The scalp inflammation/itchy/burning/tingling thread

[Not giving up]

I took serious dosages of accutane when I was 18. Cleared my skin wonderfully, but stopped me growing facial hair and made my hair brittle. Once I came off it thickened back up until I took steroids.
Anyway, It could be something to look into maybe

[TeloS]

Accutane.. Hmm, the only thing I've ever read about that is how it causes telogen effluvium or just further loss. I do have sebum on some of the hairs I shed, right around the root bulb. Maybe it would work? Idk.. A doc prescribed it for you?

Yes, and the dosage is very low, it is like 5 mg a day. A daily dosis for me on a normal treatment should be about 80 mg/day. I have no secondary effects, and in one month, everything was gone. I don't shed anymore, i don't scratch anymore... Just a sensitivity under sun (resolved by putting a day cream incorporating UV protection). I don't even have dry lips. My skin is not oily anymore, and my forehead was damn oily by the middle of the day. The most impressive was probably the amount of hair i regrew on my hairline. not saying that my V shape became a straight line, but just that it strenghtened, and demultiplicated the existing hairs. Now i am waiting also for the same on my left side, even though i have nothing visible in terms of hairloss, my hair became thinner on this side.

like you before accutane, i had white bulb, and that was precisely what was killing the hair. nowadays, when i am lucky (lol) to see one hair on my office, there is no white bulb anymore. Just a normal hair finishing its cycle.

[TeloS]

I took serious dosages of accutane when I was 18. Cleared my skin wonderfully, but stopped me growing facial hair and made my hair brittle. Once I came off it thickened back up until I took steroids.
Anyway, It could be something to look into maybe

It is true though, that for some persons it did the contrary, my guess is these people, when they took accutane for their oily skin, did NOT have an oily scalp. Therefore, the skin scalp was so dry that it was killing the retention of hair, causing the telogen effluvium or just a shedding...

in the end it is all a question of dosing : dry the sebum of the scalp, but not too much. With such a low dose, my skin is not even dry : just normal... No more itching, no more oily hair by the end of the day, giving me the possibility to shampoo only 2 times a day, the less you shampoo, the thicker become my hair etc... Virtuous circle, that i would like to preserve, following the advices of herbaliser, it looks great on him at least.

[Ziggyz123]

TeloS, one more question if you don't mind.. Are you using finasteride or dutasteride at all?

[TeloS]

TeloS, one more question if you don't mind.. Are you using finasteride or dutasteride at all?

Nothing, ahem no, i mean, i am very interested by the subject but i am not really really close to be bald ... In ANY case, you should really take me seriously, unfortunately i don't have before picture, but it was terrible before : the itching, the oilyness etc... I believe it can totally be the solution for some people suffering from alopecia related to sebum excess ! Talk about this to your doctor ! If your hair is greasy, you are itching constantly and NOTHING work (i had all the shampoo for dermatitis like nizoral, regenepure etc... NOTHING WORKED AND I WAS SHEDDING SO MUCH)

Finally, be very careful about the daily dose. I mean, the heavier you are, the better you are able to modulate a small dose. For instance someone who weight 100 kgs, will have less effect in his body than me, being 80 kgs, taking 10 mg one day on two. I know that accutane has a bad reputation, but at the maximum dose ! here we are talking about some dose sooo small than you CANNOT have secondary effects. Nothing to compare with propecia i guess.

Remember that i am talking about alopecia related to the EXCESS of sebum. Those who are itching because of a DHT excess, i am sorry, but i have no clue.

[Ziggyz123]

I'll definitely think about it, but you don't look that probe to hairloss my dude. I got real bad on finasteride.. Accutane could put me over the edge because it's a very potent drug. A lot of people lose hair on it, in fact I read stories about people telling their doctors that they dont car about hairloss they just want clear skin.. It's one of the most common sides of accutane..

[TeloS]

I'll definitely think about it, but you don't look that probe to hairloss my dude. I got real bad on finasteride.. Accutane could put me over the edge because it's a very potent drug. A lot of people lose hair on it, in fact I read stories about people telling their doctors that they dont car about hairloss they just want clear skin.. It's one of the most common sides of accutane..

I did 3 cures of accutane... 6 month each to the max dose... I am now 26 and well... I have the v shape hairline but that's all and I have it since as long as I remember, 15 yo maybe. I believe that if I hadnt been under this drug sebum would have destroyed my hair

I mean, its a fact for me: I unfortunately am part of these people having a relapse after roaccutane. My skin becomes oily again. That probably explains why I didn't loose my hair. My scalp isn't dry, then I can modulate the sebum, and find a sort of equilibrium. That said, I have one friend that did one cure, he is totally bald by 24. So I don't know I guess I am a special case.

It's all about a good talk with a good doctor! 5mg each day is NOTHING and won't hell of a dry your body. I believe that here the dosage CAN be a possible key.

PS : when I think about my friend his dad was totally bald by 25 something like this so this isn't even probably related to accutane!!

[Dench57]

I've considered Accutane before but got scared off after reading about serious sides (it was withdrawn from US market for a reason!) and of course the most common side: accelerated hairloss .

TeLoS from your picture it doesn't look like you have MPB. You obviously had a very oily scalp though which caused the itch and was kept in check by Accutane. Not sure if that would work for the vast majority of us MPB sufferers.

[jamesst11]

I am getting scared, because I am five months now, have increased shed and am experiencing some burning, tingling and occasional itchiness... man, this drug is confusing the F*CK OUT OF ME!

I don't understand why, but I randomly came across one thing that has helped me - When I am just sitting, watching t.v. or something, I notice the sensations more... I take my hand and firmly place it on my crown, apply pressure and and like rotate my entire scalp around, in circular motions, stretching the skin. THE SENSATIONS IMMEDIATELY STOP!! They most often return 3-4 minutes later... but the completely stop. It makes me think that the itchy/tingly/ burning definitely has something to do with blood flow, and perhaps stagnant blood being "trapped" in the tiny capillaries in the scalp. It makes sense that this would occur, especially if the scalp is inflamed... the blood needs to move. This is why we itch when we have a scab or other dermal tissue injury.

[TeloS]

I've considered Accutane before but got scared off after reading about serious sides (it was withdrawn from US market for a reason!) and of course the most common side: accelerated hairloss .

TeLoS from your picture it doesn't look like you have MPB. You obviously had a very oily scalp though which caused the itch and was kept in check by Accutane. Not sure if that would work for the vast majority of us MPB sufferers.

I believe the accelerated hairloss come when people have only an oily face and not an oily scalp. Then the scalp become so dry that he cannot retain anymore the hair. In my case I had also an oily scalp.
But that's not all! I believe also that you cannot dry all the sebum of your scalp, you have to modulate the quantity of sebum: then come the low dose of accutane, and not a maximal one.
Since I came back on it with such a low dose, my skin in general is not even dry : a bit oily but it's very normal. I mean, I don't have the dry skin people usually have when they take it, I just have a normal skin with a slight tendency to end oily at the end of the day. Then my hair follows the same path: now when I see some hair falls, and trust me it's very hard nowadays (I feel so good with it when I had something like 50 hairs falling daily before) it does not have anymore the white bulb it had.

[lacazette]

I took serious dosages of accutane when I was 18. Cleared my skin wonderfully, but stopped me growing facial hair and made my hair brittle. Once I came off it thickened back up until I took steroids.
Anyway, It could be something to look into maybe

DUDE you took high dose accutane treatment like me, we have CCC ALOPECIA!!!

PLease come here I describe everything : https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/thread...ne-isotretinoi...

That comes from researchers at the last 2015 hair science meeting!! Alteration in VitaminA metabolism and signaling = CCCA

And that CCCA comes from a lymphocytic inflammatory process (LLP) (an autoimmune reaction of our cells), that lead to a slowly permanent hairloss!! We need to act my friend,

so everyone who had take full treatment for months, the drug played with our retinoids receptors, signalling, etc.. FOR LIFE! so please come on the thread! It is FOR SURE aggravating our baldness!

[Sizzling]

Hi guys,

Although this is my first post in this forum, I have seen this thread 2.5 years ago. It is a little disheartening that after such a long time, nobody has found the solution to the scalp inflammation.

Allow me to share my story. I am from Singapore, age 34. When I was 17, I had bad cystic acne, and that really screwed me bad. Accutane got me out of that shit but by then the scars were already there. Anyway, I see some people mentioning that the scalp inflammation could be caused by Accutane. I think that's possible, but for me, it certainly wasn't the case. I was sure it was Finasteride.

In Dec 2012, a colleague commented that my hair was getting thin at the top, and that comment really affected me. So I surfed the net and in many of the hairloss forums, the message was unanimous - jump on the big 3 to save your hair.

So without much thoughts, i got a prescription for propecia and that's when the nightmare began. Within 2 weeks, i started to develop itch and a tingling sensation in my scalp. The below are the symptoms I experienced, which are 100% consistent with many of you guys:

1. Itchy and Oily scalp
2. Sebum plugs
3. Warm radiating pain, especially around the crown
4. Prickly sensation
5. Tingling sensations, like hair breaking off and droping out
6. Super sensitive scalp - could feel pain even when the ac at the entrance of shopping malls was blowing down on my scalp
7. Scalp feels charged - like electric currents passing through

It was a very emotional and distressing time. I felt alone as none of my family, including my wife believed what I said. They told me I was imagining it and I was too focused on my hairloss.

Just like some of you had shared, I felt I was not shedding much. Just that my hair seems to be in a terrible state - miniaturized, lifeless, limp, brittle

So i buzzed down to a zero, hoping that the use of Nizoral and other medicated shampoos would helped. Nothing did.

And that was when I discovered something really scary.

I washed my hair in the basin and realized that there were many tiny strands of hair that came out. Not only are they miniaturized, but they are wriggly looking, and most of them are curled up. When i tried to straighten them, I realized they can be much longer than they look

There is no way you will see them when you shampoo your hair because they get camouflaged in all the bubbles.

If you do not believe what I say, try washing your hair in your white wash basin without any soap or shampoo, or when taking a shower, after you shampoo, instead of rinsing, rub the soap bubbles on the white tiles of your shower cubicle. The shampoo bubbles will slide down slowly and you look closely at the tiles you will be able to see these tiny hairs. If you are using a smart phone, sometime this little wriggly hairs will stick to the screen. Pay close attention and you should see some.

I believe this is the main reason why we see our hair thinning so quickly but do not see much shedding. I believe most or all of the hair we shed on a daily basis have been replaced by these tiny wriggly hairs.

Do not freak out if you see them. I did. The only consolation in the last 2 years was my tingling did go away till it was almost non-existent. About 2 months after I started having the tingling, and after much research on the internet, I read that one guy had success after removing all supplements from his diet. His reasoning was that the liver was overloaded with too much medicine (in this case was finasteride for me) and supplements and it was necessary to allow it to rest. I was then also on biotin, B12, spirulina and stuff. I also tried to calm myself down as much as possible. Too much emotions also hurts the liver - this is the hardest because we know how soul destroying hairloss is.

Anyway, the tingling did go away, thankfully, and my scalp felt better, but i can feel that it is not the same like before. It still feels oily, sensitive and itchy every now and then. I had oily skin and hair since puberty, but i never had this sensitive scalp before finasteride.

Anyway, many people seem to agree that DHT is attacking the hair follicles. I do not disagree on this. But if you study the trends, this scalp inflammation seems to affect those with diffused hairloss and not the standard MPB that much. I have asked a friend who lost his hair in his early 20s. He is NW7 by the way. Zero itch.

I also discover that the itch is worst when the scalp is oily. When it is clean (right after shower) the itch is less, but the warm radiating pain seems to set in more often.

I have been to many doctors and they seem to all point to Seb derm. I think this is possible, because in my case, finasteride caused hyper androgenicity to have set in to unleash a serious bout of seb derm.

I still have the itch and sensitive scalp on and off, but it is much better than my first couple of months after I got off Finasteride. I felt the need to post my experience here and hope it may be helpful to some of the guys here. To have that constant tingling to remind you of your hairloss is a horrible feeling, but it is possible that the feeling will go away, at least it did in my case, even though not 100%

[Not giving up]

DUDE you took high dose accutane treatment like me, we have CCC ALOPECIA!!!

PLease come here I describe everything : https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/thread...ne-isotretinoi...

That comes from researchers at the last 2015 hair science meeting!! Alteration in VitaminA metabolism and signaling = CCCA

And that CCCA comes from a lymphocytic inflammatory process (LLP) (an autoimmune reaction of our cells), that lead to a slowly permanent hairloss!! We need to act my friend,

so everyone who had take full treatment for months, the drug played with our retinoids receptors, signalling, etc.. FOR LIFE! so please come on the thread! It is FOR SURE aggravating our baldness!

I don't know bud. I messed up my hair because of steroids. Once I stopped accuttane my hair was glorious, it did get a bit britle when I was taking it but I only have myself and steroid use to blame for the accelerated loss of late.

[Dench57]

Hi Sizzling,

Your story sounds exactly the same as mine. All those sensations you describe I also had within a few weeks of starting Propecia. And like you, the hairs that I shed are all kinked, curled and so thin/brittle you can barely see them, when before they were long and straight. However I don't have diffuse loss, mine is the standard horseshoe pattern with receding temples. Thankfully my forelock is still in good shape, for now.

How long roughly did it take for you to recover since quitting Propecia?

[Soonbald]

I am getting scared, because I am five months now, have increased shed and am experiencing some burning, tingling and occasional itchiness... man, this drug is confusing the F*CK OUT OF ME!

I don't understand why, but I randomly came across one thing that has helped me - When I am just sitting, watching t.v. or something, I notice the sensations more... I take my hand and firmly place it on my crown, apply pressure and and like rotate my entire scalp around, in circular motions, stretching the skin. THE SENSATIONS IMMEDIATELY STOP!! They most often return 3-4 minutes later... but the completely stop. It makes me think that the itchy/tingly/ burning definitely has something to do with blood flow, and perhaps stagnant blood being "trapped" in the tiny capillaries in the scalp. It makes sense that this would occur, especially if the scalp is inflamed... the blood needs to move. This is why we itch when we have a scab or other dermal tissue injury.

james maybe you just explained "one" of the reasons for "MPB" clogged blood+trapped DHT=MPB I mean why do some people get regrowth from "scalp exercises" ? or scalp massages or even scalp brushing?...I have read forums of people getting regrowth or stoppage of hairloss by doing one of these... maybe it just works for "some" guys and some it doesnt obviously..