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hey archangel, i started rogaine three weeks ago. i think i had pretty much stopped shedding from accutane just before i started. problem was that i wasnt seeing much regrowth...my hair had thinned all over and if i understand te correctly, 7 months post tane...i should be seeing considerable regrowth. anyways, as far as the minox goes...three weeks in, shedding mostly when im applying it to my hair and when styling. i guess that means its working right? havent seen any regrowth yet but i wont expect that until month 3+. anyone else taking minox besides archangel and i? im very very confident that i will see positive results from this. i think my hair just needs a jump start ya know.
oh and i also wanted to mention that im shedding long hairs thick but mostly thin crappy hairs...also losing short thick hairs. dont know if theyre from my donor area cause when i went to the doc a couple months ago they were surprised at how thing my sides and back were as well. that led them and myself to believe that i have indeed gone through a nice bout of te. what kind of hairs are you losing if any?
mikey, i started shedding around month four of tane. ive been off tane for lets see, 8 months...so but pretty much stopped shedding a month and a half ago. so round 8 and a half months of shedding....wow. i really started shedding hard three months post tane, very difficult time. but as a result, my hair has just thinned out dramatically. if you go to hairlosstalk, then to their forums...they have a whole forum dedicated to minox and propecia success stories, a lot of them with pictures to prove it. minox can do amazing things for your hair and i would suggest it if youre like me...10 months post tane, hair not really recovering to what it used to be. but, if youre just off the tane, i would give it some time. i think theres a lot of people who experience te, and recover pretty quick from it.
guys, how much do you weigh, what was your dosage of accutane and how long did you take it for? The hair loss is supposed to be a dose-dependent side effect (with some exceptions in people who seem to have bad reactions to small doses). I'm curious to know what the per-pound dose was in people who have recovered versus those who still have the problem.
As for me, my derm put me on 80mg daily and I weighed 150lbs. After reading the fine print of the accutane insert, I realized that he gave me an overdose of the drug. The company recommends a maximum daily intake of 70mg for my weight- and thats still high considering they've proven small doses are just as effective. My hair didnt start falling out until I went from 40mg daily to 80... as much as I don't like the idea of sueing doctors i'm seriously considering medical malpractice against the guy because he basically perscribed me an overdose... my acne wasn't even that bad either.
Hi all - i've been reading this board for about a month now (Jade recommended it to me on another message board). Here is my story (sorry it won't be great news) - I'm 31 yr old female and started my second course of Accutane back in March. I weigh 125 lbs and was on 40 mg and then during the 5th and 6th week of my treatment, my doc upped my dosage to 60 mg. I noticed my hair shedding right away and a week later, I quit taking the drug. Like many of you - when i took accutane the first time (about 6 years ago), i never had a side effect and it worked wonders. So when my mild acne came back, my derm simply suggested going back on it. I REGRET that decision every day of my life. I have been shedding since May and it hasn't stopped...or even slowed down. I lose any where between 300-500 hairs a day - i have lost about 40% of my hair so far. I do see regrowth in the front, but trust me, it's not enough to cover up the loss I have experienced. I cry almost daily and barely go out of my house anymore.
My derm has told me that he has had quite a few patients who have lost hair b/c of Accutane, but all of them regrew it. I am beginning to wonder if it's all BS. JNT - i'm glad you are researching all of this - hopefully, we will all recover soon.
P.S. - were you all on a generic form of Accutane?? This didn't exist when i first took it and was on a generic the second time - i wonder if that has any reason for side effects?
Hi everyone,
I wanted to stop by and give an update on my situation, in order to suggest a few new ideas:
As you may remember, I have regrowth, all over my scalp, after 6 months of shedding. But most of this regrowth is fine hair - i.e., thin in diameter.
Here are a few theories about why I think the new hair is fine.
1. I have MPB, and my bout of TE brought it about early. As a result, I am now taking Propecia. I am unclear yet on the side effects I am having. I might have decreased libido, but this might just be my imagination. In any case, I've read on a few boards that such side effects do go away in time. I hope so.
BTW: I do not have a receding hair line or any bald spots.
2. The new hair is intermediate hair. According to some "experts," the first wave of regrowth after TE consists of intermediate hairs, which are hairs between terminal (good) and vellus (bad) hairs. They are fine, but pigmented, and only grow to a certain length.
New idea: what if the hairs we shed after six months are intermediate hairs? Which would add about three months to the usual six?
Question: Are the hairs you shed six months after the start of shedding fine in diameter or as thick as normal hair?
i have been shedding a combination of thick hairs that are long and short fine hairs, but the majority of the hairs that i am losing are long thick hairs
I also continue to lose a combination of both.
I also have this crackpot theory that when one hair enters telogen, it causes some of the hair around it to go into telogen as well. This theory has absolutely no basis in anything, however.
I paid attention to all the new hairs that have been growing in front on my hair line and some are fine and some are thick as normal. Were you diagnosed TE by your doctor? My derm. just told me I had diffuse alopeica areata but he did this by just touching my hair rather doing a scalp biopsy.
also i dont know how true this is but my derm told me about 4 months ago that, when yuo go on propecia you have to stay on it or your hair will fall. i have 2 theories about this which is he says taht because most people on propecia are people suffering from mpb and people when they stop it falls out again, but if your not mpb and your hair loss is due to accutane or something else it will not fall out again because it wasnt mpb. second theory is it does fall out after stopping propecia because the peopel who make propecia made it like that so people can continue to take it. tell me what you think or know about this? thanks
I also continue to shed till this day (started shedding 5 weeks AFter the end of my course, on the 2nd of may)... I shed around 200-300 hairs a day altho some days recently it has reduced a fair bit... I shed mainly thick dark hairs... that are ultra strong. I can put them between my teeth and tug on them pretty darn hard and they don't break (just to give you an idea how strong they are)
However i do go through periods when i do shed shorter/thinner hairs and it always seems to be after a wave of regrowth!!
One thing i can definenently say about this accutane hairloss is there is no way to predict how long it will last, but what we can say is that it is quite clearly often very prolonged but MOST people do recover...We have had about 20 people in this thread and im pretty sure95% of them will recover and when i say recover i mean stop shedding and maintain an OK amount of hair.
If you find yourself with no other side effects i would put all the money i have on a bet that says you will recover!!
I paid attention to all the new hairs that have been growing in front on my hair line and some are fine and some are thick as normal. Were you diagnosed TE by your doctor? My derm. just told me I had diffuse alopeica areata but he did this by just touching my hair rather doing a scalp biopsy.
on what basis did ur derm say u have alopecia areata? have u had other symptoms other than shedding? also did he give you anything to treat this?
From doing even more research, it has become pretty clear to me and i am very confident on this... IF your shedding continues for years you will 99% likely be suffering from a form of diffuse alopecia areata, some of the good modern derms will recignise this, some won't...
From looking at most of the long term cases of hairloss e.g. juleus and others on different forums... They tend to have some other side effects (not always) but the other side effects often relate to other immune system malfunctions such as raynaud's disease...Now i have confirmed with a few of these guys including juleus that they have not tried oral or topical steroids. That is the only thing, that is likely to completely stop the shedding (when it is alopecia areata)...
Now if you search hard enough everyone who continues to shed for years has never tried these treatements as their derms don't realise tane can induce diffuse alopecea arearta...
I also believe that in some prolonged cases that adrenal/thyroid malfunction can play a role.... But like with ithappens you can normally tell through other side effects if you are suffering from one of these...
I am glad that i am now seeing a derm who recignises the effects tane can have on the human body...
Just to answer some of the questions above:
1. My doctor diagnosed me with telogen effluvium, but noted that I had a slight case of MPB. This fits my family's profile. My uncles aren't bald, and have a great amount of hair even though they are in their sixties. But they are slightly thinned out.
2. I don't believe you'll lose any hair you weren't going to lose anyway if you stop taking Propecia.
By the way - and this is too much information - but my libido came back in a big way. I am cautiously optimistic that I'll be OK on Propecia.
Also - and this is not related to my resurgent libido - I love you all. What we're doing here will ensure some degree of sanity for future generations of Accutane hair loss sufferers.
Well i don't know but what i think is that the growth from Alopeciea areata may be in more of a cyclical manner. E.g. your hair may thicken up suddenly over the period of a few weeks whilst you continue to shed, but progressivley it will continue to thin.
I guess one advantage to having Alopecea areata is that it is treateable, where as chronic TE isn't really...
Just to answer some of the questions above:
Also - and this is not related to my resurgent libido - I love you all. What we're doing here will ensure some degree of sanity for future generations of Accutane hair loss sufferers.
Good thing about the libido mate. This thread has given alot of people support over it's relatively short life span. We have touched on methods of treatement and theories never touched on. I feel we have kept it pretty contructive aswell mostly...
I paid attention to all the new hairs that have been growing in front on my hair line and some are fine and some are thick as normal. Were you diagnosed TE by your doctor? My derm. just told me I had diffuse alopeica areata but he did this by just touching my hair rather doing a scalp biopsy.
on what basis did ur derm say u have alopecia areata? have u had other symptoms other than shedding? also did he give you anything to treat this?
i would be more confident on his diagnose if he had done a scalp biopsy rather than just touching my hair. i got the impression from him that TE is not possible, and all hair loss from tane is alopeica areta. he gave me niozal and lidex (fluocinonide) to use for a month. he mentioned he did have patients who had hair loss and all of them recovered and that this is just temporary but this made me skeptical since there is people who still shed for years. he was pro-tane and told me to ignore the posts that i read online.