7 months of shedding.. No regrowth

[Ziggyz123]

I'm pretty much suicidal at this point. Went on propecia 1 year 7 months ago to stay ahead of receding hairline. Before that, was on rogaine foam, then lipogaine, then switched to liquid minox about two months before propecia..

I experienced no shed during propecia, but had like every side that eventually went away.. My hair was fine. Come November, I got weird shooting pains in the left side of my head.. Then a MASSIVE shed hit me.. My hair follicles felt like they were stinging, burning, etc. couldn't even wear a hat because my head felt so inflamed. I visited transplant docs, derms, and general practitioners.. I was advised to come off minoxidil because I had a LOT of dandruff and my hair line where applied it was very irritated.

It's been 7 months and I've been steadily shedding hair.. Not the massive shed, but shedding to a point of no regrowth and now I'm thinning.. I wasn't ever thinning and that's not even a pattern of loss in my family. Dad has AMAZING HAIR, moms side has receding hairlines.

I can't even run my hand through my hair without getting like three hairs.. So either propecia is just having an adverse effect on me, or I'm just f*****...

I don't need anyone telling me to try dutasteride because in the back of my mind, I have a feeling fun caused this.. I definitely have seb derm now because my scalp was so oily and I couldn't eat certain foods.. I had a beer during this and it felt like spots on my head were bruised right after a few sips..

Bottom line here, minox prob didn't mess me up, finasteride probably screwed my hormones and caused all of this.

[Ziggyz123]

Also, I'm shedding hair sometimes with stuff attached to it and I sometimes get grainy stuff on my scalp. The grains can be white like hard dandruff, or yellowish..

Has anyone seen this before?????

[Ziggyz123]

One of those grains is on the bandaid lol. I put them there so I don't lose them for when I see my derm again, but he pretty much knows nothing..

[hair4us2]

I understand your sentiment. When we start taking treatments to combat any ailment we hope that it will work, but sometimes things don't work out to plan....and this is physiologically hard to deal with especially if we have invested so much time and money in the treatment.

However, please try to find appreciation for other things in life to remove any suicidal thoughts you may have due to hair loss. Your life is more important than the state of your hair.

[hair4us2]

Also, I'm shedding hair sometimes with stuff attached to it and I sometimes get grainy stuff on my scalp. The grains can be white like hard dandruff, or yellowish..

Has anyone seen this before?????

A guy on another hair loss forum had a similar situation going on with their hair, and someone wrote that it could be "seborrheic dermatitis (basically bad dandruff)"

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/m...&enterthread=y

[jamesst11]

I had this, twice... once it occurred 3 months after a hair transplant, the other occurred four months after having knee surgery. For me, it was obvious telogen effluvium. A condition that starts to present itself 3-4 months after a serious physiological injury. I was losing like 200-300 hairs a day! I don't think it is fin causing this, in my personal opinion... If it was, it would have happened a few months after starting fin. If you are losing a massive amount of hair and the majority of them have white bulbs on the end, these are telogen hairs, and I believe the majority of derms will point to this. Has any major change in your physiology occurred in the past few months? injury, surgery, drastic weight loss, diet change, medication, etc...

[jamesst11]

google telogen effluvium and see if you are experiencing it's symptoms.

[Ziggyz123]

Hey guys, thanks for replying..

Yeah, I think I mentioned this to you once James. I did p90x in the summer for about two months and limited what I ate. I was only 160 to begin with, but wanted to add muscle lol. I quit because I went to wide on a workout and pulled something near my collar bone. This whole shed did start like four months after I quit, but i had a weird pain on the left side of my head two days before it started and then bam. After that, my scalp was stinging, oily, inflamed and all that, but really only on the left side.. Now I've been shedding since, and I have zero new growth, just thinning. I want a transplant, but if this doesn't stop, it probably would leave me worse off.

Ever time I run my hair through my hands a strand falls.. I just combed my hair and 7-8 hairs fell into the sink.. I just don't understand what the hell happened or what I can do. I had blood work for thyroid and all that and everything was good. I literally hate showering.. I'm just in a steady shed that seems to not let up. No new hairs anywhere, just hairline recession and thinning..

[jamesst11]

I've been there brother. I KNOW what you're saying 100%. I have had this go on for almost a year. Non stop hair fall, 6-7 hairs at a time when I lightly tugged a section, losing 100 hairs just combing it. Here's the thing though man. I didn't SEE any noticeable regrowth the whole time, yet some how, I still have hair. I am diffused thin now, sure... but, do the math. You have about 100,000 hairs on your ENTIRE head, so lets say, best case scenario, 20,000 on the top, IF you have a thick head of hair. if you were to lose 200 hairs a day, that's 6,000/ month (bare with me, I am not trying to scare you)... that's 24,000 in three months, you're more than completely bald. You ARE regrowing at least some of your hair, you just don't notice it. It starts of thin and you can't really tell. The WORST thing I believe I did, was to not be on finasteride while all this was happening. I am on it now and have been for 2 months. Hopefully I will see some of the thousands of hairs I "permanently" lost regrow. Maybe not. BUT, there is a much better chance if you're on fin.
IF you are a DIFFUSE thinner right now, in my opinion, a hair transplant will DESTROY your hair. HT's are best for people that have a DISTINCT pattern that they have maintained for years, such as a solid receeding hair line and crown. They now where they are, and where they're going, for the most part with their hair loss. I got an HT with a pretty full head of hair and, once again not to scare you, it ended up pretty much ruining my life. Every single native hair surrounding where it was done is gone, completely gone. I am now left with my left side consisting of thick transplanted hairs spaced too far apart, while the rest of my head is thinning normally. I screwed myself into a corner that's almost impossible to get out of.

[jamesst11]

If you have longer hair (2-4") you can see if you have hair regrowth. With dry hair, take a fine tooth comb and brush a section back, hold it down and gently wiggle it. Under the light, you will see finer, little hairs popping up through the section you are holding down with the comb. Remember just because you cannot see them some times by just looking at your head, they may still be there. In my personal opinion, I would NOT stop fin or minox, and if you're not using ketoconazol I would add it twice a week.