I'm Erin and I started my daily 20mg dose of roaccutane on 11th November 2013. I'm not going to bore you with how my acne looks, how I feel about my acne and how long I've suffered with it for because besides the fact you're probably all in the same boat as me, it's depressing enough having to think about it never mind having to type it out for you all to read! :boohoo:

So yeah, just some general questions really for people who have experienced "life on accutane..."

I have now been on roaccutane for 2 weeks and I'm currently experiencing a horrific break out. Besides having the normal acne dotted all over my face, I now also have massive boil-like spots in what I would call "painful" areas of the face and neck such as; just above my temples, my jawline an tips of my cheek bones.

I am praying my skin improves by mid-feb as I have a short-break planned and looking on other forums, hopefully by then my skin should be at least starting to clear up? If anyone would like to back me up in saying that?

And does anyone know why you actually break out in the first place?? :think:

Also, I forgot to ask my dermatologist this on my last visit: can you bleach your hair whilst taking accutane? It doesn't say you can't on the information booklet I have been given but, has anyone ever bleached their hair whilst on the drug? My scalp does get quite agitated when I've bleached it in the past (pre-accutane) but so does everyone's I guess.. Would bleaching whilst on the drug be a bad idea? 6 months worth of roots is not going to be pretty, but then again neither is acne!

I'll try to answer your questions for ya. I'll start from the bottom up. Bleaching hair or coloring hair period is something I avoided. Being on accutane your oils are pretty much gone, including your hair oils. Your hair gets so dry and I think bleaching it will cause lots of issues. My dermatologist recommended that I did not color my hair at all. But I did 2 weeks into my course and I didn't color at all after that. So needless to say I had some interesting growth.

Why you break out in the first place is because the accutane is pushing out all the bacteria and nasty gunk from under the skin. Everything that is prepping to break out out later on, is all coming to the surface now. Bummer I know but it's gotta come out sooner or later.

As far as when you are going to clear up. That is different for everyone. I personally was mostly clear around month 3 but I still was having new zits crop up on my face until month 5! I did a 7 month course because my mild to moderate acne was a pain in the ass to clear and it was hanging on for dear life. A lot of people are clear around the 3 to 4 month mark. I think you will be fine come mid feb.

I am three weeks in and also having a horrible break out! It is a super bummer. This is my second course, and the first time was NOT this harsh, but I guess I am old now! I stayed clear for 9 years through Accutane and birth control. I went off the pill once for my beautiful child, and then later to try for number two. No luck, and my acne came back after I year without BC. I knew that it eventually would, as it had started to come back right before I was pregnant the first time. I had wonderful pregnant skin, which shocked me beyond belief!

Anyway, trying to buy some time I tried Ziana and unfortunately it made things SO MUCH WORSE really quickly. Pain in my butt. So, back on the Accutane and BC. Content to just have the one kiddo because he's perfect of course, and we were leaning that way anyway.

Anyway. I am still holding out hope that I might see some improvement by Christmas (at day 21 now), because it's hard to go out into the world every day like this.