Black female 36: Hair is thinning from shedding due to highlights put in months ago. What can be done to help this?
Don’t assume that your thinning is from the highlighting. It sounds doubtful. I can not blindly stab at an answer to your questions without access to you, get your correct history, examine you, etc. You should see a dermatologist if the hair does not regrow. Not much I can do online at this point.
I am 42 yrs (female) and have been experiencing hair loss at the front of my head to the middle I’m of african descent with natural hair. I try all products that encourage re-growth with no results. Using rogaine made me gain weight and I also suffer from anxiety. Can you help?
I’ve never had any patient of mine report weight gain as a side effect of Rogaine (minoxidil), but it may be a side effect of your stress. As you are a woman, Rogaine would be the only medication I’d recommend, as it is the only one FDA approved to treat female hair loss.
Dr. Rassman:
Does the shedding of miniaturized hairs always indicate AGA, or can the presence of miniaturized hairs be due to another cause of hair loss? If so, what else can cause it?
Thank you for any input
Hair grows in cycles. During the stages of the cycle, individual hairs may go through physical changes often referred to as miniaturization. In normal non-balding people, the miniaturized hairs will represent less than 20% of the hair population. Miniaturization is the process where a normal thickness hair shaft becomes thinner and thinner over time. It can be due to the genetically determined effects of aging and/or androgenic hormones on the terminal (normal) hair follicle or other stress related or medical conditions (physical stress, mental stress, stress from chemicals or drugs, diseases, dietary problems, etc).
Miniaturization does not necessarily indicate AGA. It does not in itself give you a diagnosis, but a general state of hair health. The diagnosis comes from a good history and physical exam with a complete mapping of the scalp hairs for miniaturization.
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Dear Dr. Rassman,
I am a 43 year old lady with increased hairloss usually between 150-200 hairs a day at the moment.
3 years ago I had two lots of traumas which caused my initial hairloss. After eventually seeing a trichologist and starting estradex lotion (containing minidoxil and phyto hormones)my hairloss reduced this took 3-4 months to see benefit. Initial the estradex made more hair come out which trichologist said normal as the estradex gets rid of the bad hair making room for better quality hair. I was also put on a antidepressant dotheipin 75mg. 12 months ago I stopped estradex, hairloss returned, not that it totally stopped but hair did look thicker. I have started back on estradex about 3 months on side of head but the partening looking slighlty wider on one side so started using estradex along this area for last 6 weeks. Still taking dothiepin 50mg – 75 mg alt days. I have recently started vitamins saw palmetto and pygeum and stinging nettle root. Sure my telogen as increased within a day of taking this vitamin could it be related. Taking high doses off this up to 2000mg. Or do you think its the estradex getting into my system (which contains 5% minidoxil)?
When I woke up yesterday, the birds were chirping and the air was crisp and I had a great day. Today when I woke up the dog was barking and the air was smoggy and I had a bad day. Do you think I had a good day because the birds where chirping or the air was crisp? Do you think I had a bad day because the dog was barking and the air was smoggy?
Your guess is as good as mine.
There’s too many variables and no direct proven relationships in the information you provided. It is normal to lose 100+ hairs a day. For most normal people, the regrowing hair will start at about the same time as the hair is lost so that the total hair count of hairs growing on the head stays constant. If you do the math, 100 hairs lost per day is about 109,500 hairs in three years (36,500/year) and that is the normal adult hair population. The hair cycling we have discussed before on this web site, is responsible for the fall out and the regrowth that is every person’s normal. The average growth cycle is 3 years for most people, so that means that in three years, most people replace 100% of the hairs on the head with new hair, one day at a time.
please help – my girlfriend is suffering from itching and burning on the top of her head – and she has little red bumps in that area. she picks at them until they peel or flake off – and now she is seeing her hair fall out in little small circles in this location. what can she do and what is causing this??? just some information: she is 50 y.o, in menopuase and has had this condition for about 3 months now. please help.
If she continues to pick, these bald spots may become permanent. The red areas you are looking at may be traumatic in origin from the picking. This is an obsessive condition called trichotillomania. She needs to see a good dermatologist to lock in a differential diagnosis and pick up therapy from the recommendation of the dermatologist. The signs of trichotillomania are very characteristic on an examination of the scalp, so a good doctor will easily identify this as a cause if it is what is happening to her.
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Hello Doctor!
I’m not unique, but have a specific question regarding female hair loss & regrowth. I am slowly going off of Topamax (w/Dr. supervision), and have recently gone off my birth control pills. I have extensive hair loss, to the point of clogging the shower drain daily (frightening!). I’m using topical Rogaine 5%, but have only done so for a month. How long does it take for hair to grow back? I’m confident mine will once my body adjusts to all of the medication changes. And does hair typically continue to fall out post-medication use? Please advise? Thank you!
Your question has a number of moving parts. You have recently stopped oral contraceptives and are tapering down on Topamax (both known causes of hair loss). Also, you have decided to start using Rogaine 5% for your hair loss, which if tolerated well, can only help. The standard time for hair to grow back once it has fallen out and gone into a ’sleeping cycle’ is about 4 to 8 months. If your hair loss is due to medication, it should hopefully grow back once the medication has been stopped. Given that you are under the supervision of a physician, I suggest getting a full medical workup to rule out other causes of hair loss.
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I too have hair thinning issues. I am 25 years old female, and this hair loss/itchy scalp began not too long after the birth of my son. At first I attributed it to post partum pair loss, but when it continued after 2 years, it became worrysome.
My hair seems to be constantly be falling out, and regrowing. I have a lot of frizzy baby hairs. My scalp is itchy, and when I scratch, in the general area I find like a granule of skin cells. It feels like the white bit at the base of a hair, only a little larger and dryer. Most of the hair that falls out also has these at the base of the hair. This is driving me crazy, PLEASE help me figure out what this is. I’ve had blood work and my thyroid is okay, and I am not a diabetic.
Thank you.
Female genetic hair loss can be triggered by pregnancy. There are unique patterns of miniaturizationi associated with the genetic process (even in females) and this pattern is easily seen with good densitometry studies mapping out the head for miniaturization. You should get this process done and if you have a genetic process then, at the least, you will know what it is that is causing your problem. For those who lose hair with pregnancy, most will reverse within a couple of years.
I am an 18 year old female, about to enter her freshman year of college. In my freshman year of high school (2002), one night before bed, I was brushing my hair and I screamed. I ran out to my mom and yelled that I was dying!!! I bent over and showed her the spot on my head the size of a quarter where there was not a single hair. Now, four years later, I do not have that one spot, but when I am in the shower washing my hair, I notice large amounts of hair that fall out into my hands, then, after my shower, I often wonder how much more will come out when I comb my hair with a wide tooth comb, and again, a lot. I do not know the cause of this, and I was wondering if you could please help me in telling me some of the causes of this that are in an 18 years olds life. Thank you.
See a dermatologist and let him/her examine you to answer your questions. It does require a good doctor and the knowledge that he/she has between their ears. Sorry, this isn’t the type of question I could easily answer over the internet without examining you first.
I have a question for my friend.. She has had hair breakage about 3 inches from the root. She has had over 15 surgeries in the past 7 years due to a motorcycle accident.. Her hair breaking has been an issue for over a year or 2.. She has had blood work done and nothing was found wrong. She has made an appointment with a hair specialist to do a test on a piece of her scalp. Is there any other simple reason that the doctors would be looking over like her nutrition? I am concerned for her and I wanna help her as much as I can.. If you have any answers for me I would appreciate it.
Stress from surgery can cause hair to fall out. I have often stressed (no pun intended) the importance of miniaturization mapping of the scalp to see the pattern of hair loss. This may be of benefit to your friend.
With regard to hair breakage (if it were you), I would want to know more about how you manage your hair, how you brush/comb it, what shampoos and conditioners you use, what changes you have implemented prior to noticing the breakage problem, and what the nutritional status of your body is (the hair may reflect vitamin and other nutritional deficiencies).
I’ve been searching your wonderful blog for treatment information on what is apparently termed, “Senile Alopecia.” My still beautiful mother at 84, may be experiencing this. She has been having a rather sudden increase in overall hair loss. Her scalp is showing through mostly on top, but also in the back and sides. I’ve copied your suggestions for possible medical causes in younger women. Once those are eliminated, is there anything at all that might halt this fast progression to almost total balness? Thank you so much for your help.
Senile alopecia often refers to generalized thinning or alopecia. With women, the female hair loss that we see on over 50% of post menopausal women, is a diffuse alopecia. We see this condition in 1% of men in their 20s. If the medical causes are not there and blood testing has cleared your mom of the the various causes of hair loss, then female genetic hair loss is probably the diagnosis. When it is referred to as senile alopecia, it generally means that the victim is elderly. It’s bad terminology. In the case of your beautiful 84 year old mother, simply put, she may be outliving some of her hair. Also see NHI Frequently Asked Questions.
