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  1. #1
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    Default emotional trauma/massive weight loss: telogen effluvium?

    About 4 or 5 months ago I started to shed a ton of hair. I chalked it up to a nasty scalp infection I got from a stray cat I took in (fair warning). That cleared up, but my hair continued to shed. I have no genetic predisposition for baldness of any kind (no one one my mother or father's sides of the family: brothers, sisters, grandparents, etc) and I'm not losing hair in the MPB spots (my hairline isn't receding at all and is exactly the same as it's always been). All the hairs have white bulbs at the end of them and I've had no other real changes in my hair other than the fact that I hate washing it now. I'm shedding from allover my head, too, and not just the crown.

    I did, 2 months previous to the hair loss, lose over 15 pounds in a month. I was working out and attempting to gain weight by eating a ton of food and had a really high intake of protein (which I read, in low quantities, can cause hair shedding) ...and then I just stopped (I got depressed).

    I've been using 5% minoxidil in order to attempt to curb the shedding and that's it. I had blood work done to check my thyroid - everything came out fine. I'm 33 and this is the first time this has ever happened to me and while I can accept that getting older does come with certain unfortunate consequences (thinning hair and such) ...I just want this to stop. Anyone have anything similar happen to them or have any suggestions? I'm what you would call "self-employed" and can't afford to go to a dermatologist right now. Has anyone had any luck with increases in protein intake or iron intake (which I also read can impact hair shedding). Suggestions would be very helpful.

    Or does anyone know a dermatologist in the Portland, Oregon area that is relatively inexpensive to see?

  2. #2
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    I realize now that "massive" may have been an overstatement, but for someone like myself 15 pounds was a whole lot of weight.

  3. #3
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    No one with similar experiences? The shedding is much, much lighter now, but I have no idea how this is supposed to happen. I'm taking iron supplements and increasing my protein intake.

    My hairline is still exactly the same, too.

  4. #4
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    Yeah I can relate

  5. #5
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    September 2014 I destroyed my motorcycle and almost got killed by an old lady who didn't see me. I displaced 20 feet away, about 7 feet of which I scraped the top the layer of skin with on my body. I'm an idiot and am a ****y bastard so I wasn't wearing anything but jeans and a T-shirt. I lost a good amount of skin, nothing requiring grafts, but enough to be in burning pain for a few weeks. My body also went into shock for the first time, it was fcking wierd, half unconscience and what not in the ambulance. I was very lucky to be alive, because my bike was buckled in half, no way I would have survived if I didn't get ejected from the momentum...

    Besides the point, about a month and a half later I noticed that my hair was really really thin suddenly one morning, no receding, just thinning. I was shocked and went to my dermatologist right away and he looked at my situation and asked if anything bad happened to me recently. His nurse actually is the one who told me about tellogen effluvium. The dermatoligist I went to is quite known, and assured my that the hair cycle has just been disrupted from the shock to my body and skin loss, and that right now a good amount of hair is in its stuck in rest phase, which could last for about 4 months before it decides the regrowth phase. In which he said could take up to 6 months for me to notice a difference, depending on other factors such as diet, emotional status, health, etc. So pretty much I'm playing the waiting game. As of one week ago the massive shedding has stopped, and that would be about 3 and a half months so the doctor was right on this part. I'm assuming he's right about the regrowth, but hair loss is prevalent in my fathers family, but he didn't start till he was in his forties when he started thinning and receding. So like you, I panicked before going to the doctor and looked up similar stories on this site, I hope this helps you. You're most likely in the same boat as me, except I'm 20 years old. Hope I helped with some positive affirmations

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by YeahBuddy View Post
    September 2014 I destroyed my motorcycle and almost got killed by an old lady who didn't see me. I displaced 20 feet away, about 7 feet of which I scraped the top the layer of skin with on my body. I'm an idiot and am a ****y bastard so I wasn't wearing anything but jeans and a T-shirt. I lost a good amount of skin, nothing requiring grafts, but enough to be in burning pain for a few weeks. My body also went into shock for the first time, it was fcking wierd, half unconscience and what not in the ambulance. I was very lucky to be alive, because my bike was buckled in half, no way I would have survived if I didn't get ejected from the momentum...

    Besides the point, about a month and a half later I noticed that my hair was really really thin suddenly one morning, no receding, just thinning. I was shocked and went to my dermatologist right away and he looked at my situation and asked if anything bad happened to me recently. His nurse actually is the one who told me about tellogen effluvium. The dermatoligist I went to is quite known, and assured my that the hair cycle has just been disrupted from the shock to my body and skin loss, and that right now a good amount of hair is in its stuck in rest phase, which could last for about 4 months before it decides the regrowth phase. In which he said could take up to 6 months for me to notice a difference, depending on other factors such as diet, emotional status, health, etc. So pretty much I'm playing the waiting game. As of one week ago the massive shedding has stopped, and that would be about 3 and a half months so the doctor was right on this part. I'm assuming he's right about the regrowth, but hair loss is prevalent in my fathers family, but he didn't start till he was in his forties when he started thinning and receding. So like you, I panicked before going to the doctor and looked up similar stories on this site, I hope this helps you. You're most likely in the same boat as me, except I'm 20 years old. Hope I helped with some positive affirmations
    Did your heavy shedding taper off or did it just stop? Mine was pretty significant for a while, but it has slowed down a lot except when I shower and I have a good amount of hair come out. I still shed, but not a ton ...for example, I can still run my hands through my hair and get loose hairs ---far more than I ever did before.

  7. #7
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    For me it didn't really taper off at all. Normally my hair was so thick that I literally had to scrub shampoo in with my hands to get to the scalp, and you know the occasional 2 or three hairs would come out which is normal. But I did this after my accident and noticed just handfuls and handfuls of hair, it was terrifying. But I had the attitude like, " well if you don't want to stay hair, Idgaf,, I'm not letting you change me". So I continued my normal hand scrubbing routine simply because I like how it feels and the massive shedding continued. But recently as I do this I notice only a few hairs now in a my hands, as it was before. It happened one morning, didn't really taper, or at least I didn't notice it taper. I have sorta longer hair, about 6 inches, and I don't actually shower much (2-3 times a week max), so my hair gets tangled real easy, so I do lose a couple hairs if I run through since its snapping which is expected I suppose

  8. #8
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    Yeah crash dieting can cause TE. Also minox can cause shedding so you might be experiencing both of it.

  9. #9
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    I had lost 30 pound in a month.. and lost 50% of hair in October/November period. Not shedding any more..main shedding was month after starting this funny diet.. playing waiting game.. also had a big stress that time...

  10. #10
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    Any progress with respected forum members??

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