hair loss after stoping accutane

Hi, 

I am an 18 year old female who took accutane one year ago. A few months after my cycle ended I, too, experienced rapid hair loss and thinning. Nioxin shampoo helped it to grow faster (not at all thicker), but nothing that I've done has restored my hair to its former glory. I get a trim every 7 weeks and it does seem to help a little, but I'm sorry to say I think I'm going to have to live with this forever. 

on the 2nd week of my accutane treatment, my skin broke out and it was pretty nasty, i have cystic pimples all over my face, i had moderate acne before, and that break out was the worst breakout i have ever experienced in my whole life, so i went to my dermatologist because it really scared me. she gave me cortisone tablets to take for five days for a week and she upped my dose to 30 mg a day i had to take 3 accutane in 10 mg thrice a day. My skin cleared up significantly after that. but then on my fourth week i started to notice my hair falling out. i would run my hands on my hair and 3 strands of hair with bulbs on the tip would come out. even when i'm just walking, a hair or two would literally fall out of my head, my hair thinned out so much at this point. I went to my derm to get it checked because it was really bothering me. she suggested that i go on a low dose. I did for a week but my hair just keeps falling out, so i decided to stop taking it. the day i stopped taking accutane my hair stopped falling out.

hi,dear friend
i have the same problem now,what about your experience,about cleansing of colon,have you experienced it?what was the results?

Hi There...I just read your post about acne and agrre with you 100%. Can you please clarify exactly how you used the sunflower oil? I had 2 children that used accutand and now a thrid that needs something. I did not like the long term side effects and do not want to put my 16 year old on accutane. Please send me your routine to cure acne with sunflower oil. Thank you in advance!

What was your routine? I havd 2 children on Accutane and my son's hair fell out 6 months after completion. I have another son with acne and do not want to use Accutane again. Please send me your advice and routine.

I agree with you 100% about these drug companies!

thank you!

Help...please. My son is so depressed over acne and these doctors just keep trying different drugs. I need you to send me the details of what you did. Thank you in advance!

OMG something similar happen to me, I drank accutane for 6 months n when I leave the treatment 4 months after i began to loss hair, first i was lossing a lot of hair but now i loss about 15 or 30 hair per day, i'm woried because nobody in my family is bald, n my hair from the up part of m forehead looks thin. OMG i'm very worried i no wanna be bald :( i've about 8 months with my hair loss.. n it doesn't stop.

Hey guys,

I feel a bit better knowing that I'm not the only one who thinks that Accutaine caused my hair thinning. I'm 24 and went through two courses of the drug (Roaccutaine in Australia), while I did not have any unusual problems during treatment, about two months after my second round I noticed that my hair was falling out like crazy, it's now been almost a year since I stopped taking the medication and I have lost probably just over half my hair (It's still shedding). I have been to the doctors, they found no obvious reason for the sudden loss and subscribed me with Rogaine for women, I refused to put more chemicals on my sensitive skin and after doing some online research and talking to the pharmacist, I decided that this product was not for me, my body had been through enough.

I spoke to a friend who also happens to be a naturopath and she told me that she experienced dramatic hair loss during a stressful time in her life and she used garlic cloves minced with olive oil and alcohol applied straight to the scalp to regain her hair, which worked for her. However she did warn that even after she showered, because her pores had absorbed the garlic, she was giving of an unpleasant odour. Since I work in an office environment, this was not really an option for me, however I took on board her advice, went and picked up some iron, hair and nail, Executive B and garlic pills, as well as whey protein powder (hair is made out of protein so it needs protein to grow) and started taking these.

After doing some research online I came across garlic shampoos. In Australia, these were retailing for almost $40 a bottle in some places which I thought was crazy so I ordered two bottles online from America and payed less than $20 for both. I've been using this shampoo, along with the supplements for about four months now. When I first started using the shampoo I got a really flaky scalp which this product claims to prevent, but my skin is unusually sensitive so I persevered and eventually my scalp got used to it, it smells like baby powder so it was a much better option than putting garlic cloves and alcohol on my head.

In the first few weeks of my regime I didn't notice any difference except for the flaky scalp, my hair was still falling out like crazy and I didn't notice new hair coming through which was depressing, however four months on and the shedding has slowed down, I'm still losing a lot more than I should, but the shower doesn't block up after every wash, and new hair is sprouting up and growing pretty fast all over which is great. 

I am still looking for a way to stop the shedding however, so after reading a few forums, I am considering doing a colon and liver detox to get this junk out of my system. I am still concerned about the long term effects that this drug will have on my body but I can't undo what has been done, so I'm going to focus on what I can do for myself now. If anyone has managed to stop their hair from shedding after Accutaine, please post a reply.

I was on the drug from Jan to April 2012. My hair started falling immediately and even though I stopped in May the shedding escalated to a point where I could see a receding hair line (I have no history of balding in the family). BUT the hair loss has stopped right at the 6 month mark from stopping the medicine. If you decide to take isotretonion, just calm down and accept that you will lose hair. I am currently doing three things to help my hair regrow 1) taking Biotin tablets (Costco Brand) 2) eating a lot of fish because it is high in iron 3) applying a mix of castor oil and coconut oil into my hair 2-3 times a week (leave it in for 2 hours and then wash your hair). I think all of these things have helped significantly and I am noticing very little hair loss now. Hope all my hair comes back, castor oil is amazing btw.

Hair loss continues forever after ACCUTANE THERAPY. There is no method to this "so-called" modern medical treatment to ever get back to "normal". This drug is "DANGEROUS"!!!! And much more then hair loss will occur. Try joint degeneration!

I took Accutane in 1996 - my dermatologist told me I was the worst case of cystic acne she'd seen.  It came back after a first round, so she started me on a second round.  I discontinued about half-way through the second round, due to my intuition that this wasn't going to fix it, and the terrible side effects I was having.  I did not think it was a good idea to burn my oil glands out - I could tell the problem was not coming from having a dirty, oily face - so this didn't make sense to me.  The cysts were coming from much deeper under the skin.  

The cysts again came back slowly over the next year.  They went mostly away when I got married and started birth control.  They were not an issue during my first pregnancy.  After my son was born, they came back worse than I had ever experienced before.  This led me to believe that hormone issues were the cause of my acne.  I heard about natural progesterone cream and went on that, which cleared everything up, and made me feel really good in every way!  Once again, I began to worry about long-term effects of being on a steroid (progesterone), no matter how good it made me feel - plus, I got pregnant again, and didn't want to take it while pregnant.  Pregnancy naturally provides a woman with a lot of progesterone.  

So after this baby was born, the problems returned in full force, only now, it was getting to be a long list of other problems as well - joint pain, yeast infections, bruising, thick, dry skin, swollen lymph glands, unbelievable fatigue, sore bottoms of feet, and many more.  I followed an educated hunch that it might be dietary/dairy induced.  When I googled dairy and acne, it looked like this was my exact problem, although I just loathed the thought of giving up dairy.  

I have done many experiments with my diet over the last few years, to see if that was it.  It was absolutely dairy.  The cysts went completely, totally away, but it took a lot of vigilant effort to keep sources of dairy out of my diet - they are hidden everywhere.  Whenever I would eat some by mistake, the cysts returned, anywhere from one day to an entire week later - along with the other symptoms.  After forming, in the first week after eating dairy, the cysts require another week or two to heal.

My last symptoms to clear up where still rosacea, low-level fatigue, thick calloused elbows, swelling, dry cracking skin on hands.  Through more research, I found these were caused by wheat intolerance, which may be the foundational problem - even more so than dairy.  It is shown that, in people sensitive to wheat, the wheat aggravates the intestinal wall and allows undigested (too big) dairy and meat proteins to pass into the bloodstream. The body does not recognize these - they are not broken down properly -  thus causing an immune system response (the body makes antibodies to the dairy proteins, and you are in a constant state of immune response).  This is a process that worsens over time.  It will possibly turn into an irreversible autoimmune disease.  It may be possible to heal the intestine, by eliminating gluten, and be able to eat meat/dairy proteins sometime in the future, for me, but for now I am completely gluten-free vegan.  It is thought that the longer you have been exposed to gluten, the longer it will take to heal - in terms of years even.  

Now that I have spent several years learning how to cook the way I need to, reading labels, trying products, I am very happy with what I eat - I like it a lot.  But it would be a lie to say that switching over has been easy.  It took a lot of work to find out what I could and couldn't have, finding sources for my food, extra money.  Even now that I know what I am doing, it is a lot of maintenance work to make sure I have something at every meal time that is safe to eat.  However, the alternative has become very terrible in my life.  If you decide to try this, and find it works, keep doing it!! Don't give up - the consequences are very serious, and it sometimes feels like it would be easier to just let yourself get sick, instead of doing all this work.  If wheat/dairy is the source of your problem, I truly believe it will continue to sicken you, way past just having cystic acne.  Deal with it now, before it gets worse!  

 

 

You my friend are a complete id**t!!!

Hi fellow sufferers of hair-loss caused by Accutane!

I took accutane about 2 years ago with a quite small dosage for only three full months.

I stopped taking it as I noticed it was making me depressed, my libido suffered and I was starting to lose hair.

I usually never shed after a shower but now the bathroom floor was full of hair afterwards.

I got rid of depression and my libido (thank god) came back to normal but my hair kept falling off. And it still does. I used to have a very strong hair but now I probably have only 1/3 of it.

I'm close to shaving my head ,since I'm REALLY going bald. I'm now 27 years old male and I have only basic male-pattern baldness genetical history in my family. My dad got bald in his late 50's, the same with his father and so on.

I feel that accutane has accelerated my balding and this way made my life quite miserable.

I had absolutely zero problems with losing hair/balding before taking accutane. Sure my skin is better, but all in all I wish I could turn back time and choose not to take the drug. Like you can read above, sometimes it's not just hair-loss you have to deal with it but many other symptoms caused by accutane. My advice to anyone who's thinking of taking it: DON'T! It will ruin your life worse than your acne. All the best to everyone!

I took the drug in 1990 and looking at 2013 I'm thin and wanting answers. I found this post and want more. My hair is thin and I'm worried I'll look like the bald old lady in the back before long. I'm 36 with 2 kids and trying to get back to myself. I am trying WEN and seem to like it so far, only 2 weeks in. I hope it helps! If you find an answer, please do share!!!