Androgel is absorbed through the tissue. Applying androgel to the face is akin to injecting T Cypionate into your cheekfat, it's not going to spot apply. If that was true, then my left thigh and right bicep would have been covered in yak hair and hyper-musculated by age 20. Which it wasn't.
As for applying it directly to sensitive body parts...ouch. You do realize androgel is alcohol-based? It burns and it is ouchy. I tried it once, just a little tiny glob, and I was snotting at the nose dribbling spit face jacked up excruciating torture-pain that was just as bad as a needle in the leg. Needle was unbearably painful. Alcohol-based burning pain-gel was about as bad. So yeah that's gonna hurt. Maybe over time it is tolerable to some people, and I am incredibly envious of them and I wish I knew their secret. I am cursed with a low pain tolerance and tactile defensiveness that probably produces enough stress hormones to nullify the effect of any injected T (which is why I have to take gel or nothing,) (this is my hypothesis, that and being forced to take lithium for the majority of my formative years,) so I likely don't speak for anyone with a normal neurological profile.
DHT cream, I've fiddled with it. It doesn't produce the same results as full-spectrum T, but it does do things. There are GRS surgeons who require/prescribe it prior to surgery, so it does have some importance to a good prognosis, but again it's dependent on other factors. DHT alone isn't enough, though it can be a great boon if legally prescribed in lieu of surgical procedures and monitored. Only thing to watch out for is hair loss, if you care about that. That's why Rogaine was invented. And hand-washing (I'm really bad at hand-washing. Sensory Disorder again.)
Long story short, androgens are systemic, they don't confine themselves to the body part upon which they are applied.
