Forgive my ignorance, but what is the difference between diffuse hairloss and normal male pattern baldness hairloss? I tried finding the answer elsewhere, but I couldn't really find a conclusive answer. From my own observations diffuse is very aggressive and causes the hair to fall out very fast from all over the scalp, whereas your everyday run of the mill male pattern baldness is where you lose hair around your hairline and at the crown and they eventually meet up, and it is a relatively slow process. Is that correct? To me it's all just hairloss, with diffuse being an accelerated and aggressive version of male pattern baldness, but I'm not sure. Thank you
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I have diffuse and id rather have that then regular balding. Yes, you do lose hair everywhere, but it doesn't go completely bald. When u start taking medicine and regrow some hair, you get quicker results. Regrowing completely bald areas is much harder and longer process.
Thank you for your reply. So diffuse is an overall thinning and regular balding is where the loss is localised to a specific area? That actually clears things up more than you'd think, thank you.
If you don't mind me asking, how are your treatments going?
I don't really know what my situation is yet as I'm booked in to see a dermatologist but the waiting list is huge. I thought that in the meantime, rather than waiting for possibly a year without doing anything at all, I'd start minoxidil. I've been on it for just over 2 weeks and I'm pretty sure I started shedding the other day. It's nothing too crazy, but I am seeing a lot of little hairs on the ground when I dry my hair. My hair is about 5 inches long I suppose, and the majority of these hairs are an inch or so long, so I'm hopeful that I am actually shedding. Seeming that I have longer hair I'm not too concerned about shedding these little hairs as they wouldn't have been visible underneath my longer hair anyway. There are so many unknowns in all of this. I'm really hoping that I am shedding, which I think I am because I've never noticed that many hairs after I've dried it before. One can hope
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i added minoxidil 3 months ago. U do start to shed on it, and hairs regrow thicker. 2-3 months mark is when I saw big improvement. Im still seeing lots of short hairs, so i guess it means that the thickening process continues.
hanginginthewire
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I’m diffuse patterned alopecia (DPA) and I can say with certainty that diffuse doesn’t have to mean aggressive or fast. I’m 38, have been diffusing since I was like 22 and I still have tons of hair. I didn’t even realize I was balding until recently.
That said I’m not sure which is better. Sometimes I see dudes with traditional patterns and I’d rather have that “clean” look than all this sickly hair on top.
That said I’m not sure which is better. Sometimes I see dudes with traditional patterns and I’d rather have that “clean” look than all this sickly hair on top.
Hopefully I follow your lead. I've done my research on it and shedding is generally agreed to be a good thing, but I still get caught up on the guys who say it ruined their hair. That's where I am at right now. Seeming as I'm noticing an increase in shedding, especially the partially miniaturised hairs, I'm gathering it's working, but I'm also worried that they won't come back.
Thanks for the reply bud. Basically, I'm 28 and I've noticed some miniaturised hair along my hairline, although I did recede slightly a few years ago but it kind of just stopped. From finding these miniaturised hairs I grabbed a mirror and looked at my crown and I'm not sure if it has thinned or not as I've never really looked there before. If it is, it certainly isn't bad, but like I said, it worried me enough to warrant a visit it the dermatologist. I have a pretty noticeable cowlick at the back too, so that confuses matter more. Granted I've never had the thickest hair, at least I don't remember it being much different than it is now, but it's still concerning. I look at pictures from 5 plus years ago and my hair now, at least front on, looks better or the same as it did back then. If I am slowly balding, hopefully it's slow enough that the treatments can turn things around a little or halt it altogether
Hopefully these show up in the order that I uploaded them, but the first one I took at a baseline photo a few weeks ago, and the rest are from this morning. One of them shows the cowlick fairly predominantly. The last one I am pulling the cowlick out of the way
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it must have been finasteride that ruined hair. minoxidil hairs always come back.
Either that or they didn't know enough about it, started shedding and assumed it was making things worse. Either way, the time for action is now.
Oh by the way, my family as a pretty bad history of baldness...that's another reason for the worry. Although all of those who are bald went completely bald around 21 and somehow I've held on to the majority of mine at 28.
hanginginthewire
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I had that same patio set. Are you from Florida?