Immortaltime's Story

[immortaltime]

I had this strange habit of pullling out hair during high school days when I was tensed (just like people bite nails). Due to this, I had one bald spot in the front but my hair eventually grew normally. Then no baldness whatsoever and I have had good hair (except in places where I pulled out my hair where hair's not as thick as other places). Being east indian, I have used several herbal oils on my head. During stress or irregular head shower or when my body gets heated up, lots of hair fall out. Once I use those oils regularly, hair grows back. I have been watching my hair, and everything was going fine until 6/8 months ago.

I was on a diet and work out plan to reduce my weight. My diet was all natural food (like broccoli, lettuce, cereals, fruits, bread, salads, fat free milk, green vegetables that I cook myself etc.), I did lose like 25 pounds in 3 to 4 months. Then, I started eating pizza, fries etc. along with working out, and my weight was maintained. Shortly 1 or 2 months after that, I noticed tons of hair on shower, comb, pillow, while applying oil etc. I was using Pantene then, I changed Pantene formula, then changed it to Head&Shoulders after reading some reviews, now I use baby shampoo (johnson&Johnson).

Quickly, in 2 months, hair has thinned super fast, bald spots appeared from no where. Those oils had NOT been of any help, but I did notice lesser shed when I switched from Pantene to head&shoulders, but switch from Head&Shouolders to baby shampoo did not have any effect. Its been thinning all along till now, and everyone started noticing. Infact, recently I noticed my scalp comes out and falls on the deskwhen I'm just sitting in front of computer, some hairs fall that way too. Run your fingers through hair, you see dozen coming out.

Now, on the left side and right side, I have a thick line (void of hair) running from front to back all the way. This line appeared from no where (I know because after noticing a bald spot at high school and then seeing hair regrow, I have been observing my hair every now and then). My crown has noticeably thinned (from a really thick state). My theory is that these 2 lines converge at the crown causing a horse-shoe, thats male pattern baldness. On the other hand, I see hair has diffusely thinned everywhere, though my sides havent thinned as agressively as other places, I notice it has thinned to some noticeable extent. Its been 6 months since I first noticed this loss. So, maybe some hair has been falling out all these years but definitely not as alarming as this (I find hairs whereever I go).

I have stopped that diet, I have started eating everything, did some googling, some ppl said exercises may cause hair loss, sudden weight loss, stress, improper diet can cause hair loss. I thought weight loss and diet may be the cause. So I restored everything back to normal (started eating buts afer I read nuts could help improve hair), backto 1% fat milk from fat free, stopped working out intensely (I do some cardio but nothing major) brough life back to normal where I was having lots of hair. I did have some stress from work but it went away and was nothing compared to the stress levels I have seen at grad school.

Noting seems to have helped. I have started Rogaine 5% and nizoral 1% for the past 3 days. Will post pictures soon. After consulting dermatologist, I may take propecia or other drugs if needed.

The thing I'm not sure is if male pattern baldness has dawned on my head, or its diffuse thinning. But one thing for sure is that the 2 lines I talked about earlier are easily noticeable along with the obvious thinning on crown makes me strongly feel that male pattern baldness has affected me. But can male pattern baldness start this rapidly on someone? However, hair has been lost everywhere in considerable amounts.

All pictures taken as soon as I started on rogaine 5% and nizoral 1%











A glimpse of how was my hair earlier. Though my hairline did receed due to me plucking out hair, my scalp never showed up and hair was really thick except for the front left side (where I did most of my plucking ). I ave shown how shabby my hair could look without any styling

 

[immortaltime]

Re: Does male pattern baldness start with or cause rapid hair loss?

One more question:
Rogaine liquid feels like water on my scalp, people talk about irritation but I do not experience anything. However, after some time, when the liquid dries, I do feel my hair sticks together in chunks. Wondering if I'm doing something wrong, I use Rogaine liquid from Johnson&Johnson.

Nizoral 1% makes my air feel dry but since I'm a regular user of oil, I like the dryness for now. And I do not get any itching whatsoever, I leave 1% nizoral for roughly 15-20 minutes on my head before washing. I first wash with baby shampoo (johnson&johnson) and then with nizoral (as I feel baby shampoo doesnt damage hair and does cleaning action, and then nizoral could be absorbed by scalp).

Now my hair shed has come down a lot but still exists. I plan to apply some cream or one those herbal oils after making sure rogaine has dried on my head, just to keep my scalp frombeing dry. Not sure what to do, I'm kind of going mad, but I guess thats part of any regimen. One good thing is my scalp feels healthy, and its been only 3 days since I started using rogaine/nizoral, so I think I owe something to those herbal oils. I have been using themfor a long time, but regularly using them (3/4 times a week) only for past 6 months (when I noticed hhuge shed).

Thanks in advance for help everyone. I'm easily able to see the power of internet and also how much ppl empathise and are willing to help others.

 

[immortaltime]

Re: Does male pattern baldness start with or cause rapid hair loss?

Its been a year nearly. I have not followed my regimen properly. For one year, I have not completed even 1 bottle of tricomin or 1 bottle of revivogen. I did complete 5 small bottles of rogaine. So, no regimen pattern. My hair loss seems to be terrible sometimes, I just cannot do anything to stop it but sometimes hair seems to grow naturally. Sometimes it looks like a hopeless case, but sometimes it looks like I'm growing considerable amount of hair and things look optimistic. For the past few weeks, for some reason, my hair falls out everywhere. I'm even scared to touch my hair, but then I've almost gotten used to all these. The final result seems to be that my condition is almost same as in the pictures.

I have not taken pictures either, I have only myself to blame. I have gone through some stressful situations at work and life, that hit my hair condition for a good amount of time. I have also found out that a lot of my friends who live in the same area as I do, have huge problems with hair loss as well. They were interested to hear my regimen when I said I tried doing something to stop my hair loss. Finally, it all seems to be in the water I use. I came to this conclusion because I just moved from a different city to my current city (and so did a few of my friends), and all of us are having hair loss. When I have someone visiting me (or if my friends have visitors), they complain that they lose enormous amount of hair here but not in their place. I do see kind of salt sediments in the shower curtains (and I'm the only person using my bathroom and I only take bath once everyday). Finally, this gives me a little comfort as we have seemed to have tracked the problem to an extent

From now on, I plan to have a regimen to follow properly and be patient for nearly 6 months while taking pictures. I'm thinking if I should order a shower filter and use it (or) buy bath tablets/tap filter to fill the tub to take a bath. I'm still looking into it. My regimen would be:
1. Rogaine liquid + tricomin on alternate days
2. Revivogen on alternate days
3. Nizoral on alternate days
4. Revivogen on alternate days
5. Use only mild shampoo, namely baby shampoo
6. Eat as normal, sleep well, forget about hair loss for now and hope that hair will grow eventually.

The reason I'm posting it now is to document my plan (incase I get confused, I can refer to this one later). I could have documented it in my laptop but decided I'll put it out here.