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Hi everyone,
Please please help!
I'm 21 yo female and I took accutane for roughly three to four weeks last summer. Started to lose hair two months after stopping accutane. I corrected my low iron and am still working on my vitamin D level. I had symptoms such as shortness of breath, palpitation, extreme fatigue for a few months since hair loss but now they are gone.
My hair is still falling out and I am really scared and feeling hopeless.
I started to take milk thistle and dandelion yesterday. I started 5 mg biotin since the end of March. I havnt tested every thing to rule out other triggers yet but I'm quite sure it's accutane induced.
I read that it takes some people only a few months to stop the shedding while others over a year.
I have no problem with dry skins or dry lips. I had no side effects when on accutane. My body hair is still ok. I have no family history of hair loss.
Please please tell me what could work for me. I'm also considering liver/colon cleansing as my life is ruined now. Everyday I woke up wanting to kill myself.
Thanks
Also will flax oil help?
You're best bet would be a liver/colon cleanse at this point. Out of those who recover from this side effect, no definitive cure has ever been evident. Whats interesting is that your shedding began two months after you stopped taking accutane. Do you think its possible something else is causing your loss?
Hi everyone,
Please please help!
I'm 21 yo female and I took accutane for roughly three to four weeks last summer. Started to lose hair two months after stopping accutane. I corrected my low iron and am still working on my vitamin D level. I had symptoms such as shortness of breath, palpitation, extreme fatigue for a few months since hair loss but now they are gone.
My hair is still falling out and I am really scared and feeling hopeless.
I started to take milk thistle and dandelion yesterday. I started 5 mg biotin since the end of March. I havnt tested every thing to rule out other triggers yet but I'm quite sure it's accutane induced.
I read that it takes some people only a few months to stop the shedding while others over a year.
I have no problem with dry skins or dry lips. I had no side effects when on accutane. My body hair is still ok. I have no family history of hair loss.
Please please tell me what could work for me. I'm also considering liver/colon cleansing as my life is ruined now. Everyday I woke up wanting to kill myself.
Thanks
Also will flax oil help?
You're best bet would be a liver/colon cleanse at this point. Out of those who recover from this side effect, no definitive cure has ever been evident. Whats interesting is that your shedding began two months after you stopped taking accutane. Do you think its possible something else is causing your loss?
Hi, thanks for the reply.
I seriously have no idea whether it could be something else. I think losing hair post accutane is quite common.
My symptoms went away after taking iron tablets and vitamin D tablets. But then roughly a month ago I started to have heaches and dizzy spells on and off. My prolactin level came back high. I am going to investigate this further.
Two of my girl friends who was on it for longer period and had no side effects apart from dry lips
Do people have accutane induced CTE and shedding just suddenly stopped after a year or so? I don't really keep my hopes high atm.
If any GIRLS can give me any POSITIVE insights?
I am really depressed to the point that I just want to lock myself in a room forever as I am too scared to kill myself.
Ok first of all don't do anything stupid. Try to talk to people about it and get some comfort/support in this difficult time. You should go on therapy too i think since you're that depressed.
The fact that your hair started falling 2 months after accutane is nothing unusual since it takes dead hairs 2 to 3 months to fall. So maybe the treatment killed the cells. But 3/4 weeks of accutane is really a short period so that's pretty rare to have such a violent side effect after so little time on the drug. What were your dose ?
Did you see a derm about your hairloss ?
Hey all struggling with accutane hair loss. I thought I'd visit to share my experience since I can remember how horrible feeling it was when I was first suffering from this.
Only thing that helped me was minoxidil. There's an initial shed but after that the hair starts to regrow.. you have to keep using it for it to continue to work. At first I used it twice a day and when hair had grown back to normal I started using it just once a day. Now many years later I've very gradually stopped minoxidil use and it seems my hair loss problem is finally gone as I've been almost half an year without it and my hair is still normal. My earlier attempts to quit minoxidil use (even gradually) had resulted in hair loss starting once again so it seems that the accutane induced hair loss lasted many years in my case.. but eventually disappeared.
Don't lose hope.. if there are not many success stories with this it's because once the problem is gone we never think of it again... 
Hey all struggling with accutane hair loss. I thought I'd visit to share my experience since I can remember how horrible feeling it was when I was first suffering from this.
Only thing that helped me was minoxidil. There's an initial shed but after that the hair starts to regrow.. you have to keep using it for it to continue to work. At first I used it twice a day and when hair had grown back to normal I started using it just once a day. Now many years later I've very gradually stopped minoxidil use and it seems my hair loss problem is finally gone as I've been almost half an year without it and my hair is still normal. My earlier attempts to quit minoxidil use (even gradually) had resulted in hair loss starting once again so it seems that the accutane induced hair loss lasted many years in my case.. but eventually disappeared.
Don't lose hope.. if there are not many success stories with this it's because once the problem is gone we never think of it again...
Thanks a lot for posting that. Its always nice hearing something uplifting with all the hair loss horror stories I've read. My dermatologist advised me to try minoxidil though I've been reluctant to do so as there's no guarantee hair lost in the initial shed will be replaced with new hair. So in a way you're taking a bit of a risk. Nevertheless, I may re-consider as I'm already at 7 months of hair shedding and desperately do not want this to become noticeable. How long did it take you to see results?
Yes thx a lot for posting that Acnepolis.
I think you should reconsider it my friend. I started one week ago and i still don't shed from it. I've read that Minoxidil is more effective on hairs that just died.
I just read the story of a girl (who had accutane induced hair loss) saying she went on minoxidil 1 year after her hairloss begun and regret that she didn't start sooner.
i think giving it a try can't hurt at this point. If it works great, if it doesn't might aswell go bald and accept it sooner !
Ok first of all don't do anything stupid. Try to talk to people about it and get some comfort/support in this difficult time. You should go on therapy too i think since you're that depressed.
The fact that your hair started falling 2 months after accutane is nothing unusual since it takes dead hairs 2 to 3 months to fall. So maybe the treatment killed the cells. But 3/4 weeks of accutane is really a short period so that's pretty rare to have such a violent side effect after so little time on the drug. What were your dose ?
Did you see a derm about your hairloss ?
I don't know my dose but I'm quite small. 5"2', 45kg. I don't think my dose is high as I didn't have any side effect when on it. Not even dry lips.
I haven't seen a derm yet but I have seen a trichologist. She thinks accutane triggered my shedding and low iron + low vitamin D prolonged it. I don't believe her anymore.
Does accutane mess up hormone and autoimmune system as well?
Thanks!
Yes thx a lot for posting that Acnepolis.
I think you should reconsider it my friend. I started one week ago and i still don't shed from it. I've read that Minoxidil is more effective on hairs that just died.
I just read the story of a girl (who had accutane induced hair loss) saying she went on minoxidil 1 year after her hairloss begun and regret that she didn't start sooner.
i think giving it a try can't hurt at this point. If it works great, if it doesn't might aswell go bald and accept it sooner !
I'm too scared to try minoxidil. Did that girl get all her hair back?
Did you guys visit every doctors you can to see whether there's any internal problems?
You should try to see a derm and explain your problem as a first step.
Yes i think it can be an internal problem (Vit A destroying healthy cells), maybe it triggers some kind of auto immune desease.
I've yet to see other specialists about it but i plan to in the next months (internal doctor, Anatomo-pathologist) maybe do a scalp biopsy too.
That girl didn't get all her hair back but she stopped shedding eventually and she said her hair loss was only noticeable to her not to others. But i've read other stories of girls who did recover and were even considering a second round of accutane !
Anyway i didn't read any stories of girls who went bald from it that's for sure (unlike us guys) so don't panic about it.
You should try to see a derm and explain your problem as a first step.
Yes i think it can be an internal problem (Vit A destroying healthy cells), maybe it triggers some kind of auto immune desease.
I've yet to see other specialists about it but i plan to in the next months (internal doctor, Anatomo-pathologist) maybe do a scalp biopsy too.
That girl didn't get all her hair back but she stopped shedding eventually and she said her hair loss was only noticeable to her not to others. But i've read other stories of girls who did recover and were even considering a second round of accutane !
Anyway i didn't read any stories of girls who went bald from it that's for sure (unlike us guys) so don't panic about it.
My hair now continues to thin out.
Thanks for trying to reassure me but extremely thin hair is actually no difference from a bald head.
I upped my biotin dose to 10mg a day as I read that some people took it for 4 months and it worked.
About the other stories, did it take them a long time to recover or just the classic 3 - 6 months?
There is actually not much information online about accutane induced hair loss on females. 
Guys been reading this thread a lot, me and lots of others megadosed vitamin b5 and 4 years later we are still shedding hair, we've all lost a probably 60% of our hair! it's diffuse all over including back and sides. Does anybody have any information that would be helpful on this?
Guys been reading this thread a lot, me and lots of others megadosed vitamin b5 and 4 years later we are still shedding hair, we've all lost a probably 60% of our hair! it's diffuse all over including back and sides. Does anybody have any information that would be helpful on this?
Yours is pretty different than ours. You could try minoxidil as that is used for hair loss of all causes. If you've been losing hair for 4 years you might as well give it a try.
Guys been reading this thread a lot, me and lots of others megadosed vitamin b5 and 4 years later we are still shedding hair, we've all lost a probably 60% of our hair! it's diffuse all over including back and sides. Does anybody have any information that would be helpful on this?
How can you suffer from hair loss for 4 years and only lost 60% of your hair? I have been suffering from accutane-indueced TE for 8 months and half of my volume is gone! Maybe your trigger is not B5? Or maybe it has turned into something else such as MPB?
Accutane induced hair loss is not in any way the same as B5 hair loss!
I didn't say it was, I said there's people on my forum who could potentially help you.
So as you seem to think that there not related in any way could you kindly tell me what the cause of b5 hairloss is?????????
Also why do you think that there not the same?
Does your hair look any different though? I've been shedding now for 10 and a half months and my hair is still thick and does't look any different. I'm still debating whether its worth treating with rogaine.
I shed A LOT due to rogaine in the first two months. My hair is still thick to other people but I'm sure if I keep shedding at this rate with no significant regrowth, I'll go bald. My hairline has thinned out but grew back a lot too so i don't know what to think of it. I have a bit of scalp showing now after rogaine shed.
Does your hair look any different though? I've been shedding now for 10 and a half months and my hair is still thick and does't look any different. I'm still debating whether its worth treating with rogaine.
I shed A LOT due to rogaine in the first two months. My hair is still thick to other people but I'm sure if I keep shedding at this rate with no significant regrowth, I'll go bald. My hairline has thinned out but grew back a lot too so i don't know what to think of it. I have a bit of scalp showing now after rogaine shed.
Wow do you actually? Maybe rogaine isn't worth the risk then. I think i might just start megadosing biotin, like 10mg daily
Does your hair look any different though? I've been shedding now for 10 and a half months and my hair is still thick and does't look any different. I'm still debating whether its worth treating with rogaine.
I shed A LOT due to rogaine in the first two months. My hair is still thick to other people but I'm sure if I keep shedding at this rate with no significant regrowth, I'll go bald. My hairline has thinned out but grew back a lot too so i don't know what to think of it. I have a bit of scalp showing now after rogaine shed.
Wow do you actually? Maybe rogaine isn't worth the risk then. I think i might just start megadosing biotin, like 10mg daily
Won't help. Im already doing that for 3 months.