Hey everyone! I have been unactive on this forum for awhile now and was just thinking about it the other day! I realized I never posted pictures of my ending results while on accutane and just would like to show everyone (without bragging but for accutane purposes) that this product does infact work and deffinitly changed my life for the better.
Throughout my teenage years I had a very oily face and severe cystic acne that I could never get rid of, I tried everything from my dermatologist , literally every cream, every pill, every liquid you could think of, I even tried weird things like toothpaste and other weird things I read online about, but nothing ever did the trick and I never saw any improvements.
After going to the dermatologist numerous times over and over again he finally brought up Accutane to me, explained all the side effects, told me how it worked and everything I needed to know. I immediatly declined his offer because I was scared about doing it due to the side effects and I hated needles so the blood tests every month were a deffinite no lol.
So I waited a week and one morning I got up to go to school and looked at myself in the mirror and realized I couldn't take it anymore, the looks I was getting from people looking at my acne were getting to much to handle and I had to do something about it, and that day is when I set up an appointment with my dermatologist to go ahead and do the accutane treatment on me, I figured I would tough it out with the needle situation and do what I needed to do in order to clear my face up reguardless of any side effects that may happen, because just like anything else do eat/take/consume, there are always side effects and consequences to everything we do in life wether it be driving a car to work or taking a pill to clear your face.
Here are a few pictures from when I started Accuane to now:
Beginning:
Getting some progress:
Some more progess:
Almost at the end but not done yet - last "progress" picture I took.
Unfortunatly those are the only progress pictures I have of me getting better, it is now almost 2 years later and I am 110% acne free and no longer have to take any medication to get my face under control, I occasionally have a little pimple here and there but there gone within two days and I no longer have any cystic acne coming up.
Here are some up to date pictures of my face now:
The ONLY side effect I have had throughout this whole entire time (6 months) taking accutane was dry lips, I bought the big tube of aquaphor and put it on every night before I went to sleep and brought a baby tube (samples from the derm. office) to school with me incase I started to get dry. I also drank alot alot alot alot and lots of water throughout the day and night to keep myself hydrated. Tons of people that I know and saw me on a regular basis wether it was at school or work were astonished at how clear my face has cleaned up and asked me what I was taking because they've never seen anything work like it did on myself.
I just came here today to tell everyone that is thinking about taking accutane or scared of the side effects to TAKE IT! It honestly changed my life so much that I cannot even express, I at first was scared of the effects and then came to the real life conclusion s**t happens, theres warning on everything just to safe the producers ass, it doesn't mean that they are going to happen! I used to HATE needles with a passion, the blood tests every month were nothing and now I am so used to needles they don't even bother me one bit anymore. It was honestly one of the best choices I have ever made in my life doing this medication and would recommend it to anyone that was struggling with there acne like I was, it was truly a life changing experience.
If you have any questions or would like to talk to me feel free to post them here or private message me!
( I am not a sales representative nor do I work for Accutane or any acne products, I am a real person that was on this medication and in no way work for anyone that deals with medication )
Life is deffinitly better as well as a whole lot easier, I can walk around now without getting stared at like I had alligator skin, the purpose of this thread wasn't to brag. it was just to tell people that are thinking about taking it but scared, to take it, and for everyone that is already on it but not seeing results to give it time, I didn't start seeing much of my results until the last couple of months before my treatment was over, it got worse before it got better, just to give everyone hope out there, it just takes patience.
Honestly from what I can remember the first month of taknig it I didnt see much of a change, the second month my face started to loose the oily look, the third month my face got bad again and started to get worse, then the fourth month, fifth month, and sixth month were where I started to see the medicine taking full effect and clearing my face dramatically.
Honestly from what I can remember the first month of taknig it I didnt see much of a change, the second month my face started to loose the oily look, the third month my face got bad again and started to get worse, then the fourth month, fifth month, and sixth month were where I started to see the medicine taking full effect and clearing my face dramatically.
Thanks man, I'm delighted for you too btw!
I did not notice my skin being dry but I did notice that I was very sensitive to the sun on this medication, meaning that it took me half the time it usually did to get sunburnt, and I live in FL so if I was outside for more than a hour straight I would pretty much be toasted, even driving during the day sometimes I would feel the heat burning my skin - thank god the easy solution for that was I got limo tint and could drive without being fried lol.
Also I did notice some but very little dandruff on my scalp happening, I just used some mosturizing shampoo and conditioner and massaged into my scalp and let it sit while I washed the rest of my body and then would rinse it out.
Do you know as you go through the course do scars seem to improve?
They do start to fade and eventually a majority of them do go away completely but it takes a long time. While I was on the 6 month cycle of Accutane if you look at the 4 pictures of when I did have acne you can tell that the scars went from very bright red and some indented spots , to eventually fading out and didn't look like huge craters anymore. My dermatologist did say after I was done with Accutane if I had severe scars and marks there is a post-treatment, I'm not sure of the name but it almost takes a layer of your skin off (by laser) and makes it seem like they were never there, I thought I was going to have to get it done but I just let it heal naturally after I was off the medication and everything went away.
Do you know as you go through the course do scars seem to improve?
They do start to fade and eventually a majority of them do go away completely but it takes a long time. While I was on the 6 month cycle of Accutane if you look at the 4 pictures of when I did have acne you can tell that the scars went from very bright red and some indented spots , to eventually fading out and didn't look like huge craters anymore. My dermatologist did say after I was done with Accutane if I had severe scars and marks there is a post-treatment, I'm not sure of the name but it almost takes a layer of your skin off (by laser) and makes it seem like they were never there, I thought I was going to have to get it done but I just let it heal naturally after I was off the medication and everything went away.
Congratulations, you look great! My scars were very very bad at the start of Accutane as well. Now I'm at the end of month 3 and some of the pitted scars look much better. Hopefully I'll be able to get more improvements just like you did! 
Do you know as you go through the course do scars seem to improve?
They do start to fade and eventually a majority of them do go away completely but it takes a long time. While I was on the 6 month cycle of Accutane if you look at the 4 pictures of when I did have acne you can tell that the scars went from very bright red and some indented spots , to eventually fading out and didn't look like huge craters anymore. My dermatologist did say after I was done with Accutane if I had severe scars and marks there is a post-treatment, I'm not sure of the name but it almost takes a layer of your skin off (by laser) and makes it seem like they were never there, I thought I was going to have to get it done but I just let it heal naturally after I was off the medication and everything went away.
Congratulations, you look great! My scars were very very bad at the start of Accutane as well. Now I'm at the end of month 3 and some of the pitted scars look much better. Hopefully I'll be able to get more improvements just like you did!
Thank you! If you are on month 3 and they are already fading away I bet you can't wait for the upcoming months, it gets exciting at times to see what and how much you will improve! I used to wake up every day and the first thing I would do is go look in the mirror for improvements, nothing beats seeing results!! 
Yay for you!!!
I mean WOW!! You look GREAT!!! I'm on it now. Have pretty severe acne like you used to, so seeing this gives me hope! Your skin is so clear and beautiful, I would never know you had acne in the past! Congrats man!!
Thanks! It means a lot to me, especially giving hope to people that used to have skin like mine, I used to search and search on this forum for hours looking for people with severe acne like mine and all I could find was people with a little people here and there and it started to get me down! Glad to see this thread is working as it should Good luck!! Stick to it and it will all work out!
Thank you! If you are on month 3 and they are already fading away I bet you can't wait for the upcoming months, it gets exciting at times to see what and how much you will improve! I used to wake up every day and the first thing I would do is go look in the mirror for improvements, nothing beats seeing results!!
Hey man, hope you don't mind answering a few questions - Did you use any products to help get rid of the scarring or did it heal naturally? And do you remember how long did it take for those scars in the last 2 pics to heal?
Your incredible pictures give me hope 
Thank you! If you are on month 3 and they are already fading away I bet you can't wait for the upcoming months, it gets exciting at times to see what and how much you will improve! I used to wake up every day and the first thing I would do is go look in the mirror for improvements, nothing beats seeing results!!
Hey man, hope you don't mind answering a few questions - Did you use any products to help get rid of the scarring or did it heal naturally? And do you remember how long did it take for those scars in the last 2 pics to heal?
Your incredible pictures give me hope
Ask as much as you'd like, this is the purpose of this thread
- I didn't use any products to help with the scarring, everything healed naturally.
As I said above there is a treatment called a "chemical peel" available and my doctor was originally going to have me go through that which pretty much peels your dead and old skin off and shows a new layer , but because I eventually healed so well I did not need that treatment.
- I do not remember the exact time it took for the last of the scars to finally be gone but I do remember it was a few months, which gradually every month kept getting lighter and lighter until you couldn't see them anymore.
How much improvement do you think ill see?
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48381-nottingham-20130113-02344/
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48383-nottingham-20130113-02369/
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48380-nottingham-20130113-02343/
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48379-nottingham-20130113-02307/
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48376-img-20130119-02377/
How much improvement do you think ill see?
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48381-nottingham-20130113-02344/
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48383-nottingham-20130113-02369/
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48380-nottingham-20130113-02343/
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48379-nottingham-20130113-02307/
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/gallery/image/48376-img-20130119-02377/
It all varies, everyones body is different and heals differently, but judging from your pictures your face seems to be healing very well, mine started with pink spots and then gradually faded more and more every week until they were gone. There is a treatment called skin peel you can take to get the scars to fade away faster but I would only do that if there absolutely not fading after a while.
We are 50 something'ish parents and after seeing your post and this post
thought we'd respond to let you know your post is invaluable for people taking the
acutane journey. We have a 14 yr old on it now and a 20 yr old who went thru it and the confusion/fear that accompanies this drug
is just incredible. My 20 year old had fantastic results for her mild acne as a result of acutane. her skin today is flawless!
Take a minute and respond to the post above; we did but figure she is not going to want to hear from oldies like us! Maybe the fear kbeex2 has towards acutane will be lessened if she hears it from someone who has been there and is closer
to her age.
You look great!
Hey JB, may I know how much did you weight when you started Accutane? : )
Ah I really wish I can give you a accurate answer for this question but I can't remember how much I weighed, if I had to guess I would say maybe 150-155? I weigh 170 now.
------------------------
We are 50 something'ish parents and after seeing your post and this post
thought we'd respond to let you know your post is invaluable for people taking the
acutane journey. We have a 14 yr old on it now and a 20 yr old who went thru it and the confusion/fear that accompanies this drug
is just incredible. My 20 year old had fantastic results for her mild acne as a result of acutane. her skin today is flawless!
Take a minute and respond to the post above; we did but figure she is not going to want to hear from oldies like us! Maybe the fear kbeex2 has towards acutane will be lessened if she hears it from someone who has been there and is closer
to her age.
You look great!
Thank you for the kind words! That is awesome that your kids acne is clearly up, its always that much better especially having supportive parents such as you seem to be, my parents were the ones pushing me to go on the medication, I originally said no and my mom kept saying just try it so between hearing that and arguing with myself about taking it I finally did, them keeping me motivated and always telling me it was going to get better helped me tremendously.
I will deffinitly read up on that topic and respond, I only read a few bits and peices of it so far but no one should have to go through thoughts like that!
UPDATE: Between work and other things going on I am mobile very often and don't turn on my computer until the weekends if I have time, however I do check my Facebook daily on my iPhone, so I am going to post my FB link to where you can message me if you need a quick response and it isn't the weekend:
FB:[Removed] ( you must have a Facebook profile to message me )