Adolescent Acne & Hairloss

[Follicle Death Row]

Just out of interest, how many of you guys suffered from bad adolescent acne? I know hormones can be responsible for both acne and hairloss but how strong is the link?

Personally, I was on enough accutane to kill and elephant at 16 or maybe 17. Interestingly some also believe accutane can fast forward your hair through a few cycles by shortening the anagen period? I've no idea how accurate or inaccurate that is. Accutane is a 5AR1 inhibitor unlike finasteride which is a 5AR2 inhibitor (hope I have that right) so it shouldn't have any great beneficial or detrimental effect on hair (though dutasteride blocks both). However side effects listed are excess hair or hair loss. Covering their bases there.

Sorry about going off on a tangent about accutane. Answering the first bit will suffice.

[WashedOut]

I had a bout with acne as my facial hair was coming in my early teens but my face doesn't seem to get acne anymore. On the other hand my body still gets acne regularly.

I wonder what are the effects of finasteride on the skin? Some say it clears up acne and the skin others say it causes acne. Some say it helps the skin look better and produce elastin others say androgens are needed for collagen synthesis. A lot of confusion out there.