Is this shedding?

[manexil]

Hi...I'm a 23 r old male suffering from hair loss since 2002. there is no history of baldness in my mother's side of the family. My dad is bald(so was his grandpa), but not my grandpa or my uncle...after trying several hairloss treatments for many years i ended up with minoxidil.

I've been using 2% minoxidil for the past 20+ months - used it once a day. this did stop hairloss, but i needed to regain the lost hair density on my scalp. So last november i decided to switch over to 5% minoxidil.

I clean shaved my head and started the 5% minoxidil treatment (available under the brandname Manexil 5% - manufactured by femcare pharma, India).

After two months of 5% minoxidil - one time a day, in the morning - last january on, i started applying 2% minoxidil too in the evenings(brandname morr's solution manufactured by Intas pharma, India).

Also , I've been using another medication called "Parachute Therapie Hairfall solution" available here in India, which I apply once every three days and wash it off the next morning. This medication, I beleive, is almost the same as Porcerin, cuz, this too has Saw Palmetto in it. Besides all this, I apply olive oil to my hair every day for grooming and moisturizing

My problem is that, now i'm seeing excessive hairloss in my regrown hair . I see this hairfall only when i towel dry my hair after bathing in the morning. no hairfall while combing or on the pillows.

Is this just shedding? Should I be concerned and consult my dermatologist? What if all the fallen hair does not grow back?

btw, i had changd my job last november, just as i started using the 5% minoxidil. my new job requires me to work under the hot sun wearing a helmet for maybe 2-3 hrs a day(which i avoid wearing when the safety personnel is not around :innocent: ) is my renewed hairfall due to this?

Sorry about the long post

 

[manexil]

someone please reply

what makes me worry is that, i never experienced shedding for almost 20 months during which time i was using 2% minoxidil...and now once i start 5%, i'm losing excess hair... i was planning to stop 5% minoxidil after some time and maintain my hair with just the 2 % solution...if at all 5% minoxidil does result in more hair(alongwith regrowing the ones that i've shed), will i not lose all this hair if 2% fails in maintaining the ones that 5% grew, which includes the ones that are shed and regrown?

 

[pproctor]

Hair spends two to four months in the loss phase. So any hair you see on your pillow, etc. was scheduled to fall out two to four months before.

The exception is that medical treatment shortens the length of the loss phase. This can cause a wave of loss early in treatment as loss-phase hair falls out a little earlier than it normally would. People see this both when starting treatment and when initiating a new treatment that causes more follicles to come out of dormancy.

However, much shedding is just coincidental. Similarly, hair on medical treatment can get a bit synchronized, with recurrent waves of shedding and then regrowth. Typically, the regrowing hair becomes progressively coarser with every cycle. Such cycles tend to damp out after a while.

Peter H. Proctor, PhD,MD

 

[manexil]

Thanks pproctor.

How long will this last...I've been shedding for a month already...will this last for one more month? or is it for 100 days, like i read in another post here...