Sharing my story with the hopes of helping someone else. Hair loss can very depressing! I've always told myself once I've figured out what was causing my hair loss I would come back and share my story. I've struggled with hair loss for the past 2 years or that's when I started noticing it. Luckily I had very thick hair and could afford to lose some. I first noticed my temples were losing hair. I wasn't to sure at the time but when straightening my hair one day I noticed I looked a little bald there. Didn't think much of it and just left it alone. Well then it I start ed getting a receding hair line and noticed when I straightened my hair alot of hair was in the sink. I automatically thought it was my birth control and quit mid cycle. Bad idea. My hair started falling out even more! Made an appointment with the dermatologist and told him about the hair loss how I thought my be contributed to it. He put me back on it to save what little I could and basically told me to take biotin and pick up some rogaine for women. I was in tears when I left I couldn't accept the fact I was losing my hair at the of 24 and this dermatologist just didn't care. I also didn't have insurance and payed out of pocket. Fast forward a couple months. My hair is still shedding horribly. I decided to get a second opinion from my doctor, again no insurance. He checked my scalp lightly and said give it time it will grow back. He thought it was tellogen effluvium. He told me me about a patient of his that had the same problem and waisted money on all these tests and by the time she got results her hair had started growing back. I was stressed out I'll admit, my by had just joined the military so it was alot getting use to. I've always been tough headed or however you might say it but since my hairloss started I was very very tender headed which was wierd I thought. It even hurt to brush my hair or to keep my hair in a ponytail. I would get these burning sensation throughout my scalp and for awhile when I went to sleep I had to wear my hair down cause the ponytail would hurt badly. I searched the Internet for hours everyday I was determined to cure my hairloss and figure out what was wrong with me. I did try the rogaine for about 2 weeks consistently but I noticed my hair was falling in places I didn't have before. I stopped I couldn't picture myself doing this for the rest of my life. Fast forward 6 to 8 months still hair loss. My hair is very very thin I can see my scalp and it is getting harder to hide. I needed to do something . Next I was gonna start eliminating possible causes of my hair loss. First things first thyroid. Called my doctor to see how much this type of blood work would cost and it was a good $ 150 not including the doctors visit. I didn't have this kinda money! I felt a bit discouraged for a couple weeks then it hit me my sister had gotten sick recently and said she seen a doctor based on her income. Made an appointment for the hairloss and also for extreme fatigue. It was a community health center but they also had a lab luckily! He tested my thyroid and it came back normal. He also tested my iron for the fatigue but this could also be the cause of hairloss. My iron came back a bit low I wanna say it was 114? Not sure he was a bit irritated that i wanted the numbers lol but I needed to know I was gonna get to the bottom of this hair loss. He pretty much said there was nothing he could do its just something that happens. I was like not at the age of 25. I was in tears by then and wanted a blood test of my hormones to eliminate that possibility. I set an appt which I have tomorrow. He told me to take iron over counter which I have been the past month fatigue is gone . I've noticed my temples starting to fill in a tiny bit but hair is still shedding. In between these past 2 years I had gotten a small bump here and there which at the time I figured was from pulling my hair tightly. Didn't think much of it. Shortly after starting the iron I asked my sister to check my scalp. Next I needed to eliminate the scalp infection possibility and scalp ringworm. She checked it and to hers and my surprise there was tiny black specks where either my hair was growing back or breaking off. She couldn't tell and obviously neither could I. She did find a tiny red bump in my scalp so then I start googling the black dots and my symptoms are leaning towards scalp ringworm. I make an appointment and by this time I know this doctor is thinking I'm crazy but he has no idea what it feels like to be losing your hair at an early age. First thing he says is your still losing hair? I mentioned the sore on my scalp he wanted to take a look but he didn't look very much. I had already read up on what need to be prescribed to get rid of scalp ringworm so I wasn't leaving his office until I got that lol. I could do without the shampoo cause I was already using 1% Nizoral but to rid you of the ringworm you needed oral medication. He didn't like the idea of me telling him that when he only wanted to prescibe the shampoo but again I wasn't leaving without the oral medication. He prescibed the antifungal pills. I've been on them for a week so far but the shedding has slowed tremendously! My scalp is not longer tender. I can actually brush my hair and my hair is looking healthier! The hair loss was causing it to be dry and brittle. Fingers crossed that i have found the cause of my hair loss! I have no idea how I managed to get a scalp ringworm but I did foster a puppy and nurse him to health around the time all this occurred. The mama dog was mangy and so was the pup not sure if this is where I picked it up but that's what I'm guessing. Hope my story helps someone else struggling with the same problem! Xoxox
Finally progress!!
- Thread starter Girlygirl
- Start date
Thanks for posting - that is one thing I haven't checked for. My story sounds similar to this. I haven't had any sort of extreme scalp pain but I do get tender spots where I think, "How can my hair be hurting?" I also had dry, weird patches on my scalp off and on that I always attributed to dandruff of SD (which it still might be). Anyway, thanks for posting, I think I will just have my Dr. prescribe the antifungal and see what happens. THANKS - I'm happy to have one more thing to try because I'm like you - I feel like I've tried testing EVERYTHING.
