Starting Retin-A

[wambam]

The internet and my doctor are giving me conflicting advice so I’m asking for more internet advice lol.

My doctor prescribed Retin-A for acne, along with clindamycin and spironolactone. My doctor simply said to apply a pea sized amount of Retin-A every night. The internet is telling me I will burn my face off and maybe die (lol) if I don’t start at once a week and gradually increase frequency.

Anyone have personal anecdotes? Tell me what to do, GBCN. I think I trust collective you more than randos on Reddit.

To be honest, I’m probably going to apply again tonight and back off later if I feel too irritated.

[Pippin]

I just jumped in with a nightly retinol and never had issues but it’s probably a lower %. I’d say follow your Drs advice and use daily and back off if you get irritation🤷‍♀️ Pretty sure you won’t burn your face off lol. I had great luck with clindamycin, hopefully this works for you:)

[mfluder]

What’s the %? I did differin for a while and had no issue. I went to retin-a at a much smaller % (though yeah its not an equal thing), I started everynight and it was a little much, so I backed off to every other day, then back up to every night. My pace did not peel off. It just FELT sensitive.

[wambam]

Feb 19, 2020 22:20:28 GMT -5 mfluder said:

What’s the %? I did differin for a while and had no issue. I went to retin-a at a much smaller % (though yeah its not an equal thing), I started everynight and it was a little much, so I backed off to every other day, then back up to every night. My pace did not peel off. It just FELT sensitive.

0.05%

[ssmjlm]

I think I started with a similar strength and I started with every other night and after a couple weeks moved up to nightly.

My face didn't get red, but I definitely got dry patches, some small peeling mostly around my nose. I would recommend making sure you have a good night moisturizer to put on after the retin-A has soaked in.

[secretlyevil]

Some advice - make sure you religiously use sunscreen every day and switch to threading if you get your eyebrows waxed.

[wambam]

Feb 21, 2020 6:12:15 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

Some advice - make sure you religiously use sunscreen every day and switch to threading if you get your eyebrows waxed.

Already use sunscreen (super fair!) and I cancelled my waxing appointment until further notice.

[wambam]

Update: 4 applications in, no peeling/dryness/flaking at all. Makes me wonder if I’m doing this right 🤷🏼‍♀️

[cosmowife]

Feb 21, 2020 8:56:18 GMT -5 wambam said:

Update: 4 applications in, no peeling/dryness/flaking at all. Makes me wonder if I’m doing this right 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’ve been using a .5% retinol cream for about three weeks or so, and I’ve had no reaction so far. I use A LOT of moisturizers so that probably helps. The only time that I noticed flaking was when I used a BHA spot treatment the morning after the retinol, which probably was just too much. I have extremely sensitive skin but for some reason my skin is loving the retinol.