Is Inflamation ALWAYS a sign of male pattern baldness??

[need_hair04]

Just wondering cause I've been goin through some crazy inflamation that I've for the most part kept under control but no balding yet... could this mean that SOON I will bald, or does itching, flaking usually always the case with male pattern baldness??

 

[silkeysmooth]

needhair, whats the deal with your hair? are you just thinnning? how old are you? I hope someone can answer your question, because I"ve had terrible inflammation since my hairloss started, and it hasnt really gotten any worse since about a year after i noticed the loss.

Did you have a derm look at your hair? Maybe he could help you out.

 

[Petchsky]

Inflammation is associated with male pattern baldness but there are other causes such as to much yeast, poor scalp hygiene, skin infections, dandruff etc etc... So it does not always mean male pattern baldness. Could even be due to the products you use on your scalp.

 

[need_hair04]

I'm 20, and my hair is pretty much the same thickness throughout my whole head with no receding anywhere. However about a year ago after starting university I noticed accesive itching and slight shedding of my hair. I've always had an oily scalp and hair which was likely the cause of this inflamation. All of this accumulated to a peak about six months ago where the ichyness, flaking, shedding, as well as red spots on my scalp (sebborea dermatitis) all throughout the top of my head... the shedding got so bad that I emmediately assumed I was balding when througout all this time my hair remained at the same thickness.

At this time I started to use Nizoral and T-gel which worked amazing for the inflamation. I also started propecia and kept with it for 4 and a half months till recently I quit assuming I dont need to take this (been 2 weeks now) and shedding is pretty much the same. However recently( for the past month and a half) I started to flare up with sebborea again which has slowed down since then using selenium sulphide 2.5% (selsun blue).

I keep hearing on this forum that if you have inflamation of the scalp that it means your immune system is fighting your follicles which is assumed to be a factor of male Pattern Baldness. To me it doesnt make all that much sense since the hairs that i do shed are very health and not thinning at all. This all just leaves me sort of scared of what is to come of this!

On the other hand I hear of people who are losing their hair and not going through any sort of inflamation! Then go figure what the hell all of this means in the end?

All I know is that sebborea creates an environment that is not suitable for hair growth in some cases and causes hair to be shed which can be grown back only if the itching and inflamation is kept under control.. BUT that is the hard part!!

 

[Petchsky]

I use to have bad inflammation before and during male pattern baldness and i managed to get rid of it by shaving my head to a grade 2 and using a scalp moisturiser. Otherwise or additionally, if you don't already, use a conditioner after shampooing which moisturisers the scalp, always a good idea if you are using Nizoral or TGel as they can dry the hair out and make it limp. If you wash your hair everyday try every other day as an experiement and eventually you will be able to get that damn itch under control.

 

[need_hair04]

Petchsky, are you saying that this inflamation that you had BEFORE your hairloss started could have been the very culprit of why you began to loose your hair? If so how long did it take for you to have noticable hairloss?

I agree with shaving your head to a grade 2 to help prevent the sebborea and stop it. For sure this works because the sides and back of my head are shaven at a grade 3 and experience no symptoms of this other than minor dandruff because the dandruff products are absorbing properly. The top of my head where the longer 2-3 inch hair starts is where the irritation starts however lately I have been able to stop the inflamation using selsun blue and nizoral.

Also, you mentioned washing hair every other day?? I thought that people that have seb derm need to wash their hair as frequently as possible??

 

[Petchsky]

Where it gets complicated is that different things work for different people. Sometimes, with some people washing everyday can dry out their scalp adding to the problem. The reason i mentioned washing your hair every other day was as an example of how you should experiment to find what is best for your scalp. Seb derm is not cured by washing everyday, but in some may help, in others make things worse.....like said, different strokes for different folks.

The inflammation i suffered early on was not related to my later bout when i was experincing male pattern baldness, but when i was losing my hair some few years later it speeded up the rate of hairloss i was suffering. So dont worry about that, it was not the culprit.

What i say to you is keep using the anti dandruff shampoos and 2/3 times a week followed by a conditioner... brush your hair properly, like women do, at least once a day, as this helps shift dead skin cells and spread any oil over the whole scalp.

Any questions or additional info let me know.

Petchsky

 

[asolof]

Inflammation is associated with male pattern baldness but there are other causes such as to much yeast, poor scalp hygiene, skin infections, dandruff etc etc... So it does not always mean male pattern baldness. Could even be due to the products you use on your scalp.

I agree but would phrase this slightly differently:

Androgenetic alopecia is NON-INFLAMMATORY.

Other conditions, some of which ARE inflammatory such as seborrhea, frequently coexist with androgenic alopecia. Any condition that causes inflammation of the scalp can by itself can cause alopecia, so that these co-existing problems should also be treated.

Androgenetic alopecia does not cause these coexisting conditions, but it is complicated by them.

I may be "splitting hairs" here, but isn't that what we do here?

 

[jikslee]

NON-inflammatory??

aosolof - are you certain that male pattern baldness is non-iflammatory?? my hair loss is always preceded with inflammation and itching intaht area, and a lot of forum users also testify to having similar experiences.
if you have any definitive infomation on this i would love to read it

 

[need_hair04]

It's not... I personally know 2 people who are balding and on propecia and never had ANY sort of scalp inflamation. This sort of thing would go with saying that Nizoral was developed ONLY for balding people because noone else experiences inflamation and sebborea.

Asolof was saying in the basic sense that the balding process does not naturally have inflamatory issues BUT in SOME cases where both are present the inflamation makes it worse and complicates things!!

 

[asolof]

need_hair04,

Right.

Many people seemed confused on this point. Yes I am sure about this based on what is known today. Perhaps future research will provide a different interpretation of how it works. Until then ...