Hair loss. Not sure of the cause. PLEASE read!

Posted , 10 users are following.

Please read everything;

Long story short. My hairs been both, falling out as well as breaking severely for a few months now.  I'm 19, female. Hairloss does NOT run within my family although my mom lost about 85-90% of her hair at the age of 51 she was severely stressed and was in a bad state and she also never ate. Her hair grew back eventually. My dads fine and so are my grandparents on both sides. The first time I had extensive hair loss, like complete breakage of my hair was in my grade 9 year. I lost half of my hair mass due to straightening it everyday for years. I cut out straightening completely and my hair grew back and I had really thick hair all of highschool and up until this year, I suppose. I can say that the past year has been severely stressful as well as psychologically stressful for me, especially the months of July to September. My diet is also crap because I've developed depression and anxiety as well which kills my appetite. I read that hair loss can be caused by stress and is called telogen effluvium. I'm not sure if that is what I have. I went to the doctors and got a blood test done. It came back fine and my doctor told me I might have a scalp infection ("might" helps a lot right?) and he told me to buy nizoral shampoo. It's not been helping. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to go bald. I hope I don't have alopecia thou I'm not sure what causes it. Ughh

1 like, 9 replies

9 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi Chantal,

    Your blood work might be ok but I doubt they checked your ferritin levels. These are your iron stores. You can have normal iron but low ferritin. This can cause hair problems. Stick with rye nizoril shampoo if your doc recommended it, but you may want to try a good multivitamin with iron, especially if you say your diet is crap.

    And chill out girl, 19 should be fun. What’s stressing you so badly? 

    ❤️

  • Posted

    If you're losing your hair in patches then it is alopecia areata. And quite frankly it sounds like your mother had that too. and I'm kind of irritated at your doctor for not doing more for you. You have to keep in mind that shampoo is not going to make you grow hair. It can however protect the hair you have and keep it from breaking off. What you need to do is see a dermatologist. The dermatologist can determine what your hair loss is from. Although you certainly can lose hair from stress alopecia areata is not caused by stress. And that's contrary to what a lot of people believe. But having it myself I was actually the least stressed of all times. There are treatments for Alopecia areata that will help your hair grow back in so you really need to see the dermatologist because he's the only one that can do these treatments. My alopecia started when I was in my mid-forties I am now in my mid-fifties and I still have it. But I have a whole head of hair now and I just occasionally get spots and I can usually cover up the spots with my hair. But when I get one I hightailed it to the dermatologist and she gives me injections around the bald spot and my hair eventually grows back. I hope you have the same luck I've had.

  • Posted

    Amkoffee I am interested to know what the injections are that make your hair grow back? Also can I ask whether both yourself and Chantal live in the USA? I know doctors here in the UK look at things differently. My hairline is receding dramatically (I am 63) which I hate but I never find where the hair goes to as there are no traces in the bath or shower tray. Yes I am stressed a lot of the time although my husband scoffs at this idea and says I cannot possibly be. My sister has no hair at all and has worn a wig for years and is 6 years younger than me. I no longer like looking in the mirror and have lost a lot of confidence with my waning looks. In my case is it an age thing.........
    • Posted

      If you're losing the hair up front it's what they call female pattern baldness. And with it you might also have some thinning all around but it's predominantly on the top of your head and the front of your head. I don't know that the treatment I get for my alopecia areata will help you because those people I know that have female pattern baldness have not been able to find a treatment that works. But what they injected into my scalp is a type of steroid. I can't remember the name of it but I'm sure your dermatologist will know. When I had a lot of hair loss I couldn't have the injections in my scalp because it would have been way too many injections so they gave me the injection of the steroid in my rump. And I got a shot monthly for 3 months. In addition to doing that I also used Minoxidil and a steroid foam that I massage into my scalp.

      Do you know why your sister lost all her hair? With her having lost it all that sounds like that she had alopecia totalis. Which simply means that she lost all the hair on her head rather than just patches like I did. I just had a lot of patches that melted into each other eventually. But it wasn't an all over balding that's why it was still alopecia areata as opposed to your sister condition.

      I can completely understand how you feel. I had two male doctors tell me that I was lucky I hadn't lost it all like they had. Which I thought was quite insensitive because we all know that a guy being bald is not the same as a girl being bald at all. And after those two said that crap to me when I walked into my dermatologist office for the first time I told him before he had a chance to talk to not say that to me or I'd walk out the door. And he was very sympathetic and understanding. During that time I wore a lot of hats and I bought a wig to wear. But I found a wig was very uncomfortable and itchy.

      I wish you luck because it is really really hard on our spirit to have our looks change so drastically. And tell your husband he just doesn't understand. LOL

  • Posted

    Genetic, diet, age, and depression is the most common issue for hair loss. every age of peoples (men & Women) gets this big problem. It depends on you what do think about hair loss. This is a serious problem for youngsters. Medical treatment will help you for better treatment. I also get problems in hair loss when I was turning in this age.

    Your story is so painful and I appreciate your experience.

    • Posted

      You’ve not mentioned iron and vitamin deficiency which is not the same as diet. 
    • Posted

      A doctor gives you medical treatment, in medicines included all the vitamins and irons.
  • Posted

    The final solution is hair transplant. I would only recommend you to opt hair transplant surgery. I have taken it from Hair & Senses. 

  • Posted

    I have Lichen Plannus and am losing ny hair. I am taking am antibiotic and biotin, which seems to help. I took the steroid shots in my scalp but that only stopped the severe if hing, which us much better now

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