The scalp inflammation/itchy/burning/tingling thread

[Dench57]

I made ONE stupid mistake and it f&cked my hair forever. ONE MISTAKE.

It's so hard to live with man. I can't imagine going through this forever, I don't want to think about it. Permanently accelerated hairloss and scalp inflammation for taking a pill supposed to stop hairloss. I'm not a religious man but somebody up there ****ing hates me.

[Dench57]

Hey guys,

So the last two days I've noticed my vertex/crown has started to burn intensely, the same itch/pain that I have at the front. In fact right now it is needle-like stabbing pain in my crown, burning so hard I can't even believe it. Feels like my hair is literally being burnt away. This has just come out of nowhere in the last 2 days, what the ****. Looked at it and there's a ****ing bald spot growing there. All these years I thought I had purely frontal recession like my dad/uncles, but no looks like I'm balding from the back now too. Life just gets better and better.

I'm really desperate now. I can't live everyday of my life in chronic pain. I ordered some Sulfasalazine from InHousePharmacy and I'm going to take it to my doctor and show him how desperate I am, buying Sulfa online. I'll ask him to approve my treatment so I can be monitored with regular blood tests.

You know what the craziest ****ing thing going through my mind is now. I'm thinking if Sulfa doesn't work I truly am out of options...and I'll be considering trying Fin again. I told myself I would never touch that poison again, it's ruined my life and I've read so many horror stories about persistent/permanent sides. I never wanted to **** with my hormones again, but I'm in this now for good. Whatever I have is obviously permanent too, as it keeps getting worse and worse in 6 months off Fin, so can taking Fin really make this scalp pain/accelerated loss WORSE than it is?

I'm using the following logic, this scalp pain/itch is one of two things.
1. DHT attacking my hair follicle
2. Cellular inflammation caused by DHT attacking my hair follicle

Now if Sulfasalazine, an incredibly powerful systemic anti-inflammatory, does not work (I pray to god it does, and I can tolerate it) then it must be simply DHT. Where does that leave me? DHT inhibitors. I've tried topical ones and they don't work.

That leaves trying Propecia again. Using the following theory:
1. My androgen receptors are permanently upregulated. If I take a higher dose of Fin than previously, I could upregulate my ARs even worse. However, if I take a lower/equal dose, my ARs will not be further upregulated than they are, and I will be inhibiting 60% DHT, lessening the scalp pain and slowing my hairloss.

I really, really wish somebody knew about upregulation and whether my theory makes sense. I have no idea, I'm just guessing. I shouldn't be making these kind of potentially body-destroying, life-changing judgements based on my incredibly basic understanding of these mechanisms. I want to speak to a Finasteride expert. I'm going to ask my endocrinologist but I doubt she knows. There's a big possibility that my body will just upregulate whenever it senses a drop in DHT. If that is the case then I truly am screwed.

This is ****ing madness isn't it. Propecia ****ed me up beyond belief I'm so desperate, having exhausted all other options, that I'm considering using it again despite the fact I react horribly to it and will probably just mess myself up even further.

[Ziggyz123]

Hey Dench, I still think our situations are a tad different. But, I too got these weird sensations at the back of my scalp.. It almost feels tight for a couple of seconds.. Sucks, but it is thinning my crown as well.

If I were you I would actually try a low dose maybe .25mg. I reduced mine and unless it was an odd coincidence, my pain at the left hairline subsided greatly.. I still get it at random but no where near what it used to be. However, I'm still shedding. It's amazing how bad we got on a hairloss drug like you say. This is why I didn't take part in the seti group buy. Too afraid to mess with things anymore.

I know how you feel man because I'm in the same boat . I had perfect hair, my life was on track, had it all going as planned.. This inflammation and loss of hair ruined me. My hair was literally everything to me man.. I even one nicest hair for my high school superlatives.. I barely see my girlfriend or her family because her mom is a hairdresser and analyzes my hair all the time.. It's just HELL.

Try to upload a pic of your hair man. I'm curious to see because my loss is odd. If you want, I can also show you how good my hair was as well
You're not alone in this brother. Hopefully seti DOES work and we will both be out of this mess.

[Ziggyz123]

Hey Dench, I still think our situations are a tad different. But, I too got these weird sensations at the back of my scalp.. It almost feels tight for a couple of seconds.. Sucks, but it is thinning my crown as well.

If I were you I would actually try a low dose maybe .25mg. I reduced mine and unless it was an odd coincidence, my pain at the left hairline subsided greatly.. I still get it at random but no where near what it used to be. However, I'm still shedding. It's amazing how bad we got on a hairloss drug like you say. This is why I didn't take part in the seti group buy. Too afraid to mess with things anymore.

I know how you feel man because I'm in the same boat . I had perfect hair, my life was on track, had it all going as planned.. This inflammation and loss of hair ruined me. My hair was literally everything to me man.. I even one nicest hair for my high school superlatives.. I barely see my girlfriend or her family because her mom is a hairdresser and analyzes my hair all the time.. It's just HELL.

Try to upload a pic of your hair man. I'm curious to see because my loss is odd. If you want, I can also show you how good my hair was as well
You're not alone in this brother. Hopefully seti DOES work and we will both be out of this mess.

[Dench57]

I know how you feel man because I'm in the same boat . I had perfect hair, my life was on track, had it all going as planned.. This inflammation and loss of hair ruined me. My hair was literally everything to me man.. I even one nicest hair for my high school superlatives.

Exactly the same man. I used to get compliments from girls about how thick my hair was. My girlfriend of 3 years dumped me a few months after this scalp pain started, because of how stressed, depressed and distracted I was. I never told her about what I was going through so she probably just thought I was a miserable ****. I'm losing everything because of Propecia. I don't want to go out with my friends anymore. I am dreading the thought of travelling when it should've been the best experience of my life. I don't even want to see her now because of how fast my hair has been decimated, she'll wonder wtf happened to me. I can't ever see myself escaping this hell. I can't remember what it felt like to have a pain free scalp. Sorry I know I've been saying for ages, I'll upload some pics when I can be bothered, I don't really have any good baseline pics though, just ones of how ****ed my hair is now. It actually depresses me taking pictures and comparing them to old ones so I haven't done it regularly.

I'm so desperate now I've even bought Rogaine foam, because I'm now at the stage where I need regrowth. I absolutely hate the idea of a life-time commitment to a messy topical that probably won't even work. I'm almost certain I'll just be a terrible responder and it will eat my hairline even more. I just don't know what to do anymore, Sulfa really is my last chance I don't think it will work, it's based off about 2 anecdotal reports. It's so hard to accept, our hair was perfect, and when we started using hairloss treatments it just ****ed our hair permanently.

[Ziggyz123]

Dude, I didn't really get results until I used liquid rogain. Try that if you can tolerate ppg.

[Dench57]

Dude, I didn't really get results until I used liquid rogain. Try that if you can tolerate ppg.

So you tried the foam first and it didn't work? Most of the opinions I've read seem to think the foam is better, easier to apply, less irritating, doesn't make your hair look like shit etc.

[FeelsBad]

Dench, I totally sympathize since I've been going through the same thing. I'd like to note that minoxidil doesn't seem to work unless you get inflammation under control so focus on that first. Have you tried emu oil?

[Dench57]

Dench, I totally sympathize since I've been going through the same thing. I'd like to note that minoxidil doesn't seem to work unless you get inflammation under control so focus on that first. Have you tried emu oil?

Hi, I think I've seen you on HairLossHelp with the same name? I can't remember but your story sounded similar to mine, reflex-hyper from Fin and you still had accelerated loss 2 years after stopping? Can you expand a bit on your story and if you've experienced the same scalp pain/itching? Ever manage to get it under control?

I'm sure you're right about minoxidil and the inflammation though. I was actually going to use it just for a few weeks, before it could do any damage in terms of shedding, to see if it relieved the scalp pain (opening up blood vessels or whatever). The hairloss "specialist" I saw in Harley Street suggested I try that, though I think he was pretty clueless.

[Dench57]

However, morphometric
studies in patients with male pattern AGA treated
with minoxidil showed that 55% of those with
microinflammation had regrowth in response to
treatment, in comparison to 77% in those patients
without inflammation and fibrosis

Taken from the following study on inflammation in AGA: http://www.derma-haarcenter.ch/files...c+alopecia.pdf

[Ziggyz123]

Yea, I used foam and my hairline was receding and itching. When I switched to liquid it seems like everything thickened up.. Keep in mind, I only used minox at night. If you use it morning and night, I'd use foam am and liquid pm.

[Dench57]

And yes I have tried Emu Oil a few times. Just made my hair more oily and didn't do anything for the itch/pain.

[jamesst11]

a couple quick questions to whoever wants to answer them, if you don't mind.

1) How often do you get the itch? is it widespread or localized? how bad is it and how often per day? does it wake you up in the night?
2) please describe the pain and burning sensations?
3) Ziggy, what do you mean by "tightness" like your scalp is being stretched?

[jamesst11]

Also, did you ever get a creeping sensation, like there was a bug crawling over your scalp?

[Dench57]

1. Mine is 24 hours a day, never stops. Used to be localized above my right temple, now it's across my whole hairline, on my temples and above them, and also in the last 2 days, my crown (yay!)

2. Really hard to describe because there is such a variety of sensations. There is always a constant "charged" feeling, like I can "feel" all the hair on my scalp, (not on my back or sides, just the top). There is also a constant dull, slightly painful warm patch above my right temple, where it all started. The skin feels warm to touch there. There is always a very subtle itch all along my hairline, but itching doesn't help. Sometimes it can become intensely itchy, that is probably the worst for me. Now the dull, warm spot can often become burning, like seriously hot burning sensation, and then it can become very painful. It also becomes tingly, like there are thousands of microscopic creatures crawling across my scalp. It's as if it's dirty and oily, even if I've just taken a shower. There is also a variety of "needle-like" prickling. Right now there is a very tangible, prickling pain in my crown, like the hairs are wounding me. Rest assured that wherever any of these sensations are, it means your hair is being raped by DHT, or inflammation, or something. All the areas where I've experienced these sensations have miniaturized much quicker than anywhere else. Which makes it not just a physical, but a psychological torture, when you know what is happening.


Anywhere here are some crappy pics. My baseline pics are crappy because they don't really show how thick my hair was behind the recession, my hand is kind of covering the thickness in the baseline pic:
October 2014, before taking Fin: http://postimg.org/image/8mknju775/
July 2015: http://postimg.org/image/6bbcl2jgn/

That red circle is where the itching/burning has been the worst, and that whole area has been raped. Those pictures don't really do justice to how messed up that area is now. I still have most of the hairs I originally had, like I said I don't really shed. But all the hairs have gone from being thick, black terminal hairs to thin, weak, brittle miniaturized hairs. That kind of change is supposed to take years, not months.

Here's a picture of my crown today, where you can see the beginning stages of thinning. I've only just realised (when the burning started) the hairs there are miniaturizing, so I've got that to look forward to now.

http://postimg.org/image/sehsgant1/

Here's a picture of my general hair today. As you can see I still have a lot of hair, and I would say I can just about hide most of the recession to the untrained eye. And this is about as long as my hair gets, so when I get it cut it will be more noticeable. But the texture is awful, it's all brittle and weak at the front. It's a shame I didn't take a baseline pic of my front, I never thought I'd have to worry about anything other than my temples.

http://postimg.org/image/5kshtvbuz/