easily calling it "shedding"

[jimmystanley]

i just think that when u are noticing your hair continuing to fall out... it is not what HairLossTalk.com calls "shedding". I think that a lot of times us guys are just continuing to loose hair from male pattern baldness and not because of medication sheds. I know that it makes u feel better to read all about shedding so that you can relax and go along with their theory.... but sometimes i just think we easily call it shedding. anyone agree? just a thought.

 

[Buffboy]

I have thought the same thing.

 

[Brasileirao]

i just think that when u are noticing your hair continuing to fall out... it is not what HairLossTalk.com calls "shedding". I think that a lot of times us guys are just continuing to loose hair from male pattern baldness and not because of medication sheds. I know that it makes u feel better to read all about shedding so that you can relax and go along with their theory.... but sometimes i just think we easily call it shedding. anyone agree? just a thought.

Shedding is a natural progress whether you have male pattern baldness or not. About 90 percent of a person's scalp hair is continually growing, a phase that lasts between two and six years. Ten percent of the scalp hair is in a resting phase that lasts between two and three months. At the end of its resting stage, the hair goes through a shedding phase. Shedding 50 to 150 hairs a day is considered normal. When a hair is shed, it is replaced by a new hair from the same follicle located just beneath the skin surface.

Having said all that, its not about how much you shed, but about how your hair grows back. People with male pattern baldness have hairs shed but grow thinner and thinner.

Now when you start using a product like Rogaine or Propecia you stimulate the hair follicle to start producing hair. What often happens is that many hair follicles that are in the Telogen phase then go into the growth phase.

When the hair follicle starts growing a new hair it has to first get rid of the old hair, which is still attached to the hair follicle. When this happens to many hair follicles at the same time you see a lot of hair falling out which is what causes shedding. So instead of these hairs falling out gradually at different times, they all fall out together giving you the impression that you are losing more hair.

The reality is that this hair had stopped growing and was due to fall out anyway. So shedding is a positive sign and means that you are responding well to treatment. In fact its ironic that people who respond the best to treatments often lose the most hair in the beginning. This often leads to people going off their treatment program when they should stay on it.

So the bottom line is, shedding isnt a bad thing and most of the time is a sign of good things to come.

Tony

On a side note, when you start a regimen and you begin shedding more then normal at let say month 2 but then it tappers off. It is expected, in my opinion, that the execise shedding will return around month 6 and then month 10 and so on due to the resting phase. This is why I believe we go through so many ups and downs.

 

[NorwoodClimber]

But could it be that some of us are not responding to our treatments and the "shedding" hair is really just the continuation of male pattern baldness?

 

[Brasileirao]

But could it be that some of us are not responding to our treatments and the "shedding" hair is really just the continuation of male pattern baldness?

Good point....

That could be the case. Whether you are on a treatment or not you will shed. I guess it goes back to being patient and letting time take its course. Give any regimen at least a year and evaluate your results. If things are much worse then yes, you are not responding to a certain degree. But do understand that its very hard to say a treatment isnt working.

Here is my case:

Jan 04 to Jan 05: Propecia for a year lost density and a bit of hairline.

Now, the same person...

Jan 04 to Jan 05: no treatment, bald spot, horse shoe pattern and very diffused.

Treatments may not cause miracles, they simply may slow things down.

How long have you been on your regimen?

Tony

 

[worried]

A bit confused here...

A hair cycle, growth to shed, of a single hair is 3 months, right? Thats why some people get a shed at month 3 i thought.

So what is this about hair growth being a cycle that lasts 2 to 6 years?

 

[Brasileirao]

A bit confused here...

A hair cycle, growth to shed, of a single hair is 3 months, right? Thats why some people get a shed at month 3 i thought.

So what is this about hair growth being a cycle that lasts 2 to 6 years?

Not sure if this will help...


Anagen Phase: The anagen phase is the "growing" phase of a hair follicle. It begins with a miniaturized hair follicle that may or may not have recently shed the hair it was growing during the previous growth cycle. At the beginning of the anagen phase, the hair follicle starts to grow back to full size and extend deeper into the skin. A new hair bulb is formed at the base of the follicle, and inside the hair bulb specialized dermal papilla cells begin to grow a new hair shaft. If the old hair has not been shed already, the new growing hair helps "push" the old hair out of the follicle. As the new hair grows out from the base of the follicle, it extends beyond the surface of the skin and appears as straight or curly, and with a color that can be blonde or brown or red or gray. Scalp hairs grow about 1/2 inch per month during the anagen phase, for a period of time typically ranging from 2-6 years. This is a rapid rate of cellular growth, compared to most other tissues in the body.



While many fur-bearing animals have hair follicles with synchronized growth and shedding phases, in humans the growth phase of hair follicles are not normally synchronized. This means that the hair follicles on people's scalps are in different stages of growth, regression, or rest at any given time. But because the anagen (growth) phase lasts much longer than the other phases, the vast majority of hair follicles on people are in some part of the growth phase, while only a small percentage are in the catagen (regression) or telogen (rest) phase. Growing hairs are not easily shed; however hair follicles in the catagen or telogen phase shed their hairs easily.

On average, young people with a full head of dark-colored hair have about 100,000 hair follicles on their scalp. Redheads often have slightly more than 100,000 scalp hair follicles, while blondes typically have fewer hair follicles. On average, about 50-100 hair follicles end the anagen phase each day, which is when the follicle begins to loosen its "grip" on the hair shaft, and the hair may be shed. Therefore shedding 50-100 hairs on any particular day is perfectly normal. Of course, about 50-100 hair follicles also re-enter the anagen phase each day, and begin growing new hairs as well, but this is less noticeable.



Tony

 

[jason566]

I been on propecia for 3 weeks every other day of .5mg ..and my frontal hairs look thinner than it did 3 weeks ago although i seem to be shedding the same as i did befroe starting..so question..can u shed or thin so soon on propecia?..or it usually after 2 or 3 months of use?

 

[jason566]

I been on propecia for 3 weeks every other day of .5mg ..and my frontal hairs look thinner than it did 3 weeks ago although i seem to be shedding the same as i did befroe starting..so question..can u shed or thin so soon on propecia?..or it usually after 2 or 3 months of use?

 

[The Gardener]

Brasileiro Tony is right on the mark, as good and accurate of information as you will get anywhere.

I have a slight disagreement with one thing he said. Well, not really a disagreement, but a different nuance on the topic of shed syncronization.

Although humans do not shed hairs in a seasonal synchronized fashion like most furry mammals do, I would not say that humans shed their hairs evenly throughout the year. Human hair does have a tendency to have 'shed' events where for a few months hair will shed at an above average rate... and then go through periods where the hair will shed at a lower than average rate. Who knows what triggers this... my hairstylist is convinced that there is a seasonal aspect to it, but it is probably far more complicated than that.

 

[Guest]

I think it's the case that you will continue to shed if you have male pattern baldness or not. it's just that the treatments induce a bigger shed than normal.

 

[Troymaclure]

i just think that when u are noticing your hair continuing to fall out... it is not what HairLossTalk.com calls "shedding". I think that a lot of times us guys are just continuing to loose hair from male pattern baldness and not because of medication sheds. I know that it makes u feel better to read all about shedding so that you can relax and go along with their theory.... but sometimes i just think we easily call it shedding. anyone agree? just a thought.

Just depends when it is...within the first few months of any significant new treatment then i believe you can genuinely call it shedding, like after starting minoxidil or finasteride, where your hair will genuinely be 'shocked' into new cyclical patterns and at first things will appear worse before they get better. After that initial 3 - 6 months then i think if you experience significant losses of hair then it's probably more a case of something not working....after the initial 'shed' you should experience a slow improvement above baseline and then see a kind of equilibrium in hair status (through various cycles) over as long a period of time as the products are working for you.

In short, if you start to experience a 'shed' after say 2 years on minoxidil or propecia, then it's probably not a shed at all. :-x

 

[phantom2x]

I been on propecia for 3 weeks every other day of .5mg ..and my frontal hairs look thinner than it did 3 weeks ago although i seem to be shedding the same as i did befroe starting..so question..can u shed or thin so soon on propecia?..or it usually after 2 or 3 months of use?

no you can not shed that fast and you have to wait up to 3 months to see if it is working.since your shedding is same as before and there is no sign of increase in shedding so it means the frontal hair line is not thinner it is just your mind. if you got photos just compare.

relax

 

[jimmystanley]

what jason 566 wrote is exactly what i'm talking about. he is probably just loosing hair from male pattern baldness...but he read something about "shedding from treatments" and is now calling it that. Guys do it all through out too. We're not supposed to count hairs...but maybe one day 9 months down the road we pay attention to how much we have lost and are now calling it a shed...when in reality they have been loosing that much the whole time. But....it's okay...it's only a shed and sheds are "normal".

 

[Brasileirao]

what jason 566 wrote is exactly what i'm talking about. he is probably just loosing hair from male pattern baldness...but he read something about "shedding from treatments" and is now calling it that. Guys do it all through out too. We're not supposed to count hairs...but maybe one day 9 months down the road we pay attention to how much we have lost and are now calling it a shed...when in reality they have been loosing that much the whole time. But....it's okay...it's only a shed and sheds are "normal".

Eggzactly!

We shed everyday, it may not be the same amount as Garnder wrote, but we shed. People have this misconception that we shouldnt be lossing any hair at all and that a sign the treatment is working is to have NO hairs fall out. NOT TRUE! Whether you have male pattern baldness or not you will shed hairs. The only difference is that with male pattern baldness the same hair that would normally be in anagen phase for 2 to 6 years goes into resting phase much faster and then grows thinner and less pigmented.

 

[The Gardener]

There is NO distinction between 'shedding' and 'loosing hair from male pattern baldness'. Both involve shedding.

Here is how it works.. lets consider 2 people. Person A has 100 hairs, and has male pattern baldness.

Person Z has 100 hairs, but does not have male pattern baldness.

Both people go through a shed, and both lose 10 hairs from shedding. Now, BOTH of them have 90 hairs.

Person A, who has male pattern baldness, will regrow those 10 hairs, but they will grow in a bit smaller and a bit more thin than the previous hairs.

Person Z, who does not have male pattern baldness, will also regrow the 10 hairs.. but these hairs will be the same size and thickness of the shed hairs.

Over several shed cycles, and yes, both male pattern baldness and non male pattern baldness people shed and shed at the SAME RATE, the male pattern baldness person's hairs will gradually get smaller and more thin, to the point where they become almost invisible 'vellous hairs'.

So, trying to determine if you have male pattern baldness by looking at how many hairs you have shed is meaningless. The rate and number of shed hairs will tell you nothing about whether you have male pattern baldness or not because looking at a shed hair will not tell you how big the replacement hair is going to be.

 

[Brasileirao]

There is NO distinction between 'shedding' and 'loosing hair from male pattern baldness'. Both involve shedding.

Here is how it works.. lets consider 2 people. Person A has 100 hairs, and has male pattern baldness.

Person Z has 100 hairs, but does not have male pattern baldness.

Both people go through a shed, and both lose 10 hairs from shedding. Now, BOTH of them have 90 hairs.

Person A, who has male pattern baldness, will regrow those 10 hairs, but they will grow in a bit smaller and a bit more thin than the previous hairs.

Person Z, who does not have male pattern baldness, will also regrow the 10 hairs.. but these hairs will be the same size and thickness of the shed hairs.

Over several shed cycles, and yes, both male pattern baldness and non male pattern baldness people shed and shed at the SAME RATE, the male pattern baldness person's hairs will gradually get smaller and more thin, to the point where they become almost invisible 'vellous hairs'.

So, trying to determine if you have male pattern baldness by looking at how many hairs you have shed is meaningless. The rate and number of shed hairs will tell you nothing about whether you have male pattern baldness or not because looking at a shed hair will not tell you how big the replacement hair is going to be.

EGGZACLYYYY!!!

This is what Ive been trying to say the whole time.

 

[Old Baldy]

Guys, I always thought those of us with male pattern baldness had shorter anagen phases than non-male pattern baldness people?

http://www.sma.org/smj2000/julysmj00/ho ... n%20phase'

 

[Brasileirao]

The only difference is that with male pattern baldness the same hair that would normally be in anagen phase for 2 to 6 years goes into resting phase much faster and then grows thinner and less pigmented.

i.e. shorter anagen phase....

 

[Old Baldy]

Duh, didn't catch that.