DMSO has slightly better properties than MSM, but the stuff you buy in the shops is industrial grade. Medical grade is not generally available. It’s also not very nice to use, as your breath and skin take on a rather unpleasant odour. They say that if you rub some on the sole of your foot, you will taste it within a few seconds. It’s that effective! MSM will do much the same, however since it doesn’t taste so much, it’s generally hard to detect. I dissolve 10g of MSM crystals in orange everyday. It’s not a pleasant taste, but not unbearable. For our purposes, we could just mix with water, or IPM or aloe vera gel if you prefer
No actives that we use will be free of systemic effects entirely however. In going from the skin surface to the target organ it passes by a lot of capillaries, and some of it is bound to get caught up. Most penetrants *only* go this far, but between us we should be able to come up with something pretty reasonable.
I’ve used 4AD quite extensively over the years, and feel quite safe about using it. The other (more effective) options are unknowns to me. I would stick with 4AD for this project personally, except that I use 5AR blockers, so the testosterone route will be of no use to me unless I drop the 5AR blockers and swtich to a topical hair product. Any suggestions on the topical hair product would be much appreciated. I’m thinking Spiro at the moment.
I didn’t know about MSM inhibiting 5AR. I had considered making a topical for the scalp with it, but my reasoning was entirely different. I thought that since it is so good at sorting out crosslinked fibres (the ones that didn’t bind properly to sulphur), then it might be good for clearing out collagenous pores that have become blocked (scarred) over time due to the DHT aggravation, which then prevent hair re-growing even in the absence of DHT.
I’ll do some more searching…