Anyone notice this when first lossing hair?

[jktwn]

I have been loosing my hair about a year now. I"m a 34 year old male. No family history of male pattern baldness. My brother, father, fathers brothers and my grandfather all have full head of hair. Only my mothers brother loss his hair early when he was in his 20's.

I have seen thinning over the entire scalp (sides of head and nape of neck). No pattern at all.
When my hair is dry, it appears normal. However, when wet it looks as though I have only a thin layer of hair over my entire head.

I have been on Propecia for 6.5 months, made no difference in my active shed rate.

I've had my blood checked. I have normal range of test,FSH, Iron ect.. Did an ANA test. Came back negative. I did a fugal test, also negative. I went to two derms. One did a biopsy. The results are: "There is no interface reaction involving epidermis or follicular units. Free pigment is no found within follicles. there is no peribulbar lymphocytic infiltrate. A normal compliment of histologically unremarkable follicles is present. No significant organisms are found on a PASD stain with appropriate fungal controls. A few lymphocytes are present in perifollicular array. They do not invade the follicular epithelium. There is no spongiosis or other change in the follicular epithelium associated with these cells."
Which basically says....No minaturaizing of folicle no swelling ect
My derm says he sees no sign of telegon effluvium, Alopecia Aretna, or male pattern baldness. He suggest nothing further. Even says to get off propecia if I would like.

My questions to you is, what would / is causing my hair loss? My stress level is as normal as it's always been. I've very laided back, so I don't stress about a lot. Therefore, I don't believe it's stress.
Have you ever heard of anything like this?

thank you for any help,

 

[Deaner]

Age related thinning?

 

[jktwn]

thanks for your response. However, I'm sure it's not age related balding. It's been a fast shed. No one in my family has even a slight receded hair line or even a bald spot. Other than that one uncle. BTW. My age is 33 not 34...a typeo

Also, I wanted to add this.
I do often feel this tingle feeling in my entire scalp. Sometimes I feel it on the side or top or crown. It's a feeling of tingling or a skin craw feeling. Kinda like when your skin craws when you get a chill or scared. However, I only feel it on my crown. It can be anytime and it's random. Is there a relation? I never noticed or felt it before loosing my hair.

 

[Rawbbie]

We see new guys come in here all the time and ask questions like this.

Listen- if you are losing your hair, then you have male pattern baldness. It doesn't matter if your Dad doesn't have it, your brother doesn't have it, your great, great, great Grandmother doesn't have it... if you're thinning, receding, etc- then you have Male Pattern Baldness. Period.

Personally, I see it as a massive waste of time going to a doctor to figure out what's wrong- he can't "diagnose" you with male pattern baldness anyways- it's something you can see, not diagnose. There are all forms and levels of it- some guys can go bald in one year- a perfect example is a guy at my work- last year he had thick, blond hair, now he's bald on top- completely. Some people who have male pattern baldness will take ten years to bald, and others who have male pattern baldness will never go completely bald. Those who don't have male pattern baldness DO NOT GO BALD. Except for other circumstances, like illness, for example. Stress doesn't make you go bald- it can lead to temporary 'patchy' loss of hair, but it grows back. You have male pattern baldness, so accept it to start with.

Being in denial isn't going to make it grow back- what WILL make it grow back, if there's any hope- is Propecia. I wouldn't get off it just yet- stay on for at least another 6 months. It's a fact that it can take up to one year to kick in.

 

[mvpsoft]

Listen- if you are losing your hair, then you have male pattern baldness.

This is simply factually incorrect. There are other causes for hair loss. While it may be male pattern baldness in this case, and you're right that lack of it in family history doesn't rule it out completely, I wanted to point out that this poster should not assume it's male pattern baldness, since there are many causes of hair loss, and his might be the result of a less common problem.

 

[Brasileirao]

Also, go see a doctor..... a blood test always comes in handy.

 

[marsbtchsx]

he said he got a blood test

 

[jktwn]

Thanks rawbbie for your time in resposne. I would accept it as male pattern baldness However, my Doctor says it's not. I have no signs from the biopsy that shows up in people with male pattern baldness. No sigh of the folicle minaturizing, no swelling ....all typical with male pattern baldness. Thanks guys for your responses.

BTW...I think it is imortant to learn why your hair is falling out. Just like I think its important to go to the doctor when anything else is changing about your body. Just to make sure there is no "real" health concern.

wish you all well

 

[mvpsoft]

Has your doctor checked for thyroid problems? Presumably that would be done with a blood test, but that is a potential cause of sudden hair loss.

 

[Rawbbie]

No problem. I agree, what I said could be incorrect, because there are always technicalities- other reasons for losing hair are out there, but they are so, so rare. 99.999 times out of 100 it's male pattern baldness.

You might just have naturally thin hair- I've known a few guys who seem to have a light brushing of hair on their heads, but never lose it. You can clearly see into their scalps, but they aren't receding or thining any further on top.

Hopefully you're okay (most likely you are), and you just have thin hair, and won't go bald.

 

[rescue hair]

I know exactly what you mean with regard to the tingling senation, and I too never experienced it before I noticed hair loss. I would take it as a sign of male pattern baldness. However, since I started Finasteride, the sensation has subsided tremendously.

 

[viperfish]

Sounds like it could be thyroid to me. If it has happened quickly and there appears to be no pattern.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like it could be thyroid to me. If it has happened quickly and there appears to be no pattern.

Viperfish, I would check that with Rawbbie first, as he said there is no other cause for hairloss except for male pattern baldness. :wink:

 

[BadHairDecade]

Has your doctor checked for thyroid problems? Presumably that would be done with a blood test, but that is a potential cause of sudden hair loss.

It may be thyroid related. Even with blood tests it's hard to determine for sure if you have a over or under active thyroid.

 

[jktwn]

Thank you all for your time in response. I did have my Thyroid level checked. I wonder if it was a complte check as I have learned their are several levels differnt test that show different readings related to the thyrode levels that are needed in determine proper levels ( ie...T2 T3 T4 levels and how the interact). My dr. did just a general test. I'm going to scheduel another apt. with him to do it once more.

 

[jktwn]

Oh, BTW..you all may find this interesting and may help some of you in your fight. I e-mailed Dr. Lee. ( I got his name and e-mial form seeing him talked about here, I 've never met or know him). He was nice enough to respond to my eamil. My first e-mail to him was what I started this thread with. I pretty much copied and pasted the eamil I sent to him on here for you all to read. Here is his response.

It really is impossible for me to be able to make a definitive diagnosis for your 'thinning hair' from your description, including the pathology report from your scalp biopsy. Incidentally, the biopsy report is what would be expected in a normal scalp.

Your description of a generalized 'thinning' without any pattern suggests that your genes have determined that you will grow hair throughout your scalp that has a smaller than average diameter hair shaft. If I had to guess, I would say that you are Caucasian with very light colored hair. The hair on blondes have an elliptical cross section and is 'finer' than hair on brunettes. I doubt that the 'feeling of tingling or a skin craw feeling' has anything to do with the texture of your hair. I would also predict that you are not having increased shedding of hair. Your problem is not a loss in the number of hairs, but a loss in the thicker texture of hair that you had as a teenager.

You might want to consider the use of 5% Minoxidil. Minoxidil is a non-specific hair growth promoter, so it may cause the hair to be thicker. You may be able to see the difference after 4 to 6 months of use. Propecia (finasteride) is of no benefit to you. Your problem with your hair is unrelated to DHT.

Richard Lee, M.D.

I emailed him back again with the following. ( his responses are in bold)

Thank you Dr. Lee for your response. You are right, I am Caucasian and have light brown hair (dirty blond). My hair used to be so thick (thinned it out once per week, until last year when I notice the shed begin). It was also at that time I began using some hair gels/glue. Would that cause my hair to shed?

No. Gels and mousse have a cosmetic effect on the hair shaft, but they do not affect the hair follicles. I don't know why you had a shed last year, but I you may get a better idea of shedding from the article on telogen effluvium which is being sent as an attachment.

You said I maybe loosing the thick texture I once had a year or so ago, would that show on the biopsy report as a miniaturization?

No. Miniaturization means a significant decrease in the size of the anagen hair follicle. Your biopsy report doesn't indicate that change.

I do see hairs on my pillow, drain, sink as I blow dry my hair, and on my shoulders from blow drying my hair. I never noticed this before. I can see on my hair line and other parts of my head where its getting more "see through." However, I can clearly see hair follicle but w/ no hair growing out of it.

Don't forget that it is normal to shed 50 to 100 hairs per day. Your scalp biopsy does not suggest that you have a disproportionately large number of follicles in telogen, so I would not suspect that you are shedding more than the normal amounts of hair on a daily basis. In regards to bare areas of the scalp between hairs, it's normal to have follicular units separated by bare scalp. If you would look closely at any one else's scalp, you would probably see the same spacing that you are referring to as 'hair follicle but w/ no hair growing out of it'.'

I've wondered are my genes just saying to my hair. Once your done making that hair and it falls out...don't replace it at all. Does that ever happen?

Not really. You're born and you die with the same number of hair follicles on the scalp. But the follicles can and do change in size during your lifetime.

If so, would the biopsy report show that?

It could show a change in the size of the mature hair follicle, if the change were remarkable. But your biopsy report is normal, i.e. the size of your hair follicles in anagen is still within the normal range.


Would you recommend Minoxidil or the Xandrox product?

I would recommend applying 1mL of 5% Minoxidil twice/day. Since your problem is not related to DHT, there is no reason to use Xandrox. And there is no reason to continue the use of Propecia.

Richard Lee, M.D.

Thank you very much for your help. I have seen 2 derms and my primary care doctor. We've found no reason for the loss of hair or know what to do next. Your thoughts mean a lot. Thank you