grassPacket

I have very oily skin and semi-frequent acne that I'm hardly able to keep under control. I've heard good things about finasteride helping with acne, but, in the experience of people here: 1. Has it helped with facial acne or body acne? 2. If it got worse in the beginning, did it get better later? Also, this may be strange to some, but I have to wonder how much finasteride will impact my body hair growth. I've been building muscle over time and have a good amount of body hair to begin with that contributes to the masculine look (which I like, of course). I would hate to lose it. For those taking finasteride: 3. Did your body hair reduce noticeably? 4. If it did, did it ever come back or just continue to decline? 5. Did it come back after you stopped using finasteride (I would assume it would)? 6. For those that take both finasteride and minoxidil orally, did you still notice a decline in body hair?

Neither have what I'm looking for I did ask them why, they say the courier is requiring it now

I ordered a bottle of liquid liposomal finasteride from Anagenica a couple months ago but when I went to reorder, I noticed they've started asking for a passport ID number. I'm pretty sure this has to do with some "Ministerial Order" that was made in Spain recently but that's not info I'm comfortable giving out in this context. Where else can I get non-propylene-glycol topical finasteride (and/or minoxidil) besides Anagenica and MinoxidilMax (that site seems really sketchy)? I know this forum is sponsored or "in with" the people that make Xyon gel, but I still have a lot of hair so applying gels or creams is quite difficult and wasteful for me. It needs to be liquid.

Still seems to be worsening(?).

That's the plan and my same thinking. If you look at the photos, it sort of appears that the suckier hairs are the ones that vanished which makes me hopeful that I'll have regrowth soon. It could be due to the larger dose of minoxidil I'm subjecting myself to daily; about double. I even had the thought that the peeling and irritation caused by PG was acting in a similar fashion to microneedling and was actually helping my growth. But I'm not so sure about that

Still looking for input

I did, but briefly. Maybe 1 week of minoxidil, 2 weeks from finasteride. I can't remember exactly now

Until a couple weeks ago, I was using 0.5 mL of a 0.025% finasteride 8% minoxidil topical solution in propylene glycol daily. I had good results but discontinued it since it irritated my scalp and have moved to using 1 cap daily of foam Rogaine and 0.75 mL of a 0.025% finasteride 2.5% trichoxidil liposomal solution. Since then, it kinda seems like I've lost ground at least on my left temple. Does this look to be the case? Could this be a shed or am I doing something wrong?

Interesting, I just ordered from them in the U.S. I selected expedited shipping and received the correct product after about 2 weeks.

In terms of absorption I mean. I've been able to find info on how to maximize effectiveness and minimize side effects with a propylene glycol solution, but not so much with glycerin. Does anyone know how glycerin compares to PG?

I'm using the topical now, it wouldn't affect me systemically. I ask because I was considering switching to oral and was simply curious about its effects on the prostate

Finasteride is used against an enlarged prostate so I've always wondered: if your prostate ISN'T enlarged, does finasteride reduce it's size past the "normal" point? I'm surprised I've never seen anyone talk/ask this question. Also, many people note that after starting finasteride, they begin to shed horribly for a period before seeing growth. If I've been using 0.5 mL daily of a 0.025% solution and start oral, will a shed occur?

Before anything, here's my progression Left: https://imgur.com/a/UokWTn0 Right: https://imgur.com/a/SGKDiz0 The photos are (should) be in chronological order with the first one being right before I started treatment and the last being a little more than a week ago. They're all about 1 month apart. Obviously, there was improvement in the beginning and eventually I decided to microneedle to wring out any extra benefit I could. However, I either made a mistake or I'm wrong, but I believe that made things worse. I noted the pictures taken after my brief microneedling period. I bought a Derminator 2 and used it for (I believe) 3 days. I microneedled my hairline at 0.25 mm (the lowest possible setting) in the morning with a brief stamping motion until my hairline turned red. I never remember seeing any blood so I then immediately applied topical finasteride and minoxidil. Maybe this wasn't wise, but I figured I was microneedling at such a low depth that I couldn't be doing much damage if any. Maybe not? I noticed a negative difference on the 4th day so I stopped and haven't used the Derminator since. Do you all think my hair looks worse afterwards? Whatever, maybe I made a mistake. But I have one concern: did I create scar tissue and how might this affect a prospective hair transplant? How might I figure out if I did create scar tissue? In addition, although effective, the topical finasteride and minoxidil creates irritation on my scalp causing the skin to peel. This is visible in the 6th picture of the left temple where it was the worst it's ever been. Upon close inspection, my hairline has distinct areas of redness/pinkness where I spread the topical which you can see in the first couple photos I attached (this may be increased vasculairty due to minoxidil though, I don't know). Is THIS causing scarring that could effect a prospective hair transplant? I'm sure the irritation is caused by the carrier agent propylene glycol but there's not much I can do about that. I could buy liposomal finasteride, but each little bottle from Happy Head costs $180; not to mention I wouldn't know how to dose it to maximize effectiveness and minimize side effects. What's the point of topical otherwise? They also have water as a carrier agent, but from what I know that would be pretty useless and have almost no penetration. The obvious solution would be to switch to oral, but I'm not doing that. Suggestions on how to minimize the irritation would be appreciated as the only thing I've tried over the last few days is applying rosemary oil several hours before a shower. Yes, yes, I know; rosemary dumb bad stupid bad stuff but I figure it may at least moisturize and soothe my scalp. Also, I only wash my hair every 3 days which gives the topical plenty of time to sit and irritate. I've been considering washing it more frequently, but for those of you who apply PG topicals, how often do you wash your hair and is Nizoral shampoo likely to provide me any benefits?

Before anything, here's my progression Left: https://imgur.com/a/UokWTn0 Right: https://imgur.com/a/SGKDiz0 The photos are (should) be in chronological order with the first one being right before I started treatment and the last being a little more than a week ago. They're all about 1 month apart. Obviously, there was improvement in the beginning and eventually I decided to microneedle to wring out any extra benefit I could. However, I either made a mistake or I'm wrong, but I believe that made things worse. I noted the pictures taken after my brief microneedling period. I bought a Derminator 2 and used it for (I believe) 3 days. I microneedled my hairline at 0.25 mm (the lowest possible setting) in the morning with a brief stamping motion until my hairline turned red. I never remember seeing any blood so I then immediately applied topical finasteride and minoxidil. Maybe this wasn't wise, but I figured I was microneedling at such a low depth that I couldn't be doing much damage if any. Maybe not? I noticed a negative difference on the 4th day so I stopped and haven't used the Derminator since. Do you all think my hair looks worse afterwards? Whatever, maybe I made a mistake. But I have one concern: did I create scar tissue and how might this affect a prospective hair transplant? How might I figure out if I did create scar tissue? In addition, although effective, the topical finasteride and minoxidil creates irritation on my scalp causing the skin to peel. This is visible in the 6th picture of the left temple where it was the worst it's ever been. Upon close inspection, my hairline has distinct areas of redness/pinkness where I spread the topical which you can see in the first couple photos I attached (this may be increased vasculairty due to minoxidil though, I don't know). Is THIS causing scarring that could effect a prospective hair transplant? I'm sure the irritation is caused by the carrier agent propylene glycol but there's not much I can do about that. I could buy liposomal finasteride, but each little bottle from Happy Head costs $180; not to mention I wouldn't know how to dose it to maximize effectiveness and minimize side effects. What's the point of topical otherwise? They also have water as a carrier agent, but from what I know that would be pretty useless and have almost no penetration. The obvious solution would be to switch to oral, but I'm not doing that. Suggestions on how to minimize the irritation would be appreciated as the only thing I've tried over the last few days is applying rosemary oil several hours before a shower. Yes, yes, I know; rosemary dumb bad stupid bad stuff but I figure it may at least moisturize and soothe my scalp. Also, I only wash my hair every 3 days which gives the topical plenty of time to sit and irritate. I've been considering washing it more frequently, but for those of you who apply PG topicals, how often do you wash your hair and is Nizoral shampoo likely to provide me any benefits?

I know both of those things, but I was considering the dilution route since hims charges a little more than half what other compounding pharmacies do for custom formulations. Money isnt necessarily a big deal, but still. I would like liposomal topical finasteride, but I still wouldn't want the concentration that high and I haven't had much luck finding a source of customizable liposomal finasteride.