signs of diffuse hair loss - itchy scalp / tingling??

R

richybee

New Member
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Hi everyone,

I'm new to the board and I have a growing concern about my hair.

I’m 20 years of age (almost 21) and I live in England.

My head/scalp itches like mad until I itch it and I see hairs (including the white bulb at the end of the strand) falling out. Also, I seem to have a build up of dandruff on my scalp. When I itch my head I have quite a bit of dead skin cells under my nails.

My head constantly tingles all over.

I have noticed a severe increase in the amount of hairs I’m shedding. After one night sleep my pillow, which is dark in colour, has many stands of hair on it. At work I scratch my head to stop the itching and many ( 8 or so) stands fall out.

I haven’t got a receding hairline from what I can tell. Maybe slightly at the front (a slight M) but I can see new little hairs growing at the top of my forehead.

My hair is incredibly greasy, so I wash it everyday with my usual shampoo. I have recently (6 months ago) moved to London which from my research is a “hard water zone†from a mild/soft water zone (Worcestershire near Birmingham UK) maybe this had inflamed my scalp. But I recently (2 weeks ago) switched to washing my hair with bottled spring water, but sadly to no avail (head still itches like mad).

Also, I have very fair hair!! My father is bald and starting going bald in his mid twenties. His father had fair hair but had some hair left on his crown before he passed away (unlike my dads’ hair). My mothers side of the family have got very good hair and none had suffered from any kind of hair loss. My mother has very fine hair too.

I think I may see a dermatologist but for a consultation fee of £180 I’m not to keen.

Any input on the matter would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Richard
 
yello911

yello911

Established Member
Reaction score
6
Richybee, if you dig up some of my old posts, you will see that my story is very similar to yours. I started diffusing right around my 20th birthday. Before, I would never brush my hair and basically, put gel on it the minute I got out of the shower. Then one day in the shower I noticed tons of hairs on my hand while washing it. That lasted for a long time and I lost a lot of hair. I had the same symptoms you have where my scalp would itch and the hairs that came out had either crust on the end or a bulb about 3x the size of the shaft. I also would get scalp zits too.

Back then I didn't have any options until rogaine 2% came out. That helped a little but not much. Then finally, the bigger guns started coming out and I took finasteride and minoxidil regularly.

Here is the good news. I'm 37 now and have grown enough of my hair back that people don't make bald jokes to me anymore. Many think I'm not balding but just have a normal aging hair line and thickness.

Consider yourself lucky to be losing your hair in this day and age. If I had what was known and available today, I'll bet my hair would be thicker.

Here is what I would do ASAP:

1. Buy Head & Shoulders Intensive Solutions shampoo. It has 2% zinc and I have found it to work better than T-sal, T-gel, etc. for me. I use it daily but found that any more than that will actually irritate your scalp instead. Recently I discovered that adding a little tea tree oil to the shampoo made it much, much more effective. After I added the tea tree oil, I don't have any scalp zits and my scalp has not itched since. I really think that the inflammation on the scalp is a HUGE contributor to diffuse thinning!

2. Brush your hair and wash your brush frequently. Don't be scared of the hair falling out when you brush. If the force of brushing is enough to make them fall out, they were on their way out. The only difference is that you see them in your brush instead of not seeing them fall out as you do your daily routine. In my opinion, getting blood to your scalp is important.

3. Minoxidil. I buy mine at Costco (Kirkland brand) and it's very cheap! I've been adding about 10 drops of tea tree oil in a bottle for use at night and found that to help.

4. Keep your hair short. I've noticed my scalp itched less when my hair was cut very short. My hair and scalp dried much quicker (fungus loves moisture), I used less shampoo (value), Minoxidil was easier to apply, and to be honest, it actually brought less attention to my head.

5. Finasteride. The other items work directly for your scalp but it would be a good idea to continue the fight from the inside too. I believe a sensitivity to DHT is a major cause of scalp inflammation as your body interprets it as a foreign object (somebody please correct me if I am wrong). Plus, of course, DHT is the main contributor to male pattern baldness.

6. Fish oil. While I'm not sure the extent to which it is helping my head of hair, it has made my joints feel like a million bucks! Fish oil is a natural anti-inflammatory. It's also good for your cardiovascular system, brain, skin, hair, eyes, etc. It's inexpensive and worth a try. Take with food.

7. Lavender oil. I'm not taking this yet but it's supposedly it has anti-androgenic properties. Maybe mix some of that into your shampoo or minoxidil.

8. Rinse head after sweating a lot. If you hit the gym or have been sweating profusely, try and rinse your head off afterward. If you already shampooed earlier, don't shampoo again, just run some water through to get some of that sweaty sludge out. I have found that works pretty good for me to keep any itch down.

9. Work on yourself as a person. I am 37 now. Back in my mid 20's was the worst of my hair loss when you could see my scalp easily whether wet or dry. I got in a deep depression, avoided going out along with having my picture taken. I shaved my head, started going to the gym and began to work on my self-esteem. After losing my belly and building a little muscle, I started getting compliments. The more compliments I got, the less depressed I felt, the less I worried about my hair. I still fought the battle of the bald but now I wasn't stressed about it. I honestly believe, getting out of my depressive funk and feeling less stressed about my hair helped my hair grow! I am at the stage now where I can actually put gel back into my hair for the wet look, although I only do it when I am going out for a night on the town.

I don't know if it will let you view these pics if you are not a member of MySpace but I'll post the link anyway. These pics were taken over the last 5 years. You can see in the pics when I let my hair grow out a little, you can't really tell that I am losing my hair! There is one pic of me in a pool in '07 that you can tell my hair is not extremely thick, however, it has thickened up some more from that date. I'm thinking it was the addition of the tea tree oil that helped. Oh, ignore the '70's looking pic, that's a wig under a hat!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=156360493 Click the "View my Pics" tab on the home page.

Good luck man, I really think you got a good shot of keeping your hair!
 
Night

Night

Established Member
Reaction score
128
yello911 said:
Richybee, if you dig up some of my old posts, you will see that my story is very similar to yours. I started diffusing right around my 20th birthday. Before, I would never brush my hair and basically, put gel on it the minute I got out of the shower. Then one day in the shower I noticed tons of hairs on my hand while washing it. That lasted for a long time and I lost a lot of hair. I had the same symptoms you have where my scalp would itch and the hairs that came out had either crust on the end or a bulb about 3x the size of the shaft. I also would get scalp zits too.

Back then I didn't have any options until rogaine 2% came out. That helped a little but not much. Then finally, the bigger guns started coming out and I took finasteride and minoxidil regularly.

Here is the good news. I'm 37 now and have grown enough of my hair back that people don't make bald jokes to me anymore. Many think I'm not balding but just have a normal aging hair line and thickness.

Consider yourself lucky to be losing your hair in this day and age. If I had what was known and available today, I'll bet my hair would be thicker.

Here is what I would do ASAP:

1. Buy Head & Shoulders Intensive Solutions shampoo. It has 2% zinc and I have found it to work better than T-sal, T-gel, etc. for me. I use it daily but found that any more than that will actually irritate your scalp instead. Recently I discovered that adding a little tea tree oil to the shampoo made it much, much more effective. After I added the tea tree oil, I don't have any scalp zits and my scalp has not itched since. I really think that the inflammation on the scalp is a HUGE contributor to diffuse thinning!

2. Brush your hair and wash your brush frequently. Don't be scared of the hair falling out when you brush. If the force of brushing is enough to make them fall out, they were on their way out. The only difference is that you see them in your brush instead of not seeing them fall out as you do your daily routine. In my opinion, getting blood to your scalp is important.

3. Minoxidil. I buy mine at Costco (Kirkland brand) and it's very cheap! I've been adding about 10 drops of tea tree oil in a bottle for use at night and found that to help.

4. Keep your hair short. I've noticed my scalp itched less when my hair was cut very short. My hair and scalp dried much quicker (fungus loves moisture), I used less shampoo (value), Minoxidil was easier to apply, and to be honest, it actually brought less attention to my head.

5. Finasteride. The other items work directly for your scalp but it would be a good idea to continue the fight from the inside too. I believe a sensitivity to DHT is a major cause of scalp inflammation as your body interprets it as a foreign object (somebody please correct me if I am wrong). Plus, of course, DHT is the main contributor to male pattern baldness.

6. Fish oil. While I'm not sure the extent to which it is helping my head of hair, it has made my joints feel like a million bucks! Fish oil is a natural anti-inflammatory. It's also good for your cardiovascular system, brain, skin, hair, eyes, etc. It's inexpensive and worth a try. Take with food.

7. Lavender oil. I'm not taking this yet but it's supposedly it has anti-androgenic properties. Maybe mix some of that into your shampoo or minoxidil.

8. Rinse head after sweating a lot. If you hit the gym or have been sweating profusely, try and rinse your head off afterward. If you already shampooed earlier, don't shampoo again, just run some water through to get some of that sweaty sludge out. I have found that works pretty good for me to keep any itch down.

9. Work on yourself as a person. I am 37 now. Back in my mid 20's was the worst of my hair loss when you could see my scalp easily whether wet or dry. I got in a deep depression, avoided going out along with having my picture taken. I shaved my head, started going to the gym and began to work on my self-esteem. After losing my belly and building a little muscle, I started getting compliments. The more compliments I got, the less depressed I felt, the less I worried about my hair. I still fought the battle of the bald but now I wasn't stressed about it. I honestly believe, getting out of my depressive funk and feeling less stressed about my hair helped my hair grow! I am at the stage now where I can actually put gel back into my hair for the wet look, although I only do it when I am going out for a night on the town.

I don't know if it will let you view these pics if you are not a member of MySpace but I'll post the link anyway. These pics were taken over the last 5 years. You can see in the pics when I let my hair grow out a little, you can't really tell that I am losing my hair! There is one pic of me in a pool in '07 that you can tell my hair is not extremely thick, however, it has thickened up some more from that date. I'm thinking it was the addition of the tea tree oil that helped. Oh, ignore the '70's looking pic, that's a wig under a hat!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=156360493 Click the "View my Pics" tab on the home page.

Good luck man, I really think you got a good shot of keeping your hair!
Click to expand...
I have to agree with this, I used T-Gel for a month and some days and I still had itch and dandruff, then the other day I got Head and Shoulders and it has worked well.
 
hhj1247

hhj1247

Established Member
Reaction score
2
I have to agree with what yellow said. I'd add that I think you should see a doctor about finasteride. But your itching/tingling sounds like scalp irritation. This sounds like a job for Nizoral. I used to scratch every now and then but since nizoral I have cut back to almost zero. Some people swear by H&S, but I would try Nizoral first. You might be lucky and your hair problems might end with Nizoral.

Also, I would even stop washing my hair everyday. Even before Nizoral, I only washed my hair 2 or 3 times a week. Supposedly washing your hair everyday is bad for your hair. Now I wash it with Nizoral three times a week. I don't know what everyone else here does, but I think most people don't wash their hair every time they shower. Chicks don't usually, and maybe dudes should take precedent from this practice.

Anyway, good luck. Definatley pony up that money for a doctors visit (isn't healthcare free in England?!?!). Maybe go when you have a cold or something so it's covered.

Edit- idk if a dermatologist is necessary. A regular doctor should be able to determine if its male pattern baldness and prescribe finasteride.
 
J

Joachim-

New Member
Reaction score
4
Why does so many of you feel the need to believe that the scalp itching is male pattern baldness? Some of you here are just suffering from plain dandruff inflammation which can cause scalp itching as well. Take me for example, I started to lose hair after I took accutane and my scalp itch due to dryness and dandruff.
 
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