my dermatologist and a weird diagnosis

[itchy080]

ok so for the last year or so my hair has thinned, ive been on propecia and about a month ago started using rogaine, i just considered myself a diffuse thinner, i had been to one dermatolgist previously-wher ei had acquired the propecia prescription- but decided to go to my mothers friend, who, due to her interest perked younger brothers hairloss, acquird a great knowledge and is said to be one of the leading hairloss dermatologists in nyc
she took a biopsy from my scalp-waiting for the results of that, but told me i did not have male pattern baldness, but my scalp just gets so dry and so much dandruf that it blocks my hair from growin, she did some tests such as scraping my head with some instrument-which got my shirt to look like i was in a snow storm
she said that due to the fact the dandruff doesnt fall off my head, i cant remember y, my hair is blocked from growing
#note-i have no loss in the back, just in the front behind the hairline and one patch on the upper right side

she prescribed me diprolene .005%, which is a topical solution, and told me to apply it with rogaine and should get excellent regrowth, and can eventually stop rogaine once my head gets cleaned up, she told me to stay on propecia for now because it cant hurt, and said to alternate everyday between nizoral and head and shoulders

has anyone heard of this before?

 

[Trent]

wow.. i'm actually interested to hear more about this, not to get too overly anxious or anything, male pattern baldness is the cause 99 percent of the time, but its good to eliminate all possibilities because i have the exact same thing going on. how did you get this product? is it prescription only?

its a topical steroid huh.

 

[global]

If you have a patchy pattern of loss that definitely doesnt sound like male pattern baldness.

I dont agree with her telling you to use minoxidil though. If the cause of your loss is dandruff and flakes of skin accumulating on the scalp, minoxidil will only make that worse.

 

[Cornholio]

"she did some tests such as scraping my head with some instrument-which got my shirt to look like i was in a snow storm"

Had you noticed a lot of itching at the scalp or dandruff ever before?

 

[itchy080]

ya i dont really get y she wants me to apply minoxidil, maybe to encourage regrowth for now? i will find out more when i have my follow up next week to get the stitches removed from the biopsy
and yes, i have always, from as far back as i can remember, had bad dandruff and on and off itchiness
diprolene is a prescription only steroid, and from the instructions tht came with it, it looks to be pretty f*****g strong, aka saying do not overdose and only use once a day- she said to use it 2x for me though

but i will have more to report back next week and in the coming months, i just never assumed i had a problem like this

 

[Johnny24601]

re:

She is an expert and yet she tells you to apply minoxidil to regrow hair and tells you to stay on finasteride even though you do not have male pattern baldness? The label on minoxidil and stories from everyone who has ever stopped minoxidil clearly tell you that all the hair that regrew from minoxidil will fall out once one stops the treatment. Besides, minoxidil is for the regrowth of hair for men and women with male pattern baldness not for peple with dandruff problems.
I think this is the third example of someone on this website saying that they met with "one of the best derm's in the entire city" and the person ended up giving rediculous advice. What a joke........you either have male pattern baldness and should be taking finasteride and/or using monox until the day you die (or the day you decide that your hair doesn't matter to you) or you do not have male pattern baldness and have to take care of the dandruff issue and wait for your hair to grow back.
I am no derm (thank god) but I think you have male pattern baldness. Telogen Effluvium and all these other things are so so so rare. I hope you can find a solution

 

[wotsthedeal]

wotsthedeal

I remember reading somewhere that hair will grow through almost anything (it is very tough). This does seem like a very strange diagnosis, although I agree that strange patterns of hair loss probably aren't caused by male pattern baldness.

 

[jfhawk06]

she sounds like a quack, obviously unaware of the science behind rogaine and finasteride.

 

[itchy080]

look i dont know wht to tell u all who think this is bullshit, i just hope she is right, i mean the fact is she is a well renowned dermatologist-this is a fact-
my hairloss is kinda weird i guess, it went from thinning on onetemple-which has since remained the same- to directly behind my hairline and a third of the way back on one spot on the upper right
i never have realy shed, it just seems to have thinned-before it thinned my hair turned nappy, got a shorter haircut and boom just thin, this has all occured within a yr
i to have my doubts about this and am tryin to not garner false hope, but like i said ill ask more at my follow up a week from now
i did ask her a number of times as to are u sure i should continue rogaine, she said put on the rogaine with tht topical steroid(forgot the name) and i will experience excellent regrowth, i then asked how long do i stay on the rogaine, she said we will re evaluate soon

 

[Johnny24601]

re:

The dermatological commiunity is a joke and being renowned in it is almost like being renowned in the mobster community so that tells me nothing. Look people on this website spend mroe time understanding and researching minoxidil and finasteride and no one can agree with her choice of treatment. You can take her word but I would, at the very least get 2-3 addiitonal opinions from other "experts" of just search around and understand what finasteride and minoxidil is used for and how they work.