I am going through the biggest shed I have had since I first noticed that I was losing my hair more than 10 years ago. It started about 4 days ago and hasn't been relenting. I am still a Norwood 3V on the Norwood Scale, but at the rate that things are going I should be a Norwood 4 very soon.
For me, the problem is compounded by the fact that I have cicatricial alopecia following the same pattern as my MPB, so even though I can control the MPB, the cicatricial alopecia is still doing damage...
Anyway, enough of a sob story here. I have had a good run maintaining my hair in generally the same state for about the past 5 years. Looks like 2006 may the the year that I consider getting a hair transplant in.
We all know how crappy sheds are and I feel your pain Sam. Your cicatricial alopecia is following the same pattern as your hair loss? Is that just by chance? Do you mean in the temples or just in the crown?
Don't mean to be a pain..but did you stop Inflammil? I still use it even though the Elsom products probably take care of any minor inflammation going on...just in case.
I don't recall if you ever said you tried any of Elsom's products either..if you were able to tolerate them. I still think one needs a decent topical regimen to help things along.
Blueshard, I mean the cicatricial alopecia is happening in precisely the same areas as the androgenetic alopecia, along the hairline, temples and in the crown area. I read an scientific paper recently that documented this phenonmen. It looks like some people with AGA also have the cictracial alopecia occuring in the same areas. It's as if once the follicles start to shrink, the immune system kicks in and kills those specific follicles.
Anyway, I'm not overly fretting about it. There is always the option of hair transplants if things progress much further.
Jacob, definitely not a pain! I haven't used Inflammil since my bottle ran out. Mostly because the type of inflammation that I had at the time has gone away. I don't have any bumps or redness of the scalp now... Inflammil was what helped bring that under control for me. I may try topicals again soon, but I'm giving my scalp a good long rest before trying anything because of the hypersensitive scalp that I have... At least the lasercomb is helping to thicken up what has NOT shed already.
Hey Sam do you think that the lasercomb might have something to do with the shed. I think that I have had a shed because of it. A pretty big shed actually, and it didn't start until after I had been using the comb for like 4 months or so. I know correlation doesn't mean causation, but you never know.
I am sorry to hear that your shedding has increased. It feels like I'm barely loosing any hair this winter, but hair isn't growing back . So, my hair seems to be thinning despite my treatments.
I guess I was just surprised you'd stop using a topical that you could actually use. IMO things like Inflamil can help deal with "micro-inflammation"..what we don't even notice. Plus it does have dht "inhibiting" and growth promoting ingredients.
I haven't posted for a few months, because after being on Yasmin and minox for a year, my hair began to grow back enough for me to ignore the reality of thinning hair. I am still thin in the hairline and I contemplate adding either the laser comb or another topical to help the frontal area. Tricia, I do not know you history, but it took a year and half of minox before I saw little spikes of new hair. I am thinking that maybe we need to sometimes give something a really long time for our bodies to react.
I have gotten a benefit from minoxidil. I've been using it for about 1.5 years. But, I do continue to lose hair in front and the short hair that I see growing all over the top of my head is not new growth. It's further evidence that those follicles are getting smaller and producing shorter, finer hair.
I'm not stressing out over it too much though. I've done all I can do.
. So, my hair seems to be thinning despite my treatments.