I'm Scared- Please help!

[Randall_Jacobs1]

In 2001 I started noticing some mild thinning on the top portion of my head. Thankfully no dramatic hair loss took place although there were periods where it looked thinner, which would prompt me to start exploring all kinds of treatments (shampoos, scalp treatments, etc) but I never stuck with them consistently.

A month ago I started experiencing a lot of shedding and my hair is now looking thinner than ever and I am really worried. I do seem to shed more in the spring and I live in Georgia where the pollen counts get really hight, but not sure if there is a connection. I always had thick nice hair and shaving my head is just not an option now..I also do not want to take propecia and I tried saw palmetto but it upsets my stomach (as do a lot of supplements).

Just a brief family history...Both my mother and aunt are in their 60s now and are having problems with thinning hair, my maternal grandfather never had hair problems and my father had a full head of hair at 40 but he passed away..his father was bald.

Is there anything I can do? right now I am using Nisim shampoo, an herbal topical follicle stimulator w/ saw palmetto, melatonin spray and have been applying cayenne w/ olive oil to my scalp a few nights a week. Do you have any recommendations? Also whats your opinion on the laser comb- is it bogus?

I would really appreciate your feedback

thanks

 

[itsucks]

In 2001 I started noticing some mild thinning on the top portion of my head. Thankfully no dramatic hair loss took place although there were periods where it looked thinner, which would prompt me to start exploring all kinds of treatments (shampoos, scalp treatments, etc) but I never stuck with them consistently.

A month ago I started experiencing a lot of shedding and my hair is now looking thinner than ever and I am really worried. I do seem to shed more in the spring and I live in Georgia where the pollen counts get really hight, but not sure if there is a connection. I always had thick nice hair and shaving my head is just not an option now..I also do not want to take propecia and I tried saw palmetto but it upsets my stomach (as do a lot of supplements).

Just a brief family history...Both my mother and aunt are in their 60s now and are having problems with thinning hair, my maternal grandfather never had hair problems and my father had a full head of hair at 40 but he passed away..his father was bald.

Is there anything I can do? right now I am using Nisim shampoo, an herbal topical follicle stimulator w/ saw palmetto, melatonin spray and have been applying cayenne w/ olive oil to my scalp a few nights a week. Do you have any recommendations? Also whats your opinion on the laser comb- is it bogus?

I would really appreciate your feedback

thanks

Pretty much something similar happend to me. I've got on finasteride, and i'm keeping my fingers crossed. On 0.5 mg a day. I'd suggest you get on it aswell..
Good luck

 

[Randall_Jacobs1]

As I mentioned I can't take any pharmaceuticals now- any other suggestions?

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

Where abouts is this thinning taking place?

 

[Randall_Jacobs1]

Top front mostly. no recession at all, i still have a good hairline but there is thinning...kinda starting to look like the jerry seinfeld/brendan fraser hair

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

Well assuming you're not noticing any thinning on the sides or eyebrows then it very well could be tied slightly into season changes. Not everyone gets them but a decent amount have worse thinning in some seasons. This doesn't mean that it's not connected to actual balding though, it most likely is, but at the very least the thinning should slow down (read: not stop) a bit on its own in a few months.

You'll still be losing hair till then and after as well so your best bet assuming you really can't take propecia or avodart would be to actually stick with a reliable shampoo treatment. See how nizoral affects you and keep up with it for at least 3 months, hair takes time to regrow. The gains you'll see with nizoral would still most likely be quite scant compared to one of the pills.

I'm going to go ahead and ask a stupid question, cause the answer should be yes, but have you seen a doctor about this yet?

 

[Randall_Jacobs1]

Hi- Noticed you have gluten problems...celiac? I cant eat gluten either and the celiac gene runs in my family. I am not officially diagnosed but I avoid gluten like the plague...I even just stopped using hair products with wheat. I am using Nisim shampoo which does contains SLS, but the company says that it has no adverse effect on hair...do you agree? I was hoping once i stopped using hair products w/ wheat my hair would grow back but so far its not. any suggestions?

 

[Hoppi]

Hmm, yeah it's a shame that gluten wasn't the trigger for you as that's a nice easy one to fix.. I mean it's inconvenient but it's simple!

The seasonal thing is WEIRD man, so you suspect the pollen? I really don't know if there's anyway pollen could interfere with hair loss. Do you have hayfever or anything? I mean I wouldn't rule it out as it is amazing how many things can have an effect.

SLS is supposed to cause problems yeah, I don't know much about it first hand although I can say that Nizoral doesn't seem to do my scalp the world of good, I will be switching to a simpler Keto 2% solution soon coupled with a mild SLS-free shampoo.

Oh, isn't there supposed to be some connection between dairy and gluten? Isn't there something in dairy that's supposed to be similar? Apparently there is also a connection between gluten and oxalates, so that might even be something to bear in mind. This stuff is new to me though, I'm just throwing it out there as food for thought (no pun intended!) ^_^

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

No, I have non-celiac gluten sensitivity (body hasn't started attacking intestine walls yet). SLS by itself can sometimes cause irritation but it normally is a problem when it allows other substances to more easily permeate the skin increasing the irritations those products can have, I've found that if I rinse off SLS shampoo immediately after lathering I don't have a problem.

If you only just cut out wheat from your hair products (fun having to contact the manufacturer of every single product in your house huh?) your body could still be attacking your scalp. The immune response takes varying times to dissipate for different organs, how long since you stopped using the tainted shampoos?

Since you've cut wheat out of your hair care products you're probably somewhat hip to where gluten is hidden in foods and medications but are you sure you're not getting small doses from somewhere (even lip balm or hand soap can be a problem)? Also how long have you been gluten-free? For some people the damage can take months to years to start correcting itself.

The possibility also remains that you're a celiac with male pattern baldness.

Hoppi:
There are a decent amount of people who have problems with both gluten and casein but I'm not sure how significant that population is. Additionally both before and after going gluten-free the intestine and immune system of a gluten-sensitive/celiac can be altered and introduce or remove additional food intolerances. Supposedly, although this hasn't happened to me yet, during the healing process you can pick up new food intolerances you'd never noticed before.

 

[Randall_Jacobs1]

I stopped using the gluten shampoos about a month ago...im not sure if I am even susceptible to topical exposure to gluten but thought I would try eliminating it. I started experiencing thinning 2 years before I developed stomach problems which lead to my food intolerances so there may not even be a connection. I have the DQ8 gene ( maternal & paternal copy) but my blood work and biopsies were negative, however I was gluten free when i had the tests done. Only positive result i ever got was for my stool anti-gliadin but of course this does not indicate celiac. I decided to not do the challenge since i was already gluten free and didnt want to cause any more problems

My initial response to the gluten free diet was very good but then I started developing new intolerances as well as upper GI problems...its been an uphill battle and i still cant back on track but am trying. I just dont want to lose all my hair on top of everything else ive been going through

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

Celiac or not doesn't really matter when you're considering other organs in the body. If you're sensitive to gluten you're open to develop reactions all over depending on how your body responds to it. Skin problems often time set in before the digestive problems become noticeable, personally I noticed my hair was thinner than others on the sides back in high school, made getting a good haircut a pain. If you had elevated anti-gliadin then any of your systems could have been affected.

As I mentioned above it's pretty easy for people to notice the emergence of new food intolerances during the healing process. Basically before you had a MAJOR irritant in your system and it was kinda drowning out the severity of a lot of other lesser intolerances. Additionally as your body adapts it can mistakenly form temporary intolerances that can correct themselves after a while if you just back off of those substances as well for a little while, or so I've heard.

People vary in their reactions to wheat shampoos, in large part I think they are recommended to be avoided because they can potentially drip into your mouth or other mucous membranes and enter your system there. Additionally some people do experience a topical reaction which is often times accompanied by itching, inflammation and/or scalp acne or hives.

If the shedding is related to your gluten problem then its continued presence means you're getting gluten into your system from somewhere. If you're certain you're not getting it from any source, you've been clean for at least a month and your vitamin levels are on par, then most likely the shedding is related to something else.