Why doesn't the root of my hairs have those white bulbs?

[Thin]

My hair a few years ago would have these white bulbs at the root of my hairs before I had hair loss(diffusing thinning in my case), but now when i extracted a hair from my scalp I don't see the blub anymore. What does this tell me about my hair loss? Someone please elborate on this. I'm trying to get a better understanding of my hair loss. Some websites would also work.

Before anyone ask, yes I'm sure I am a diffuse thinner. It only takes me 1.25 mL to add minoxidil to my entire scalp(top, sides, & back). I have a #3 clip cut all around.

 

[bubka]

i know what you are talking about, before propecia, my lost hairs had the thick bulbs around them, i think its the auto immune effect where that tissue is essentially being rejected as a part of male pattern baldness, which is reversed by finasteride

 

[Guest]

i know what you are talking about, before propecia, my lost hairs had the thick bulbs around them, i think its the auto immune effect where that tissue is essentially being rejected as a part of male pattern baldness, which is reversed by finasteride

then why do all of my hairs that i am seeing in the sink, etc have the white bulbs in them? because they're part of a dutasteride shed perhaps.

 

[bubka]

i think some of it was just the irritated skin too, i don't know... but i don't have it anymore

i remember you could actually pull of the white bulb, from the bulb of the hair as well, as it was around the bulb

 

[buzzmenot]

cripes I've got irregular skin cells around my bulbs too, the Doctor tells me its part of my scalp. could it have anything to do with hardened sebum?
pulling out a healthy hair off my head, i see cells around the bulb, forming a very thin cyllindrical layer and running up to 2mm along the shaft.

the hairs that naturally fall off my head usually have these irregular skin gobs that run 1mm and vary in width. on rare occasions sphereical. like some liquid hardned to form it.

 

[Thin]

i think some of it was just the irritated skin too, i don't know... but i don't have it anymore

i remember you could actually pull of the white bulb, from the bulb of the hair as well, as it was around the bulb

yeah thats what im talking about. now its just like a strand of hair with no bulb. i thought maybe the bulb got stuck in my scalp so I pulled about 5 hairs and they all came out the same. 3 hairs on the top and 2 on my sides.

i wonder if its a good or bad sign. some people say you can't tell just by looking at the root of your hair if its good or bad, but I use to have it when I had a head full of hair when i seen the bulbs and now the bulbs are gone. i'm guessing its bad, but let see if we can get some more input on this.

 

[Apoc]

Show me one study that can prove that the color of the bulb has anything to do with male pattern baldness. In my oppinion this color does change depending in which phase is hair that has fallen out but it absolutely does not tell you if that hair is being affected by immune response or DHT. As far as I know there is not a single test that can prove whether your hair is male pattern baldness prone and everything is done by visual orientation only. So if anything could be proven by looking just at the bulb it would have been done already.

 

[ahmadjaved]

White cluster of cells around the root of hair

hay watsup
i wanted to say that i am also getting that white cluster of cells around the root of my hair when it comes off. Even if i scratch my scalp i get those white cells like thing which comes under my nails. Some people say its dandruff but dont know what IS IT?

 

[buzzmenot]

Could this be it?

======
Folliculitis

Definition

Folliculitis is inflammation or infection of one or more hair follicles (openings in the skin that enclose hair).

Description

Folliculitis can affect both women and men at any age. It can develop on any part of the body, but is most likely to occur on the scalp, face, or parts of the arms, armpits, or legs not usually covered by clothing.

Small, yellowish-white blister-like lumps (pustules) surrounded by narrow red rings are usually present with both bacterial folliculitis and fungal folliculitis. Hair can grow through or alongside of the pustules, which sometimes ooze blood-stained pus.

Folliculitis can cause boils and, in rare instances, serious skin infections. Bacteria from folliculitis can enter the blood stream and travel to other parts of the body.

Causes and symptoms

Folliculitis develops when bacteria, such as Staphylococcus, or a fungus enters the body through a cut, scrape, surgical incision, or other break in the skin near a hair follicle. Scratching the affected area can trap fungus or bacteria under the fingernails and spread the infection to hair follicles on other parts of the body.

The bacteria that cause folliculitis are contagious. A person who has folliculitis can infect others who live in the same household.

Factors that increase the risk of developing folliculitis include:

* dermatitis
* diabetes
* dirty, crowded living conditions
* eczema
* exposure to hot, humid temperatures
* infection in the nose or other recent illness
* tight clothing

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is based on the patient's medical history and observations. Laboratory analysis of the substance drained from a pustule can be used to distinguish bacterial folliculitis from fungal folliculitis.

Treatment

Bacterial folliculitis may disappear without treatment, but is likely to recur. Non-prescription topical antibiotics like Bacitracin, Mycitracin, or Neomycin, gently rubbed on to affected areas three or four times a day, can clear up a small number of bacterial folliculitis pustules. Oral antibiotics such as erythromycin (Erythocin)

may be prescribed if the infection is widespread. The drug griseofulvin (Fulvicin) and topical antifungal medications are used to treat fungal folliculitis.

A doctor should be notified if:

* pustules spread after treatment has begun or reappear after treatment is completed
* the patient's fever climbs above 100°F (37.8°C)
* the patient develops boils or swollen ankles
* redness, swelling, warmth, or pain indicate that the infection has spread
* unexplained new symptoms appear

Alternative treatment

Eating a balanced diet, including protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, fresh fruits and vegetables, and drinking eight to 10 glasses of water a day may stimulate the body's immune system and shorten the course of the infection. Garlic (Allium sativum) and goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), both antiseptic agents against staph infections, may be taken. The daily dosage would vary from person to person and is based on the severity of the infection. Echinacea (Echinacea spp.) is helpful in modulating immune function. Again, the dosage would vary.

Daily doses of 30–50 mg zinc and 1,000–5,000 mg Vitamin C (taken in equal amounts at several times during the day), and 300–2,000 mg bioflavinoids can also strengthen the body's infection-fighting ability. High doses of vitamins and minerals should not be used without a doctor's approval.

Prognosis

If properly treated, the symptoms of bacterial folliculitis generally disappear in about two weeks. Fungal folliculitis should clear up within six weeks. But it can worsen if the condition is misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated with steroid creams.

Prevention

Anyone who has a tendency to develop folliculitis should cleanse the skin with antibacterial soap twice a day and before shaving and should not use oily skin lotions. Men should not shave while the beard area is infected. When they begin shaving again, they should use a new blade each time. Women who have had fungal folliculitis should use depilatory creams instead of razors. Daily shampooing can help prevent folliculitis in the scalp. The spread of infection can be prevented by not sharing towels or washcloths

 

[Angie #7]

The hairs with the white bulbs are hairs that are being prematurely ejected. The are located in the fatty layer of the scalp. When a mature hair is ready to be shed, because its growing cycle has finnished, this white bulb shrinks away from its base and then is ejected and a new hair begins to grow in its place. I think it is a positive sign when you stop seeing hairs with the white bulbs attached, to me it means you are having longer life and growing cycles of the hair. I have just started to notice this with my son, when he first started losing his hair I was always seeing these white bulbs, and yet with all the hair I do, I have never seen the white bulbs on anyone else.

 

[Guest]

The hairs with the white bulbs are hairs that are being prematurely ejected. The are located in the fatty layer of the scalp. When a mature hair is ready to be shed, because its growing cycle has finnished, this white bulb shrinks away from its base and then is ejected and a new hair begins to grow in its place. I think it is a positive sign when you stop seeing hairs with the white bulbs attached, to me it means you are having longer life and growing cycles of the hair. I have just started to notice this with my son, when he first started losing his hair I was always seeing these white bulbs, and yet with all the hair I do, I have never seen the white bulbs on anyone else.

Hairs that have the white bulb are being prematurely shed, you are correct. They are in the telogen resting phase, and will likely be replaced by newer, thicker hairs if the shed is in response to a medication recently started, like avodart or propecia. Many times the best responders to drugs like dutasteride and finasteride lose the most hair at the beginning, because those weak hairs will be replaced by stronger ones. A lot of people panic and think that the drugs are permanently making their hair worse so they stop the drug and that's the absolute worst thing that you can do. Now those hairs that you lost may never grow back and you've stopped protecting the other ones as well.

 

[The Gardener]

JayMan is right, and allow me to clarify and further elaborate on the white bulbs.

First off, the white bulbs are good. It is my understanding that they are part of the sheath at the top of the follicle, and it is completely normal and in fact expected that all hairs shed through the normal human hair growth/shed/rest/growth cycle will have a bulb on them. In short, ALL shed hairs have bulbs on the end. The bulb is NOT the follicle itself! It is is a thin sheath of skin from the outside of the follicle that is supposed to be attached to the hair upon shedding.

Hairs that fall and do NOT have a bulb on them were NOT shed, and were instead somehow severed from their root, perhaps the hair shaft was too dry, or perhaps it was cracked some other way.

Now, some may say that they are certain that a hair was shed, but it has no bulb on it. Wrong. If the hair was shed, it has a bulb, but the bulbs can vary in size depending on the location on the scalp where the hair was shed from, and some shed hairs have bulbs that are so small that it is difficult to see them unless you really examine the shed hair shaft closely.

Bulb size is an indication of the depth of the follicle that the hair was shed from. The bigger the bulb, the better, as bigger bulbs indicate a larger hair follicle, which indicates that the now empty follicle is capable of producing another thick hair. As miniaturization of the follicles occurs, the hairs get more thin, and the bulbs get smaller, as male pattern baldness progresses. Bulbs on a human scalp are not uniform in size. Hairs shed from areas of thicker, more lush coverage will have relatively large bulbs, whereas hairs shed from the high sideburn/temple area will probably have smaller bulbs.

 

[Strat54]

The other day I pulled out a couple of my new grown hairs by accident, and they didn’t have a white bulb.

So that’s a good sign?

Also, I was also surprised of how easy they came out. I didn’t feel a thing.
It didn’t feel like pulling out a normal hair.

 

[The Gardener]

The other day I pulled out a couple of my new grown hairs by accident, and they didn’t have a white bulb.

If they were pulled out at the root, then the hairs have a bulb. Not all hairs have white bulbs, the bulbs can vary in size and color, and can often be so small that they are hard to see, but if it was pulled out at the root then the hair will definitely have some sort of bulb on it.

If a hair does not have a bulb, then it was not pulled out at the root, and was instead severed somewhere along the shaft of the hair.

So that’s a good sign?

Its not a sign of anything, other than whether or not the hair was pulled out at the root, or if it was severed or cut. If it was pulled out at the root, and the hair has a very, very small bulb that is not big and white, then it would actually be a bad thing. Big bulbs indicate deeper follicles, which tend to produce thicker hair shafts.

 

[tchehov]

I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble understanding this, perhaps my personal experience is clouding my judgement. I shed thousands of hairs with good (normal) white bulbs last year and expected that hair to be replaced. None was. Which is why I initially thought I was suffering from Telogen Effluvium.

I also remember Thin's photographs, posted a while back, and he was/is a markedly diffuse thinner on the sides as well as top. My own wreath is also streaked with visible scalp in similar manner.

I really am at a loss (no pun intended).

Edit: I forgot to add I hope you have seen some improvement, Thin, because I remember how upset you were.

 

[The Gardener]

The pattern of your hairloss has nothing to do with the bulb.

Think of it this way... teeth have roots. When you lose your baby teeth, the tooth falls out and there is a root on it. These teeth are replaced.

If, perchance, somebody loses a permanent adult tooth, the tooth will come out with a root on it. This tooth will not be replaced.

The moral of the story is that all teeth have roots. Just because a lost tooth has a root on it, or does not have a root on it, has no bearing on whether or not that tooth will regrow. Only genetics and age determine this. All hairs have bulbs. Presence or absence of hair bulbs really has nothing to do with male pattern baldness. Only genetics and hormones determine male pattern baldness.

The only teeth that are removed and have no roots were not pulled out at the root level, but were somehow fractured. Same goes with hair with no bulbs, a fallen hair without a bulb just indicates that the rest of the hair shaft is still in the scalp, and the hair was somehow severed from the rest of the shaft that is still attached to the root, on your scalp.

If you had several hairs come out at once that had healthy looking bulbs, it would indicate to me that you went through some sort of synchronized shed phenomenon, which happens and is very common. Whether or not it was a Telogen Effluvium event, I can't tell you. Also keep in mind that hair, after going through a natural shed, goes into rest mode for three months, and takes another three months to grow to a length long enough for it to be seen visibly above the scalp's surface. So, it is possible to lose this hair, and not see any signs of regrowth for six entire months, and it might take an additional four or five months for this regrown hair to reach any sort of cosmetic noticeability.

 

[tchehov]

I see, thanks. I'll do a bit more reading.

There's no science like no science. :wink:

 

[Thin]

Edit: I forgot to add I hope you have seen some improvement, Thin, because I remember how upset you were.

tchehov,

I recently switch from finasteride to dutas not long ago because finasteride was showing visible signs of halting my hair loss. I also added minoxidil to my regimen to help with regrowth. however since the time I been on dutas I do realize that recently I been shedding quite a bit more that I usually do, but I see more hair fallout since I'm actually applying minoxidil, which is when I see most my hairs fallout. I try to be gentle, but they continue to break off.

On a positive note, since using minoxidil I got a bunch of vellus hairs growing below my sideburns, by my temples and pretty much every where else along the outline of my scalp.

I don't understand why its easily growing hairs a long the outline of my scalp, but on my scalp I haven't notice a single hair thick hair appear yet. However, its still a bit early to say. I'll just continue to apply this minoxidil and take my dutas for the next 4-5 months. If I haven't seen much results then I'm going to add Tricomin to my regimen.

How is your hair coming along?

Good looking out.

 

[Thin]

JayMan is right, and allow me to clarify and further elaborate on the white bulbs.

First off, the white bulbs are good. It is my understanding that they are part of the sheath at the top of the follicle, and it is completely normal and in fact expected that all hairs shed through the normal human hair growth/shed/rest/growth cycle will have a bulb on them. In short, ALL shed hairs have bulbs on the end. The bulb is NOT the follicle itself! It is is a thin sheath of skin from the outside of the follicle that is supposed to be attached to the hair upon shedding.

Hairs that fall and do NOT have a bulb on them were NOT shed, and were instead somehow severed from their root, perhaps the hair shaft was too dry, or perhaps it was cracked some other way.

Now, some may say that they are certain that a hair was shed, but it has no bulb on it. Wrong. If the hair was shed, it has a bulb, but the bulbs can vary in size depending on the location on the scalp where the hair was shed from, and some shed hairs have bulbs that are so small that it is difficult to see them unless you really examine the shed hair shaft closely.

Bulb size is an indication of the depth of the follicle that the hair was shed from. The bigger the bulb, the better, as bigger bulbs indicate a larger hair follicle, which indicates that the now empty follicle is capable of producing another thick hair. As miniaturization of the follicles occurs, the hairs get more thin, and the bulbs get smaller, as male pattern baldness progresses. Bulbs on a human scalp are not uniform in size. Hairs shed from areas of thicker, more lush coverage will have relatively large bulbs, whereas hairs shed from the high sideburn/temple area will probably have smaller bulbs.

This totally makes sense and very simple to understand. Thats what I like about The Gardener. He knows how to reach the ones who don't have time to read a lot about hair loss to understand all those scientific terms and research.

Thanks Gardener.

 

[Thin]

I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble understanding this, perhaps my personal experience is clouding my judgement. I shed thousands of hairs with good (normal) white bulbs last year and expected that hair to be replaced. None was. Which is why I initially thought I was suffering from Telogen Effluvium.

Hopefully your hair isn't going in the same path as mines. I started with bulbs, but now, well I can't say there aren't any visible bulbs with Gardener's explanation, I have to say that the bulbs are barely visible. It looks like a super small piece of dandruff that was stuck to the hair now that I have looked at it carefully. Its not even 1/4 the size of what I remember seeing.

If your hair condition turns out to be similar to mines and I find a regimen that starts to work anytime soon I'll definitely keep you posted, tchehov.