Hey guys, as the title says, I just started my 6th month of accutane, and my face literally looks the same as before I started taking it, if not worse. I'm a 20 year old 170 Ib male, and my course has been: month 1- 20mg, month 2- 40mg, month 3- 60 mg, month 4-6- 80mg. I don't by any means have severe acne, but my acne is very persistent. I went through all the topicals and antibiotics that the derm prescribed me without any results, so he finally just put my on accutane to "kick it all out of my system". Basically, my acne is lots of tiny closed comedones (around my mouth and chin, and some on my forehead) that turn into red puss filled cysts. These little white bumps stay on my face for months with some of them getting inflamed each week. A lot of times after the break out is over, another white bump just takes its place. I just stopped taking whey protein last month, and I also just began cutting out all dairy and doubling my vegetable intake. I know many of you have it way worse than me, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Have any of you taken longer than usual to respond to accutane? Have any of you not have gotten any results or have your acne get worse after a course of accutane? And lastly, do y'all think I'll have to go on a second course? I really feel like I never should have taken it in the first place, as I was searching my photos to look for a photo of my face before accutane, and realized how small my breakouts back then really were. It was never that bad, just new breakouts every week. Now I feel it looks much worse, the zits are bigger. (The first two photos are about a year and a half before accutane. I think the topicals made it worse in that year and a half span but I don't have any closeup photos to show) (the rest of the pictures are during treatment)
One of the reasons it got worse, if you experience any constipation
eat soups daily
take daily 1 teaspoon psyllium husk with water
drink buttermilk/kefir one cup in the evenings
eat lots of raw fruits and veggies
you'll see huge improvement with accutane if you add some healthy habits
On 7/4/2017 at 3:00 AM, Tgan15 said:Thanks for the reply
Hi Tgan15, are you using any topical? If your skin isn't too dry you can maybe try retin-a .25% every second day and build up a tolerance to it until you can use it daily, it's great to exfoliate the skin and clear the pores. I know you say you used topicals before but when you have gone through Accutane you skin sometimes responds to them much better (this happened me) When you finish your Accutane course you could always ask your derm to keep you on a low dose indefinitely, so maybe 20mg once or twice a week and use this in conjunction with the retin-a.. I myself did this and had great results!
20 hours ago, Maisie89 said:On 7/3/2017 at 9:00 PM, Tgan15 said:Thanks for the reply
Hi Tgan15, are you using any topical? If your skin isn't too dry you can maybe try retin-a .25% every second day and build up a tolerance to it until you can use it daily, it's great to exfoliate the skin and clear the pores. I know you say you used topicals before but when you have gone through Accutane you skin sometimes responds to them much better (this happened me) When you finish your Accutane course you could always ask your derm to keep you on a low dose indefinitely, so maybe 20mg once or twice a week and use this in conjunction with the retin-a.. I myself did this and had great results!
Yeah, I think my skin is too dry for retin-a, as it's flaking in both areas where my comedones and cysts are (both sides of my chin). My sister suggested getting a facial, so I'm going to try that to extract all the comedones, and hopefully get rid of this thing. Also, fitting my eating habits thanks to AhaGuru. Thanks for the reply, I'll maybe try retin-a after my course
Make sure that you're consistently washing your face and not picking at anything. I've just started my second month on Accutane, and my skin looks worse than it ever has in my life, but that'sjust part of the process. Isotretinointakes everything that's stuck in your pores, and expels it to the surface, so it's going to make an appearance on your face, but it wont just magically make it disappear. That's where you come into wash it, and use acne tools.However, if you'repicking at them with your bare hands, it will actually just make your skin worse because you're puttingthe oils from your fingers into your pores. Not to mention that putting stress like that upon acne will hinder the cleansing process and create sores/scars/scabs. So, just make sure that you're keeping your hands off your face unless you're washing it, and using tools instead if they need to be popped.