i was on low dosage nimegen some years ago and started on low dosage acnotin (10mg twice a week) + antibiotics in Oct 2010. observed a little hair shedding during Dec 2010 but my doc reassured me it was fine. stopped the antibiotics cos i thought that was the cause of my hairfall but continue to be on acnotin (10mg twice a week) till now. my hair shedding seems to be on and off over this period of time. started getting bad in Dec 2011 again and has been that way since. shed at least 50hair per day and more at times. but one peculiar thing is that i usually don't observe any hairfall during my shower or on my pillow. it only sheds throughout the day. like loose hairs trapped in my long hair. had itchy scalp and some flaking so i started using head and shoulders (used to use it years ago and it worked great but i switched shampoos many times after that) and started using nizoral twice a week this week. seems to have gotten better but im not sure if its psychological... i do shed hair AFTER my shower though. when im airdrying my hair...

any take on that?

ps: i didnt have any issues with taking nimegen or acnotin when i was 15 to 18 but i can't remember how many times i've gone off and on. but its mostly low dosage.

my shedding manifests itself in a manner just opposite to what you have described,that is i only shed hair while in take shower or after shower and on pillow but hardly ever during the rest of the time.My hair texture also determines a great deal of how many hair would i lose during a period say if my hair is straighter during a period that would mean i wouldnt shed as much although it hasnt been straight to the original texture i did feet a tremendous improvement back in october,that was when i thought i had completely gottn over the problem.

now to ponder at it deeply

minoxidil curbs back my shedding and retains straight texture to my hair, but i dont use it much as it also reddens my face to the point that i feel severe flushes at nights.

if i remember correctly i had also taken dilcofenac 100 mg and prednisone when i last saw an improvement.

i used to think it was corimoxazole as i experimented on it with some success but it can be a coincidence since last time it didnt do shit althouh i didnt take it for a longer period as previously, could it just be attributed to the anti-inflammatory effect of it?

i used to think it was corimoxazole as i experimented on it with some success but it can be a coincidence since last time it didnt do shit althouh i didnt take it for a longer period as previously, could it just be attributed to the anti-inflammatory effect of it?

 

It can be hard to tell with antimicrobials and anti-fungals whether the effects are from the anti-inflammatory action or from the actual killing of pathogens. I would think in terms of hairloss though, unless you have some sort of severe dermatitis, it will be the anti-inflammatory effect.

You said you have Rosacea? A way to test this would be try something like Oracea, which, as far as I know it too-low a dose to have anti-microbial action but still exerts anti-inflammatory effects and is often pescribed for Rosacea for this reason. Have you tried this?

My hairloss sounds similar to yours. I shed most noticeably in the shower if I wash my hair everday and little elsewhere. If I dont wash everyday however I start noticing it on pillows, when running hands through hair etc.

I shed from all over, although my front hairline has diffuse recession all along it. It looks kinda crazy actually. I also seem to have quite bad seborrhoeic dermatits as well however, which no shampoo is able to dent.

oracea is minocycline i guess,whats the texture of your hair- have you noticed any difference in it, like mine had once urned completely curly and now slowly getting its straightness back

I think Oracea is very low dose/timed release Doxycycline.

My hair has always been straight as far as I can tell. There are a lot of 'kinked' hairs though that stick up. Pigmentation is all over the place as well. Quite oily hair that needs washing regularly.

Took Accutane for one week one and a half years ago.

i dont know if accutane could do that in one week ,my hair as oppose to your description turned dry from the original state of oily ,before i couldnt pass one day without washing my hair after accutane i could do without washing a whole week., although the oiliness is regained to a point but nowhere near the pre-accutane days.

Oh believe me, it is only one thing that Accutane has done in a week.

just a point for women that are experiencing hair loss on accutane, if you had to start birth control pills for it, they could also be the cause.

I am quite sure my hairloss was in fact due to the BCP(and stress), rather than accutane.

i really hope that my hair shedding is due to stress cos i cannot stop thinking about it every single day and my head feels kind of heavy and burdened whenever i stress myself over it. i ever tried not thinking about the problem for one whole day and it seems that i shed lesser hair on that day overall.... psychological effect maybe?

i really hope that my hair shedding is due to stress cos i cannot stop thinking about it every single day and my head feels kind of heavy and burdened whenever i stress myself over it. i ever tried not thinking about the problem for one whole day and it seems that i shed lesser hair on that day overall.... psychological effect maybe?

 

Stress is a major factor. The more i think about it the more I shed

i really hope that my hair shedding is due to stress cos i cannot stop thinking about it every single day and my head feels kind of heavy and burdened whenever i stress myself over it. i ever tried not thinking about the problem for one whole day and it seems that i shed lesser hair on that day overall.... psychological effect maybe?

Stress is a major factor. The more i think about it the more I shed

then lets just try to stop stressing about it and lead a normal life for once! i think stressing abt your hair loss is the worst thing that you can ever do about it. i mean, if its gonna shed, its gonna. stress may just accelerate it!

I think more people need to post photos in this thread so we can actually see what we're dealing with here. Otherwise I'm convinced that most of the people who post here are in a panic and meanwhile their hair doesn't look bad at all apart from perhaps a very slight thinning.

More pics. please! I want to see real comparisons to get an idea of what Accutane did to your hair.

This is my first post. I am a 24-year-old female and was on Accutane for 7 months. For the first 3 months, I was on 40 mg twice a day and on 60 mg twice a day for the last 4 months. I started experiencing hair loss in the 4th month. The thinning while I was on Accutane was severe. However, I have been off of the medicine for 3 weeks and the thinning/shedding has GREATLY increased and has become very noticeable.

Pre-Accutane, I didnt have particularly thick hair it was just normal thickness and certainly not thin! I thought (and have been told many times) that I had great hair. I am REALLY upset about this dramatic hair loss. I have posted some pictures of what it looks like today (3 weeks after ending a 7 month treatment). My problems are centered around the crown of my head although there is thinning everywhere; this is where the major issues are. (Please be kind)

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I have an appointment with my doctor soon but was told over the phone that this is normal and I need to wait it out. I was told I am in the shedding phase and it should grow back. I fear that I will be bald soon.

Have others had similar patterns of behavior? Have other women had this happen to their hair? How long did it take to recover and is there anything I can do now?

Greetings.

It's been a while since my last post but I thought I'd drop in and update. I began experiencing shedding in my last month of accutane. Since then the shedding has come to a slow but I have had zero regrowth. My hairline has receded atleast 1cm and has thinned considerably along the top and sides above my ears. I am currently 1 year and a few months post accutane. Hoping for the best though.

It's been about a year since my hair started shedding on Accutane. I stopped late July, and my hair loss has been going away and coming back in cycles since then. Taurine and a high-protein diet have helped significantly, but my hair's still a lot thinner than it was pre-Accutane.

I've been doing research on vitamin D and bought 2000 IU capsules of D3 yesterday. I think this website is worth looking into...

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Hair pre-Tane

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Look how thin my hair is post-Tane!

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Hair loss... 2 months

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Hey guys,

I want to try to revive this thread by posting my story in regards to accutane and hair-loss. Just a brief background I had moderate acne (clogged pores and very oily skin) and decided to resort to accutane since I was losing hope and was becoming very depressed. Took the drug during 2011 (started with 40 mg and eventually moved to 80 mg) under the supervision of a doctor. My hair was very thick and I had never experienced any issues with it.

I was aware that accutane could cause hair-loss and was constantly monitoring my hair for any changes. Still, nothing significant happened and my hair was fine until the very end of my course. Around September last year I noticed that it looked differently and that I was shedding excessive amounts. Shortly after that I decided to discontinue the drug (two or three weeks before the end of my course). I dont want to get emotional but I went through an awful period of hair shedding and within a year lost more or less around 60% of my hair. I was and still am devastated, because I thought that this side effect was completely reversible and temporary.

Fast forward to the present I got a very short haircut and decide to keep my hair like that until I see an improvement. So far, Ive seen none. On the contrary, my shedding persists and my hair has become extremely thin to the point that the individual hairs are almost invisible. One more VERY IMPORTANT thing I am losing hair from ALL OVER MY BODY, not just from my head. Everywhere arms, legs, eyebrows, public area, you name it. The hair loss is identical everywhere defused and thinning hair. Also I see tiny pigmented hairs everywhere that stay the same size and they never grow. I dont think that this is MPB and I dont know anymore if I am suffering from a chronic TE (I thought so in the past).

I would like to ask you guys if anyone has experienced similar symptoms and what do you think about my condition in general. Any opinions, insights or suggestions will be highly appreciated!

P.S. No one in my family has MPB. My grandfather (from my mothers side) has a full head of hair at the age of 78. My mother and father have a very think and strong hair as well.

Really? Noone is willing to reply?

Hey everybody. I am male 23yrs old. Sorry for my english, i am polish. redemption2501 - hair loss is fucked up. Listen to my story. My 1 course started october 2010. I was on 40mg for 7 months. I notice hair loss and stopped immediately. It was May 2011. I used minodixill for 2-3 months. My shedding stopped after 5 months but my overall condition improve so i don't think minodixill helped. My face became greasy and my acne got back, but like 20% it used to be. In march 2012 my derm decided to go on a low dose 2Omg for a month. She said that i shouldnt loss any hair but if i will it will got better how it did before. After 3 weeks - start of april 2012 i started shedding. I got off it. My skin become dry, and acne gone away. Since then it is 6 months and i still loss hair in the same amount like 50 a wash every day + 20 pillow. I am using very expensive supplements for hair - there is zinc, taurine etc, biotin. I used to use amminexil. I did tests for everything...really. All came great. DHT low, no history of MPB. I lost mostly hair on the top, receding hair line in bank - a lot. On the top i lost like 70% of my hair. Also i have hair loss on the back and sides, my eyebrows. I used to loss hair on legs and hands, but now i think i am loosing normal amount. Remember that hair in hands or legs are thinner then on head, so think about it like per sq inch - how many are u loosing. My face and head was dry, now it's oily so maybe the situation is like year ago. One test that gone bad is retinol serrum. I tested it in june and it was 800, i didnt eat any vit a or beta caroten - only in really small amounts like in pasta or grapes apples - and 3 weeks ago i had 1000 which is toxic level. I am going tommorow to my derm ask her about that i will post an update. My hair was like big in diamater, now is really small - all over body. I have new hair all over my body - biotin i think -> also my nails are strong as never they been. But there is no grow on my head. Really none. I loss hair with no grow. Some of my hairs stop growing, they are same size as 6 months ago. I loss 80% hair with white bulb. I loss all of my hairs once - chemotherapy, but it came back. I know that it is diffrent type, but my scalp is exacly the same now as it was when then. So i think that i and u also - we can be sure that in places where there is no hairs now - like banks - hairs can go back. I am not saying that all of us will recover and regrow, but there is no matter to think that it is imposible to grow hair in that area.

Also i have from 2-3 months and continue to be worst - headache every day, insomnia, sight problems, depresion, high body temprature, i lost 25lbs in 6 months - it is 1/7 my body weight - am eating normal - like i used to - being on isotret i gain 14lbs, i didn't lose any weight after my first iso run.

I think that hipervitaminosis is the case in my case, maybe yours too.

I don't know medical language in my native language so it can be tricky in english. -> Cells in hair cells are the weakest cells in body. When something is going wrong with body they are first to colapse. Also might be the case with water in body. When there is not enough water in body, the water is leaving the cells and going to more precious organs. I found that i drink a lot of water in one day and a very little in the other. I dont know why. I just need more water one day and less the other while doing the same things. I read that water fucked up distribution and thirst is hypervitaminosis case. After showing derm my results i will post some news, also i plan to check the retinol serrum level as well as calcium, b12 on thursday - the last two will be known on friday, the retinol after ten days. I will post it.

Loosing hair from entire body was my case also. But it slow down. It slow down to normal levels. I comparing with my brother and with my memory of myself from pre iso and i remeber that i was loosing hair from entire body every day at slow pace. I found some in my bed, some in my bath. It was normal to shed like 2O everyday. Also i used to shed like 2O while washing head and styling. I dont style now. Year ago i was sheeding after iso like 3O while washing and 2O while styling. It stopped - or rather slow down to normal levels in 2 weeks. It was like bam. I was sheeding same number for 5 months. This year i see it is slowing for 3-4 days and day going back to more shed. I am 1OO% sure it has some cause. But i dont know what yet. Maybe it is water, maybe other vitamins from food. I have steady and healthy diet. I cant go bald. I will look like retard. I will find cause and kill it.

I dont recall it not growing new or stop growing in lenth on my head after 1 iso run. But i have full head of hair. Now everything is easier to spot.

Things i saw make me lose more hair - stres, omega 3, vit. a -> beta caroten, potatoes, chocolate, spicy food, fat food, sugar food, milk - cheese, ice creams, eggs

sztuka1988,

Thanks for the reply, man. I really appreciate it! I thought that this thread was dead. So you were losing hair from all over your body, eh? Just like my case. I too believe that this has stopped or at least slowed down. I also see small, tiny, new hairs everywhere on my body that unfortunately do not mature and stay the same size. As for my head, I'm not so sure.

I think that we could be suffering from chronic TE (Telogen Effluvium) developed as a result of hypervitaminosis A from accutane. If that is true then we might recover but the recovery time could be really depressing - it could take literally years. I've read reports/posts from people in the same shoes getting their hair back after 4 years for instance. 4 years, man...I really doubt that I would have any hair left on my head in 4 years if the shedding does not stop. Right now, sometimes it's minimal, others I'm losing 5+ hairs when I rub my hair. The thing that freaks me out is that I am seeing frontline recession and also that my hair all over has thinned out dramatically! I am less than 1 year post accutane (10 months) and cannot embrace how this could have happened because I had such a thick and great-looking hair. I guess I will soon have to shave off my head in order not to look like a radiation victim (overstatement but I'm kinda pissed at all this shit).

Anyways, enough with the rant. I am really sorry that this is happening to you, sztuka1988! I too have some minor post-accutane side effects like sight issues (mainly related to night vision) but they are light years away from the hair-loss. From reading your post it seems that the first time you used accutane, you suffered from acute TE, which is usually resolved in 6 months. The second time you might have triggered chronic TE (lasting more than 6 months) or if you are lucky your hair shedding could stop soon (if again you are experiencing the acute version). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you will recover soon!

Also please don't stop writing here and keep me posted on your progress and medical results. Your case is very similar to mine (if not identical). I want to keep an ongoing conversation here so that we could figure out how to get rid of this problem.

P.S. I am Bulgarian so we are almost neighbours

I saw tiny baby hairs on my body like 4 months after iso. Month later more and more. Month later some of them started to be normal hair. More and more since. There are more baby hairs comming out and more of the baby hairs transfer to normal hairs.

I saw my derm and dont have good news. She said that my retinol level is all right. Also if u are losing your hair when u start iso like 1,2,3 month into it is caused by iso. If u dont lose hair until 3 month it is not by iso. If u lose hair after 3rd month u lose hair due to hypervitaminosis. She said that retinol level 300, 600 or 1000 doesn't change or mean anything. It can change like that from day to day. If it is over 2000 it is hypervitaminosis. So my was 800 in june so i am sure that for 4 months i dont have hypervitaminosis. But i can still lose hair due to it, but in most cases it should stop after 3-6 months. She said that if it is that it will stop any moment or i have MPB. I can have it even if my hormones are good, DHT is low, and have no history of balding in family. I can be one to start balding history in family - something like there is genetic error in me, due to my father and mother genes didnt mix well. Damn u parents! She thinks that i have MPB. Told me to do a trichogram. She said that minodixil is not working, only propecia can really help - but i dont want to take it, i am scared of it after iso. I trust her because she is family friend, but i know that she could be wrong, but she dont lie to me.

Tomorrow i am going to test b12 and calcium. I wont do retinol since it is not an issue. I will post results

I am sorry to hear that man but I don't buy it. If you have MPB then what is the cause for the whole body hair thinning and loss? Is there a logical explanation for it or did your doctor disregard the fact that your hair loss is not only on your head?

I personally think that this is a form of hypervitaminosis caused by accutane (being partially a hyperdosis of vitamin A). The overdose we have taken is still stored in our bodies (and in our cells) and will remain there unfortunately for a very long time since vitamin A is fat-soluble. I think that this means that our bodies could need years to deplete and excrete these amounts of vitamin A. We could facilitate the process but unfortunately it will take quite some time before we see improvement. Once again this is my personal theory.

Will post more tomorrow.

About body hair loss she said that it could be due to season - weather - change or shock due to iso. Also when i speak about eyebrows she said it's not a factor. It's like 2 different stuff for hair depending where it is. Body, including eyebrows, is like due to shock and head due to MPB started by iso.

I thought about hyperdosis just like u. But she said that serum retinol - it's how much retinol - vit a - u have in your blood. And blood is what transport the retinol to cells. My level is ok, so there is no chance that the retinol is damaging hair cells. It's not like the retinol stored in liver is damaging your cells from distance. When you eat beta karoten or retinol hipervitaminosis is not a big thing. Of course u can die from it, but usually patient overdosing it like one time are recovering in hospital without any big medical help in 7 days. By recovery she mean going back to normal living. Some patient can have some issue - ok, nevermind what, let keep talking about hair - for 1-2 months. For retinol not from food - like the one in iso and applying it for longer time in normal dose - not overdosing it like 15 pills one time, there is very small chance of big medical problems like death or even not able to normal life. And hair should recover in 3-6 months. And body is starting to recover the first day u stop taking it. Last chance we can hope - i am still quoting derm - is that your hair fossils are damage due to hypervitaminosis and they can't - i dont know how to say that - feed hair with food. So we have like magnesium, biotin, zinc deficiency in hair, but not in our body. The problem is underneath scalp, skin and there is no chance to heal it from outside. But hair fossils is very hard to damage forever. They can be alive but not doing anything for years. But when they will start working u will recover hair like real fast. So we should be happy about that and it should tell us why my hair grow back last year, and it was like i said bam, very fast when they stop falling out. However it should start now for me. Maybe there is still hope, but she wasn't that much convinced, but maybe i have got 2 - MPB and TE - or whatever it is. Banks in MPB wouldn't be that bad if i have full hair rest of my head. I can always go for little transplant which i probably wouldn't go if my hair stop falling now and even doesnt grow back.

I would be very pleased if u would write sth like i am now:

Drug - Acnenormin

Time - 7 months + 3 weeks

Dosage - 4Omg for 7 months + 2Omg for 3 weeks

Total applied - 882Omg

Per body kg - 14Omg

Also do u have/had some other issue with your skin after iso? Like cracked lips, dry face. I had cracked lips but it's gone like since last week, my skin on my face is not very much dry, but my hands skin is very dry and weird on bones like old men. What about acne?

Really? Noone is willing to reply?

 

I read part of your post and saw the whole body shedding. You need to read Lamarr186 posts. Have you been back to a physican? Have you had any labs to check hormones, iron, thyroid and autoimmune disorders.. Accutane can cause Alopecia! What supplements or things have you tried

Well it's not that the thread is not dead, most of us have been suffering for yrs and well we are tired! If you take the time to read the thread though I know it is long as we all have read it, you will find your anwers my friend.

Hang in there

Thanks oli girl,

I've read quite a few of your posts on different threads and I am grateful that you responded. I will look into Lamarr186's posts. sztuka1988, will respond later today giving more information about my dose and current overall condition.