Week 5,6

Sorry for the late update! Busy with school work....

Side Effects:

• Nauseous? After every meal I feel kind of queasy. sigh.
• Still quite red in the face
• Less dry, my hair is even getting oily after 2 days of no washing
• Some blackheads came back and I am having a little break out :c

Sigh, not a good week for my skin but hopefully it will get better by the third month! That is normally when a lot of people really see results :)! 

Week 4

Week 4 Guys! Done with my first month of accutane :)

So far clearing up. Last week I got a break out though :T Probably due to my period...but accutane is supposed to also work on hormonal acne.... >< *crosses fingers*

Side effects:

• Still constant dry lips, just constantly put on a lip balm
• Less dry skin than the first month
• Still red faced
• Sensitive eyes?
• Dry throat and nose (not too bad though, just drink water) 

So far so good. Hopefully my journey will continue smoothly! >< Only thing that is really really bothersome is getting the actual medication. I just transferred my accutane to a different pharmacy and there was a minor problem. The result was just a lengthy wait at the pharmacy, around 2 hours. 

Oh! My skincare routine is really helping the dryness of my skin! As a matter of fact, my face rarely feels dry anymore! If anyone wants to know my routine please comment or something <3 

Thats all for this week! See you again soon :)

Week 3

Third week of accutane!
Side effects:

• Dry skin
• Bloody noses
• Dry cuticles
• Shedding hair
• Redness in face

Well, it is my third week of accutane and so far so good! Besides the thinning hair, my other side effects are bearable. I have not had severe bloody noses and my lips are dry but they have not cracked and bled, unlike most people on accutane. It seems that I am lucky so far *knocks on wood* and hopefully my blood test will also show good results!

Oh! My blackheads are also almost completely gone! Still peeling though!

That is all for this week~ and hope everyone is having good progress with their skin problems too <3

Week 2

Week 2 of Accutane

Side Effects:

• SO MANY blackheads!
• >_< Almost all the pores on my nose feels like a blackhead.
• Drier scalp
• I am flaking and think my hair feels thinner ._.
• Slightly dry inner nose

Sigh, the blackheads and thinning hair is kinda scaring me. However, I hear people say the blackheads start falling out by the 4th week or so. Praying the thinning hair is also temporary! 

That's all for this week~ 

Week 1

It has officially been 1 week since I started accutane~ anddd so far its alright?

Side effects:

• headache for the first 2-3 days
• constantly red in the face
• little drier skin around the nose and chin area
• scalp getting bit drier, feels a bit flakey =_=;;

I haven't had any severe dryness yet? I'm wondering if that will really kick in the second week or so. Or maybe my skin care is doing its job? Well I'll find out soon~ and if my skin care is really saving me I'll introduce the products I am using! 

I am experiencing some break outs around my nose and chin area, as usual. So its nothing too new except that its like purging out my blackheads and stuff? I'm getting a lot of little pustules and black heads, which I hear is quite normal. Hopefully I wont get a rash like some other people experience =_=. 

Well over all~ Doing fine so far ;3 and hope to update you guys soon ~ 

Acne

As of Saturday, September 14, I have started taking accutane! Therefore, I am going to start writing short diary entries to document my progress.

For those of you who want more information on accutane (also known as isotretinoin) or have never heard of it before, please do your research! These entries are just for me to document my journey on accutane and hopefully others will also benefit from my experience.

If you are still reading this post and still have no idea what accutane is, it is basically a last resort treatment for patients with severe or persistent acne. It is a very concentrated and strong medication that makes all the oil glands in your body to stop producing so much oil. Therefore, without oil and sebum, bacteria is not allowed to grow and inflame your skin. Ideally the acne will also stop forming. Accutane is usually only prescribed after all other methods of treating acne fail including: topical, birth control and antibiotics.

I'm pretty sure accutane is pretty much a synthetic form of vitamin A, which is also known to help oily skinned people in daily supplements! :) Accutane sounds pretty heavenly for all the acne sufferers right now, yes? Well, there are big risks and side effects for this medication, similar to all medications. Accutane's side effects always include dry lips, nose, skin and worst cases depression, liver damage and deformed babies! (>_<) However, I weighed my own benefits and risks and decided to take accutane!

Now enough for all the boring talk~ I'm going to talk about my personal skin and then throughout the months hopefully write about the side effects I'm experiencing.... (If I'm not lazy with schoolwork and other stuff~ <3)

My skin type: 
Ridiculously oily! within an hour of washing my face or out of the shower, my face is already oily... T-zone can even get Hourglass's immaculate foundation melting off. For those who haven't heard of Hourglass immaculate foundation, its available in Sephora for a hefty price, but does wonders for those with oily skin!

Acne severity:
Mild but very persistent! I don't have acne that covers the whole face all the time. I have constant spots. Once one is gone, another one replaces it. Nodules, papules and of course cysts. I even get ones that connect together.... just painful ;m;. I am also always red in the face! It's kinda embarrassing when people keep asking "Why are you so red?" Well, I can't help it. It's genetic?? Oh and before I forget! I'm also taking accutane for my horrendous back acne! I'm starting to scar on my back and call my self a leopard (giggle).

Dosage: I'm taking absorbica 60ml a day. 30ml pills twice a day.

Symptoms:
Since I've only been taking it for 3 days theres not much yet XD! But hopefully I get this blog started before the crazy side effects. So far skin isn't dry yet but I've been preparing hydrating skin care! I think I am getting a little red...

Hahaha... gross thing I got yesterday.... >> please do not read if you get easily disgusted!

Giggle, usually when I see the head of a pimple form and its prime for popping, I usually do it manually.... I know its bad but I do it anyway. However, on the second day of taking accutane.... one of my pimples popped by itself.... out of nowhere.... was kinda cool but gross.

Sigh~ so that's all the news for today :3 <3 Hope all the readers will have a nice day and take care~

;3 May post pictures if I'm not lazy and embarrassed >///<

No Shampoo? (No-Poo)

No shampoo? Sounds crazy but it sounds amazing to me!

I first encountered a "no-poo" video on YouTube and clicked on it because of course, it sounded silly. Even with such a ridiculous name, I kept on watching because the person claimed to not wash her hair more than once a week!

I know! Sounds so cool (Lol, please don't think I'm a filthy person because I think not washing your hair often is awesome). Well, of course I wouldn't have been intrigued if the person's hair looked nasty, oily and not healthy, but her hair was voluminous, curly and didn't look filthy at all. Of course, I can't smell her hair to identify if it smelled horrendous XD.

Apparently, this no-poo method is just how people used to wash their hair before shampoo was invented. Since shampoo is a relatively new thing, why does it seem so crazy to just revert back to old ways? Especially since shampoo is renowned to be harsh for the scalp and hair because of chemicals like sulfates. Even sulfate free shampoo doesn't seem like it's doing much difference.

 I use a sulfate free shampoo and conditioner everyday, it's not even drug store! Expensive stuff, ya-know! But I still have to wash everyday just to keep it looking fresh. Even a weekly sulfate-free hair mask will not keep it soft forever! I loved my hair. Until recently, it was past my waist, but now its about shoulder length. Wish I would have heard about this before I chopped it all off! Could have experimented.

Now for the method of course! The You Tuber recommended to use a all-natural, shampoo bar and apple-cider vinegar. Get in the shower of course, lather up the bar very well and wash your hair like normal. Then, take a tablespoon or two and dilute it in a whole cup of water. If more scent is wanted, add few drops of essential oils like lavender or tea tree oil. Soak your hair in this mixture.

The idea of the apple-cider vinegar is to control the PH levels on your scalp, similar to how a toner would work on the skin. After applying the diluted apple-cider vinegar mixture, rinse it off thoroughly and  all done!

Of course I would like to try this method because washing hair daily is laborious and takes forever to get ready in the morning. My morning routine takes about 50 minutes everyday because I cannot walk out the door with oily, dirty, thin, and just horrible hair. Because my hair is thin and oily, I would have to shower every morning to attain my fresh, voluminous, clean hair, but to also get the same results without having to wash it often? Sounds like heaven. 

The only bad thing about switching to the no-poo method is the waiting period. Since your scalp is most likely used to modern Shampoo, it needs time to adjust. People say it takes about 4-6 weeks for your scalp to get used to producing it's own oils again.

Sounds like a miracle to me! Gorgeous, soft, voluminous hair without so much maintenance? However, I am scared of trying it because of the waiting period. Since school is still in session, I can't hide my oily hair! >_<! So hopefully I can try this over the summer!

Apparently curly hair looks better if you just leave it alone. Of course, not washing the hair would end up making curly hair gorgeous and what nature intended it to be. But I was wondering if this no-shampoo method would work on my thin, black, straight Asian hair? If anyone has any experience of thoughts I would love to know!