Hi guys, so I'm 21 years old and have been experiencing hair loss for about a year and a half. I would probabaly say I have lost 50% of my hair on the top with minimal loss on the sides. I went to a dermo when I was 19 and he said it was probably due to my medication I am on for Crohn's disease due to it only being on the right side of my hairline. Right now I'm getting huge amount of hair loss on my head along with bad recession on the right side of my hairline but only small recession on my left side. My dermatologist took a scalp biopsy which diagnosed me with diffuse alopecia areata. I'm unconvinced, is this just male pattern baldness I am suffering? Could it be both AA and male pattern baldness? The only reason being that the hair loss has been insanely fast. I have used rogaine on hairline with no success but have used a topical steroid application prescribed by my dermo for the last week. I'm just looking for some advice, should I just try and give propecia a go? I'm just worried in case it has a bad effect along with my current medications for Crohn's disease. Thanks in advance.
Diagnosed With Diffuse Aa Still Think It's male pattern baldness
- Thread starter Adam Khan
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i was misdiagnosed as diffuse AA..
i had a second biopsy and went to an Areata specialist and i do in deed have Androgenic not Areata.
My hair loss has been super slow.
How fast is your hair loss?
How many sections of your scalp were biopsied? how many samples did they take?
@FootyStar knows a lot about both types.
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You said that you have lost lots of hair on top of your head and not much on the sides which does sound a lot like aggressive androgenetic alopecia / male pattern baldness to me. I have also heard of cases where male pattern baldness also results in some thinning at the sides and back since some DHT-sensitive follicles can sit there too - I have personally seen this happen to my father. It is also certainly possible to have both alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia at the same time.
I would definitely look into getting a second opinion from another dermatologist on your hair loss ASAP to reconfirm which one you actually have, since the methods of treatment differ between alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia. Also, try and persist with the Rogaine as it has been proven to help with hair loss (for both Androgenetic Alopecia and areata).
Regarding Propecia, you should probably hold off on it for now until you are more certain about which type of alopecia you have and can discuss with a derm it's effect on your other medication (plus it is only used for Androgenetic Alopecia and not alopecia areata since it lowers DHT levels in your body and doesn't affect the immune system).
My hair loss is pretty fast, it was only the one biopsy they took and he's out me on the steroid cream
Irs
It's hard to tell how bad the sides are since I always have them at like a gauge 1 but whenever I run my hand through the sides in the shower I get around 6-10 tiny hairs. Probably about the same on the top but it's just more apparent due to it being a lot longer. I've bought some generic finasteride I'll hold off on it for now. I'm currently on a strong steroid scalp applicant that my dermo put me on, should I use rogaine in conjunction with the applicant or wait till my trial with the steroid applicant finishes?
It's hard to tell how bad the sides are since I always have them at like a gauge 1 but whenever I run my hand through the sides in the shower I get around 6-10 tiny hairs. Probably about the same on the top but it's just more apparent due to it being a lot longer. I've bought some generic finasteride I'll hold off on it for now. I'm currently on a strong steroid scalp applicant that my dermo put me on, should I use rogaine in conjunction with the applicant or wait till my trial with the steroid applicant finishes?
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I think you should ask your dermatologist if you are able to apply both to boost hair growth, since there might be a risk that the two will interfere with each other.
What steroid were you prescribed?
I'm not at home at the moment, but I think it's Dermovate for 4 weeks then betnovate for 4-6 weeks after that. I'll double check when I get home, I'm also experiencing hair loss on my eyebrows aswell is this related at all? I can pull like 4-5 chest hairs also but there's no way to tell if that started in conjunction with the other hair loss or if it's just normal for me as I'd have never had noticed it. I'm also going to get more blood work check for vitamin deficiency as Crohns Disease can be pretty nasty.
Another thing is im in the UK and a dermatologist for me seems to be really hard to get a hold of. I had to wait 4 months just for this appointment and then another month for the biopsy to be done. I have a clinic appointment with him in April but at this rate I'll have lost another huge portion of my hair by then.
One of the main questions I have is can areata cause a receding hairline at all? If not then it's easy to say I at last have male pattern baldness but maybe even alongside areata. I'll upload a few pictures for yous tomorrow afternoon after my haircut.
Thanks for the replies so far, can seem like your dealing with this alone since he dermos hear are so hard to get ahold of.
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If you are experiencing loss / weakening of hair on your eyebrows and chest hair then it it's starting to sound more like areata in that case (since it can affect hairs anywhere on the body). A receding hairline, on the other hand, is definitely a symptom of male pattern baldness and it is possible to have both at the same time. I highly suspect it may be the case for me, since all the men in my family were NW7 by 30, but it's hard to tell when I have universalis. I'm probably rocking an NW7 right now without knowing it!
I know what you mean regarding having a hard time booking an appointment with dermatologists. I'm in Australia and we have the same issue - four to six months' wait. We often have to do a lot of our own research in between dermo appointments and sometimes have to alert them to any breakthroughs in treatments for our condition.
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wow, that is awful!
what do you do when its urgent like areata hair loss is urgent goes so quickly for some.
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Unfortunately there's not much we can do to speed up appointments here in my experience - first come, first serve basically.
From what I was told, the only way appointments can be brought forward is either if the condition is immediately life-threatening (like skin cancer), or you can ask them to go on a waiting list in which they will slot you in if any earlier appointments free up.
I think it's due to a combination of Australia having a shortage of dermatologists and our country possessing a very high rate of skin cancer (one of the highest in the world I think).