I am freaking out!! Shedding?????

[ajrunke]

Hi guys. I'm a 27 year old male who's noticed receding along the temple / forehead areas. About 2 months ago I started a regimine of 5% minoxidil and supplements (beta sitosteral, biotin and saw palemetto...I know there's no real clinical study behind those supplements, but I thought it couldn't hurt). Anyway, about a week ago I started using Nizoral shampoo also. The hairloss wasn't bad or rapid, but noticeable. Anyway, the past couple days I've noticed more hair than usual in the bathtub. Normally I would estimate 25 hairs. This morning to my SHOCK was probably 150 - 200 hairs. I know that shedding may occur with minoxidil, but this is completely shocking and scary. I don't know! Should I stop the supplements? Am I over doing it?? Am I doing more damage to my hair by using these supplements / shampoo? Should I only stick to the minoxidil?

I don't know. If this continues for a few days I may go to a dermatologist or something.

Has anyone experienced shedding like this on minoxidil?

Sorry for the frantic first post, but this is completely disheartening.

[BigThinker]

Hey man,

150-200 is a lot for any person to lose, in my opinion. I feel comfortable saying everyone on this site would recommend you seeing a medical professional, be it a derm, trich, or even just a GP (specialist is probably the way to go, if you can). Further, I think most seasoned members of this community would be interested close-up pics, in good light, at decent resolution in order to recommend anything.

Not sure on the treatments/supplements you're taking. I can say 2% keto hasn't done much for me ( that i can notice) besides make my hair look shitty. However, I'm not on fin or mix, so my experience is rather bland.

Regars

[ajrunke]

Ok, I went through and counted the hairs in the bathtub. It's around 150, but some of it is body hair and it's a bit hard to tell them apart. I did my best, and I think there's about 100-125 head hairs. Also, this isn't just from one day; there's probably an accumulation of 2 days and the majority of it is where I dry off on the side of the tub. It's very hard to decipher. I am attaching some pics of the tub (the hair is very hard to see and don't mind the tan ball of hair, that is dog hair).

[StuckInARut]

Try not to freak out brah. I've actually been on some of the same supplements as you are now for roughly 2 months. I'd say after the first 2-4 weeks I experienced a horrible shed with 150+ hairs ending up at the bottom of my shower daily. I didn't stop though and kept with it and it steadily declined. I'm not in the habit of counting hairs but I estimate between 50-80 hairs are being lost now.

Anything you take for hair loss that is available nowadays is gonna provoke a shed. Many claim it is a good sign so we'll have to wait and see.

[tj0]

Hey ajrunke. I had a really bad reaction, a really bad shed due to Revita shampoo which is another ketoconazole based shampoo, like Nizoral. If you look Revita shampoo up on Amazon you will see that a lot of people have posted bad reviews because of shedding from this shampoo. I used Nizoral once and had the same experience. I think that I'm just allergic in some way to the ketoconazole in any shampoo. You might be also, I would suggest that you stop using nizoral

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

I always recommend only starting one product or medication at a time for a few months to see how mthe body reacts and then add another if things ar ok. If multiple meds or products are started at the same time and there is a problem or side effect you would not know what caused it.

[ajrunke]

It seems that the "shedding" has lessened quite a bit....though there is still some hair in the bathtub. Anyway, I've noticed a "substantial" amount of very fine, short hairs around the temple and front hairline area. I truly hope this is new growth and not just dying hair. I've never noticed these fine hairs before because I've never looked this closely. I use a flashlight and a mirror and they are visible.

[BigThinker]

Thanks for following up. My shedding has also curbed (with a few lost in the shower everyday). I also have new hair growth, i think I'm going to post some pictures to my Intro thread. If you have the ability to get pictures that have the quality and size of the hairs, I think it would be interesting.

[ajrunke]

I tried capturing what I HOPE is new hair growth. The problem is they are so fine right now my camera doesn't pick them up. I also know they're not "peach fuzz" because they are about twice the length of the peach fuzz and don't appear as fuzzy....and they are distinctly plentiful around the frontal hairline where I've been focusing the minoxidil. I also can't tell if I have these thin hairs further up on my scalp because my normal hair is blocking any vision.

In my non professional opinion, it's either new growth or thinning strands of hair. I've been using minox and supplements since (probably) the end of August. I've never noticed these very fine hair, although I wasn't looking that closely at my hairline. These fine hairs appear to be longer than they were 2 / 3 weeks ago when I first noticed them.

If I am lucky enough to actually have new hair growth, I'll post pictures if the thin hairs ever fill in.

[Antibald]

pics or noty

[ajrunke]

So, I posted back in mid November about what I hoped was new hair growth that looked similar to peach fuzz. It's two months since that post and they still appear to be very fine, almost peach fuzz like hair strands.

If this were to be new hair growth, would they have matured by now???
Should I just assume Minox isn't working for me? I've been using it 4.5 months now and never missed a dosage. I would have thought those fine peach fuzz like hairs would have shown some kind of thickening / darkening by now.

Any input would be appreciated.

[Kayman]

So, I posted back in mid November about what I hoped was new hair growth that looked similar to peach fuzz. It's two months since that post and they still appear to be very fine, almost peach fuzz like hair strands.

If this were to be new hair growth, would they have matured by now???
Should I just assume Minox isn't working for me? I've been using it 4.5 months now and never missed a dosage. I would have thought those fine peach fuzz like hairs would have shown some kind of thickening / darkening by now.

Any input would be appreciated.

It can take 9 months for minoxidil to start taking true effect. But for some peach fuzz is as far as it goes. Only way to know is to reassess at the 9 month mark.

[ajrunke]

Still haven't missed a dosage, but not seeing any noticeable results. I've documented a specific area where there was a lone hair. Currently, in that same area, there are now 5 hairs. They're not thick like the rest of my hair, but they do have color. I still notice the areas around my upper temple and hairline have not evolved beyond peach fuzz.

So at the 9 month mark, there are no noticeable results and while I can't necessarily say my hair is any thinner than when I started the application, it definitely has not improved. I'll see if I can't post some pics, but there's really no difference.

[ajrunke]

Just bumping my old thread. I made it until December 2013 and then quit minox after no perceivable results. I was religious about minox and missed a very small number of doses. I decided even if it was helping "maintain" my hairline, it wasn't worth the effort. I do know that no new growth ever occurred.

I'm now 31. 2 years and 4 months after stopping my regimen, I feel like my hairline has receded enough to the point where I'm considering FUE within a year.



I've now been researching FUE and I don't think my hairline would require many grafts. For now, the top of my head is dense but my hairline looks very weak.

I wouldn't do minox again. Maybe it helped maintain. Maybe it didn't. Either way, it was too much of a hassle to continue for life.