Rare form of hair loss in left lower side of donar area

[kakarot]

Ok, so now Im quite freaked out and very upset on what I just saw on my scalp. I have mentioned to you before sam that I have had this rare form of hair loss in the donar areas where most men dont lose their hair in those areas. I go to look in the mirror with another mirror to specifically look in this area. And I notice that there is quite a tremendous amount of hair loss in my lower left side of my scalp, the donar area that most transplant doctors take hair from cause hair isnt suppose to be loss in that area. The weird part is, is that on my lower right side of my scalp is not affected at all, theres complete hair on that part but its just my lower left side thats all messed up. The only thing I can think of is that there was an health insurance lady that came to my house to take blood, she messed up the process and caused my vein in my left arm to collaspe. I didnt think it would affect me that badly cause there was a brush in shape of the vein where it had collapsed and after awhile it went away. Now Im thinking the collapsed vein in my left arm took away blood flow to my left area of my scalp, losing lots of hair on the lower left side of the donar area and even my left side of my hairline is receding fast then the right side of my hair line. Its so messed up I hate this, I emailed dr. lee to see if he knew anything about this. Here is the copy of the email I sent him

"Dr. Lee,

I am very scared at this moment and have noticed tremendous hair loss on the left lower side of my head. The part where doctors usually refer to as the donar area, the area where most hair transplant doctors take the hair from the donar area cause most men are not suppose to lose hair in this area. I have noticed this for awhile but now I took a look in the mirror and there are many areas on the left lower side of my scalp that has no hair, its hideous and I can barely stand looking at myself in the mirror. And the weird thing is that the right lower part of my scalp is completely fine with no hair loss what so ever. I am scared, could this be a cause of cancer? The only thing I can think of is that one time a lady from a health insurance company come personally to my house and took blood out of my left arm, the vein collapsed and it was brushed along my arm for a few months. There is even stretch marks on my inner bicipe area where I had the vein collaspe. So I am thinking that the failure of blood flow to my left side took away the blood flow to my left scalp, even my left side of my hairline is receding fast compared to my right side. I dont know what to think anymore but I am desperate to know, and I am going to see my doctor about this as well. If you can help me with any of your knowledge it would help me alot. Thanks, and if you want to see pictures I will email you them tomorrow cause my digital camera needs to recharge. Thanks"


So yea....Im scared very scared and I am so about to just completely shave my head and hope its not cancer causing this and hope I can be healthy. I am 21, young and living life, I dont want to experience this anymore, it almost makes me not want to live as sad as it sounds.....Im sorry but thats how I feel....

[James]

Hey man,
I think that you need to take a deep breath and just relax first. I am sure it is not cancer. I just think that you need to make an appointment with a dermatologist. Sometimes wierd stuff just happens. I know how it feels dealing with this stuff and it is overwhelming. I think that all of here know how it feels. I understand the thoughts about suicide as I have experienced them before too. But honestly those thoughts are not rational and would solve nothing along with causing a tremendous amount of people pain including everyone here on these boards. What you have to do is just push through it and keep talking to us because we are all dealing with the same issues. We need to stick together.

I am sure that a derm would beable to tell you what the deal is with the thinning in the donor area. Sometimes hairloss in wierd places like that is due to stress and it seems like you are VERY stressed out. Just keep your head up, see the dermatologist and then we will take it from there. And also. dont forget to live for today, and I mean today! Take a deep breath and just enjoy the day for whatever it has to offer.

[HairLossFight.com]

Kakarot,

Blueshard is right. I know it's very tough but please try to calm down a bit. You should definitely make an appointment to see a dermatologist right away. Do you have a good family doctor? If so, I would schedule an appointment with him or her first and tell her how you feel, and that you need to see a dermatologist that will take the time to listen to you and really check out your hair loss.

Having said that, let me give you a bit more info about my own hair loss. First when my hair line started receding, it receded about one inch higher on the right-hand side than on the left. I was 20 years old at the time, just at the age where I thought looks mattered the most. It devasteded me. As for the back of the neck. I actually had recession UNDERNEATH my donor area!! It scared the living crap out of me, but it stopped after a certain point and doesn't look too bad.

I have learned to deal with my hair loss in a number of ways to minimize the impact. Keeping it short, sometimes using a concealer, and getting on a good regimen. Your regimen is pretty good. You need to be able to get your confidence about your hair, your looks and yourself in general--your overall self-esteem--in good shape. To do this you need to realize that once you've done the best you can to control your hair loss, which in my opinion you HAVE done, then it's out of your control at that point. When something is out of a person's control then (I know it's hard) but they SHOULDN"T WORRY ABOUT IT!!! All you can do is the best that you can. Know your intrinsic worth. There are a LOT of people that will like you for who you are and not give a DAMN about your hair loss.

As for women (another reason why guys your age worry about hair loss) something that I learned in my mid-twenties that I wish I knew in my early twenties, and that's even MORE apparant to me in my thirties is that for women, while the way you look IS important it is MUCH MORE important how you ACT!!!!!! How you project confidence and calm and poise and humour. Women are very attracted to guys that are sure of themselves and that's a fact. So you can do a lot to look really good (i.e. dress well, keep your hair short, work-out, etc.). Do those things. If you do those things well, you'll look better than most average joe's who've got hair down to their eyebrows. Start building up your self-confidence by looking after number one -- YOU. Do something that you're proud of. Keep active in things like sports, or if you don't like sports, then get involved in some kind of extra-curricular activity that requires you to interact with people. Volunteer. I know that this is straying away from the topic of hair loss, but trust me. When you're doing things that you're proud of, and taking care of yourself at the same time, you begin to think, "Hey, I'm a desirable guy..." You begin to stop thinking about yourself and worrying about how well you will please people, and instead you'll want to only surround yourself with people that please YOU and that add to your self-confidence.

See what I'm getting at here? I'm only saying these things so that you'll realize that life does get better. Trust me.

When I was 20 years old I was EXTREMELY depressed by the loss of my hair and I focused so much energy on that that I wasted about 5 years of my life just wallowing in my own sorrow and worry. The one thing that I did starting when I was about 22 years old was work out regularly. This boosted my confidence a lot. Along the way I met a lot of girls and started to learn what kind of guy the kind of girls that I liked were attracted to and I just worked on myself. I eventually met one that I ended up marrying that had all the characteristics I was looking for (and believe me, a lot of very good looking guys with full heads of hair are wondering how I pulled it off). It's all about how YOU feel about YOU. That's the little secret in all of this.

Hair is obviously a important to everyone in these forums or we wouldn't be here. We all think it makes us look better to have a full head of hair. In the grand scheme of things though, it's probably one of the LEAST important things.

In short, focus on things that you can control in your life to give yourself more confidence and let the stuff you can't control bounce off of you.

Keep talking to us man and take care of yourself.

Sam

[kakarot]

Thank you Blueshard and Sam, you guys are wonderful people and I appreciate everything you guys have done. Your support and concern for me is much appreciated and admired by far. A few things, I talked to Dr. Lee and he said I could have a form of alpecia areata which he said could be treated in many ways and that it could even have spontaneous regrowth. Which would be cool if it happens, I think taken MSM and Saw Palmetto made my hair STAND straight UP which made the hairless spots on my lower left side of my scalp seem more noticable which freaked me out, I took a shower this morning then looked at it, didnt look so bad, barely noticeable, so I was relieved. Dr. Lee and even my step father told me that a collaspe vein would have nothing to do with it, that its not linked to my hair. So I was somewhat relieved about that. And YES I have already made an appointment with my family doctor and am going to make a list of questions for him and possilby have him do blood test on me. Just to be safe, I am sorry for scaring you all, I would never take my life, I have too many close friends and family here that I could never do that to them. Plus I am very talented artist and I want to make movies someday (I am currently working on a independant film with me and my friend and its a very good story and I am halfway through the script) so I have alot to live for. I just sometimes cant help but feel that way.....its just a feeling just a thought but I hate feeling it or even thinking about it, just makes me depressed. Also, I am confident and I have a good personality, I am honest, modest, and very polite and kind to people, Im funny and outgoing and make people laugh at work and outside of work. I am starting to hang out with this girl I met at work and shes very beautiful and seems to have a nice personality, last night she was over my place and I took my hat off, and I think she noticed my hair loss but didnt care, considering we were making out for an hour haha, but shes amazing, I hope things go well between me and her, in my mind shes a keeper, I hope she thinks the same of me though. Cause I just want one girlfriend for the rest of my life, and she could be that one, but too early to tell. But its going good so far. And about the sport thing, I work out, pretty often, if not everyday, then every other day, I have been into martial arts since I was 11 and I have gotten back into my training. Plus the movie I want to make this summer will involved alot of fighting and martial arts so I need to update myself on my skills. And so far I have impressed myself with my martial art and sword skills. Its good for my body and mind, I quit smoking pot 3 weeks ago in which I use to smoke pot everyday for the last 3 years cause of stress and lonliness, I shoulda quit smoking pot awhile ago cause now I feel great and better then ever, Im more outgoing and more active, I do more things and if it wasnt for that I probably wouldnt be talkin to the girl I am seeing right now. This girl and I are going to the park on monday to hang out and probably will hang out all day, Im thinking about going to see her today cause she closes, I figure Id stop by and see her for a little bit. I always catch her looking at me and smiling when Im at work, Im a cook and shes an ice cream maker so she works like 10 yards away from me but close enough so I can look at her. Haha sorry I just got caught up in the moment, guess I really like the girl. But yea, confidence is a good quality in which I am starting to gain more of it. Well, I will update you on my situation in a week or so when I talk to my doctor next week. Thank you guys for everything, you guys are wonderful. Oh and one more thing for Sam, to answer your question in your email, no I dont go to school no more for now, I graduated and got my associates degree and graduated with a GPA over 3.5 considering Im pretty intelligent. I dont plan on going back to school until a year or half a year, eventually I want to get my masters degree in films and media arts in california then make high budget films from there. So if I ever became famous or have a big budget movie release, I will let you guys know. Oh and Im not doing this for fame and fortune, its for my grandfather who passed away years ago, and for myself and everyone I love.... Take care everyone and thanks again.....

Kakarot

[kakarot]

Well I went to doctors, he said it was normal for that kind of hair loss and not to worry about it. Oh and I got bad news....that girl I was speaking of that I was seeing, is leaving me not cause Im a bad guy or anything I done wrong, shes leaving me to work for her uncle which is hours away and says she dont want a long distance relationship so me and her are done for now. She said she would regret leaving me but she cant let her uncle down so whatever. It hurts alot, I cried, and even called off work for 2 weeks so I can recover, its taken alot out of me but only time can mend my wounds, inside and out. I hope the stress doesnt make my hair loss worse but Im trying to keep my chin up as best as I can but I never liked no one like I did this girl, she was everything I could want in a girl, but oh well, people say its her loss and to not worry, so I am given myself hope, I shoudlnt beat myself down so much cause I didnt do nothing wrong, but sometimes heart brakes are enevitable, and I might go through many more until I find the right one, I just hope I can be back to normal, cause I stopped working out due to lack of energy and motivation, I been sleeping alot I dunno why, probably cause of depression, Im sorry to talk about my life like this, but it helps to get it out in my opinion. Thanks for your time everyone