Hey guys! It's been a while since I've posted on here. Honestly, I put this thread to the back of my mind to forget about it and thus forget about the stress I had. Been off of minoxidil for a while and honestly nothing has changed as a result of it. However, the nizoralshampoo as well as staying away from drinking has helped. I've been keeping up with the shampoo weekly and I'm not sure where I'd be without it. As for the alcohol, staying away from it has cleared my mind and I feel more at peace with myself. Instead, I've chosen to drink at least 3-4 L of water a day. I've also adopted a new skin care routine to make up for my laziness from when I decided to take accutane in the first place. Gosh... if only I weren't so lazy back then. I have so many regrets and I do so almost every week but with these challenges I've come across a healthier side to me. I go to the gym frequently now because it's supposed to do wonders for your hair as well as eating better. I try to eats lots of fruits now and then especially watermelon because it's high in antioxidants. Obviously I still eat some junk here and there because I believe I was born for the sole purpose of eating good food.Anyways, there are days where my hair seems thicker and days where it looks as if it's still thinning on top. My temples never grew in which I'm sad about and it's so hard to cope with the fact that you have a receding hairline at 20 years old.
I hope you people are still hanging in there! Keep fighting! I always say in my mind that in order to get through this difficulty in life, I need to accomplish things to make up for what I did wrong. This has lead me to believe that even one mistake canunveilmultiple consequences. It's a good lesson that I now live by and I hope you're all doing the same.
On 11/27/2017 at 7:10 PM, MeritNorth said:My hair is back to shedding majorly. I really thought I was starting to see a difference but it now seems to be getting worse. I'm so sick of trying to style my hair to cover my scalp. Picture of what's left of my once full head of hair
How is it going now? are you better? I am in the same situation 1.5 years post accutane
On 11/27/2017 at 7:10 PM, MeritNorth said:My hair is back to shedding majorly. I really thought I was starting to see a difference but it now seems to be getting worse. I'm so sick of trying to style my hair to cover my scalp. Picture of what's left of my once full head of hair
HOW re you doing now? I am in the same position! it is terrible!!!!! I have been 1.5 years post accutane
On 8/13/2018 at 10:32 PM, chicanery said:Aaaah my hair is back to shedding again - this does run in cycles! It's looking good though, and I'm working towards feeling psychologically free from this problem. It doesn't affect me as much as it used to, since my hair DOES remain relatively nice. Gotta remind myself that 1 month of shedding *won't* make much of a difference
Are you still on Rogaine?
On 10/16/2019 at 2:21 AM, Jocelyn82 said:How is it going now? are you better? I am in the same situation 1.5 years post accutane
HOW re you doing now? I am in the same position! it is terrible!!!!! I have been 1.5 years post accutane
@Jocelyn82I'm now 3 years post and still in the same situation. I do have new hair growth (lots of it), but it continues to shed at the same rate, so my hair is still very thin. I quit taking birth control (for other reasons) and now that my hormones have regulated, that seemed to help a bit. I also noticed when I'm drinking enough water daily (like half my weight in oz), my shedding seems to be less. How are you doing?
On 10/21/2019 at 10:53 AM, MeritNorth said:@Jocelyn82I'm now 3 years post and still in the same situation. I do have new hair growth (lots of it), but it continues to shed at the same rate, so my hair is still very thin. I quit taking birth control (for other reasons) and now that my hormones have regulated, that seemed to help a bit. I also noticed when I'm drinking enough water daily (like half my weight in oz), my shedding seems to be less. How are you doing?
much better, I am on low Vit A diet
Just thought I would provide a positive update for anyone still following this thread. I started meeting with a functional medicine chiropractor about six months ago. She prescribed different vitamins/herbal supplements to help heal my gut and balance hormones. Since then, my hair has started to grow back and is now 100% back to normal and healthy! It's such a great feeling to be back to where I was before this disaster four years ago. Hope everyone else is doing well.
I would recommend meeting with a functional medicine professional if you are able. What helped me might not necessarily work for you. I took a variety of vitamins/herbal supplements and they changed over the course of six months based on what my specific body needed. I am now on a probiotic and multivitamin, omega 3, zinc, and magnesium. You need to find high quality supplements recommended by a professional; not just something youcan buy in a store. Another thing I would recommend is reducing stress as much as possible. That definitely contributed to my overall healthand healing. Hope that helps. Good luck to you!
On 9/22/2020 at 11:51 AM, MeritNorth said:I would recommend meeting with a functional medicine professional if you are able. What helped me might not necessarily work for you. I took a variety of vitamins/herbal supplements and they changed over the course of six months based on what my specific body needed. I am now on a probiotic and multivitamin, omega 3, zinc, and magnesium. You need to find high quality supplements recommended by a professional; not just something youcan buy in a store. Another thing I would recommend is reducing stress as much as possible. That definitely contributed to my overall healthand healing. Hope that helps. Good luck to you!
What type of issues did you have in terms of your gut that you did not have before accutane?
Hi everyone! This is THE only thing on the entire internet that has given me some sort of understanding of what is going on with me. Thank you for ALL the updates.
I am a 27 year old woman and since age 14 I™ve suffered from intense and persistent cystic acne. I wasn™t allowed on accutane at 16 due to a past history of an auto immune condition, but I wanted OFF the BC pill last year for a few reasons. My skin went insane when off it and I decided to finally push for accutane again. I was on it for late Feb 2020 to late July 2020 and it was completely successful in treating the acne.
I™ve now been off the accutane for almost 5 months and really since about May-June I noticed intense intense dryness in my scalp. I was losing hair, but it was only a small little spot around my hairline. But a little curly q was growing in, so I figured it is simply just some breakage due to the accutane. Nothing serious although kind of weird seeing as though I™ve always had PIN STRAIGHT chest length fine blonde hair. My hair is fine, but there has always been a tonne of it.
Obviously a pandemic isn™t easy on the anxiety levels. My work was stressful this year, and I lost my grandpa pretty suddenly in Oct who I was super close to.
But every since... Nov/Dec, I™m losing hair like no ones business. We are talking filling an entire hairbrush (200 + hairs in just one brushing), and hair coming out in my hands when I am shampooing. These are little breakages either. These are FULL long strands of hair. I™ve always shed a bit throughout my life. But never ever while my hair was wet. And when it did shed, it was just little breakage pieces. I™ve never had that many full length hairs come off in a hair brush.
The last week or so has been extremely bad. And to top it off, I feel kinda like my scalp is burning, almost like I have a slight sunburn on it.
I™ve easily lost 30-40% of the density of my hair. It™s SO flat around my head.
My derm just kinda brushed it aside when I told her I was losing hair when I was about to finishing my accutane regime in July. She just said try rogain, but that it will come back and to not stress.
I was okay cause it really wasn™t too too bad in the fall. However its really severely picked up in the past 3-4 weeks.
I™ve taken 20,000 mcg biotin a day religiously since June. Not helping.
I hateeeeee putting my hair up now. All I can see is the basically bald patches around my temples and see the thin patches everywhere else
As helpful as this thread is.... I™m only 5 months post accutane and I know some people here are still experiencing significant challenges with this situation 2-3 years post (
I dont want to try rogain because I don™t want to be reliant on meds forever to fix this. At this point I™m still hopefully that this is just temporary and will resolve itself soon.
In the meantime, I think it™s time to up my iron, b12, protein, get some more moisturizing shampoo (the strengthening stuff I™m using I find dries out my hair and causes it to tangle .... which causes more hair loss when trying to undo those tangles). It™s not a matter of my hair breaking.... it™s just that it™s coming out like crazy from the roots.
I™m also going to see someone next week who specializes in hair loss (like she went to school for it apparently). So we will see what she says.
While some of the timelines are scary, it makes me comforted that I™m not the only one experiencing this <3. Thanks all.
I™ll continue to checkin and update.
On 12/13/2020 at 12:00 AM, eastcoaster said:Hi everyone! This is THE only thing on the entire internet that has given me some sort of understanding of what is going on with me. Thank you for ALL the updates.
I am a 27 year old woman and since age 14 I™ve suffered from intense and persistent cystic acne. I wasn™t allowed on accutane at 16 due to a past history of an auto immune condition, but I wanted OFF the BC pill last year for a few reasons. My skin went insane when off it and I decided to finally push for accutane again. I was on it for late Feb 2020 to late July 2020 and it was completely successful in treating the acne.
I™ve now been off the accutane for almost 5 months and really since about May-June I noticed intense intense dryness in my scalp. I was losing hair, but it was only a small little spot around my hairline. But a little curly q was growing in, so I figured it is simply just some breakage due to the accutane. Nothing serious although kind of weird seeing as though I™ve always had PIN STRAIGHT chest length fine blonde hair. My hair is fine, but there has always been a tonne of it.
Obviously a pandemic isn™t easy on the anxiety levels. My work was stressful this year, and I lost my grandpa pretty suddenly in Oct who I was super close to.
But every since... Nov/Dec, I™m losing hair like no ones business. We are talking filling an entire hairbrush (200 + hairs in just one brushing), and hair coming out in my hands when I am shampooing. These are little breakages either. These are FULL long strands of hair. I™ve always shed a bit throughout my life. But never ever while my hair was wet. And when it did shed, it was just little breakage pieces. I™ve never had that many full length hairs come off in a hair brush.
The last week or so has been extremely bad. And to top it off, I feel kinda like my scalp is burning, almost like I have a slight sunburn on it.
I™ve easily lost 30-40% of the density of my hair. It™s SO flat around my head.
My derm just kinda brushed it aside when I told her I was losing hair when I was about to finishing my accutane regime in July. She just said try rogain, but that it will come back and to not stress.
I was okay cause it really wasn™t too too bad in the fall. However its really severely picked up in the past 3-4 weeks.
I™ve taken 20,000 mcg biotin a day religiously since June. Not helping.
I hateeeeee putting my hair up now. All I can see is the basically bald patches around my temples and see the thin patches everywhere else
As helpful as this thread is.... I™m only 5 months post accutane and I know some people here are still experiencing significant challenges with this situation 2-3 years post (
I dont want to try rogain because I don™t want to be reliant on meds forever to fix this. At this point I™m still hopefully that this is just temporary and will resolve itself soon.
In the meantime, I think it™s time to up my iron, b12, protein, get some more moisturizing shampoo (the strengthening stuff I™m using I find dries out my hair and causes it to tangle .... which causes more hair loss when trying to undo those tangles). It™s not a matter of my hair breaking.... it™s just that it™s coming out like crazy from the roots.
I™m also going to see someone next week who specializes in hair loss (like she went to school for it apparently). So we will see what she says.
While some of the timelines are scary, it makes me comforted that I™m not the only one experiencing this <3. Thanks all.
I™ll continue to checkin and update.
any update now?