My Last Month on Accutane – Before and After

Hello Lovelies,

So if you’ve been a reader for a while now then you know that I’ve been on Accutane for the past six months, and I’m very happy to say that I’m FINISHED with Accutane! I thought I was going to be on it longer, but when I went into my appointment my doctor let me know that I was finished. And while I absolutely loved the results, there were definitely some side effects that I was glad to be rid of, such as the dry lips, hair loss, and skin sensitivity to the sun. But anyways let me give you a quick run down of how my final months were.

So some of the side effects I had stayed constant throughout my treatment, primarily the dry lips, and skin both on my body and my face. I noticed these past few months that my skin on my body had been drier than before, to the point that it got incredibly itchy and in some places patchy – gross I know. I was also getting chicken skin on the tops of my arms very easily. I am quite prone to it on my arms because I absolutely hate moisturizer and one of the ways to get it is by not properly exfoliating and moisturizing. So while the remedy was more than easy if I messed up and forgot to moisturize I would notice all these little bumps along my skin. My lips and my facial skin stayed about the same amount of dryness all throughout this process.

One side effect I noticed a bit more in my last month was hair loss, again my hair is not thinning and if you felt my hair you would never think to say my hair was thin. But before Accutane I had massively thick hair, and I notice it’s a bit thinner when I put it up in a pony tail. This side effect, thank goodness, is temporary and within the next few months I expect my hair return to its normal thickness because my hair grows rather quickly. I also noticed that dryness inside my nose greatly decreased within the last few months, which I was so happy about! Waking up to a slightly bloody nose even when I treated the area with Vaseline, was getting quite bothersome.

As for my acne – I have none, and in all honesty I cannot remember the last time I had a spot, my pores are minimized, I can’t see any black heads, and my only skin imperfections are some of the hyperpigmentation left behind from my past acne, but with time those too will fade. I could not be more happy and elated with the condition of my skin, and I know I just harped on and on about all the side effects, I would still gladly do it all over again. I don’t regret going on Accutane, and I wish I could thank those who discovered this miracle worker, because Accutane has truly changed my life. I never realized how uncomfortable I was with my skin – because I had never known it any other way – until my skin was clear. I guess because I saw my skin everyday, with minimal improvements I didn’t realize how bad my skin had gotten, but because I knew this would happen I recorded a video of myself before I went on Accutane, in case I wanted to post it. I wont be doing that, at least not right now but I did take some screen shots of my skin where I did some close ups so you could really see the condition of my skin. Here they are, with some after shots as well, this is my bare skin in both sets of photos, I have absolutely no makeup or primer or anything on my skin. (Also the before pictures are taken as screen shots from a video I filmed from my webcam, so please excuse the horrible quality, but at least you can see some of the difference! And the after pictures – lets just ignore my messy room!)

 

Again please excuse the background, I honestly wasn’t even thinking about it when I took these photos!

If you’re hesitating to take Accutane because you’ve heard those few and far between horror stories, I say just go for it! What have you got to lose? If you do experience some of the more extreme side effects like depression – something I did not encounter – then they can take you off and you can try something else. However I’m not a doctor or skin specialist, I don’t know your medical history, so do some research of your own and bring it up to your doctor. And if you’re interested in my past Accutane posts here they are:

Accutane Diaries: Pre – Prescription

Accutane Diaries: Weeks 1 and 2

Accutane Diaries: Weeks 3-5

Accutane Diaries: Cumulative Update

Accutane Diaries: Yet Another Cumulative Update + Switching Doctors!

 My Skin Care Routine – Accutane Version

Until next time . . .