Diffus Thinning or Telogen Effluvium? 19

[collegedude19]

Thanks for clicking on my post since this is my first one ever. To start things off I'm 19 years old and I first noticed my hair becoming different when I was a senior in high school. I have a auto inflammatory disease called Ulcerative Colitis and for those who don't know what that is it's like Chrons. Anyways, last year i got tired of worrying about it and I saw a dermatologist and she told me to start rogaine (even tho she barley looked at me). But I had a severe shed when I started and it changed my hair texture I think and possibly made my hair loss worse. I believe I may have chronic telogen effluvium because 6 months ago my hair was looking good and around september a huge shed started. It was right around when I started college again and some stressful events happened and now my hair is looking worse then ever and I'm really depressed. I buzzed my hair with no guard so I was pretty much bald because I couldn't even look at my self any more and now it looks like I have the thinnest scalp hair. I also have a weird thin shinny patch on the middle of my scalp. I also stopped laser hair treatments a little before i noticed the shedding again and so far my hair hasn't gotten any better. Please respond if you've heard of anything like this or think i have telogen effluvium or are am just have male pattern baldness. Ill attach a picture from like 7 months ago from where my hair looked decent and where it is now. The picture where my hair looks darker is when i wasnt shedding. Where I apply rogaine the hair is lighter its weird.

 

[rerun]

Telogen effluvium is usually caused by some kind of trigger or shock to the body such as emotional trauma (i.e. death of relative), major surgery, or crash dieting and extreme weight loss.

Did you experience any kind of shock to the body 3-4 months before you first noticed major shedding?

 

[collegedude19]

yeah i moved out of my parents into my first apartment, my grandma died, and i went back to college all within 1 month and a half before the shedding

 

[rerun]

Hmmm. It could possibly be Telogen Effluvium, although the way it's thinning is unusual (the thinning patch in the middle of your head). I don't know if the auto inflammatory disease is worsening the problem or changing the way the hair falls/thins (I don't think Telogen Effluvium usually sheds like that).

 

[collegedude19]

maybe it could be that alopecia where there are circluar patches of hair loss?

 

[rerun]

Alopecia areata? Maybe. Are you also thinning more on one side of your hairline (left) than the other or is just the lighting in the pics?

 

[collegedude19]

yeah theres more thinning on one side i think, and on the sides of my head like above my hears it looks thinner and on the sides next to your eyes its thinner, pretty much every place ive applied rogaine. See my thinking is that since rogaine synchronizes hairs together and I could possibly have Telogen Effluvium that that made them all fall out at the same time where Ive applied rogaine?

 

[rerun]

Yeah, that's possible that it's directly related to where you applied Rogaine.

For what it's worth, there's a guy who posts in one of the dermarolling threads who has similar hairloss (not from the same cause) and has seen substantial regrowth by using a dermaroller in combination with Minoxidil. It's something you might want to look into if the regrowth doesn't occur within the next few months.