I'm a 26 year old female who within the last year noticed a thinning near my hair part and can easily see scalp whenever I push back my bangs. At first I kept shrugging it off. My hair dresser, who is also a personal friend, kept telling me "oh your hair's always like that, it's fine" whenever I brought up concern about seeing more scalp in my part during hair cuts. At first I believed it was just the way my part was and maybe I hadn't noticed it until around that time, I'm a generally oblivious person sometimes. Well one day I took a picture of it from the top and was just horrified at what I saw and instantly knew it was not simply how my hair parted.
So I went to the dermatologist, he ran some blood tests at first. The only thing that was found from those was that I am severely vitamin D deficient (with a whomping 8 ng when it should be around 30-50) and some slightly low iron which they said isn't too uncommon in women overall. So I started taking vitamin D supplements and went to a primary care doctor who suggested I go back to the dermatologist to get a scalp biopsy done. So I did, the biopsy diagnosis is androgenic alopecia. So understandably I'm upset and stressed that I may never grow hair again. The doctor had a list of recommendations of things for me to try, the first of course being rogaine/minoxidil. I'm opting to try that as a last resort, however, due to the nature of it and some people claiming that it can cause facial hair growth. That's the last thing I need to be self conscious about, haha.
The second thing on his list was Viviscal which I had never heard of before. I did some research and it seemed like it could be promising? I'm all for more natural remedies so that was the one I picked to start with. I don't expect a miracle as I'm skeptical of pretty much anything in regards to this. Prior to getting my results I've been taking biotin supplements with my vitamin D ones and using shampoos with more natural ingredients like rosemary and aloe. Not really expecting to see hair growth from those, but since I also have scalp psoriasis on the back of my head, it seems to help soothe those symptoms and the aloe ones seem to help clear some of it up while I combo it with clebetasol.
So I was wondering if anyone has had any success with Viviscal at all or if I'm wasting my time? I'm going to go back to my primary care doctor in hopes of finding more of a root to my issues as I still feel like there might be more of an underlying cause. The androgenic alopecia diagnosis seems off as most of the women in my family have thick hair and the only ones who might be affected by thinning did not do so until after menopause. My dad is bald, however, so maybe it's not too out of left field but I'm going to make sure there aren't any things that may have been missed through blood testing or the biopsy which my dermatologist is recommending anyways as a precaution. The human body sucks sometimes.
Anyways, sorry for this long post and thank you all in advance for your replies! Also for anyone on Viviscal who can recommend anything that might be useful to partner with it while I take these supplements, that would be wonderful. I have the whole hair care set that comes with it, but I think I may limit using the shampoo/conditioner to a few times a week as it makes my hair oily after a while and I already have fairly oily hair.
Another random note, I do notice if I part my hair to the side instead of the middle it is much less noticeable. I also used to have straight cut bangs, but have begun growing those out as I feel like with bangs too much scalp was showing. It's how I noticed it in the first place. I miss them though.
So I went to the dermatologist, he ran some blood tests at first. The only thing that was found from those was that I am severely vitamin D deficient (with a whomping 8 ng when it should be around 30-50) and some slightly low iron which they said isn't too uncommon in women overall. So I started taking vitamin D supplements and went to a primary care doctor who suggested I go back to the dermatologist to get a scalp biopsy done. So I did, the biopsy diagnosis is androgenic alopecia. So understandably I'm upset and stressed that I may never grow hair again. The doctor had a list of recommendations of things for me to try, the first of course being rogaine/minoxidil. I'm opting to try that as a last resort, however, due to the nature of it and some people claiming that it can cause facial hair growth. That's the last thing I need to be self conscious about, haha.
The second thing on his list was Viviscal which I had never heard of before. I did some research and it seemed like it could be promising? I'm all for more natural remedies so that was the one I picked to start with. I don't expect a miracle as I'm skeptical of pretty much anything in regards to this. Prior to getting my results I've been taking biotin supplements with my vitamin D ones and using shampoos with more natural ingredients like rosemary and aloe. Not really expecting to see hair growth from those, but since I also have scalp psoriasis on the back of my head, it seems to help soothe those symptoms and the aloe ones seem to help clear some of it up while I combo it with clebetasol.
So I was wondering if anyone has had any success with Viviscal at all or if I'm wasting my time? I'm going to go back to my primary care doctor in hopes of finding more of a root to my issues as I still feel like there might be more of an underlying cause. The androgenic alopecia diagnosis seems off as most of the women in my family have thick hair and the only ones who might be affected by thinning did not do so until after menopause. My dad is bald, however, so maybe it's not too out of left field but I'm going to make sure there aren't any things that may have been missed through blood testing or the biopsy which my dermatologist is recommending anyways as a precaution. The human body sucks sometimes.
Anyways, sorry for this long post and thank you all in advance for your replies! Also for anyone on Viviscal who can recommend anything that might be useful to partner with it while I take these supplements, that would be wonderful. I have the whole hair care set that comes with it, but I think I may limit using the shampoo/conditioner to a few times a week as it makes my hair oily after a while and I already have fairly oily hair.
Another random note, I do notice if I part my hair to the side instead of the middle it is much less noticeable. I also used to have straight cut bangs, but have begun growing those out as I feel like with bangs too much scalp was showing. It's how I noticed it in the first place. I miss them though.