(updated) Acne is gone, but so is my HAIR!!! - California

UPDATE: I have finished my 1st (and hopefully last round) of Claravis. I have been off for about 6-8 weeks now, so far no return of the dreaded acne. However, I have notices my hair is beginning to thin A LOT!!! Strange because I was under the impression if your hair was going to fall out, it would while on the medication, not afterwards. I've begun taking a good multi-vitamin and 5000 mcg of Biotin. Hopefully I will begin seeing new growth in a few months.

Depending on how much more hair loss I experience, I may have to change my "worth it" rating, as I am not sure which is worse, having acne, or being bald!!!

I will post another update in a few months......

So now I am about 4-5 months out post-Accutane. I've been taking 10,000mcg of Biotin, and applying Nioxin for women religiously. My hair is STILL falling out at the same rate it has been. I am starting to notice some new growth, but my hair is still falling out faster than it's growing in!!!

Three more months have gone by, and my acne still has not returned, however I do get a few pimples when I ovulate or menstruate. I just get very proactive with the salicylic acid and Epiduo.

Im happy to report, my hair is coming back - s l o w l y. I have been taking 10,000 mcg of Biotin, 500 mg of Black Current Oil, 45 mg Iron, switched to a high protein diet, and upgraded to men's Rogain.

Not sure if all this has contributed, or simply has been a matter of time. One thing for sure I will NOT be using Claravis again.

Its been a year and half since my last posting, and my hair is STILL falling out. I swear I have half as much hair as I did two years ago. About 8 months ago my Doc. diagnosed me as Vitamin D deficient, so I went on prescription Vitamin D for 3 months, then to just OT 2000mg daily. I also added in a prenatal multivitamin because it has more iron and zinc than regular multi's (which is good for hair growth) Saw Palmetto which is supposed to block DHT in the scalp, Biotin, Cod Liver Oil, and switched to a Paleo diet. (Be careful about getting too much Vitamin B, you can develop tingling sensation in your legs). I also dont recommend Rogain. I stopped using it for a while because I didnt like how it made my hair look oily, and it seemed MORE hair fell out after stopping use than I was trying to grow back in the first place! Rogain makes your hair follicles go into a "growth phase" in the areas you are applying it to, and as soon as you stop applying it, your follicles automatically go dormant, and then shed. So unless you plan on using it for the rest of your life, you may be forcing follicles that wouldn't have otherwise gone dormant to do so. After all this, 8 months later, I have s o m e new growth, but certainly not enough to make up for all the loss I have experienced in the past 2 years. I now have to apply Toppix to my very thin areas so you cant see right through to my scalp.

Pinpointing the reason behind hair loss is a very difficult thing to diagnose, and because most Dr's dont consider it a health concern, they dont really care. Several Dr's shooed me out of their office and said what I'm going through it "normal". I'm sorry, but I cannot accept that answer, losing half your hair is not "normal"!!!!

Not really sure what there is left to do at this point but go to an Endocrinologist and have him take a closer look at my thyroid/hormones and see what he can put me on something to set my hormone level back to when I was 20!!

One thing I have discovered, is that my acne was likely attributed to dairy. Pretty disappointing to discover all I had to do was stop drinking milk, and instead ended up losing half my hair :-(