Diffuse thinning or telogen effluvium?

[Contradictedsoul]

How do you tell the difference?

Does diffuse thinning mean diffuse pattern alopecia?

How do you tell the difference between DPA/Diffuse Thinning and Telogen Effluvium?

I suspect I have telogen effluvium due to not only joining a wrestling team and going through training that helped me lose more than 20 pounds but I did it without any proper diet as well, which is why I feel like my hair loss is telogen effluvium. Although after seeing pictures of DPA and Telogen effluvium, they look the same. So how do you differentiate?

[Contradictedsoul]

bump -_-

[PappinAce]

you have any pics bro? how old are you and what is your family history of hairloss? did this happen gradually or very suddenly?

[Contradictedsoul]

you have any pics bro? how old are you and what is your family history of hairloss? did this happen gradually or very suddenly?

Sorry for the late reply, I just turned 18 this April. My Dad literally just started diffuse thinning I'd say, but it's barely noticeable. Everyone from my dad's side of the family still has a full head of hair and my grandfather from my mom's side is the only person that had progressed balding - but get this, my mom has a brother and he has a full head of hair. He's 40 something.

Long story short, I signed up for school wrestling during junior year and season ended in February. In August/September of 2016 my barber told me that my hair is shedding rapidly and ever since then I've been worrying and checking in the mirror. It's now April 2017 and my hair is still shedding in intervals. When I wrestled or practiced for those three hours I did for the months I did, I rarely ate proper post workouts which is what I believe triggered what I assume is Telogen Effluvium. My eating habits after said three hour workouts was just a Naked protein drink whenever I could get one -> 2 or 3 days out of 5, and some meat when I went home. If there was no meat I would not eat. My weight went from 180 to 160 as well. Below are pictures, please tell me what this is. I've been to my doctor and she states that balding at my age, 17, is rare. I turned 18 last week. She states that I'm overthinking it and it is most likely telogen effluvium. I know this site is definitely not the best place to ask but I need some type of reassurance that it might be, or if it's not, an idea of what it could be.

The one where my scalp shows the most is right after showering. When I comb my hair and style it, it doesn't even look like I've suffered/or am suffering from any hair loss. The rest of the pictures are of my hair dry.

*Note* This story above is from a post of mine from a different thread that was left unanswered hence it sounding like it was written in the past.

Pics:
Crown -> http://imgur.com/OCiTurE
Crown PT 2 -> http://i.imgur.com/9h3a9w8.jpg
Temples/Sides -> http://i.imgur.com/3yliP1a.jpg [No visible thinning at all imo]
Other side -> http://i.imgur.com/eCtlNZL.jpg
Top of head after showering -> http://i.imgur.com/ZHlzD1m.jpg

Keep in mind those pics are w/ flash too so they do exaggerate the resulting photo. Also, after I properly style my hair/dry it off, the scalp doesn't show at all unless my hair messes up. Please let me know what you think about this.

[Contradictedsoul]

This happened suddenly as well bro :/

Literally woke up one day and could pull at least 3-10 hairs from any spot in my head. icri

[Contradictedsoul]

In the temples pic u can see the top of my head as well. That's how it looks when I style it or whatever, no scalp shows at all. Also, I feel like most of my hairloss is near the parts as well and ultimately all over my head, not just the top.

[PappinAce]

very characteristic of TE especially if you went through rapid weight loss! imo it's not even noticeable but you know better than anyone. i would say try to recover your ferritin levels. athletes need more than most people especially if you weren't eating post workout meals for a while.

[GT02]

I am no doctor (which means my opinion should carry more weight than any snake oil salesman with a diploma) but unless you have a hormonal problem I think you are too young to be experiencing TE from dieting. The human body is very adaptive especially in the younger years. So unless you have a serious vitamin / mineral deficiency / hormonal issue then I would think it is genetics - I have known people that were going bald by the time they hit college but so did their father and brothers. One thing I dont understand is everyone on your father's side of the family has hair except you father it balding - why is this?

[Contradictedsoul]

very characteristic of TE especially if you went through rapid weight loss! imo it's not even noticeable but you know better than anyone. i would say try to recover your ferritin levels. athletes need more than most people especially if you weren't eating post workout meals for a while.

I feel the same way lmao

[Contradictedsoul]

I am no doctor (which means my opinion should carry more weight than any snake oil salesman with a diploma) but unless you have a hormonal problem I think you are too young to be experiencing TE from dieting. The human body is very adaptive especially in the younger years. So unless you have a serious vitamin / mineral deficiency / hormonal issue then I would think it is genetics - I have known people that were going bald by the time they hit college but so did their father and brothers. One thing I dont understand is everyone on your father's side of the family has hair except you father it balding - why is this?

I asked my doctor and she said it's more than likely that I do have TE bc of the amount of stressors I have or whatever..., and I can't answer that question for sure because being brown we have family everywhere and there is probably someone somewhere from my dads side that's also losing hair so...

I have a strong hunch it's TE though and everyone says I'm overreacting too so idk anymore tbh, I'll stick with TE I guess until anything happens that proves me wrong

[GT02]

The only issue i saw was the pic of your hair when wet your scalp was visible. To me that doesn't look normal and if your barber mentioned then there is probably something there. I still think 18 yo and a 20 lb drop should not be a stress on the body. But I could be wrong. I guess it depends on how long it goes on for so all you can do is monitor i guess. Best of luck with it.

[cartibih]

Bruh I'm actually in disbelief about how similar your story is to mine (im a brown person too ayy) A few month after I turned 18, I was taking a shower and noticed that I was able to pluck hairs from wherever! I literally have the same hair cut as you but the top is longer (I get an 2 all around with undercut). As you can tell, I'm very concious about my hair so I had to visit a derm and they told me the same, "don't worry it looks like TE". So I waited the time limit for TE which was like 3-6 months but nothing got better just worse. I went to another derm who said my thyroid was low when she saw my t3 levels so I visited a endocrinologist and the doctor said that my results didn't show any problems in my thyroid that would indicate hairloss. I was actually kind of fkn mad when I heard that bc I'm aware that thyroid hair loss is reversible. I'm 19 now and I have diffuse thinning still and hair loss from all over. Idk how to describe it but my hair just feels so dull weak and lifeless now. It used to licuous literally a year from now. I wnna say it's MPB but my dad barely started receding a bit and his crown is lookin better than mine lowkey. Also, my derm even said that MPB doesn't advance this fast as my hair took a serious toll in less than a fkn year. My hair doesn't look all that bad when it's dry but when it gets oily or when I come out the shower, it looks like shit bc my scalp is visible. At this point I'm beggining to think it's related to CTE or something internally even though my blood tests say I'm doing fine. Might start taking vitamins, biotin, get proper sleep and drink more water to see if that helps (doubt it). My eyebrows started getting affected too for some reason somewhere down the road. I can't even tell if I'm receding bc I have a natural wide type of U hair line but the way it looks rn could be better than it looks bc I'm missing hair everywhere (places where MPB generally doesn't strike)

[JOzzy2010]

Do you smoke marijuana? This could be causing you to be loosing your hair. This in conjunction with excess amounts of caffeine can be causing your hair to thin. It did for me.

[JOzzy2010]

How do you tell the difference?

Does diffuse thinning mean diffuse pattern alopecia?

How do you tell the difference between DPA/Diffuse Thinning and Telogen Effluvium?

I suspect I have telogen effluvium due to not only joining a wrestling team and going through training that helped me lose more than 20 pounds but I did it without any proper diet as well, which is why I feel like my hair loss is telogen effluvium. Although after seeing pictures of DPA and Telogen effluvium, they look the same. So how do you differentiate?

Are you a recreational user of Marijuana? This caused my hair to thin as well as excess amounts of caffeine.

[Contradictedsoul]

Are you a recreational user of Marijuana? This caused my hair to thin as well as excess amounts of caffeine.

I don't smoke but I do drink coffee....

Like everyday..., and also did when I worked out.....
My hairloss has like halted, it hasn't progressed more than what's shown in this thread, and that's seriously confusing me.

I thought telogen effluvium is meant to recover after a few months but it's almost been more than a year and it's yet to recover.
I dunno.

I read up on it and it's stated that it recovers on it's own after a haircycle or two, aka often times more than a year, so, like, I'm being patient ig