First, I want to thank everyone who has posted in other threads about their experiences. It's so helpful to read!
Background is below, but I'll cut to the chase with my questions: What do you wish you had done
sooner on your journey to resolve/manage hair loss?
From hearing people's stories and from my limited experience, I have noticed a tendency for doctors, including dermatologists, to fiddle around, e.g. try this steroid; that didn't work? take vitamins, on and on--until finally a broad panel of blood work and/or a biopsy is done to get some data.
Any insight into this? I understand not wanting to run up costs.
I'm inclined to get pushy and keep seeing docs until one will agree to do testing. A visual inspection is all I've gotten from four dermatologists.
Here's my scalp/hair story:
For 13 months, I've been trying to manage seborreah dermatitis (sebderm) several places on my scalp. Docs keep throwing steroids and ketoconozole at it. The treatments may have made some difference. Idk really.
Six months into this journey, I noticed I had less hair volume, but I didn't seem to have abnormal amount of shedding. It was as though new hair just wasn't coming in quickly enough to make up for normal shedding.
Another four months passed, and I continued to lose volume. Then, I had a major shed that lasted three weeks. All parts of my scalp and sideburn areas were affected. Hardest hit (most loss) were the lower half of the back of head, areas above my temples, (especially where I have a side part), and the finer "baby" hairs that had always existed at the front of my hairline.
It seemed to me like a telogen effluvium. I had one 20 years ago after a too-restrictive diet, and it seemed similar.
There doesn't seem to be correlation between the areas of major hair loss and sebderm patches, with one exception--- the side part.
I can feel and see new hair coming in on many areas of my scalp. Some new growth is as long as maybe 2cm. Some is stubble. A month ago, a dermatologist said he saw no miniaturization but he also wasn't ruling out androgen alopecia.
Now, this puzzles me the most: There are days when I lose lots (hundreds maybe) of little hairs, 1-4 mm in size approx. I see them floating around my head. If I've had a hat on for a while, I can shake it and watch a flurry of litte hairs. From what I can tell, they do not look thinner than my regular old growth strands. But they don't have bulbs. My hair is mostly blonde so it's hard to tell if they have pigment.
The days I shed lots of tiny hairs, the amount of old growth hair I lose seems to normal.
Have any of you experienced this?
Btw, I'm 50 and 7 years post-menopause.
Background is below, but I'll cut to the chase with my questions: What do you wish you had done
sooner on your journey to resolve/manage hair loss?
From hearing people's stories and from my limited experience, I have noticed a tendency for doctors, including dermatologists, to fiddle around, e.g. try this steroid; that didn't work? take vitamins, on and on--until finally a broad panel of blood work and/or a biopsy is done to get some data.
Any insight into this? I understand not wanting to run up costs.
I'm inclined to get pushy and keep seeing docs until one will agree to do testing. A visual inspection is all I've gotten from four dermatologists.
Here's my scalp/hair story:
For 13 months, I've been trying to manage seborreah dermatitis (sebderm) several places on my scalp. Docs keep throwing steroids and ketoconozole at it. The treatments may have made some difference. Idk really.
Six months into this journey, I noticed I had less hair volume, but I didn't seem to have abnormal amount of shedding. It was as though new hair just wasn't coming in quickly enough to make up for normal shedding.
Another four months passed, and I continued to lose volume. Then, I had a major shed that lasted three weeks. All parts of my scalp and sideburn areas were affected. Hardest hit (most loss) were the lower half of the back of head, areas above my temples, (especially where I have a side part), and the finer "baby" hairs that had always existed at the front of my hairline.
It seemed to me like a telogen effluvium. I had one 20 years ago after a too-restrictive diet, and it seemed similar.
There doesn't seem to be correlation between the areas of major hair loss and sebderm patches, with one exception--- the side part.
I can feel and see new hair coming in on many areas of my scalp. Some new growth is as long as maybe 2cm. Some is stubble. A month ago, a dermatologist said he saw no miniaturization but he also wasn't ruling out androgen alopecia.
Now, this puzzles me the most: There are days when I lose lots (hundreds maybe) of little hairs, 1-4 mm in size approx. I see them floating around my head. If I've had a hat on for a while, I can shake it and watch a flurry of litte hairs. From what I can tell, they do not look thinner than my regular old growth strands. But they don't have bulbs. My hair is mostly blonde so it's hard to tell if they have pigment.
The days I shed lots of tiny hairs, the amount of old growth hair I lose seems to normal.
Have any of you experienced this?
Btw, I'm 50 and 7 years post-menopause.