  • nomad_brandon: Yeah the PG swap is the first move i am making, gonna mix a small batch in just ethanol and water this week and see if it calms down in a few days like yours did. Dmso is honestly the part i am most curious about because i have heard it can carry things deeper but also read some people get redness from it on the scalp, for what it is worth i have used it on joints before and never noticed anything weird but the scalp skin is a different beast i think.
  • biohacker_derek: Solid detective work honestly. The plain vehicle test is a clean way to isolate it without messing with the active. PG is the usual suspect, but for me it took longer than four days to settle, more like two weeks before my scalp stopped looking angry after each application. If it does turn out to be the carrier, you might still want a small amount of something humectant in there because straight ethanol dried my temples out something awful.
  • nomad_brandon: Yeah the humectant point is something i had not thought about, i was just gonna go straight ethanol if the PG turns out to be the issue but if your scalp took two weeks to calm down that is way longer than i was budgeting for. Did you end up adding glycerin or something else to balance it out, and if so what ratio worked for you without feeling like you are gluing hair to your head?

Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.