I started on Accutane mainly because of oily skin and a few painful cysts (due to hormonal changes). Big mistake! I stopped the treatment after 2 weeks because I couldn't deal with the side effects.
Now, 2 months later I still have dry skin, but what bothers me is that the skin is super sticky (while moist) and shiny, it kind of has a waxy look! Is my skin dehydrated? I moisturie twice a day (Effaclar H) but it doesn't help. It is also very fragile, and somehow numb and I also feel like a burning sensation. Can't really tell if the skin is thinner or thicker. Will my skin return to normal?? Going crazy over here, should never have taken that drug. Has anyone had a similar experience like mine? Would really appreciate if someone could answer me!
It could be dehydrated especially since you were on Accutane...when my skin was dehydrated it was sort of like that, and paradoxically oily. What helped me was hydraulic acid (I like the Indeed brand) underneath a moisterizer (I look for moisterisers that also have hydraulic acid- I use Cereve) Hydraulic acid helps the skin absorb water so that it can balance itself. And I started only washing my face with water in order to let the skins acid barrier re-establish itself. Honestly, I don't think cleansers are necessary. I noticed that my skin stopped looking so dehydrated in a couple of months (but it was severely dehydrated).
Hello nina87, I have the same exact problem after accutane and I hate it. In addition the waxy shininess and weird sensations, my skin turns red super easily and its awful. I know your post is from a couple years ago. But if you see this, please let me know if your skin returned to normal?
I had 3 courses of Roaccutane about 20 years ago and I'm sorry to report that my skin has been waxy / shiny ever since. Not necessarily greasy, just reflective. Nothing I've tried will get rid of it. The response from Moonchild11 in this thread about hydraulic acid sound interesting, I'm definitely going to give that a go.
My face burns in the sun in literally a few minutes which apparently is something to do with a permanent change to the skin after Roaccutane. There is very little info on this out there though frustratingly.
I had a terrible waxy, sticky skin when on 40mg/day for two months during very hot summer. I usually took 10mg/day. The effect went away couple of months after stopping accutane. But my skin changed irreversibly (easily scaring, wrinkling fast,and intolerant to isotretinoin - gets random scars coupled with pain during formationand wrinkles even on low dose).