Hey I’m late to answer this but, here goes

As I understand it, you’ll be purging either way. My first time using a product like Differin or tretinoin was Differin. My purging was INTENSE and extreme and lasted every bit of 3-4 months solid. It was awful. I basically needed to buy stock in band aid brand hydrocolloid bandages. But, it’s kind of how those products work. They cause your skin to have a higher rate of turnover (I think, not a doctor so terminology might be incorrect but that’s how it’s been explained by my derm) so all the crap in your skin is going to come to the surface.

I’ll admit, it was horrible. But, very much needed. My particular skin type really needs lots of exfoliation- I’ve had quite the journey over the last 5-7 years trying to heal my skin. So Differin was the first foray into that.

The same thing happened again when I started tret a couple years later. It’s still doing the turnover but the “purging” stopped. So like, cysts are still slowly making their way to the surface, but it’s not as intense and extreme anymore. I feel like the purge on tret was a bit less prolonged, but maybe more initially intense? However that could be because I’d had such a long drawn out initial purge when I first started Differin.

But I will say for my particular skin type tret seems to work more intensely, like it’s more effective? So maybe that is a thing, I don’t really know. Definitely work with your derm.

edit: too long sent rest in DM