26 Years Old, Very Sudden Hairloss

[sp1989]

Hello everyone this forum has been a wonderful tool over the last few weeks for me. I have seen and read a lot of stories but I just cant seem to find any like mine. First off I am 26 years old. My grandfather died last year. He was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer on New Years Eve and died January 24th. His cancer took him very quickly. Because of how close I was to him and I suppose how hands on I was with him at the end combined with the speed his cancer killed him I have developed extreme health anxiety and just general anxiety all around. Health anxiety however has been very crippling. It shocked me just how quickly the cancer killed my grandfather with minimal symptoms leading up to his death. I have battled with a bunch benign and trivial ailments thinking they were something deadly. For example I had a rash or something on my leg my first thought was skin cancer. I had little lines under my finger nails I thought it was bacterial endocarditis. Breast cancer, colon cancer, leukemia you name it I have convinced myself I have had it over the last year and a half. I have never in my life been like this. Not even remotely neurotic about anything. This too is a point of stress and anxiety for me. I have had all of these things checked out FYI. I am apparently crazy not stupid. I have none of those things. It seems once I am cleared of one thing mentally I must move on to another. My cousins wedding was on April 2nd and I flew down to florida. I convinced myself that the plane was going to crash. Not MIGHT crash, that it was GOING to crash. Obviously the plane didn't crash but I can't explain or illustrate how terrified I was to get on that plane. I then came home and the next day I had an ache in my left testicle. Upon feeling my testicle I felt a lump. I now convinced myself I had testicular cancer. It was about a week or two into stressing about the testicular cancer I started noticing thinning on my right temple. So now I have testicular cancer and I am going bald. A wonderful combination of anxiety. I got my testicle checked and my doctor told me I NEEDED an ultra sound ASAP. So I stressed and thought about nothing else for another week before an ultrasound. Thankfully everything is clear with my testicle. So that leaves this diffusion, or male pattern baldness, or bald patch. I don't know. That all included I lost my job last year and health insurance, I have health insurance now but that was a fun month not having health insurance. I still live at home at 26, I am paying back student loans with a crap job that only pays for student loans, and now that my grandmother lives with us I am watching her slowly kill my mother from stress. My hope is that I have Telogen Effluvium from stress. I don't notice any shedding at all. The occasional hair here and there but not SHEDDING. When I wake up if there are 2 or 3 hairs on my pillow its a lot. I don't see hair in the shower or on my hand at all. No hair on the towel when I dry my hair. Very little to no hair on my comb when i comb my hair. I have been wearing dark shirts to see if i can see any shedding on my collar or shoulders and nothing. So I don't have noticeable shedding except for the fact that there is a distinct thinness or open spot in my hair line. Also this spot has developed I would say from early to mid April to now. I KNOW it wasn't there before that. I don't have thinning in the back or on the other temple or anywhere else on my head. My hair is growing fast and I need a haircut. Which is stressing me out because now I can cover it up. But if i cut it I can't cover it up anymore and there will be this embarrassing space. I honestly understand most men go bald but this just doesn't seem like male pattern baldness to me. It seems too fast. My father started losing his hair when he was 18 and was completely bald when he was 25. Same with all the other bald men in my family. They all lost their hair very young. I know genetics is genetics but I figured I was in the clear. My hair is really thick and soft all around. My father said even before he lost his hair it was never thick and soft. It also grows unbelievably fast. At least if I started going bald I would have a few years. This pace seems fast and i will have no temples by next year. Any way I am just looking for some advice. I am getting a dermatologist appointment ASAP. Sorry for the length of this and the somewhat personal details. I am obviously hoping for Telogen Effluvium because its obviously the most advantageous in the sense that the hair will grow back and if thats true then my anxiety over all of this will most likely slip away allowing it to grow again. Anyway thank you all in advanced and pictures are below.

Update since forum crash:
I went to my PCP today and he said he notices some hair loss but he also thinks it is caused by dermatitis. He gave me Ketoconazole 2% and said to use it twice a week. He said if I don't notice a change he will refer me to a derm. He also didn't dismiss Telogen Effluvium and he also didn't flat out say no to male pattern baldness. I'm still not at ease. But hopefully this shampoo does something. It just seems like I have Pattern Baldness but the way a woman would lose it (if that's possible). Just in the top and middle of my scalp not the back and not the much on the sides. My hair is really good everywhere else. A little thin in the front but my part is terrible and it seems the bald spot is right in the center. Idk at least it's early days and I have some time albeit very little but some time to figure this out.

Pictures below are over the course of a week. It seems to be getting worse everyday and I don't notice any shedding. male pattern baldness can't move this fast right? Especially if I don't notice any shedding. I swear I can move my hand through my hair without any loss, nothing in the shower, nothing on the pillow, nothing in my comb. I must have had a huge shed and as my hair gets longer it just looks worse. My fingers are crossed for Telogen Effluvium or this dermatitis. Otherwise I will be really bald by the end of the summer forget the end of the year.

Before pictures April 2016 and September of 2015 http://imgur.com/a/hSaap

http://imgur.com/a/wYv6e
http://imgur.com/a/0H46c
http://imgur.com/a/aO8S4
http://imgur.com/a/sqjDz
http://imgur.com/a/HJElV

 

[BackSoThickHoesWantTheTip]

hey man youre 26 and still have great hair, sorry i dont have time to read all that but i just thought ill leave a quick comment. if youre looking for treatments. 1.Finasteride 2.Minoxidil 3.Nizoral shampoo

 

[sp1989]

I'm on Nizoral right now like I said my doctor prescribed it for dermatitis. My only issue and I know I have to accept my fate because it probably is male pattern baldness but this hair loss has only come about in the last 2 months. I know that my hair wasn't like this 2 months ago.

 

[Zescho]

Your hair looks fine man

 

[sp1989]

2 week Update.

I have been using Nizoral for two weeks now. I noticed my hair is a little dry but that was to be expected. However I just don't get it. I am gonna go back to my docotor and get the referral to my derm. He told me to finish the bottle of nizoral first and then come back with the results. If nothing has changed or it has gotten worse then he would send me to a derm. Honestly I don't know, like I have been saying is that it seems to be getting worse every day. If it was male pattern baldness could it really be moving this fast and uneven. I have no relief at all from stress. I focus on work, family and fun but whenever I am not doing that I am completely consumed by this. I can't imagine it not being stress related, yet I am also fearful I am making it worse and activitaing male pattern baldness with stress. I could be with my friends and completely fine and not thinking about my hair and I will catch my reflection. Then I will start thinking about my hair. It being summer sweating makes me fearful that it will be even more noticeable. I don't want to go swimming because I am afraid of it becoming more noticeable. I guess what I am asking is can male pattern baldness be this sudden more than that will it be this uneven? I swear this in the last two months. I know my hair wasn't like this two months ago. These are the best pictures I can find of me from my cousins wedding that show my hairs. Like I said this is my touchstone day because its April 2nd and I don't see any signs of hairloss or thinning http://imgur.com/a/hSaap. This is a picture of my hair in September of 2015 http://i.imgur.com/ieYLiFQ.jpg?1 . Its not a good picture but its in the sun and I think its obvious there are no signs of loss or thinning. Its a localized spot but Im not experiencing thiness or loss anywhere else. Anyway here are some pictures after two weeks using nizoral.

When I mean speed these pictures were two weeks ago http://imgur.com/a/wYv6e

Now look at my hair
http://imgur.com/a/HJElV

 

[marine608]

First of all, you need to chill out a bit. You're constantly asking questions on this forum, but you have to realize that nobody can give you any solid advice. No one here is a professional that deals with hair loss, and there is hardly anyone who deals with the same rate and pattern of hair loss. If your hair loss is really due to stress then you're obviously not helping the situation at all by panicking like this.

As I've said, I can't give you a solid answer to your problem, but I would suspect that your hair loss is due to some aggressive male pattern baldness. Another possible theory is that your hair has been damaged by your male pattern baldness for a while now, but you've only began to see it after your former hairs have shed, revealing a newer cycle of thinner hairs as your healthier hairs have shed away. This is only a theory, however, and it's coming from a random guy posting on a hair loss forum. Either wait to see your dermatologist, or go find a second or third professional opinion.

 

[lickawrist]

do you feel healthy? have you tried getting blood work done? my friend had some form of gluten-intolerance for years w/o knowing and decided to get tested when i told him that his face seem more bloated than it was a couple years ago. turns out he was also suffering from hypothyroidism (this was around the same time he started to shed a lot more hairs and his hairline and temples have thinned noticeably--since then he has been taking thyroid medication and changed his diet. he has told me that he doesnt shed any more hairs; i dont know if he has had an regrowth, but his hair has seemed to stabilized the past couple of months and his face has slimmed up considerably. i bring this up because it looks like you have some mild form of facial edema--particularly at the lower part of your face. just speculation--camera angles may have distorted your face but its just some food for thought. finasteride+minoxidil should always be considered for hair loss; i'm not trying to infer any sort of alternative treatment.

 

[sp1989]

Im not gonna take a full body shot but I think my face matches my body lol. I am very overweight surely doesn't help anxiety about losing hair. Fat is bad and bald is bad but bald and fat......not a good combo. If anything comes of his terrible experience I will probably lose weight due to this because again I just can't be bald and fat. I should get my blood tested. I haven't had it tested since late last year maybe something has changed. Probably good to get a blood panel of I want to take finasteride eventually as well.

 

[MarkLu]

Nice report, learned useful information about Nizoral.

 

[sachalamp]

Sorry for your loss, I think its important to grieve and come to terms with it. I was close to my grandfather too and his death took a toll on me.

Other than that, I think seeing a talk therapist would be a good move, you seem to have a combination of anxiety and hypocondria (which is usually tied to anxiety disorders). Talk therapist means you talk about your problems (cognitive behavioral, person centered, psychodinamic being the major branches), no meds involved. I am personally against medication.