niko2525's story - (Jason's Foley)

[niko2525]

My name is Jason and I just turned 22.

I've always had a full dark head of hair.


In September of '05 I came down with a bad case of Mono that gave me a temp. of over 100 degrees for several weeks. About a month after getting over it, I started noticing my hair falling out much faster than it had before. I could pull out hair very easily by running my fingers through. Fast foward to June 06. I come down with a case of Shingles ( i had been under alot of stress the week before ). In all that time in between and up to now, I can modestly say I've lost at least 40% of hair on my scalp, from all areas, but most noticeably from the crown of my head. My friends notice it too, and now I have to wear my hair differently to hide the loss.

Now all signs point to Telogen Effelivium (spelling sorry). I had a sever infection, and a stretch of very stressful months. All is well now and I feel great, as did I for most of the year. I have a very healthy diet, and I exercise alot. But there hasn't been ANY regrowth. I just keep losing hair, no vellus hairs, no stuble, no short hairs come in and then break, I'm just continuing to lose my hair without anything regrowing.

My hair and nails still grow fast.

My 45 year old dad has a strong receding hair line, but is far from bald, and my older brother has a thick head of hair. As far as I know, neither of my grandparents are bald.

At this rate, I would have very little hair left by next year, especially on the top of my head. There has been diffused shedding and although my hair line as gotten thinner, it has receeded any.

So I don't know what to think or do now. I don't match up Telogen E b/c I haven't seen any growth at all in at least 10 months, and this onset has been too fast for male pattern baldness, i suppose. Should I start using some products to stop my hair loss, will I regrow it naturally? or at all? Anybody have insight on this?

Thank You.

 

[CCS]

http://www.altbaldspot.com has more info

 

[Guest]

Hello Jason,

keep in mind that it takes up to one year for the hair which was lost by Telogen Effluvium to regrow! Furthermore you may not forget that you can have both Telogen Effluvium and MBP. It is my opinion that Stress not only leads to Telogen Effluvium but can also accelerate your MBP. I have the assumption that this might be the case with me. I hope this doesn´t count for you, but the thinning at the crown area sounds suspicious. Maybe you post pics under bright light of various areas of your head. like that we can tell pretty good whether your hair loss looks like Telogen Effluvium only or Telogen Effluvium with MBP. Quite a few members in this forum know a lot more about hair loss than the average dermatologist(I am not talking about myself though). Ok, that´s it. Good Luck for your hair and try to relax!

 

[niko2525]

ok, here are some pictures of my hair.

 

[Guest]

that looks a lot like my hair loss, except a bit farther along. looks like male pattern baldness to me.

 

[niko2525]

I should also add a few other incidents over the last year.

June 06 - shingles
Sept 05 - mono
March 05 - Flu
January 05 - Didnt know what was wrong with me, but sick for over a week.

i dont know if this plays any factor or not. i had previously never been that sick, must have had a bad stretch of luck. spent most of 04 and 05 depressed.

but all is well now, except for my hair.

 

[templemonk]

i heard stress and pain/stress from surgeries/illness can cause hairloss and someone said that it can even boost male pattern baldness.
i knew male pattern baldness was runnin in my family so its no surprise im sufferin too but in your case.. if your family is fine.. it could be just that you are losing hair from stress/illness that you had OR
OR
OR

you are super unlucky to be male pattern baldness first genration (you are the start in your family) cuz from what i heard.. everyone even not bald people have some sort of male pattern baldness genes and mixed with other genes can make it finally come out.
lets say your mom had that gene (at least 25% ) and your dad had that as well, there is a chance that combination made you get male pattern baldness
either way.. the point is that you are losing hair/thinning and that could progress super fast from this point..
you should do something NOW!!

1. START TREATMENT RIGHT AWAY .. GET ON finasteride.. OR dutasteride
2. GET USED TO BEING BALD AND START SHAVING YOUR HEAD EVERYDAY.

im about to start my treatment in couple days and if i get any sides or if i think its not working.. im going to take the second option..
good luck

 

[templemonk]

i had an car accident when i was young.. and i had pretty big surgery fro taht.. i think it caused my male pattern baldness starting earlier than it was supposed to
i think you have similar case..
i dunno but i just think your illness has alot to do with your hairloss

 

[niko2525]

on the box for rogaine it shows only to apply the solution to the vertex, but my hair loss is everywhere on my scalp. does it effect the rest of the head, or just that area?

 

[templemonk]

i heard that it says only vertex cuz thats the only tested area but people use it for everywhere on their head.. and it supposely works

 

[docj077]

I should also add a few other incidents over the last year.

June 06 - shingles
Sept 05 - mono
March 05 - Flu
January 05 - Didnt know what was wrong with me, but sick for over a week.

i dont know if this plays any factor or not. i had previously never been that sick, must have had a bad stretch of luck. spent most of 04 and 05 depressed.

but all is well now, except for my hair.

With a history like that, you really should be tested for immune deficiencies. Especially, since you got shingles. That's usually a sign of immune system depression.

If you get a lot of respiratory tract infections, as well, then you really need to consider getting checked out.

Take better care of yourself. Get some rest and take your vitamins. It sounds to me like your body is just plain worn out.

 

[niko2525]

ya, i had a shitty year to say the least. 2 jobs, full time student with summer classes, family and relationship problems, all while dealing with what seemed like constant sickness.
i've lightened the load quite a bit since then and after i got shingles (which was a mild case, and i knew the exact event that lead to it) i've continued to take vitamins and added immunity pills in addition.

I'm going to get a CBC test done next week. So what should i look for? thyroid problems? is there anyway to test for alopecia through blood?

i always worked out, and ate healthy ( my body fat index is less than 10%) and was a competitive baseball player prior to all this, which i gave up just cause i wanted too, not for health reasons.

It's funny b/c now i see how your mindset can affect you physically too, b/c throughout all this, I wasn't exactly Mr. Nice Guy, and I generally have a sunny disposition.


Should i try to use a growth stimulate like rogaine in order to get my growth cycle back on track, if it is in case related to my previous health problems? or wait it out? Or start in case this actually is male pattern baldness? I've lost a considerable amount of hair in 9 months and havent seen anything grow back in. im getting frustrated.

 

[niko2525]

well i got the results back from the blood test and my total white blood cell count is alittle high and that she wants me to take another one in 6 weeks, so i don't know what that could mean in regards to hair loss.

she attributed it to the sickness i've had and strees, but im still not sure.

i started rogaine a week ago, but i'm only doing 1 dosage a day, started getting acne along my hairline, but not very much.


by all the threads ive read about application of this product, i thought it would be a pain, but its really pretty easy to do a good job, easier than dealing with contacts.

 

[niko2525]

just for the sake of updating


my hair grew back great after a few months, was actually glad that it thinned out from my original density b/c it was much easier to style my hair. but at around late january 07 early feb i had a wicked case of dermatitis, scalp got extremely oily and flaky, i could actually pull off scabs of dead skin, my hair started falling out again too. so i gave up the minoxidil to let my scalp return to normal, and bought nizoral to settle everything down.

been using that for about 3 weeks with some progress, scalp no longer inflammed, but i still have BAD dandruff, and i never had dandruff in my life before. hair still falls out like crazy, especially after letting the nizoral soak on my scalp for 5 minutes in the shower.

i threw away the remaining bottle of the generic minoxidil i had, didnt want to be tempted to use it again, since it caused all those problems, and i wasnt even sure that I had male pattern baldness to begin with.

BUT now my hair looks worse than ever, in just less than a month, all that regrowth i had is gone, and i have awful dandruff.


anybody else have a similar experience?