"RU-58841 scalp irritation, am i messing up the vehicle?"

Posted by sanjay750 in Safety & Side Effects - 1 points, 1 comments.

Been running topical RU for about 8 weeks now, mostly because i wanted something that blocks DHT locally without nuking my system. Results on the hairline look decent so far, less shedding in the shower at least.

But the actual issue is my scalp. The first few weeks were fine, then around week 5 i started getting this dry, tight, kinda itchy feeling right where i apply it. Not crazy redness, more like the skin feels rough and flaky the next morning. I can tell im messing up something with the vehicle or the concentration.

I mixed it at 50mg per mL in PG and ethanol, applied once daily at night. No issues with the PG ratio in the past for other topicals so im kinda stumped. Could be the ethanol pulling moisture out, could be im applying too much per area, could be the concentration is just too high for my skin type.

Anyone here dealt with similar and figured out a fix? Thinking about cutting the concentration in half or swapping part of the ethanol for glycerin. Also wondering if applying every other day for a while would let my scalp calm down before going back to daily.

Comments

• fasted_scientist: Ethanol at 50mg/ml daily will absolutely do that, it strips the skin barrier over time and the tightness/flake thing is textbook for it. I tried something similar years back and the scalp basically told me to stop. Cutting the concentration is sensible, but the vehicle is probably the bigger culprit. Swapping some of the ethanol for glycerin or propylene glycol only would help more than halving the dose in my experience. Also worth applying every other day for a couple of weeks and seeing if it

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