Hello there, a bit about me first:

As you might have guessed from the title I work in the male modeling industry for almost two years and as life would have it I started to have skin issues right around the time my agent scouted me. A brief history of my skin, I had the typical teenage pimples early in high school like grade 9 and it was clear from then on out until two years ago (6 years after my grade 9 pimple phase). Right around this time I was doing test shoots to develop my book so nothing serious and makeup and Photoshop would do. Also a side note at this point in my life acne wasn't a big deal i would have it and walk around without a care in the world, not so much anymore (more on that later). I remember I was being placed with my first agency and they asked the question "so lets talk about your skin" I assured them I was going to see a doctor about it and that's what I did.

This is were my battle begins. Like many of us I was started on a course of antibiotics (minocycline I believe), proved to be ineffective and then we tried another course of antibiotics tetracycline as well as Differin and that made me purge badly and then it kinda helped but still proved to be ineffective and then the list of topicals grew from Biacna, Tactupump, Clindets, and one other and all didn't really work kinda controlled more so then help me out. I became vegan and that helped a bit and I still am for other health reasons but still nothing helped. This summer though I was quite lucky my face cleared on its own and allowed me to work in Europe during the fashion weeks, and have a successful two and a half work term in Japan and this lasted till November and things went bad, really bad. I was tired of the topical route and wasn't ready to do accutane yet since I haven't exhausted all my possible options so I went to a skin clinic and did chemical peels, extractions cortisol shots, blue light therapy, hydra-facials, and used the products they recommended and it wasn't cheap. I spent over $2000 and I saw improvement but nothing I haven't seen before.

So it is January and we take a gamble and go to NYC for fashion week even though my skin could go berserk any moment, I bought some mineral powder foundation to help with hyper pigmentation which has been an issue and just cover up things in general. As life would have it things got bad and I wasn't getting any work and the agency got word of it and sent me home early and even now I am getting pulled from jobs because of my skin.

So as you can imagine since I work in an industry that my looks is all that matters acne has really hit me hard. Like I said before I was fine when my acne started but now while I have acne I am a different person, I have no confidence, I cant look people in the eye, I hate leaving the house and avoid it, I don't go on dates anymore and just dread looking at myself and with work I feel incredibly unprofessional showing up on set with a face full of acne like my appearance is my one job and I can't even do it right. The worst thing is that when I am clear faced it is night and day what a different person I am and I could care less about being able to model properly again I just want to have my life back.

After returning home from NYC the next day I was in the dermatologists office we discussed all I have been through and I was ready for accutane and they offered it and I took it. I am on 40 mg for the first month and if I am not mistaken we are upping it to 60 mg after the first month. Lets hope all goes well.

Thanks for reading and letting me vent

-M

I didn't have any before pics or day one stuff

DAY 8:

but today is the first day of the second week and I can confirm I am purging and my skin was oily when I started and is now normal but parts of it are dry, like my nose the black heads have kinda disappeared and I am having nose bleeds. As well I have noticed my eyes are getting a bit dry but other than no other side effects, also wanted to mention I eat a fatty meal with at least 20 g of fat when I take the pill.