Hey guys,
If any of you have seen my long thread here, you'll know I'm suffering from severe accutane hair loss even 6 months off the drug (I'm a 19 yr old girl(. I've lost 50-60% of my hair and this has destroyed me.
I sadly can't control this accutane side effect, but I neeeed to keep my skin good. I know that I have hormonal issues (oily skin), so am trying to lower my androgens by taking spearmint daily (I take 2 x 400mg capsules a day). I'm hoping that this will be a permanent "solution" to my acne. My skin is good right now... I REALLY want to keep taking this dose of spearmint.
I'm supplementing all the possible vitamins to promote good regrowth of my hair. HOWEVER, it occurred to me the other day that spiro can cause heavy hair loss in certain people, like a bever ending TE. It lowers androgens, right? Well, do you guys think that me taking spearmint moderately could be prolonging my accutane TE by causing it's OWN form of hairloss?
I can't ask a odctor - none have a clue.
My gut instinct is that taking spearmint is fine and v unlikely to cause telogen effluvium, and that my hair has been solely destroyed by accutane. However, I'd love to know if any of you think that spearmint/lowering androgens naturally could cause some form of chronic telogen effluvium hair loss??
So, what do you guys think? Thank you 
Hello Chicanery!
I am not sure if you will see this, as it has been quite a while since your original post. However, I was wondering how the spearmint worked out for you? Did you experience any further or continuing TE? I can tell you from personal experience TE is SO traumatic, and stressful.
I am a 30 year old female who has been struggling with hormonal acne for the last decade, give or take. I had perfect skin throughout my teens, then in my early 20s everything started changing, for the worse. For the last 2.5 years now I have been on an experimental journey with Spiro. At first, it was AMAZING!! My doc had me on 200mg a day and my skin was FLAWLESS and glowing after the first 4 months. However, along with my new face came EXTREME hair loss. I mean CLUMPS like I had never seen before. It was scary, and sad. I lost half if not more of my hairs volume. What was left became dried out and frail. It lost all of its natural curl and volume, and instead satflat and limp on my head. My hairline also began receding. What a scary time. I told my doc, and she seemed utterly perplexed and was hard to convince that the hair loss was related to Spiro. It seems there is not a lot of official knowledge on this subject. Anyways, together we decided to reduce my spiro intake to 25mg. a day. I did this slowly, incrementally reducing my daily dose until i reached 25mg a day. Sure enough, my hair loss slowed but did not stop, and guess what, my acne came back. As fierce as ever. So now i had no hair AND terrible skin. I hated Spiro! I was so frustrated and discouraged and disappointed and hopless at this point. I finally found something that worked for my skin but it was at the cost of my hair. I wasn't okay with that. SoItook myself completely off it. Six months clear of Spiro and my acne wasas bad as ever.My hair wasstill recovering, but definitely headedin the right direction.I always suspected my acne was hormonal, as they were deep cystic outbreaks that happened on my lower face and jaw line, sometimes symetrical on both sides of my face.Undoubtedly though, thanks to my spiro experiment, myacne was now confirmed hormonal, and I knew for a fact that androgens were the culprit. So began my internet quest to findmore natural remedies for reducing androgens in the body, and eventually came across spearmint. I have been taking two capsules a day, one morning and one at night, for three weeks now. I have yet to see much improvement, but i plan on sticking with it for 2-3 months before making any judgment calls. My greatest fear though, is that it will have the same effect on my hair as Spiro. I can not go through that again! I am hoping and praying that spearmint is the magic key and will help my skin without taking all my hair out with it.
Anyways, that is my story. I would love to hear about your experience with Spearmint, and hope that it is all finally WORKING for you!!
Hi. Just wanted to share my experience too.
Yaz (kinda similar to spiro) gave me great skin but caused hair loss on my head. On the plus side, armpit hair grew thinner and nipple hair was gone.
Stopped taking pills coz it was toxic to the body and I've been drinking spearmint tea daily instead. But same effect. Great skin but hair loss. Which is wierd coz articles say it promotes hair growth on head.
Only in acne.org have I found people who share the same experience.