BlackSheep's story (21 y.o. persistent dandruff and hair loss)

[BlackSheep]

Biopsy results came back.

There's good news, and, well... Good news.

The biopsy found absolutely no sign of male pattern baldness. Instead, in keeping with a diagnosis of seb derm, there's generalised inflammation of the upper skin layers, which includes the hair follicles. There was no mention in my letter whether there were signs of shrinking, but I'm doubting that.

So, the next step for me is to begin the arduous process of eliminating all possible allergens from my environment. More thick terminal hairs have sprouted out since the head shaving and intense steroid treatment. Looks like I'll carry on with this until my thick head of hair's back...

I spoke to another dermatologist recently and asked about my habit of rubbing my scalp feeling for sandy-grit like balls (sebum plugs). She said I'm most likely making the seb derm issue worse by irritating the skin lining and contributing to its' thickening (lichenification). So, I need to stop making the regrowth harder with that bad habit.

One point I should make is, my previous claims of terminal hair regrowth were genuine. Just simply not to the same extent as what I'm seeing now. I'll need another scalp shave soon, the combo of 2cm hairs on a backdrop of stubbly ones looks a bit odd. Nearly there.

 

[mr the hairy monkey]

Hey pal ,

Glad to hear it (-= , the sheep would keep his wool after all!

Just how long did it take to grow back? (or at least to thicken up if it was thin previously)

dandruff is easy to get rid of knowing that there are lots of shampoos on the market that drive it (the fu**) out of your scalp.

 

[BlackSheep]

Hey man, thanks for the comment.

In the past, I'd get sporadic thick terminal hair regrowth around troubled areas.

In this recent "boon" period, I noticed the significant regrowth about 2-3 weeks after I'd shaved my head. The "normal" hairs were around 3-4mm in length, whilst the new terminals were like numerous dark dots all around my scalp.

Now I'm back in college however, I haven't seen any new ones, which makes sense, because I'm not sleeping very well and super stressed. The scalp itching has also come back a bit with dandruff. After all these years it's abundantly clear I'm just too stressed for proper regrowth and need some proper R+R for that to happen this summer...

 

[BlackSheep]

I return to you all after several months of inactivity here with some crucial resolution to my saga.

So, to quickly recap my experience over the past few years;

In December 2011 my scalp became suddenly itchy after another night burning the midnight oil doing coursework. I noticed a lot of dandruff initially. Despite home remedies (olive oil, honey, cider vinegar) and shampoo recommendations by my doctors (nizoral, salacylic acid, coal tar) I'd have frequent breakouts of itching and dandruff. Noticed in Summer '12 my hair was falling out with distribution mirroring the areas it was itching (vertex and crown, sparing the sides, very front and back). Saw a series of doctors in Fall '12 who believed I was seeing male pattern baldness and ignored the fact itching preceded the hair loss. The sorry saga continued till Summer '13 when I decided to just shave my head as I couldn't stand seeing less density anymore. I kept shaving my head while I waited for a dermatology referral (fought for this with doctors).
Finally had a biopsy in Spring '14 after seeing the dermatologist. Results confirmed it was not male pattern baldness/androgenic alopecia. Instead I had either seborrheic dermatitis or atopic dermatitis. Couldn't get a patch test as I would've moved by the time I got my place. Spent all of this summer experimenting with different triggers. Felt dairy might have been responsible for it as previous comments show.

Where I am now;
- After months of experimenting I realised dairy had absolutely no connection. It was a red herring. Same with sugar intake. The REAL factors to my itching and hair loss were stress, a dustmite allergy and poor sleep. I'm also asthmatic and have been dustmite sensitive since a baby.
- Most of the steroid creams and drops actually exacerbated my itching. I had no idea until I'd addressed the above and then re-introduced them. Same goes for nizoral and other harsh shampoos normally used for seborrheic dermatitis.
- Based on the above I clearly have atopic dermatitis and not seborrheic. Don't need patch testing to confirm this now. I'm itch-free most days, and if I do itch, it's the "normal" flick-flick of the scalp most people get.
- To tackle the dustmites, I only use allergy-friendly pillow covers plus silk. Also make sure I dust my room every week. Finally have an air purifier too.
- Density is returning to my scalp. It's a very slow process but noticed it accelerated somewhat from two additions to the corrected sleep and nutrient + protein rich diet - biotin (5000mcg) and eclipta alba topical lotion. I know biotin is controversial but I observed visible improvements barely a week after starting it. Eclipta alba also is shown in some studies to be as effective as minoxidil. I apply the latter every day for 30-60 mins before showering.
- Finally, I've been moisturising my scalp with a standard lotion plus using only gentle shampoos (using one with green tea extract). They're helping massively.

Finally, I went to a new doctor and asked them to have a good look around my scalp. They confirmed the density is almost uniform between the vertex+crown and the sides and back now. I'm still shaving my scalp every 4-6 days and will be doing this until mid December likely. After that, will see if enough follicles have woken back up for me to adequately rock long hair again.

Picture taken the other day attached (4 days post head shave). Showing the back and crown because that's where the density difference was most apparent. That's pretty obvious from the pic. Also note the hairs are thick terminal ones and not the miniaturised ones I kept noticing years back (those have disappeared). I've also posted a front pic to compare from this summer before instituting all those changes above. Believe it or not, that was after 2 weeks post shave!

Progress is progress! Happy to take questions and help others. Otherwise, the mods can move this to the "success" section. I have my closure and my wool back (though still sheep sheared).

Edit - Really? Nobody? Looks like people in this forum are more interested in confirming neuroses/suspicions above all else!

 

[Quest]

Hey brotha, I've been following your progress for months now and I just checked in for the first time in a while- happy to see you've mostly figured out your dome issues. Looking good!

However I was curious about a couple things:

- After months of experimenting I realised dairy had absolutely no connection. It was a red herring. Same with sugar intake. The REAL factors to my itching and hair loss were stress, a dustmite allergy and poor sleep. I'm also asthmatic and have been dustmite sensitive since a baby.

- Based on the above I clearly have atopic dermatitis and not seborrheic. Don't need patch testing to confirm this now. I'm itch-free most days, and if I do itch, it's the "normal" flick-flick of the scalp most people get.

I recently (1 month ago) discovered that I am gluten intolerant and I may have been malnourished along with having similarly unhealthy lifestyle habits as you had. Having an issue like being gluten intolerant is an allergy, and I could only really figure out that I had this issue after cutting it out and having a ridiculous change in my energy, skin/nails and in my *ahem* stomach.

So as for my question- how did you figure out it was dustmites causing your reaction? I'm suspecting my seb derm may also end up being atopic derm as well, and I really ****ing hope that my massive yet uniform loss has been because of a similar allergic reaction. Has your diet changed in the last few months?

Also what has been the regrowth process so far? I noticed you said you were gonna reset and get some R&R this summer so I imagine the time between your posts gave you around 5 months to see results, is that accurate?

thanks again dude, your posts have definitely given me a lot of motivation and hope.

 

[DFWdesperado]

Interesting story black sheep, Thank you for sharing. Glad to hear that you have the issues under control..

Ive been dealing with similar symptoms (persistent itch/dandruff) for my entire life really, and have never been able to keep it at bay, despite using just about every dandruff/keto shampoo there is. I also have severe allergies to many things, (dustmites is one of them). im actually beginning immunotherapy next week, so while im not getting my hopes out too much that all that has contributed to my thinning, Im hoping that it will least help put a stop to the dandruff

 

[marius28]

BlackSheep did you get rid of those sebum balls from your scalp?

I have entirely what you have described here.
Can you write again what medications have you used in order to get rid of this condition?

 

[BlackSheep]

Well friends, my journey has come to an end.

80% of my hair's returned after 3 years of fighting this thing. Last shaved my head in June. Looking at my hair now, you wouldn't think I ever had any hair loss that set me apart from someone my age.

Mods, if you see this, move it to "Success Stories" so others with it can be offered some hope. I'll be sharing before-after pictures soon. On to the questions. Thanks all for your thoughts, let's do this...

Some replies:

So as for my question- how did you figure out it was dustmites causing your reaction? I'm suspecting my seb derm may also end up being atopic derm as well, and I really ****ing hope that my massive yet uniform loss has been because of a similar allergic reaction. Has your diet changed in the last few months?

Process of elimination. I have asthma and other things allergy related, so I started going after known instigators of my asthma as a kid. That included super sugary or salty foods, anything with artificial colors or a dust mite rich environment.

Diet hasn't changed at all really. I modified everything you could think of (sugar, gluten, fats, dairy) and nothing changed it.

Also what has been the regrowth process so far? I noticed you said you were gonna reset and get some R&R this summer so I imagine the time between your posts gave you around 5 months to see results, is that accurate?

Still a couple bald spots across the scalp. My crown hair's regrown fully since the head shave in June (got a hair cut for the sides a month back). It's about 6cm now (grown super fast since the itching stopped).

I've had sporadic recurrences of the itching and flaking if I was super-stressed + staying up late + eating junk, but a quick antihistamine and resetting those ASAP has assured I haven't lost any more hair.

I still enjoy fast food every so often or sugary sweets just fine, just can't "stack" it with those other things, otherwise the atopy springs out.

Interesting story black sheep, Thank you for sharing. Glad to hear that you have the issues under control..

Ive been dealing with similar symptoms (persistent itch/dandruff) for my entire life really, and have never been able to keep it at bay, despite using just about every dandruff/keto shampoo there is. I also have severe allergies to many things, (dustmites is one of them). im actually beginning immunotherapy next week, so while im not getting my hopes out too much that all that has contributed to my thinning, Im hoping that it will least help put a stop to the dandruff

Yeah, if you have very high IgE levels then you probably have a variant of what I had going on. Oral antihistamines, have you tried that? Might be all you need. That's the only thing that helped me.

I have entirely what you have described here.
Can you write again what medications have you used in order to get rid of this condition?

Oral antihistamines are/were the only permanent fix for me. Topical steroid drops worked for acute flare-ups, but only to a point.

Everything else (green tea shampoo, coal tar, nizoral, head and shoulders, even random stuff like coconut oil, olive oil, cinnamon) did nothing. In fact, nizoral and head and shoulders made it worse. Presumably dried my scalp out. Last thing you want to do to an allergic area of skin, so makes sense.

Also, regarding the breakouts of sebum plugs I had problems with much of this time - They've largely disappeared as well. In retrospect, my constant "scanning" of my scalp for them with my fingertips and scratching them out, combined with all the rubbing and itching, probably helped them perpetuate. I only find one or two these days if I bother to check. So, a lot of you guys are probably indirectly doing the same thing as me there.

Final note - Stay away from any supposed "natural treatments" that contain honey. Looking back now, that item seemed to make the itching worse and go on for longer whenever I applied it topically. There's a lot of stuff online about it being a "natural antimicrobial humectant" or whatever, but it only made thing worse.

If I could tell people who've invested time in reading about my troubles, it's this - If you're suffering with hair loss that follows scalp itching/bleeding, don't listen to your family physicians if they convince you it's male pattern balding. Insist on seeing a dermatologist and getting biopsied. In the meantime, on separate points of the week, try an antihistamine for 3 days, then when that's done, nizoral for 3 days. If the antihistamine gave relief, you likely have atopic dermatitis and need to do the elimination dance I did. If nizoral helps you instead, you likely have seb derm. Knowing what hurts you is the key to healing you.

 

[abovedagame]

Thanks for your updates. Which antihistamine do you recommend? Also how often do you use nizoral and which strength?

 

[BlackSheep]

Thanks for your updates. Which antihistamine do you recommend?

No problem buddy.

Standard cetirizine worked wonders for me, normal dose.

Hydroxizine has a sedative action, so I used that whenever I needed my sleep pattern reset as well. Those two are my go-to's and I make sure I have spares handy at all times.

Loratidine doesn't seem to do anything at all surprisingly. No idea why.

Also how often do you use nizoral and which strength?

I stay well away from all forms of nizoral these days and have for months now. Retrospectively I realized all strengths of it made the situation worse. Attempted to use it a couple days before shaving my head last (early June '15) and it just made my scalp uncomfortably tingly, shiny and itchy once more after days of normality.

The only shampoo I use these days is either organic aloe vera, or... Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo (lmao). The lack of any irritant-type ingredients make them ideal for people with atopy IMO. Tea tree shampoo also is decent. Never found any shampoos "fixed" the atopic dermatitis though, they can either irritate things further, or contribute nothing at all in that respect.

 

[BlackSheep]

That's what it was (hair loss as a result of scratching and inflammation from atopic dermatitis). I have more hair now than two years ago despite never touching finasteride or minoxidil and very intermittently using nizoral (which made things worse).

On top of that, my hair line hasn't budged since male pattern baldness was the "diagnosis" of those family physicians. Would love to go back and show them how wrong they were, lol.

 

[Atharva shinde]

Hey black she

That's what it was (hair loss as a result of scratching and inflammation from atopic dermatitis). I have more hair now than two years ago despite never touching finasteride or minoxidil and very intermittently using nizoral (which made things worse).

On top of that, my hair line hasn't budged since male pattern baldness was the "diagnosis" of those family physicians. Would love to go back and show them how wrong they were, lol.

Hey black sheep u gave me the motivation I needed . I have the same story like yours but only I don't have is the bleeding stuff . I went to 3 dermatologists and they said male pattern baldness without even closely looking at scalp because that is the only thing that works for hairloss by fu**ING dht . I have same uniform loss like yours . Only thing that scares me is the temple hair . I dint have good temple hair since the beginning . My hairline isn't receding but the temple hair are weak. I have brownish flakes which cause me itching. Could you suggest me something

 

[EndlessPossibilities]

This guy has no clue hes suffering from male pattern baldness. Thinning in the vertex instant classic sign. Even if the follicles havent minituriazed they first go into dormant stage Cetrezine works. It worked for me for the 1 week i tried it. But god knows what kind of damage life time oral anti histamines will do to you. His hair was probably in the kenogen stage