looking for well educated responses. fewer opinions...

[justaquestion]

when i type, i rabble, so forgive me! read on!!!!! >.<


okay... honestly. i am INCREDIBLY skeptical of online advice with such a touchy, self-esteem based topic... you know how it goes most places, people clearly suffering from such things tend to bring down the moods of others who don't know their TRUE problems. like the blind leading the blind.. I guess i cant and wont expect a full diagnosis, but! I'd rather talk to a few of you know who much about hair and hair loss before i go blow money on a dermatologist appointment. so I'm mainly looking for the brains of these forums, rather than sheer numbers in response, as most new people do. I'm new to these forums but I'm not new to forums... I've been doing A LOT of research regarding my hair loss but cant make sense of it all quite yet. I'll just cut to the chase and explain it.

I'm sure I've lost the majority of my readers within that first useless paragraph! onto my problems.

starting off with the most obvious...I am open to male pattern baldness as a potential outcome, although I'd rather it NOT be, which goes without saying. but it seems much less likely at the age of 21 with my given circumstance. baldness is NOT common in my family. the only men balding in my family are 2 of my uncles who are only in my family due to marriage of my aunts. maternal and paternal grandfathers are still full. fine hair, however is quite typical....factor 1 = i know male pattern baldness is always likely, but keep in mind of family history... moving on to my problem... so here we go! about nine months ago, my hair started thinning very slightly, so i never really cared much about it. figured it to be a malnutrition or simply being paranoid. when summer came around it got a bit worse so i was convinced i DID actually have some loss. but still no one even noticed anything about it, which is the same up until present day. but it is enough to make me quite paranoid and over cautious of my hair appearance. i have shaggy hair and my bangs meet up right with my eyebrows, so its easy mode, to cover up any problems. but thats besides the point.

They say the excuse of having a large forehead is a scape goat to hair loss, which i agree i guess... but i should have you know I've always had a huge forehead. was made fun of for it when i was younger. Anyway, when my hair is wet or sweaty the true thinness is exposed. and i DO have quite a lot less than i used to. but my hair loss is all over my head. including the dreaded horse shoe.... actually, the sides of the horse shoe area are less dense than the top of my head. temples and sides are thinnest, and the hairline sucks a bit too.. crown, vertex and back seem better than the rest. I've also had a rough couple years with love, death and the like... so, from this you would assume telogen affluvium, right? well read on.

Here is my major problem...I really haven't seen any regrowth since the first noticed thinning 9 months ago, so thats kinda killing my probability of Telogen Effluvium as an outcome. it seems like hairs from all areas of my head are falling out mechanically or otherwise... and aren't being replaced. unless regrowth is really THAT subtle in telogen affluvium, i don't think that is the problem, but i wouldn't know really. by the way, the 70% of my hair that is left from the former 100% is reasonably healthy in texture and color....idunno if that plays any factor.. So moving on, sometimes i spend the last hour or so before bed researching my problem and inspecting my hair. until about a week ago, i came into a new highly likely problem that may be causing this...

hyperthyroidism.... actually while reading up on hyperthyroidism i found that another problem Ive been highly self conscious about resides in the same problem. hyper-active sweating. at least 4 days of the week i need to keep my arms close to my body to cover the wetness under my arms. sucks. anyhow. reading on even MORE about hyperthyroidism i found that other symptoms include many MORE things that are highly whack in my life, such as my freakish metabolism, shaky hands, depression and horrific sleep hours ALSO reside in hyperthyroidism symptoms. (usually sleep around 5AM+ and awake by 1:30PM+) quite awful.

so my question now is.... does considerably thin hair reside in hyperthyroidism AND/OR telogen effluvium without immediate regrowth? i almost want to diagnose myself the two co-existing.... I'm sure Telogen Effluvium can reside in hyperthyroidism as a symptom itself, can it not?

sooooo i wonder......

do you think i should be worrying about my HAIR??
or my HEALTH with my hair being a indicator to get my sh*t straight??.... do you recommend me see a dermatologist for hair/scalp inspection, or a doctor that can diagnose hyperthyroidism?

 

[vauxall]

You should be worring about your English, mate!

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

You should be worring about your English, mate!

I like this.

On to OP's question. Thyroid problems can easily be associated with hair loss however that does not necessarily infer causation. The thyroid system can easily be put off balance in regards to other internal problems, which is something that is very important to realize before you go in search of a doctor who will destroy part of your thyroid in order to "fix" you.

If your hair loss is a result of either your thyroid problems or the result of something else which is causing your thyroid problems then the hairs will not just fix themselves without you fixing the underlying problem. As far as looking for immediate hair regrowth you won't really see it as if the hairs fall out prematurely they've got a long time to go before that hair starts the growth phase again (if).

Simply going to a dermatologist and only having him look at your hair will probably tell you nothing at this point, sounds like it would be a good idea to get some blood work done.

Out of curiosity, how are the hairs in the friction areas of your body (such as your legs where your front pockets rub, the front of your knees or your ankles)?

 

[justaquestion]

thanks for the reply BEH, and the zinger to vauxall. lol.

A.) can and will do, on the dermo appointment. makes sense to me
now as far as blood work goes. who specializes in that? that will be the appointment i will plan asap.

B.) its been a solid 6 months of WORRYING. IF these hairs return to anagen phase. when should i expect them to? like i said, i feel like my hairs are just falling out as they please, without any care to return. and thats no bueno!

C.) I'm actually kinda pleased you mentioned the rest of my rough hairs or however you put it. it was a point i had prepared, but forgot to mention....i experienced puberty as a normal boy, but I'm just now starting to come through with my face pattern which is still weak >.< and my chest, which is a sad excuse for "hair". sometimes i wonder if i really DID experience puberty as a normal boy. lol. under arms, legs, and under the belt are all normally flourishing. arms are confusing. my arms are finer than many womens. no complaints. but i think its a trait in the men in my family. none of us really get to bushy on the forearms or knuckles. but outside of how sparse/dense those areas are... theres really no problems as far as hair FALLING OUT is concerned,.

EDIT!:: totally misread friction areas. and actually... after checking just now, the hairs on the kneecaps, near pockets, etc. are all weak or not there at all. i thought that was normal. is that an indicator of something?

so in a nutshell:
who specializes in blood work?
when could i expect anagen regrowth?
and whatever tangent i spit out about my body hair.

thanks again for the scoop so far, I'll be anticipating a response!

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

The blood work can technically be ordered by any doctor. All the actual doctor you see will do is get his assistant to draw some blood from you and then they'll send that sample out to different labs who specialize in the tests. As far as ordering the correct tests however any GP or endocrinologist should know what to do, if your dermatologist is good he might as well.

As far as the abnormal or stunted growth on hairs in other parts of the body I would say there could be a connection, your skin and hair are excellent early warning indicators of internal problems. I will add in that I had a similar pattern of thin body hair/no growth in friction areas that I figured was just a genetic thing only related to hair because my father and brother both exhibited the same sort of patterns yet it turns out that all 3 of us had the same sort of genetically triggered dietary issue that was at the root of causing the hair patterns as well as other problems. I also had been experiencing somewhat similar pattern of hair loss on my scalp as you. Additional symptoms were what could be mistaken for hyperthyroidism but were actually caused by hypoglycemia.

There obviously could be a huge number of different causes for these sort of symptoms so I won't dwell long on what was the actual cause in my case but my affliction is surprisingly common enough in the white and asian populations and so you may wish to briefly look over the subject of "gluten sensitivity" over at celiac.com or search through my previous posts for one with either gluten or celiac in the title, can't recall.

Are there any sort of dietary/metabolic/GI problems that run in your family? This can be a little hard to pin down cause most people don't mention all the problems to their family.

 

[justaquestion]

yet another very useful post. and thanks again.
you're really something to these forums!

adding on to my problems: hit my head quite bad skateboarding around 2 hours ago. reasonable amount of swelling and blood loss. should probably be stitched, but i do not fancy hospital trips well, so I'm gonna wait a day before that. the reason i mention this is, painfully brushing the back of my head where it happened, a large radius of hair came out onto the brush, around the size of a index fingernail.. of course it is mechanical damage, but it still sucks! It's just that much less hair i have.... one good thing that came out of it, was that it happened right up on my vertex, and that hairs that I lost were very healthy and thick!!

kinda figured no one had hair in the friction areas. glad u brought that up, i'd never see it as an indication. Hints are pointing towards hypoglycemia, perhaps. or some form of other disorder rather than "baldness" I fit the symptoms quite well, along with hyperthyroidism. but u didn't seem to find that too likely.. you would know more about this than i would... so I'm booking some blood work asap! and the results will be posted here soon as i get em.

couple more potentially useful notes about my lifestyle....
i admit it... i drink FAR too much soda.. i rarely drink water
most of my water intake comes from sodas and juices that i drink through the day. and I'm incredibly active, with skating as mentioned above, so i doubt i'm being properly nourished on top of it all.
i used Tylenol PM's to put me to sleep from 2005-the end of 2009. i realize that is TERRIBLE for my body, AS WELL as a rather large time frame of use... but does that aid to problems i may be dealing with now?


thanks so much again and again

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

My, you're literally falling apart day by day aren't you?

I wouldn't say that you don't fit the archetype of hyperthyroidism, that would be impossible to tell you over the net and would require blood tests. I'd definitely make sure that before going in to get your blood work done you ask the doctor's office what your diet for that day should be if you're planning on getting your blood glucose measured. Normal method is to stop eating and drinking anything besides water by midnight the night before and and then have your appointment in the morning before you eat or drink anything besides water. This'll give you your fasting blood glucose and should be a useful tool in piecing together the puzzle.

Heavy consumption of soda would fit more with hypoglycemia as opposed to hyperthyroidism, recent research shows that heavy chronic consumption of high fructose corn syrup (glucose-fructose syrup) can cause liver problems. It can also be used subconsciously as a way to temporarily deal with chronic hypoglycemia, an unfortunate downward spiral effect.

While at this point your consumption of tylenol pms could simply be a habitual effect at least the introduction of that medicine as a requirement for normal sleep signaled some additional problem that goes beyond your hair.

Best of luck at the doctor, be sure to ask as many questions as you can and include as many potentially inconsequential details as possible. You never know what piece of information might cause your doctor to take notice (although most unfortunately make up their mind in the first minute or so). This isn't to say this'll all cure you though, could just be that you manage to get to a point where your hair successfully gets to the miniaturization phase before falling out forever, but at least even that would slow things down.

 

[karlg]

This isn't to say this'll all cure you though, could just be that you manage to get to a point where your hair successfully gets to the miniaturization phase before falling out forever, but at least even that would slow things down.

I thought only MBP / Alopecia caused miniturization, and other disorders just caused Telogen Effluvium/CTE. Does this mean to say hyper/hypo thyroidism can actually miniturize and weaken hair? even if you DONT have MBP for example?

 

[guitar66]

This isn't to say this'll all cure you though, could just be that you manage to get to a point where your hair successfully gets to the miniaturization phase before falling out forever, but at least even that would slow things down.

I thought only MBP / Alopecia caused miniturization, and other disorders just caused Telogen Effluvium/CTE. Does this mean to say hyper/hypo thyroidism can actually miniturize and weaken hair? even if you DONT have MBP for example?

i'm curious on this as well....



also, for celiac disease, is there any blood test for it? I've read about the test where you completely stop eating gluten for some time, then re introduce it and see how your body reacts. Is there any other method?