Do you have a habit of continually checking for loose hairs?

[JohnC43]

This is different than trichotillomania right? I looked it up and the symptoms do not describe what I do at all - trichotillomania describes a condition where people forcibly pull secure hairs out of their head, whereas I have male pattern baldness and just habitually run my hands through my hair to check and see if I have any hairs come out. However, I do so somewhat obsessively. Does anybody else do this? Is there a term for it and is it unhealthy at all? Thanks.

 

[BodyDysmorphic]

if your obsessing about hair loss

its best to not try to pull any hairs out

let them fall naturally

however if you toss your hair and look for loose hair its ok
the hair would fall out anyway

i do that myself

i look for the tapered end of the hair,
if the end of the hair is tapered, not the bulb end, that means the hair has never been cut

that could mean that the hair growing cycle is shrinking or growing, depending on wether or not your using preliminary treatments to prevent male pattern baldness

personally i loose hair all the time

however if the end on the hair is not tapered,meaning cut, i assume the hair has been cut previously, and that the hair growing period is getting longer. in conjunction with the big three.

please keep in mind it has been documented that loosing 100 hairs a day is normal.

wether or not dht or male pattern baldness has affected those hairs is observable

 

[JohnC43]

Why are more people not responding to this? It is one of the most prominent habits of people suffering baldness

 

[budwardo]

I check for loose hair non stop. I am constantly rubbing my head ever so gently. I shake my hair in the sink at work at least 10 times per day. It is becoming a real problem. I always loose around 5 or so everytime. I loose hair in the shower all the time. I hardly even shampoo my hair because I dont want to lose more. First thing I do in the morning is brush my hair on the sink. If less than 10 come out I feaking love it. I have posted picts of my hair recently on this site and everyone says I have no balding. I do not know how that can be when tons of hair falls out everyday. I dont even towel dry my hair anymore. I gently pat it dry then blowdry. When I get out of the shower I see more scalp than ever. Problem is I never did these things before so I dont know how much I used to lose. I know Im loosing hair and eyebrows. I dont even get my hair wet anymore. As you can tell this is driving me nuts. I have gone to docs, derms, endos, ect. I do take thyroid meds. I was on propecia but it seemed to mess with me. To make problems worse I have a 9 inch scar running strait down the middle of my head, great. If my hair is not done a certain way you can see it plain as day. I used to number 2 clip my whole head. Now my temples are so receded I use more of a ceasar cut. It does not look to bad. I have lost more than 50% of my hair in the last year. So Ya it bugs the sh*t out of me. Im not nuts even though its drivin me so. I need help

 

[MrBastard]

It is natural to lose 80 - 150 hairs a day. Blowdrying hair can actually be damaging if you use a strong heat.

I dont check for loose hairs, dont really see the point. They fall when they fall... All you can do it take medications and hope they return stronger and not weaker.
Ripping them out can scar the follicle and thus make them weaker in next turn. Atleast that is what i have heard

 

[FSHGLD]

Hmm, never heard that one before...I kinda take the opposite approach..i try to be gentle with the hair on the top of my head...my problem is that I check the back of my head about 4 f-ing times a day if I've nothing to do..I even check it out with the shiny back cover of my ipod touch when I'm in a single toilet with a mirror at work..pretty unhealthy behaviour...

 

[budwardo]

So you think its normal to be able to gently pull on your hair at any one point and loose a couple hairs? How about eyebrows. That cant be normal male pattern baldness. Has to be telegom eflumim right. Been going on since taking accutane over a year ago. I also have dermatitis under eyebrows and on forehead. Who knows this is getting to be so frustrating.

 

[cuebald]

If I brush my hand over my head I will get the hairs I have shed, but once I've brushed a few times and removed all the shedded hairs, no more will come out. If I pull on my hair lightly nothing will come out.
I too never had the stereotypical hair shedding that a lot of men say they have when male pattern baldness starts (the stereotypical "shedding hairs like a dog" shed).

I did shed a bit after starting finasteride, I started it and I shedded say 30 hairs in the shower in the morning (pre-finasteride I would shed at most 10). Still this is nowhere near shedding the hundreds some people say they shed (and I am basically diffuse NW4 though I have had some decent thickening from finasteride slowly)

 

[Rutt]

It is natural to lose 80 - 150 hairs a day. Blowdrying hair can actually be damaging if you use a strong heat.

I dont check for loose hairs, dont really see the point. They fall when they fall... All you can do it take medications and hope they return stronger and not weaker.
Ripping them out can scar the follicle and thus make them weaker in next turn. Atleast that is what i have heard

i think 80-150 is WAY too high

oftquoted is 50-100 but i've seen sites that say anything over 50 equates to hairloss

 

[rwhairlosstalk]

It is natural to lose 80 - 150 hairs a day. Blowdrying hair can actually be damaging if you use a strong heat.

I dont check for loose hairs, dont really see the point. They fall when they fall... All you can do it take medications and hope they return stronger and not weaker.
Ripping them out can scar the follicle and thus make them weaker in next turn. Atleast that is what i have heard

i think 80-150 is WAY too high

oftquoted is 50-100 but i've seen sites that say anything over 50 equates to hairloss

Yes its far to much. When I was losing that amount I was thinning and cutting my then long hair all the time.

And yes anything over 50 a day is hair loss. My friend who has beautiful thick hair may lose 1 long hair a day. Now you get the picture.