The Student Room Group

I Just posted this topic on a hair loss forum (lots of pics)

But I've been on TSR for years and would like to see what you guys think. Is this worth worrying over?

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I posted a thread a while back explaining my situation. This is a paste of that thread and my current situation and pics are at the bottom.

Hi guys,

For the past 4-5 months I have had a s***load of shedding every single day. I mean, I run my fingers through my hair and I can see strands on them and if I just lightly stroke my hair I can see strands falling. I wake up and see 5/6 strands on my pillow, I take a shower and lose at least 40 strands of hair. Putting gel on I can see 5/6 strands on my hands. It's really unbearable.

I had VERY thick hair throughout my childhood, so much so that I couldn't sport some styles. That's all gone now and I'm really worried because my hair is my best feature so you can imagine how I'd look without it.

Here are the pictures...

http://img830.imageshack.us/i/201104301511321.jpg/
http://img545.imageshack.us/i/20110430151115.jpg/
http://img15.imageshack.us/i/20110430151154.jpg/
http://img823.imageshack.us/i/20110430151047.jpg/
http://img846.imageshack.us/i/20110430150736.jpg/
http://img822.imageshack.us/i/20110430151010.jpg/
http://img534.imageshack.us/i/20110430150934.jpg/
http://img834.imageshack.us/i/20110430150857.jpg/

The hair is a lot finer than it was before and as you can see from the sides people can clearly see my scalp.

Please help.

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Firstly I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who replied to that thread - you guys were probably the reason I managed to avoid a lot of stress and pass my exams and gain entry to college.

Now, I shaved my hair more than a month ago to see if it would get better and in the pictures below you can see how much they've grown (pics taken 5 mins ago). As soon as I shaved my head I went to the doctor and she said that she could see little bald spots on the sides and in the back and that this was alcopecia areata but she couldn't answer any questions on my I was shedding SO many hair and the thinning so she referred me to a hair specialist who I'm going to see near the middle of August. She said they'd give me a little tube which should cure the bald spots but when I asked her about the shedding she didn't know anything.

So I just wanted to ask you guys how my hair is looking now. I'm shedding even more hair now and I really am not sure if my hairline has gotten worse or not so I'm hoping you guys could help me with that. Also I put almond oil before those pictures so it's a little better when my hair is dry but still as you can see it's not looking good. Could this really be mpb? I'm having to work 2 job a to save up money for college and literally can't even afford a pint right now let alone £30 a month for Propecia...

Hairline:
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5002/phuppimagecu.jpg
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5002/phuppimagecu.jpg
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/8132 ... mageub.jpg
http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/8149 ... magetr.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1026/phuppimagefx.jpg
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/8769 ... magexr.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/9791/phuppimagewh.jpg

Sides:
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/9791/phuppimagewh.jpg
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/6905 ... magegn.jpg

Crown:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6642/phuppimageju.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7388/phuppimageq.jpg

Opinions?
Kind of hard to determine when you're holding your hair back :s-smilie:
Would be better for us to judge if you actually just took pictures of your whole head from different positions, as that is what it's going to look like for the majority of people. No one is going to get as close to your hairline as you have with your camera.
Reply 3
Original post by ritchie888
Kind of hard to determine when you're holding your hair back :s-smilie:



Original post by FrostyLemon
Would be better for us to judge if you actually just took pictures of your whole head from different positions, as that is what it's going to look like for the majority of people. No one is going to get as close to your hairline as you have with your camera.


I thought that shoed the hairline better because my hair tend to fall over like a fringe no matter how small. The first two pictures are what you're kind of looking for I guess but from a distance?

It's funny I'm half white half black yet I have the head shape of my white mother and the mpb (though I hopefully don't have it) of my father. Would've loved it if it was the other way around lol.
Reply 4
Doesn't look that bad, looks thicker than the average guy anyway.

Being over self-conscious can make it look a lot worse than it is, but if's natural for hair to lose it's youthful thickess as you enter adulthood, does not neccessarily mean you're balding.
Reply 5
Original post by Yawn11
Doesn't look that bad, looks thicker than the average guy anyway.

Being over self-conscious can make it look a lot worse than it is, but if's natural for hair to lose it's youthful thickess as you enter adulthood, does not neccessarily mean you're balding.


I was waiting for a hilarious response. You disappoint me.

But yes, it looks loads thicker than the average person anyway, obviously you can notice a difference however and its how you feel that matter, not what other people think. Alopecia can cause hair loss, sometimes quite mildly - if it's something that's bothering you, you could just visit your GP to make sure?
Reply 6
Original post by DiZZeeKiD
I was waiting for a hilarious response. You disappoint me.

But yes, it looks loads thicker than the average person anyway, obviously you can notice a difference however and its how you feel that matter, not what other people think. Alopecia can cause hair loss, sometimes quite mildly - if it's something that's bothering you, you could just visit your GP to make sure?

I have my off days :sad:

Plus when the damn mods keep banning me I lose my mojo. :colonhash:
Reply 7
My hair constantly falls out and My hair has decreased with age. I personally don't know if there is a difference but I know the average person losses roughly about a 100 hairs a day. I think you might be getting little paranoid.
Reply 8
Hey I know it is difficult to keep up with the expectations and so I suggest you not to worry about the homework too much and pulling your hairs. I would like to say is just be confident about yourself and take the project one after another so as to help you boost your confidence level and thereby succeed in life.
Reply 9
Okay, first off, the pictures aren't terribly good.

Your crown looks fine, there's no loss or thinning there.

I can't really make out your hairline because of the pictures (although some of those pictures might be okay... the links don't work), so if you could post better shots of your hairline, it would give better evidence of recession. But from what I've seen, there doesn't *appear* to be any recession.

Also, post pictures of your hair with flash on, without flash, dry, and wet.
firstly ... it looks like youre being far too conscious about this, if i examined your hair in real life (judging from those pictures) i wouldn't even be slightly suspicious of hair loss. There is nothing wrong with your hairline whatsoever. If you are classed as someone who's balding then my hairloss would be classed as severe & its certainly not. And your crown, looks like no hair loss at all. Look at other peoples crowns next time you go out and you'l see theres really no difference.

Also your hairline could simply be maturing, sometimes men suffer phases of slight hairloss when they reach adult hood and then it stops until about another 10 years later when they'l go through another phase. I went to see 2 doctors and my hair loss is definitely worse than yours, my temples have receded quite a bit and they basically shrugged it off and said it was nature and nothing i could do about it so i'm quite mad you actually got referred to a hair specialist and i didnt! dam doctors...

Anyway, if you want a temporary 5-8 year fix, use minoxidil, (kirkland minoxidil, its a fraction of the price of regaine and works just as well) it's filled in my temples amazingly well and my hair in those problem areas is now as thick as it ever was, but i'm told it will only work for about 5-8 years until i have to go searching for other treatments :frown: so all its really doing is making the problem go away for several years before coming back, which i'm fine with, i should be comfortably settled in a job and earning money by then, so now's a good time for me to use minoxidil because a lot of permanent treatments are bloody expensive which i wont be able to afford until ive finished uni
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by The Racist Dragon
firstly ... it looks like youre being far too conscious about this, if i examined your hair in real life (judging from those pictures) i wouldn't even be slightly suspicious of hair loss. There is nothing wrong with your hairline whatsoever. If you are classed as someone who's balding then my hairloss would be classed as severe & its certainly not. And your crown, looks like no hair loss at all. Look at other peoples crowns next time you go out and you'l see theres really no difference.

Also your hairline could simply be maturing, sometimes men suffer phases of slight hairloss when they reach adult hood and then it stops until about another 10 years later when they'l go through another phase. I went to see 2 doctors and my hair loss is definitely worse than yours, my temples have receded quite a bit and they basically shrugged it off and said it was nature and nothing i could do about it so i'm quite mad you actually got referred to a hair specialist and i didnt! dam doctors...

Anyway, if you want a temporary 5-8 year fix, use minoxidil, (kirkland minoxidil, its a fraction of the price of regaine and works just as well) it's filled in my temples amazingly well and my hair in those problem areas is now as thick as it ever was, but i'm told it will only work for about 5-8 years until i have to go searching for other treatments :frown: so all its really doing is making the problem go away for several years before coming back, which i'm fine with, i should be comfortably settled in a job and earning money by then, so now's a good time for me to use minoxidil because a lot of permanent treatments are bloody expensive which i wont be able to afford until ive finished uni


I've been going through a phase of being paranoid (ocd) about my hair; been the doctors and stuff, been told my hair is fine. But while I was worrying, I was researching different treatments, and minoxidil is apparently best used in conjunction with finasteride, and I *think* you're able to get in on prescription. I'm not entirely sure though.
Original post by henrysickle
I've been going through a phase of being paranoid (ocd) about my hair; been the doctors and stuff, been told my hair is fine. But while I was worrying, I was researching different treatments, and minoxidil is apparently best used in conjunction with finasteride, and I *think* you're able to get in on prescription. I'm not entirely sure though.


You can't get topical minoxidil on prescription, only the oral stuff which is used to treat something entirely different. Also you can't get finasteride on prescription either for hair loss.

But anyway the minoxidil I have used is £18 for 10 months worth so it's hardly worth bothering with prescription. I don't use it with finasteride and it has worked very well so far as pointed out previously & I've only been using it for 2 & a half months and nobody would ever guess there was any hair loss now. Your hair loss seems either far too mild or non existent to use minoxodil though, i'd save it until you actually do get noticable hair loss since minoxidil only stays effective for 5-8 years. I'm too reluctant to try finasteride though, i don't like the sound of the side effects...
Reply 13
my hair started shedding really quickly when I was eating a lot of processed carbs.

Once I switched to a high protein diet along with about 250g of spinach every day, within four weeks I could aggressively run my hands through my hair and not pull out a single strand of hair.
Original post by The Racist Dragon
You can't get topical minoxidil on prescription, only the oral stuff which is used to treat something entirely different. Also you can't get finasteride on prescription either for hair loss.

But anyway the minoxidil I have used is £18 for 10 months worth so it's hardly worth bothering with prescription. I don't use it with finasteride and it has worked very well so far as pointed out previously & I've only been using it for 2 & a half months and nobody would ever guess there was any hair loss now. Your hair loss seems either far too mild or non existent to use minoxodil though, i'd save it until you actually do get noticable hair loss since minoxidil only stays effective for 5-8 years. I'm too reluctant to try finasteride though, i don't like the sound of the side effects...


Yeah, I knew you had to buy minoxidil (Rogaine etc.), but I thought you were able to get finasteride (Propecia) on prescription? If I'm wrong... then don't take my advice on medication lol.

Either way, I doubt you, the OP has any hair loss at all.

... and diet doesn't affect hair loss, according to different forums I've been on. Then again, I was wrong about the medication.
Original post by henrysickle
Yeah, I knew you had to buy minoxidil (Rogaine etc.), but I thought you were able to get finasteride (Propecia) on prescription? If I'm wrong... then don't take my advice on medication lol.

Either way, I doubt you, the OP has any hair loss at all.

... and diet doesn't affect hair loss, according to different forums I've been on. Then again, I was wrong about the medication.


yes you can get it on prescription but not on the nhs.. private prescription only, and it's £85+ for 1 months worth of 1mg finasteride, compared to £2.50 for a month worth of 5mg daily finasteride used for prostate cancer... it's pretty evident that these companies are taking advantage of balding men & making as much money as they can.
Reply 16
Or, if you're clever enough, you'll import dutasteride (far more potent than finasteride) from abroad.
i'd advise against the dutasteride. it's a DHT inhibitor. i've seen side effects on various forums. men looking a bit girly. plus it can cause impotence and give you boobs. you want your hair, not a pair of fun bags.

... i'm exaggerating a bit on the boobs. but still. it can cause a bit of growth.

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