Carl111's story - (age 23, HELP/ADVICE + Introduction)

[Carl111]

Hey all, i'm new here. My name's Carl and I'm from the United Kingdom.

I've joined up to ask for advice and or help.

(If you have the time to read my short story)

I'm 23 years old. I have long Wavey (sp?) hair and have had for a number of years. I didn't have a girlfriend until I was 19. This girlfriend turned out to be a possessive psycho who ran me down to having to be on medication, and made me paranoid, edgey and depress and...well you can imagine. After being with her for a year and some months, my hair started to thin quite alot. If I look at pictures of me before meeting her, I had a lot of hair, in extremely good condition. Compare it to then or after, thin and unhealthy. The more I was with her the more I lost hair.

I eventually left her, and to my surprise my hair was getting healthier, and I was feeling better. woo, etc.

I got with another girl (who i'm still with, who is amazing and ideal for me). The troubles from my past relationship starting to weigh me down in this new one, and again my hair started thinning from stress and worry for numerous reasons.

At the moment my hair doesn't seem to be getting healthier, but I'm happy with my life. Why is my hair still thin, and will it grow back, if I've lost a lot of it through stress?

Any help/advice would be appreciated. And don't treat me like a so-called "noob" :hairy:

 

[Dhys]

First off you need to post pictures of the loss, it'd help people a lot more with trying to decide what kind of hairloss it is.
It -sounds- to me like stress related loss, but I'm not a trichologist.

On another note I have manic depression (Bi-polar for you Americans there) and although I've never taken any drugs for it I've never lost a single hair from stress.

Good luck dude. Post pictures as quick as you can, or even see a doctor or Derm.

 

[Cassin]

Re: HELP/ADVICE + Introduction

And don't treat me like a so-called "noob" :hairy:

Then correct your title like everyone else's in the forum you posted in.

noob.......

 

[sphlanx2006]

The troubles from my past relationship starting to weigh me down in this new one, and again my hair started thinning from stress and worry for numerous reasons.

Why is my hair still thin, and will it grow back, if I've lost a lot of it through stress?

The problem here is that you take for granted that your hair is thinning due to stress, while this is preety unlikely to happen at noticeable extent. There is a great chance you are suffering from male pattern baldness, which after all, is 95% of the hair loss cases.

Be very careful because our mind can play nasty tricks. Your hair could look better when you were psychologicaly better only because everything in life seems better when you are happy. Additionally hair appearance is in a constant cycle, sometimes they look better sometimes they look worse.

I would advise you to do the following:

1) Check your family for baldness history. Even if your dad isnt bald that doesnt mean you are not geneticaly predisposed to become one. Check every older male close blood relative of you. After that visit a dermatologist to confirm.

2) If your problem is stress i am preety sure your dermatologist will give your some vitamins and hair thickening shampoo. If that its not the case though (which i am afraid it is not), start treatments exactly at the point that you feel even slighlty bad about your hair condition.

The best available and scientificaly proven treatments at the moment are:

1) Propecia that contains 1mg finasteride(A.K.A proscar, fincar, finpecia)
2) Regaine a.k.a minoxidil
3) Nizoral shampoo (2%ketoconazole)

I dont want to be negative and we definately cant just cross out the stress factor, but chances are you have male pattern baldness

 

[Carl111]

Re: HELP/ADVICE + Introduction

Apologies for the extreme lateness of my reply.

I've noticed that my hair started growing back (as in, i have hairs a few inches long, when the rest of my hair is very long). I've noticed a pattern between the times i'm extremely distressed and when my hair gets thinner.

I'm getting help, as my mood is constantly affected, and has been for quite some time, since my hair started thinning

To Dhys, I've attached some photosand I'd like to add, the main reason I think it's related to stress, the few time's ive had a breakdown and needed help, i've felt my scalp tingling, as if the hair was being directly affected, and that really worried me. I suffer from bad Anxiety to start with.

 

[lovemyhair]

Re: HELP/ADVICE + Introduction

Dude, go see a dermatologist, we on this board will try to help but we ain't doctors. If it ain't male pattern baldness then you are in the clear, if it is then you know to get on the big three soon.

 

[s.a.f]

Re: HELP/ADVICE + Introduction

Looking at the photo's it looks like a classic case of temple recession and general thinning. Almost definatly just plain old m.p.b and not stress related hairloss.

 

[treeshrew]

Re: HELP/ADVICE + Introduction

Looking at the photo's it looks like a classic case of temple recession and general thinning. Almost definatly just plain old m.p.b and not stress related hairloss.

agree, was going to make the same comment.

 

[winterheartlee]

Re: HELP/ADVICE + Introduction

My advice.... cut ur hair!
lol Im not being a knob or anything, but i used to have really long hair close to reaching the bottom of my back and i only got it cut last october.... i have diffuse male pattern baldness, but i think having long hair sped the process up by years...
Mainly because its so long and heavy, and it wud get tangled all the time and when i would brush it, my hair would just be ripped out by my comb....
There was a point where I never thought i would cut it.... but now i just wish i never grew it because my hair bearly falls out now, it hasnt got worse at all since i cut it, and with the help of regaine its growing back.... will be starting fincar very soon also for what i hope cud be a full recovery....
But yeh, consider it.... the length and weight of the hair puts alot of stress on the follicles, along with brushing and pontytails...

 

[Carl111]

Cheers for all the help mates.

Can stress speed up the male pattern baldness? It's likely that I have it but it does seem that my stress has made it worse.

What are the 'Big 3' ?

 

[Libido]

Stress can probably speed it up a bit, yes. But probably not to a significant extent; ifs it male pattern baldness the hair will be gone without threatment (and in a lot of cases despite threatment). If some of it drops out a month early thanks to stress, well, that woudnt be my main concern.

What stress will mainly do however is make both you and your hair pretty ugly and unhealthy. And when your hair is unhealthy it will also look like you are loosing more.

I know you are asking for advice about your hair only, but I think anyone (you too even?) can see that hair is not your main problem at the moment and that a full head of hair will probably solve nothing.

The number 1 threatment for male pattern baldness is Propecia/Finasteride, and it helps maybe 80% for some years. Officially its pretty safe, though from some users there are concerns about long term side-effects. A lot sprung for the fact that it hasnt been used by erlier generations. This shoudnt generaly get in the way as its a lot safer than a lot of other drugs, but the problem is it might be a mental pain. Being unstable from the start you might just panic sooner or later getting even more depressed. You do sound like a lot of people who later come back and say Propecia ruined their life. So just some advice: Do some study first (check the side-effect forum here and similar places). If you decide to try it dont... ehh.. freak out.

Then you have Rogain/Minoxidil. Havent tried it myself since it involves "doing stuff" (shudder), but I alot of users have gotten great results with it.

Nizoral/Schampo with Ketokenazol might get some minor results that wont be very noticable. What it does however is keep your scalp in shape, wich is very important when using any of the other threatmeants.

Those are The Big 3.

First of, see a doctor. If you have a definate case of male pattern baldness I´d go for Propecia if you feel you can handle it. Otherwise I´d concider shaving my head and trying to get on the right track in life wich in the end is more important.

 

[Carl111]

Thanks Libido.

Bottom line, I do have problems to sort out. But it's always been a cycle of depression,feeling down about hair, depression etc.

I'll see a dermatologist about my hair.

Thankyou again

 

[Carl111]

So i finally went to see about my hair, plus my doctor.

My hair loss/thinning is definetly stress related, as I now have hairs starting to grow past what i thought was my hair line, lots of short hairs.

Any advice what i can do to help the growth along?

I'm on anti-depressants and seeking help for my problems, and since taking them and caling down etc, the hair has started to grow back, even though the loss was quite extensive from my stress/anxiety.