22 yrs old and i think i m going bald (post accutane hairloss)

[grimgor]

Hi everyone,

I'm a 22yrs old man and recently i ve noticed a very quick hairloss on the temples. My hair texture has completely changed and i feel it s much thinner now.

Before i continue, you need to know that i ve been on accutane during 8 months but it was a pretty low dose (20mg). I noticed the hairloss 2 months after i stopped taking the drug (it all started in august after the holidays) and i m pretty sure it's accutane induced.

I ve always had thin hair on the temples, since i was 16 i d say, but recently i started losing it very quickly.

I also noticed that my scalp was VERY itchy while i was losing hair and i used to get huge red spots sometimes with pus along my temples and hairline. Now i feel better and the itchy sensation has gone, so i guess the hairloss is slowing down.

Anyway, i ve recently seen a dermatologist and talk about that itchy sensation on my scalp and she told me i had to wait to see what would happen as i had taken accutane before and the hairloss could be linked.

I m really stressed about all this ****, and i don t know what to do, i can t style my hair like i used to anymore, it s depressing....

Anyways, here are some pics:

http://imageshack.us/g/707/snapshot20121230d.jpg/

You can see my temples, my crown and how i style my hair so that nothing is noticeable...

Thanks for the advice guys...

 

[dorombl]

same here. i was on accutane twice. after the first one year period i lost my hairline and my hair gone thin. after the second, it got worse, now im on treatments, but my hairloss is even worse than yours. on this forum they told me that my hairloss is not because of accutane. but ive read a lot of stories same like yours or mine. maybe accutane taking accelerates the mbp... the sad thing is, the hair will not grow back on temples and hairline after taking the drug i think. thats why i use now the big3. you can see my topic: Balding, mature hairline or accutane caused hairloss.

 

[grimgor]

same here. i was on accutane twice. after the first one year period i lost my hairline and my hair gone thin. after the second, it got worse, now im on treatments, but my hairloss is even worse than yours. on this forum they told me that my hairloss is not because of accutane. but ive read a lot of stories same like yours or mine. maybe accutane taking accelerates the mbp... the sad thing is, the hair will not grow back on temples and hairline after taking the drug i think. thats why i use now the big3. you can see my topic: Balding, mature hairline or accutane caused hairloss.

Yeah this drug is really a ****ing poison, i have this side effect and i have also developped some redness on the cheeks from time to time as well as eczema on the neck.... i never had any of that stuff before...

I m really reluctant to try another drug like finasteride because of all the side effects, i thought nothing would happen to me with accutane but i got all the side effects after i stopped the treatment...

 

[antman]

it might be that your natural progression of hair loss started whilst you were on accutane - under exactly the same food intake and lifestyle my hair loss accelerated just 'out of the blue'

also - despite your experience with accutane i would recommend giving finasteride a try if hair loss is very distressing to you.

you can always cut the pill up, to start with very low doses
and if you don't like it you can just quit anytime.

 

[grimgor]

it might be that your natural progression of hair loss started whilst you were on accutane - under exactly the same food intake and lifestyle my hair loss accelerated just 'out of the blue'

also - despite your experience with accutane i would recommend giving finasteride a try if hair loss is very distressing to you.

you can always cut the pill up, to start with very low doses
and if you don't like it you can just quit anytime.

Thanks for your answer, in fact i don t really know if i should start a treatment or wait to see if it gets worse.
Few males in my family have male pattern baldness: my father has a receded hairline but still got a lot of hair and my two grandpas had plenty of hair too. Yet i have 3 uncles with male pattern baldness but they re not completely bald and are all over 50 yrs old. I guess they started losing their hair in their 30's
I have to say also that i m someone who stresses a lot in general and i know this doesn t help, but that s the way i am...

 

[antman]

with any type of hair loss there is usually inflammation going on - in the meantime things like

shampoo with ketoconazole (Nizoral)
natural oils and
washing your hair with baking soda

may help with inflammation to slow down your hair loss and or to get your skin to settle down

 

[dorombl]

my father is bald but my grandparents arent, so maybe i have mbp too, but i think accutane accelerated the whole proccess in my case. my hair was very bad after taking accutane, it was thin and dry and i had a receding hairline.

so if you want to regrow on your temples, you should try minoxidil with azelaic acid and tretinoin (like retin-a). dont wait too much, because the hair wont grow back on your temples...
by the way, im satisfied with accutane, because i had really bad acne, and now it gone. but after i stopped using it, my seborhheic dermatitis came back, and im dealing with it again...

 

[grimgor]

my father is bald but my grandparents arent, so maybe i have mbp too, but i think accutane accelerated the whole proccess in my case. my hair was very bad after taking accutane, it was thin and dry and i had a receding hairline.

so if you want to regrow on your temples, you should try minoxidil with azelaic acid and tretinoin (like retin-a). dont wait too much, because the hair wont grow back on your temples...
by the way, im satisfied with accutane, because i had really bad acne, and now it gone. but after i stopped using it, my seborhheic dermatitis came back, and im dealing with it again...

I guess what s gone on my temples is gone forever and if my hair stays like that well, i ll deal with it, but i really don t wont the situation to get worse that s what frightens me a lot....

 

[dorombl]

finasteride is what you need, if you want to save your hair. give it a try, if you wont have side effects within the first month, you can keep up with it.
if you have, then stop taking it. dont wait too much, consult with a dermatologist. he can tell you if its mbp or not.

 

[The_Mentalist]

Ok, here it goes.

A) Blood history of Androgenetic Alopecia is a good sign, but it is not definitive. Your dad may have Androgenetic Alopecia, does not mean you will. It is all just a game of chance. And chances are simply more leaning towrads one or the other depending on how many close brothers/sis have Androgenetic Alopecia etc. You have mixed history, so it is even less telling.

B) You used Accutane for that long and you experienced hairloss upon stopping it. So your hairloss is not Accutane induced but possibly the lack of it. What I am suggesting is that Accutane might have grown you some hair or had stopped loss of hair that you would have lost anyway, but gradually.

C) Hairloss, other than Androgenetic Alopecia, is usually but not always reversible and does not progress in male pattern baldness fashion. In other words, you would experience general thinning and even in permanent hair areas of scalp if hairloss/thinning were due to, lets say, thyroid problem, or some drug use etc. You seem to have experienced deep temple recession, but have thick hair elsewhere or it seems.

D) It is possible that you have Androgenetic Alopecia and you would have had that much gradual temporal recession in those 10 months if you did not use Accutance. But, upon Accutane cessation, your Androgenetic Alopecia time loss caught up on your pattern in two months, so you have experienced sudden hairloss. I am assuming that Accutance also helps with hair growth. There have been accounts that Accutance has helped hair positively.

Regardless, your first picture with temporal recession would have been a sign of Androgenetic Alopecia because in that picture your temporal recession has gone too deep and it is not just mature or age related. Last pictures also show some bare skin at left and right side of your hairline. To me most important thing is one's own intuitive feelings and how they feel hair has changed-And you said it-You cant style your hair well and it is giving you some trouble. This is a positive indication.

I would also follow the derm or specialist advice for now and see what happened in coming months before jumping on finasteride. Please know that what I said above is not something conclusive about you, but my honest opiion what it might be

 

[grimgor]

Ok, here it goes.

A) Blood history of Androgenetic Alopecia is a good sign, but it is not definitive. Your dad may have Androgenetic Alopecia, does not mean you will. It is all just a game of chance. And chances are simply more leaning towrads one or the other depending on how many close brothers/sis have Androgenetic Alopecia etc. You have mixed history, so it is even less telling.

B) You used Accutane for that long and you experienced hairloss upon stopping it. So your hairloss is not Accutane induced but possibly the lack of it. What I am suggesting is that Accutane might have grown you some hair or had stopped loss of hair that you would have lost anyway, but gradually.

C) Hairloss, other than Androgenetic Alopecia, is usually but not always reversible and does not progress in male pattern baldness fashion. In other words, you would experience general thinning and even in permanent hair areas of scalp if hairloss/thinning were due to, lets say, thyroid problem, or some drug use etc. You seem to have experienced deep temple recession, but have thick hair elsewhere or it seems.

D) It is possible that you have Androgenetic Alopecia and you would have had that much gradual temporal recession in those 10 months if you did not use Accutance. But, upon Accutane cessation, your Androgenetic Alopecia time loss caught up on your pattern in two months, so you have experienced sudden hairloss. I am assuming that Accutance also helps with hair growth. There have been accounts that Accutance has helped hair positively.

Regardless, your first picture with temporal recession would have been a sign of Androgenetic Alopecia because in that picture your temporal recession has gone too deep and it is not just mature or age related. Last pictures also show some bare skin at left and right side of your hairline. To me most important thing is one's own intuitive feelings and how they feel hair has changed-And you said it-You cant style your hair well and it is giving you some trouble. This is a positive indication.

I would also follow the derm or specialist advice for now and see what happened in coming months before jumping on finasteride. Please know that what I said above is not something conclusive about you, but my honest opiion what it might be

Well,thanks for your interesting advice!

I have to say i find it really strange that accutane could help with hair loss as i v heard about tons of cases where people experienced hairloss (including temples recession) during the drug intake or just after they stopped.
Also before starting the drug, i would never lose any single hair, and now,when i shake my hair for 5 mins over a white sheet of paper, i get like 10 hair or more falling.
I feel that the texture of my hair have changed and my hairdresser noticed it too: i used to have really thick hair and now they re more thin even though i still got a good amount of hair....
I d like not to get on finasteride as i m afraid to get side effects again but if i have no choice i will because my hair is really important to me i would look dumb without it lol.
I need to know wether the hailoss will go further or not, for now i can deal with it but if it goes further it would really start bothering me...

 

[grimgor]

Hi guys,

i ve recently had an appointment with another dermatologist and asked him to take a look at my hair. Well, he asked me if my father was bald (he isn t) and told me that i still got pretty thick hair so according to him i shouldn t start any treatment....Yet, i m still really anxious about my hairline, my scalp is itchy, and it s obvious that i have a "V shape" that appeared after i took accutane. I don t know what to do because if i don t start finasteride now i m afraid i will lose most of my hairline when i am 25.....

any opinions?

 

[meetjoeblack]

Hi everyone,

I'm a 22yrs old man and recently i ve noticed a very quick hairloss on the temples. My hair texture has completely changed and i feel it s much thinner now.

Before i continue, you need to know that i ve been on accutane during 8 months but it was a pretty low dose (20mg). I noticed the hairloss 2 months after i stopped taking the drug (it all started in august after the holidays) and i m pretty sure it's accutane induced.

I ve always had thin hair on the temples, since i was 16 i d say, but recently i started losing it very quickly.

I also noticed that my scalp was VERY itchy while i was losing hair and i used to get huge red spots sometimes with pus along my temples and hairline. Now i feel better and the itchy sensation has gone, so i guess the hairloss is slowing down.

Anyway, i ve recently seen a dermatologist and talk about that itchy sensation on my scalp and she told me i had to wait to see what would happen as i had taken accutane before and the hairloss could be linked.

I m really stressed about all this ****, and i don t know what to do, i can t style my hair like i used to anymore, it s depressing....

Anyways, here are some pics:

http://imageshack.us/g/707/snapshot20121230d.jpg/

You can see my temples, my crown and how i style my hair so that nothing is noticeable...

Thanks for the advice guys...

Accutane cleared my acne but, hairloss was a factor unfortunately. I noticed hairloss months after. I was not as thick but, I am great now. If its male pattern baldness you are ****ed. If you don't have that, you'll be fine. I think it effected my hairline but, its life and I am over it.

 

[grimgor]

Accutane cleared my acne but, hairloss was a factor unfortunately. I noticed hairloss months after. I was not as thick but, I am great now. If its male pattern baldness you are ****ed. If you don't have that, you'll be fine. I think it effected my hairline but, its life and I am over it.

well i really don t know if its male pattern baldness as overall i still have a good amount of hair, ony the temples suffered a deep recession after accutane.... i guess time will tell but i m really obsessed about it i just can t accept becoming one of the only hairloss sufferer in my family...

One other thing: i don t know if the shedding still goes on, because if i brush my hair in a "normal way" i don t get much falling hair (between 1 and 4), but if i strongly shake my hair for 30 seconds i get like 20 hair falling at the same time..... very disturbing

 

[dorombl]

you won't get your hair back on your temples...even if you stopped accutane. and thats the area where the hardest to regrow. my hairline has changed after the 2 periods of using accutane. the texture of it is really bad, its very thin. and after the first period of using accutane, it hasnt recovered... after the second, i started using minoxidil and propecia. i think its maybe male pattern baldness, what was accelerated by accutane. there are a lot of people with the same problem, so i think accutane has an effect on hair...

 

[grimgor]

you won't get your hair back on your temples...even if you stopped accutane. and thats the area where the hardest to regrow. my hairline has changed after the 2 periods of using accutane. the texture of it is really bad, its very thin. and after the first period of using accutane, it hasnt recovered... after the second, i started using minoxidil and propecia. i think its maybe male pattern baldness, what was accelerated by accutane. there are a lot of people with the same problem, so i think accutane has an effect on hair...

yes i know that my hair on the temples is lost forever but i don t want the shedding to continue, that s my main problem now....The only thing that bothers me with the temples is that i can t style my hair with gel like i used to because of my new hairline...but that s life, at least my skin is good now...

 

[dorombl]

then you should try biotin and zinc and vitamins, maybe they could help to stop shedding. time and these will help you if it's not male pattern baldness.