hair loss...male pattern baldness, alopecia?

[rc01]

A year ago I started to lose hair in my crown area. my scalp became infected and it started to hurt badly. I was prescribed Ketoconazole orally two pills once a week for a few weeks

PICS OF LAST YEAR:

http://img191.imageshack.us/g/photo483.jpg


since then (last year) it was healed in those areas, and the bald spots filled up...i'm afraid it's going to come back again..

Then a few months ago I noticed that the front of my head (temple) area was starting to thin terribly.

PICS FROM TWO WEEKS AGO:

http://img163.imageshack.us/g/49441994.gif/

I began to panic and went over to the dermatologist. He prescribed Ketoconazole a few more times only to notice that it had done nothing. I went back and he said there was NO fungus on my scalp, and that it looked fine...I BEG to differ because my scalp often itches and is in some pain, if i run my hands over my scalp it feels like my scalp is bruised and is in pain when i press or run my fingers through it...I am taking biotin daily and started using nioxin shampoo. I have a few questions... 1- will the nioxin make me lose more hair before it starts to work? 2- what could this possibly be? It is starting to burn all over my head again, and is very itchy..is this related to male pattern baldness? what could it possibly be, alopecia? I'm about to find another dermatologist before it gets worse..it seems to get worse week by week and is progressing fast. I'm just curious why the dermatologist said my scalp is not infected yet I still feel inflammation and my scalp becomes irritated...I looked into rogaine and finpecia..anyone have any suggestions? this has been going on for so long..

I just buzzed my head again...here are some pics:

http://img121.imageshack.us/g/28350836.jpg/



thanks for the help.. it's greatly appreciated

PLEASE take a look at the pictures and see what is going on..I'm desperate.

 

[FCÂ]

When your hair falls out, are large white bulbs attached at the end of hair?

 

[rc01]

yes. kind of looks like dandruff. can't say I know what they look like now because my head is buzzed and its hard to see when short hair falls out

 

[rc01]

let me rephrase that now that I think, it's about 50/50 it's hard to explain, sometimes there are white bulbs sometimes there are not.

 

[FCÂ]

Personally I would guess you have male pattern baldness as well as possibly some other condition.

The reason I asked about the white bulbs is that happened to me when I had hair loss.

At that time I went on Propecia and used ketoconazole shampoo. My hair loss stopped and I regrew hair. Now when hairs fall out (which happens much less) they do not have those white bulbs which looked like hardened oil. (I'm assuming that was sebum.) My head used to be itchy back then, I no longer have that problem.

I no longer use Propecia but still use a shampoo with ketoconazole in it.

My best advice would be to use a shampoo without SLS (which is an irritant and unnecessary irritation sounds like the last thing you need) and has ketoconazole for a period of time, not because I think you have a fungal infection but because I think ketoconazole helps to break up and flush out the sebum which is causing problems. I say this because it strips the hair of its oilyness. (Keep in mind this is only a layman's personal theory.) Ketoconazole is also a weak androgen receptor blocker which will only help with male pattern baldness. During this time use (and then transition towards if you can) a natural regimen which is aimed towards sebum reduction, inflammation reduction, and androgen receptor blocking as well as addressing some of the other male pattern baldness hair loss cascade events like TGF-beta and superoxide.

Note that I have never really used a comprehensive natural regimen but have dabbled a bit and was encouraged. Of note is how my nose is always oily but lavender essential oil (when part of a topical) really reduced the oilyness of it, so that would be one thing I would definitely recommend for you in any natural regimen.

 

[rc01]

so should I get on the generic propecia (finpecia) and rogaine as well? i want to try to mantain my hair, get rid of the itching and grow some new hair if possible