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Hair shedding
For all you alopecians out there, did/do you have hair shedding? How long did it last, if it went away? Did it coincide with your patches/loss? Did anything help your shedding decrease? And how did the hair look when it fell out - bulb or no bulb, broken or intact?
I started to shed early January 2013, but didn't notice it much. I went from losing about 10-20 hairs a day, to about 50 and just went "ah well." Then, at the end of Jan, I found my first patch, and began to notice I was losing about 80-120 hairs a day, depending on if it was a day I washed my hair or not. By February until the May 2013, I began to shed 150-350 a day, the lower number for when I didn't wash my hair, and the higher number for when I did wash. I also noticed many patches, and the patches I had previously were growing huge!
It's now the end of June, and my shedding is back "down" to about 100-150 a day, but honestly, given I've lost about 50-60% of my scalp hair, I feel like my shedding decreased because there isn't much left to fall out.
In the beginning, a vast majority of my hairs had bulbs on them. I hear that that could indicate telogen effluvium, but to this day, I am not too sure if that's what I had/currently have. Then in March-May, a majority of my shed hairs had no bulbs. Now, at the end of June, the hairs that are falling out are a pretty even mix of bulbs and no bulbs hair.
I tried not washing my hair often in the beginning, but I still lost a lot, and now i wash my scalp with a specialized shampoo/conditioner/tonic every day to every other day as directed by my hair specialist. I started this regimen at the end of April, and maybe not related, but that was when my shedding started to ever so slightly decrease.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sunflower25 on
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I noticed a lot more shedding when I was diffused - no spots that time around.
This time around, I have spots and I do not notice shedding. Yes, a bit more in the shower, but nothing substantial. I wash my hair daily - always have. I'm not exactly sure when these spots lose their hair since I never notice!
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Permalink Reply by Epo on
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Yeah! I never noticed when the hair loss on the spots set in, it felt instantaneous... but then where is all the hair from that patch?!
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Permalink Reply by Madeline on
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I also noticed shedding. I found my first patch in May, and I now have about 8. I have lost about 60% of my hair, but most of the loss is not from the patches. My dermatologist was shocked to see that about 40 hairs fell out when he combed through my hair with his fingers once, and that my ponytailed is less than half the size it was a month or two ago. He wants to test my iron levels, because he things that the shedding is not just related to alopecia. Long story short, they seem to go hand in hand. Good luck, this is such an infuriating condition.
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Permalink Reply by Dorothy on
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My hair went while I was in the hospital within hours after the birth of my daughter in clumps, I had a patch the size of a quarter at the nape of my neck. Within a few hours more I had several more patches. When I showed the doctor he said it was do to the anesthesia, problem with that, I HAD NO ANESTHESIA. He, the doctor had not arrived in time for any to be administered. I can not describe how the hair looked, it was 40 years ago. With in 2 weeks I was wearing scarves to cover the lack of hair, within 4 weeks, there was NO hair. There has been NO HAIR since. For about 2 years the eyelashes and brows would come and go, then they went and stayed gone.
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Madeline - I'm sorry about your shedding - it really sucks.
I know.Christy
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My hair started to seriously shed last fall. I thought I would surly go bald in a few months at the rate it was falling out. The shedding stopped after several months and I was left with very very fine hair and the little that was left was white. My hair has since filled in considerably but all the hair that was replaced came in white. I am 55 years old and I now have snow white hair and I mean "snow white". My dermatologist said that the original hair colour could return in a year or two but I am not holding my breath.
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Permalink Reply by Mel on
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May 1st I noticed my first patch and about a week after that I started to feel a burning/itching feeling on my scalp. Not too long after my hair started to shed. I started getting little spots all over my head and most of the spots have now connected. I fortunately had thick hair and a lot f it so you can't really see the spots on my head until you lift my hair to look. I have bald spots literally ALL over my scalp. I've lost over half of my hair and I've made the decision to wear a topper to add the volume back in my hair. I've noticed bulbs on some of the hairs that shed and no bulbs on some. The burning feeling has subsided a lot but I'm still losing hair. It seems like the shedding has gone down a bit but I don't think too much about it because before when I would think the shedding was slowing down I would take a shower and end up losing two full handfuls of hair. I now wash my hair very 4-5 days for the fear of losing so much hair. I'm hoping my hairloss does slow down a lot or stop otherwise I won't have anymore hair. This condition sucks! I've always ha beautiful hair and was always complemented on my hair, now I barely have any! I can hope it gets better for us. A little history about me....I'm 30, no known family history, never had this until now, blood work came back great, etc....My doc thinks that either the major stress I went through and or the bad flu I got caused the alopecia areata. Supposedly alopecia totalis and universalis is rare so let's hope that we don't progress to that. Good luck to you! Hope everything gets better for you....and me! :)
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Back in February and March, I had bouts when I didn't wash my hair for 4-5 days at a time as well. Turned out that I was going to lose that hair anyway, whether I washed it that day or ten days later. :( But I started seeing a hair scientist at the end of April, on top of seeing my dermatologist ever few weeks, and she told me that it is imperative to wash the scalp daily, or at most, every other day. She told me in my case, I should wash my hair daily with her products (not sure what the policy is on recommending treatments/items, so I'll be brief and you can do research, or message me for me information - I go to the Philip Kingsley Hair Clinic in NYC).
She said that the in her years upon years of experience, most people will have their hair grow back, and that you and I and the rest with alopecia areata are not unique. When she said that I laughed, but it did make me feel better to not feel alone. She said that what she can do for me is help me make my scalp as healthy as possible, to help foster hair growth, while the management of stress, protein in diet, and general inner health management depends on how dedicated I am (and obviously, I would say I am dedicated since losing hair is no picnic!). So with that, maybe reconsider washing your hair more often? The hairs are already wired to fall, so even if they don't fall today, they will fall at some point until "the alopecia runs its course" as she says to me every time I freak out.
This is a tough thing to deal with, but at the very least... we are healthy inside! best of luck to you as well :)
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anybody have any luck with onion juice? I will be starting that this week. I am at 75% bald now. I am miserable. But there nothing I haven't tried to create hair growth. I have had full hair regrowth when pregnant twice. But I am happy with two children. Cannot get pregnant just to have hair. Getting a new wig soon.
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My hair also completely regrew during pregnancy and then stayed a few years after. The MD said that pregnancy suppresses the immune system so that mom's immune system doesn't attack the baby, and that is why the immune system also stops attacking the hair during pregnancy. Other autoimmune diseases also get better during pregnancy.
Good luck with your new wig. I thinking the same thing. So hot during summer though.
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I TOO HAD A FULL HEAD OF HAIR THROUGH BOTH MY PREGNANCIES - I HAVE SUFFERED FROM ALOPECIA FOR OVER 20 YEARS NOW. I HAVE LOST PERCENTAGES TO MY FULL HEAD, EYELASHES, EYEBROWS AND BODY HAIR. MY HAIR GREW BACK LAST AUGUST....TOOK MY WIG OFF IN SEPTEMBER....NOT EVEN A YEAR LATER IT ALL FALLING OUT AGAIN. I JUST PURCHASED THE OVATION HAIR THERAPY SET....STARTED USING IT LAST WEEKEND...WILL UPDATE IN A FEW WEEKS HOW IT IS WORKING OUT.
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Hi Epo,
I'm sorry about your shedding. I have also experienced diffuse shedding with AA. I have about 1/4- 1/3 of my hair left. Not much, and you are right the hair count goes down when there are less hairs on the scalp. One dermatologist said diffuse shedding could be a low Ferritin level. Mine was low and I to rx iron. But it did not help the shedding much, maybe a little. ( The Ferritin level is different than your iron count.)
Christy
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