Sorry this is long...
First of all here is a pic of my head (with wet hair)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/10024e.jpg/
I'm 29 years old now but when I was 15, I had itchy scalp and lots of dandruff and similar to what I'm going through now, I lost a lot of hair, but it ended up going away on its own and my hair came back. My memory is a bit blurry, I can't really compare the itching and hair loss to what I'm going through now. I also didn't have great hygiene back then as I didn't wash my hair as much as I should back then.
So around September 2010 I started to get itchy on the top of my scalp. It was really soon after that when I noticed my hair was thinning. Given that my hair loss coincided with the itch and also going by my experiences as a teenager I don't think this is typical male pattern baldness. But I am only shedding on the top of my head, not on the sides or back.
My hair is not falling out faster than a person with a full head of hair, it's just that since this itch appeared, it stopped growing back after it falls out and so all the baldness you see in the above pic has happened since September last year when I had no baldness at all.
With dry hair you can't really notice the baldness unless you look really close. However, I'm almost at the point when it will become noticable and I don't know if there is any end in sight.
I went to a doctor in January 2011 and they gave me a shampoo (Ketoconazole) and I went through the full bottle. I noticed during the first four days the itching mostly calmed down and my scalp almost felt normal, but for some reason it just came back and the shampoo didn't seem to have any effect after that.
I then went to the more expensive prescription they offered me which was Verdeso foam. I think I probably went through it quicker than I should have but while using it, there was a calming effect but nothing longterm and it didn't help much.
In May 2011 I decided to go to a dermatologist. When she examined me she said she couldn't see anything wrong. No dandruff or marks on my head, some pinkness but it could be my skin. She flat out dismissed my hairloss. She gave me triamcinolone which again, seemed to be working for the first 4 days but after that it had little to no effect.
I went back a month later and again she seemed really dismissive of my itchiness and hairloss. She probably thinks I'm being melodramatic or making it up. It's true that my scalp does look pretty normal. However, I often notice parts of the scalp get red when a particular area is very itchy. I'll sometimes see red bumps right where I'm getting itch. This doesn't happen all the time when an area is itchy though. Sometimes an area is really itchy but looks normal.
I tried getting rid of the anti-itch/dandruff shampoo (head and shoulders) and tried using my wifes shampoo for a while. It wasn't long before I got bad dandruff and the itching actually got worse. So I guess the stuff I am using is helping to minimize the problem, but that's just not good enough.
I wouldn't say I physically scratch my head a LOT because I know that it will make it worse. But when I can't resist I gently do it without using the finger nail. Even when it's not so bad that I have to scratch it, I mostly just have this slight itch over most of the scalp. It's rarely a pin point itch but a burning sensation over a large area.
If the itching can stop I am confident my hair will come back. I hope someone here has gone through something similar because I can't afford to keep going to doctors and dermatologists who give me things which don't help and don't really appear to understand my situation. When I try googling "itchy scalp hair loss" I don't really hear a lot that relates to my situation.
First of all here is a pic of my head (with wet hair)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/10024e.jpg/
I'm 29 years old now but when I was 15, I had itchy scalp and lots of dandruff and similar to what I'm going through now, I lost a lot of hair, but it ended up going away on its own and my hair came back. My memory is a bit blurry, I can't really compare the itching and hair loss to what I'm going through now. I also didn't have great hygiene back then as I didn't wash my hair as much as I should back then.
So around September 2010 I started to get itchy on the top of my scalp. It was really soon after that when I noticed my hair was thinning. Given that my hair loss coincided with the itch and also going by my experiences as a teenager I don't think this is typical male pattern baldness. But I am only shedding on the top of my head, not on the sides or back.
My hair is not falling out faster than a person with a full head of hair, it's just that since this itch appeared, it stopped growing back after it falls out and so all the baldness you see in the above pic has happened since September last year when I had no baldness at all.
With dry hair you can't really notice the baldness unless you look really close. However, I'm almost at the point when it will become noticable and I don't know if there is any end in sight.
I went to a doctor in January 2011 and they gave me a shampoo (Ketoconazole) and I went through the full bottle. I noticed during the first four days the itching mostly calmed down and my scalp almost felt normal, but for some reason it just came back and the shampoo didn't seem to have any effect after that.
I then went to the more expensive prescription they offered me which was Verdeso foam. I think I probably went through it quicker than I should have but while using it, there was a calming effect but nothing longterm and it didn't help much.
In May 2011 I decided to go to a dermatologist. When she examined me she said she couldn't see anything wrong. No dandruff or marks on my head, some pinkness but it could be my skin. She flat out dismissed my hairloss. She gave me triamcinolone which again, seemed to be working for the first 4 days but after that it had little to no effect.
I went back a month later and again she seemed really dismissive of my itchiness and hairloss. She probably thinks I'm being melodramatic or making it up. It's true that my scalp does look pretty normal. However, I often notice parts of the scalp get red when a particular area is very itchy. I'll sometimes see red bumps right where I'm getting itch. This doesn't happen all the time when an area is itchy though. Sometimes an area is really itchy but looks normal.
I tried getting rid of the anti-itch/dandruff shampoo (head and shoulders) and tried using my wifes shampoo for a while. It wasn't long before I got bad dandruff and the itching actually got worse. So I guess the stuff I am using is helping to minimize the problem, but that's just not good enough.
I wouldn't say I physically scratch my head a LOT because I know that it will make it worse. But when I can't resist I gently do it without using the finger nail. Even when it's not so bad that I have to scratch it, I mostly just have this slight itch over most of the scalp. It's rarely a pin point itch but a burning sensation over a large area.
If the itching can stop I am confident my hair will come back. I hope someone here has gone through something similar because I can't afford to keep going to doctors and dermatologists who give me things which don't help and don't really appear to understand my situation. When I try googling "itchy scalp hair loss" I don't really hear a lot that relates to my situation.