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.

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Yep! Some of mine have bulbs, some have no bulbs, and some look clear at the end. So weird! =\
Mine mostly do not have any bulbs. But they are not white though. I find that the shedding somehow does not affect white hair.
I stopped using the hair dryer, I let it dry naturally & twist it around on top of my head it looks better then it did w dryer. I went to a Dermatogist hair Dr. I'm now taking Finaseride daily, Vivascal vitamin professional grade, & putting Minoxidile 2% in day & Rogaine 5% @ night. It's been almost 40 days now. The good thing is the Rogaine makes my hair appear thicker!

Hi Epo, I developed Alopeica Aerata around the time my beloved aunt died. I was 48 and also starting menopause. I have had 4 patches in 4 years. I also have shedding during high stress times. I also had a lower than normal white blood cell count, no one knows why this happened both times. It is good to get the bloodwork done, so at least you know you are healthy. I would say that for me the shedding lasted about 3 mths each time. my hair has grown back several times with the help of steroid shots to the scalp. I would say that you are doing the right things to get medical care, and watch the situation. One thing I have really tried to do is watch myself for stress which seems to be my trigger. I have worked on my nutrition. I have started to work on just being OK with this condition. There are no easy answers. I had bulbs on some hair and no bulbs on others, and I found myself looking at every hair and looking at the patches. Now I try to just not do this every days and live life, enjoy my kids and rejoice that I am otherwise a well person. I found that the more I worried and was sad, the worse it was and worse I felt. Keep doing what you are doing, but work your emotions over it and that will help you 100%.

Hi epo. I had exact same experience. Massive shedding began approximately 4/1. Hundreds of hairs daily. Some w bulbs some without (or bulb was too small). Went to 3 derms and a naturopath. Had tons of blood taken. One diagnosed TE and said use rogain; next had me count hairs (I averaged 450/day some wash days 800-900); 3rd initially thought TE possibly from the flu at new years (btw the only one that looked at my nails for a beaus line) but now agrees w me it was probably semi permanent hair dye; I stopped shedding 2 months to the day.
I went all natural and organic with shampoos and conditioners (not even fragrance in products); loaded up on good for your hair foods; no brushes no blow dryers. Still to this day just a shower comb. Losing so much hair gave me such a scare I'm babying my hair. I'm on biotin, fish oil, vit d. All my blood work had come back in range. I declined any unnatural solutions If there is something else going on in my body I've read a lot to know this can suddenly reoccur. I had finally become ok w the hairloss and have pics on my phone of short choppy haircuts. If I get this again, Then I would revisit other solutions. I know this is like torture seeing tons of hair in the drain, But stressing is definitely not going to help your physical well being. Good luck. Hope this resolves itself as suddenly as it appeared.

I agree - stressing is not helping my physical well being at all! I go through some days being okay with what's happening to my hair, and other days, like this weekend, being really stressed and upset about everything that's happening.

I'm currently babying my hair too - I'm using a specially made set of natural shampoo/conditioner/tonics that my hair specialist makes in house, and I'm on biotin, amino acid supplements, a calcium/vitamin D supplement and a multi vitamin. Used to be on a hair/nail supplement, but it seemed redundant given all the things in it were in the combination of other supplements I am taking. I AM considering viviscal though, since the reviews of that hair supplement generally seem positive.

I don't know if I just have alopecia areata, diffuse alopecia areta (I hear two different meanings to this diagnosis so I am never sure which one is correct), or both telogen effluvium with alopecia areata! But yes, I need to try to not stress about it!

I am using arganlife.. The reason that it is so effective for repairing damaged hair and has even surpassed the other wellknown hair care products in popularity is because it is not only rich in vitamin E, but it also contains Omega 3 and Omega 9 unsaturated fatty acids that provides nutrition to hair. In addition to these, it also contains Linoleic and Oleic acid that helps to hydrate and moisturize hair as well as helps hair grow much faster.

Yes, I have seen a blog, the link of which is http://arganlifeproducts.com/

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