Hey guys. I'm new here but thrilled to find this active forum. I've been going through a very depressing and frustrating time with my recent hair loss as I'm sure many of you have at some point. Here's my story
I'm 25 and always had a very nice head of hair. I considered it my best quality. And I didn't have many since I was 280 lbs or so. In May I decided to do something about it. I lost about 90 lbs in 3-4 months (which I now know was stupid) and almost immediately after the weight loss my hair started to shed rapidly. I've lost half my hair in the last month or so and it's only getting worse and has now spread to my eyebrows and even my body hair (slightly). My dermatologist said I have whats called Telogen Effluvium and the hair should grow back in a year with a healthy diet and reduced stress.
Here are my problems with that diagnosis.....for starters, before I lost weight I had a hairless patch in my beard that I now know is alopecia areata and that problem has gotten slightly worse since the weight loss. Doctor says that's a seperate issue than the rest of hair loss.
Also, while my hair is shedding and thinning rapidly all over my head, it does show signs of male pattern baldness. I'm looking at the Norwood scale but don't see my hair. It's somewhere in the 3, 3A, 3V range. My dad and his dad both have a full head of hair. On my moms side only my uncle is balding, my grandfather and other uncles have great hair.
The Doctor says it's telogen effluvium but is it possible that the physical stress of weight loss worsened my alopecia areata and spread it from my beard to everywhere else? Or is it possible that I had early male pattern baldness but the weight loss accelerated this? I just don't feel confident in my doctor's diagnosis. He recommended rogaine foam and I plan to grap some Nizoral shampoo today, not just because you all seem to recommend it but also the rogaine is apparently giving me pretty significant dandruff.
Sorry to be so wordy but I'm not handling this well to say the least and I don't have many people to talk about this with. I thank all of you who read this and can give me some input.
I'm 25 and always had a very nice head of hair. I considered it my best quality. And I didn't have many since I was 280 lbs or so. In May I decided to do something about it. I lost about 90 lbs in 3-4 months (which I now know was stupid) and almost immediately after the weight loss my hair started to shed rapidly. I've lost half my hair in the last month or so and it's only getting worse and has now spread to my eyebrows and even my body hair (slightly). My dermatologist said I have whats called Telogen Effluvium and the hair should grow back in a year with a healthy diet and reduced stress.
Here are my problems with that diagnosis.....for starters, before I lost weight I had a hairless patch in my beard that I now know is alopecia areata and that problem has gotten slightly worse since the weight loss. Doctor says that's a seperate issue than the rest of hair loss.
Also, while my hair is shedding and thinning rapidly all over my head, it does show signs of male pattern baldness. I'm looking at the Norwood scale but don't see my hair. It's somewhere in the 3, 3A, 3V range. My dad and his dad both have a full head of hair. On my moms side only my uncle is balding, my grandfather and other uncles have great hair.
The Doctor says it's telogen effluvium but is it possible that the physical stress of weight loss worsened my alopecia areata and spread it from my beard to everywhere else? Or is it possible that I had early male pattern baldness but the weight loss accelerated this? I just don't feel confident in my doctor's diagnosis. He recommended rogaine foam and I plan to grap some Nizoral shampoo today, not just because you all seem to recommend it but also the rogaine is apparently giving me pretty significant dandruff.
Sorry to be so wordy but I'm not handling this well to say the least and I don't have many people to talk about this with. I thank all of you who read this and can give me some input.