sionnach
Banned
In the short term accutane causes skin swelling, particularly in the face (which can stretch it out and cause the wrinkles) but the damage to the lipid barrier can cause skin thinning in the long term, and it'll be much more fragile.
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
Biggest contributing factor to PED induced aging?
- Thread starter AllGoodThings
- Start date
38, lean face, clear skin, good hairline, looks early 30s at most. It is possible to stay young and big it seems.
Ghoul
Member
The much thicker dermal layer is responsible for elasticity, "youthful plumpness" etc, and that layer undoubtedly thickens and improves significantly in quality after isotretinoin:
Bravo et al., 2015 – Oral isotretinoin in photoaging (PMC4560536)
“We observed a statistically significant increase in collagen density from 51.2% at baseline to 57.4% after treatment (p = 0.004).”
“At the 12-week follow-up, collagen density remained elevated (54.7%) compared with baseline, even after discontinuation of isotretinoin.”
“Our results suggest that oral isotretinoin may induce remodeling of the dermal extracellular matrix without evidence of dermal atrophy.”
⸻
Turk et al., 2023 – Effects of Oral Isotretinoin on Atrophic Acne Scars (JCAD Online)
“SWE values demonstrated significant increases in dermal thickness and elasticity following isotretinoin therapy.”
“Histopathological analysis revealed increased collagen density and dermal remodeling after treatment.”
⸻
Review – Oral Isotretinoin: Review and Update on Clinical Use (2020) (ScienceDirect)
“Histological studies have shown increased collagen fibers and improved dermal architecture after oral isotretinoin.”
-------------------------------------
There are literally thousands of studies published over the last 40 years on isotretinoin, and I haven't found anything that suggests a permanent thinning of the epidermis, only a few anecdotes on social media. If such a serious lasting side effect were a thing, you'd expect it would be mentioned by someone in all the research that's included hundreds of thousands of patient follow ups.
I'm speaking as someone who had serious concerns about isotretinoin too, just from what I heard casually, until I looked into it in detail.
The gap between the high level of safety that's been clearly proven and the contagion of fear induced by social media has even led to "Isotretinoin Phobia" becoming a recent topic of study, like this 2025 project covered:
how would you go about doing this? Doing a tolerable dose of 20-40mg a day until I reach a cumulative dose of 13.5mg/kg?
edit, nvm I just read your replies. GHK-cu as well as carotenoids like Beta-carotene, Astaxanthin and lycopene are also god sends for skin look.
These give you such great coloring. Can also use some mt-2 in the summer.
Last edited:
Ghoul
Member
A cumulative dose of 220mg/kg.
Start on 10mg x 2 a day. The split dose reduces peak concentration so minimizes sides.
I found whatever sides I had diminished significantly after five days. To my surprise I could just increase by another 20mg every five days or so, endure a slight rise in sides by day 2 or 3, then increase again when the sides diminished around day 5.
Biggest problem was scrambling to get more because of not having enough isotretinoinon hand to accommodate my initial fear motivated "low dose" plan switching into "This isn't nearly as bad as I expected" shift into the high dose protocol.
did you want to reach the cumulative dose as fast as possible to get past the sensitive skin stage? I've also been thinking about just doing 5mg indefinitely. Just bought 20 grams raw powder and will see if it dissolves in DMSO.
also read about astaxanthin being a pretty good anti-oxidant (apparently 2000x as strong as vitamin C so that's also a plus.
Ghoul
Member
Once I understood what the sides were like, overcoming my fear, I decided it was better to deal with the max level I could tolerate instead of dealing with annoying low level sides for 2 of 3 times as long.
explodingHeart
Member
They'll all be aging in reverse soon since China no longer makes the raws.
Yeah, I noticed that with a guy I knew who ran cycles of mast. I feel like test, eq, maybe hgh, and a 5ARI if needed is probably the safest way to get big while still keeping your looks. Could be wrong though.
explodingHeart
Member
Isn't this mostly from acne? He'd have to get CO2 laser done and stay on top of skincare.
AlexDavis43
Member
Got any "before" pics ?
At 23 years old, might have been dealt a shitty hand in the skin department (genetics), and gear just amplified it
explodingHeart
Member
this is the only up close, HD video I've seen of his face. I don't understand what could cause the wrinkling.
Photon
Member
Its oil soluble. Dissolve in oil and use a dropper, or better yet put into oil capsules and freeze it. Accutane degrades really quick, you probably shouldn't have bought raws. It's probably degraded to a certain extend.
Last edited:
Liter O' Test
Member
yeah thanks for posting the pics, this is exactly what i was referring to, definately related to gear and accutane at the same time.
explodingHeart
Member
he's still covered in acne. Seems he didn't use much accutane? Would be interesting if he would do ghoul's protocol then laser the fuck out of everything.
Ateam2023
Member
he'll be growing a beard pretty quick i bet,
Liter O' Test
Member
hes not , even looks like he had some sort of treatment on his nose recently. maybe his skin is still dry AF and he keeps it that way because hes a young dude and doesnt know better.
