Month: January 2023

I have heard that early androgenetic alopecia can present itself as an episodic telogen shedding. Can this happen also at an advanced stage, say, 8-9 years after AA was first detected?

Genetic balding first presents with miniaturization in those that are impacted. The miniaturization usually is progressive with thinning hairs that can be seen by a doctor’s video scope and the hair bulk can be measured with the HairCheck instrument. Continued shedding is common, as the hair loss process is progressive

I had drug induced TE from Depakote. I stopped the medication almost 2 years ago. My hair has grown back and I don’t have MPB. But my hair is miniaturized all over. Is it normal and permanent? Thanks.

If you are saying that the hair, when it came back, was of a smaller caliber, then this may be a permanent effect. I would have to see you and examine you with a trichoscope to understand the problem you pose

my hair has been rapidly shedding since March within two months of being sick. I noticed little white bulbs at the end of the hair. The hair on top, sides and back become difussed, now all of my neck hair has receded. The Derm says I have TE. does it sound like TE? Derm explained hair cycle phases. Am I in the Telogen phase.. Hair stops growing and shedds? when does it stop shedding.?

Thank you

Telogen effluvium (TE) can occur after a stressful illness. It does sound like that’s what you’ve got, but without examining you for myself I couldn’t really say one way or the other with certainty. People with RE will often have a positive hair pull test. If you are going through TE, it will usually stop within 6 months after you are fully recovered from your illness. Learn more about TE at eMedicine.

Can antidepressants, antipsychotic, betablockers & more medications after years on and off using cause hairloss? different structure, color and even thinning like miniaturization thin? I found sometimes a very long thin hair in the back and side of my head with less pigment in my hairline i can found them to.

I also now have Telogen Effluvium for the second time. 6 months ago i had a big telogen effluvium shed overall on my head. The cause was dramatic stress and heavy dieting. Now i still have TE, 3 months ago i had a overdose of medication. The overdose really damaged my health now, how long do you think TE will continue?

I’m losing thick hair overall and also in the front, occasionally a thin hair. If i had have hairloss from medication that i have using for 7 years can it lead to permanent hairloss? Can TE make the hairline worse?

Thank you for helping, i really appreciate it

Let’s keep it simple. Telogen effluvium (TE) is not permanent hair loss. It is temporary and the hairs should grow back within a year. Stress (extreme stress – as you write about) can also cause some diffuse hair loss but most people generally recover and grow back their hair with in a year. Genetic hair loss for men is known as androgenic alopecia (AGA) or male pattern baldness (MPB). There is a “pattern” to the thinning / balding… like a receding hairline. A receding hairline does not usually happen with stress or TE.

I don’t know what medications you’re specifically taking, but it wouldn’t be unusual for some people to see hair loss from some antidepressants. I couldn’t say one way or the other if it was your medication that caused your hair loss, though. The reason for your hair loss could be from other medical or genetic causes.

Bottom line — if you are worried about hair loss, see a specialist or discuss it with your primary care doctor. There’s only so much I can offer online without an examination or proper medical history.

Be honest and that shows you care. Men often deny early balding and by the time to stop denying it, the are past the point when they might have prevented or reversed it with medications. This goes to extremes and the denial can occur over a generation to the point where men can’t even see what happened to them such as those with the awful comb-overs whose wives and family never say a word. I know your question is really about early balding, but by being open and frank, you can show how much you really care and take a load off of his back.

Does miniaturized hair gradually grow shorter with each cycle or can a miniaturized hair be long, say 5-6 inches then fall and stop growing?

At the start of the year my hair was thick but after a stressful couple of months, all my hair turned super thin with bald patches. The hair turned so thin it has very wide partings. Also all my body hair thinned too. Beard, arms, legs and pubic area. It’s like every hair on my body miniaturized. I can see my scalp now with wet hair. It all happened quickly, this wasn’t a gradual thing. The hair texture feels weird. My beard hair has thinned the same. I had thick hair on arms and legs now it’s all very fine. My pubes are now thin and wispy. I started taking fin a few months ago. I was prescribed it for prostate. Will this help? I can’t find anything about this when searching the net, only TE but does hair thin during that? At the start of the year I was very stressed, hardly eating or sleeping for a couple of months which I”m sure caused this.

Let’s imagine a hair that grows out for two years and is 12 inches long. If miniaturized started into the second year, the hair closest to the scalp would be thinning then the hair at the end which was made 2 years earlier. So a miniaturized hair can be seen simply by pulling out a long hair and looking at both ends. Another aspect of these miniaturized hairs is that they will grow slower and slower over time, eventually they stop growing and just stay there, falling out with washing, brushing and just the wind.

There is another condition that I just recently defined in the literature called Age Related Thinning. In this situation, all of the scalp hairs become thinner all at once and it is uniform thinning throughout the scalp. Although this is more common in men and women over 50, it does appear in younger men and women. I have seen it in men in their 20s and they make the mistake to think that this is balding because they can see through the hair to the scalp. There is no known treatment for this and neither minoxidil nor finasteride can reverse this as I know it. This is my article about it: https://newhair.com/pdf/Kumaresan-Muthuvel-Bernstein-Rassman-Commentary.pdf

It is more than possible as many people have this done. The problem is the growth cycle of body hair which is about 6 months and the telogen cycle is 6 months. That means that if you are transplanting 100 hairs, only 50 will be growing at any one time. Because of the short hair cycle, the length is limited as well as the character which comes with the body hair texture. This, in combination, makes for considerable expense when doing these, you are only getting half of what a scalp or beard donor hair transplant would give you.