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On October 20th I noticed a significant increase in hair shedding per day. I noticed it after brushing after the shower, on my clothes throughout the day, on my pillow, and in the sink. It seemed as if every time I ran my fingers through my hair I could pull out a strand or 2 no matter what point in the day or how much i did it. By early November I was up to about 100-150 hairs shed per day on average. My normal shedding was definitely not this high prior to this. On November 9th, I got my blood tested. My iron, zinc, and vitamin D was crucially low. Ferritin was at 30. Vitamin D was 11. Zinc was 13 I think. I began supplementing immediately and also increased my anxiety pill dosage to 15mg/day to lessen anxiety on November 5th.
The shedding stayed persistent throughout November, but ceased to be above 100/day around early December.
On December 11th I traveled to Madison for a thorough consultation with a hair-aesthetic surgeon/hair loss specialist. She took a microscope to my head as well as conducted a thorough examination and saw absolutely nothing that was concerning her at that time. She said I had plenty of follicular units, all of which had strong 3-5 hairs growing out of them. She said my scalp looked very healthy and clean, and no inflammation was present. She said I likely had dietary deficiency shedding that would get better in time. I was only losing about 75 hairs per day at this time.
I went home, and the hair shedding remained at 60-70 hairs per day however I began to notice short tiny hairs being shed in my hair piles each morning and throughout the day. They all had white bulbs at the end. This caused immense anxiety as I self diagnosed with androgenetic alopecia or Chronic telogen effluvium because I thought you should never shed short hairs unless you have Androgenetic Alopecia or CTE. I learned also that sometimes it's just the disrupted hairs that were in anagen phase during the initial trigger that are cycling out throughout a Telogen Effluvium bout and as the hair cycle corrects itself sometimes it pushes out new growing hairs to insert a new strong one that will take hold and stay there. All of these are possibilities but my mind ruminated on the worse case scenario. I also learned that sometimes iron def- can cause truncated growth until ferritin gets corrected.
It is now almost March 1st, and I am shedding roughly 40-50 hairs per day on average. However, some are still indeed mixed lengths- short 3cm or 2 inch long hairs with white bulbs at the end still. I am noticing that the place I am shedding most is around my bitemporal area and forehead. Whenever I try to pull my side hairs out to compliment a bun or ponytail, as I am grabbing them and bringing them to frame my face one or two always comes out in my hand very easily. It is not like this anywhere else on my scalp. My part has not changed since November and still remains at normal width.
I am supplementing daily with Iron and vitamin D and also taking a hair multivitamin. I use scalp benefits aveda shampoo and hair growth support shampoo as well as a topical serum for growth from a trichology clinic.
As for now, I am hoping it was just a bout of Telogen Effluvium that is normalizing out, however, my mind still jumps to worry about it being Androgenetic Alopecia or chronic telogen effluvium with a persisting trigger. I have gotten my thyroid levels, iron, zinc, ferritin, and male androgens all checked out in the past two weeks to which all are normal/improving.
Anyone have any reassurance or insight as to why short hairs might be shed? Can short hairs be shed with Telogen Effluvium recovery sometimes? I am going crazy psychologically trying to figure out what is going on.
The shedding stayed persistent throughout November, but ceased to be above 100/day around early December.
On December 11th I traveled to Madison for a thorough consultation with a hair-aesthetic surgeon/hair loss specialist. She took a microscope to my head as well as conducted a thorough examination and saw absolutely nothing that was concerning her at that time. She said I had plenty of follicular units, all of which had strong 3-5 hairs growing out of them. She said my scalp looked very healthy and clean, and no inflammation was present. She said I likely had dietary deficiency shedding that would get better in time. I was only losing about 75 hairs per day at this time.
I went home, and the hair shedding remained at 60-70 hairs per day however I began to notice short tiny hairs being shed in my hair piles each morning and throughout the day. They all had white bulbs at the end. This caused immense anxiety as I self diagnosed with androgenetic alopecia or Chronic telogen effluvium because I thought you should never shed short hairs unless you have Androgenetic Alopecia or CTE. I learned also that sometimes it's just the disrupted hairs that were in anagen phase during the initial trigger that are cycling out throughout a Telogen Effluvium bout and as the hair cycle corrects itself sometimes it pushes out new growing hairs to insert a new strong one that will take hold and stay there. All of these are possibilities but my mind ruminated on the worse case scenario. I also learned that sometimes iron def- can cause truncated growth until ferritin gets corrected.
It is now almost March 1st, and I am shedding roughly 40-50 hairs per day on average. However, some are still indeed mixed lengths- short 3cm or 2 inch long hairs with white bulbs at the end still. I am noticing that the place I am shedding most is around my bitemporal area and forehead. Whenever I try to pull my side hairs out to compliment a bun or ponytail, as I am grabbing them and bringing them to frame my face one or two always comes out in my hand very easily. It is not like this anywhere else on my scalp. My part has not changed since November and still remains at normal width.
I am supplementing daily with Iron and vitamin D and also taking a hair multivitamin. I use scalp benefits aveda shampoo and hair growth support shampoo as well as a topical serum for growth from a trichology clinic.
As for now, I am hoping it was just a bout of Telogen Effluvium that is normalizing out, however, my mind still jumps to worry about it being Androgenetic Alopecia or chronic telogen effluvium with a persisting trigger. I have gotten my thyroid levels, iron, zinc, ferritin, and male androgens all checked out in the past two weeks to which all are normal/improving.
Anyone have any reassurance or insight as to why short hairs might be shed? Can short hairs be shed with Telogen Effluvium recovery sometimes? I am going crazy psychologically trying to figure out what is going on.