Randomguy02

On 12/20/2019 at 12:59 PM, Melvin-Moderator said:

I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but perhaps you should speak to a counselor about this. You may suffer from a form of body dysmorphia and slight OCD. It’s definitely not healthy for you. I’m a huge proponent of mental health. Wish you the best. 

Yeah, at this point probably. I am actually seeing a therapist now due to my anxiety, and they are pretty sure I have OCD at this point. BDD is probably likely too. Therapy has been helping as I haven't been posting and obsessing about my hair as often as I was back in April/May/June/July... but I am still finding myself worried and freaking out from time to time.

I guess now I am at the point where I am still worried about the fact I keep shedding a lot of hairs, and I swear my hair feels thinner than it used to... but that could just be my own anxiety causing me to convincr myself myself it felt thicker in the past.

I guess the stress over this can't be helping, and I did find out I had a Vitamin D deficiency a few months ago that hopefully improved with supplements. I at least am going back to a dermatologist in two weeks for a 7 month followup to my last visit. Hopefully they can tell me if there have been changes or not 

I take it the part looks fine then and I just let my anxiety get the better of me... again?

So its been a few months sinceI last posted picture, not to mention its been a year since I first started worrying about balding.

Here are some pictures of my crown from today

For comparison here are some from a year ago

So while I am not certain, I don't see much of a change comparing those as well as the ones I took in in the months in between now and a year ago. I am not going to even bother with pictures of my hairline, as that hasn't budged at all on the past year

That said, I am kinda worried that I am losing density all over now. Been shedding a lot still on and off. I took some pictures where I parted my hair to see if it looks bad or not, and I am worried it looks quite thin. However I may be freaking out about nothing. I honestly don't know anymore.

Okay, thank you. I am just trying to keep an eye on it at this point and check every few months to be safe.

Sorry to bother everyone again, been getting really freaked out by the fact my shedding has increased. Does the crown still look fine in the pictures I took today? Or should I be worried?

Do the most recent pictures of the crown look fine? Or has there been any change sincr earlier ones

I have been hesitant to start fin and minox due to being concerned about the side effects when at an early stage. And for my hair feeling thinner, I honestly can't tell if it is or not. Sometimes it feels thinner, other times it does not.

Just wanted to leave some more pictures now that it has been a few months (8 since I first started worrying about this) and since I got a bit shorter haircut then I did the last few times. Does this still look normal? 

1 hour ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

You have a full head of hair, you have nothing to worry about. Not healthy to obsess over this. Trust me, if you start thinning someone will tell you. You have the opposite issue as most, those who really have hair loss are usually in denial lol.

Okay, thanks...

I've been pretty much going back and foward between realizing I am having anxiery over nothing, then switch back to freaking out again, and so on.

I just need to get this under control then somehow.

Anyone? I am still a bit concerned due to finding hairs of thinner diameter than others among those I shed, but I am not sure if this is miniaturization or not. It has me quite scared still.

On the other hand, everyone said my crown looked normal and the hair doesn't seem to have changed in the past six months (may actually look slightly better now, but I am not sure)

What should I do at this point? Try to find a dermatologist who can do a miniaturization study? Or just relax for now?

As a quick update, I now have 6 month pictures to compare.

These are from the past week.

Now these are from 6 months ago

Does there look like there is any change? Or about the same?

1 hour ago, pkipling said:

There is no "one single doctor" in LA that specializes in hair loss. I would disregard that post, as it appears to be spam. 

Now, back to you... I appreciate your persistence in getting people to tell you what you don't want to hear, but I really think it'd be a good idea for you to listen to all the evidence that is currently supporting the notion that you have nothing to worry about at the moment. The general consensus in this forum is that your hair looks perfectly normal and you have doctors who are backing that up and the last medical professional you spoke to told you the stress could in fact be exacerbating whatever is going on. Invitation to let this all settle and focus your energy elsewhere at the moment. ❤️  

Alright, I will do my best to put it out of my mind for now then. At this point I guess there is nothing more I can do anyways but wait, so I will just try to keep enough of an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get worse and otherwise put my focus on getting my anxiety under comtrol.

Sorry the bother people again, but I keep worrying about the fact I keep finding these thinner hairs among those I am shedding. I have read these could ne signs of early balding, but the dermatologist I saw said to not worry about it.  Most of the hairs seem normal thickness, but it is still scaring me a lot. Is it normal for some hair strands to be thinner than others? Should I be concerned?

Edit: wrong thread. Delete this

So just a quick update. I went back to the dermatologist who I saw before who did a the scalp biopsy, who then answered some questions and did another quick visual examination. I got them to explain the biopsy results in more detail, which had apparently showed normal numbers of terminal hairs, however with abnormally high numbers of telogen hairs. This biopsy was from the crown, three months ago now. This result they said could be very early MPB (listed as the differential diagnosis), however they said it was far far far more likely to be Telogen Effluvium based on those results due to the lack of miniturized hairs in that spot. So they said they are pretty confident I have mild Telogen Effluvium, which has been likely perpetuating due to my stress over hair loss.

So, at this point should I still try to find a hair loss doctor to do a minituriztion study? Or is it not worth it at this point.

Alright, alright, I will try to stop posting and worrying about it

Edit: I am going to leave one last picture (i mean it this time) I took this morning on my whorl. As a note, I did  try comb my hair in the opposite direction the whorl normally falls/grows (it only ever looks like this if i brush my hair in this manner). I have my finger next to it to compare size.

Does this look like its balding? Or just a normal whorl that looks worse due to longer hair, bright florescent lights, and being pushed appart? 

For comparison here are two after I let my hair fall how its naturally inclined.

4 hours ago, pkipling said:

Get a miniaturization test with a qualified HT Surgeon/Specialist if you really want to put your mind at ease. (And then if they tell you not to worry, trust them! Lol) 

That said, we shed on average around 100 hairs per day - so it's very likely that this is nothing out of the ordinary. Your stress/concern over this may be leading you to being hyperaware of everything and catastrophizing what is quite possibly a normal occurrence. 

I will inquire about that when I see my dermatologist next week for the 3 month followup to my last visit. See if they can refer me to a hair specialist to do a miniaturization test. I plan to ask them about every little thing that's beem worrying me about my hair too, hopefully helping me put my mind at ease. I may even ask for them to do blood work too, just to double check I don't have any thyroid issues or vitamin deficiencies.

I know I am probably worrying about nothing, and that if anything the hair shedding I am seeing is more likely than not being contributed to by my stress over the whole situation.

I apologize for bothering everyone again, but I have begun to get paranoid again and more than a bit paniced due to finding myself continuing to shed short 0.5inch to 1.0 inch hairs. These hairs seem to have normal thickness, and they all have the white bulb at the end. I keep fearing these are minified hairs and its a sign I am going bald despite the fact I had two dermatologists look at my hair and one even did a scalp biopsy on on my crown.

Should I be concerned? Is this normal? I know from the pictures everyone says my hair look fine and it still looks thick, but the fact that I keep finding these short hairs is really freaking me out

On 5/24/2019 at 3:58 PM, pkipling said:

Based on all the information provided, particularly the photos and the two dermatologists who examined you and said you have nothing to worry about, I would 100% trust that and focus your time and energy elsewhere. 

And I do strongly encourage you to get a head start on managing your anxiety and getting ahead of that sooner rather than later. 

Thank you. I am still worried that the the temples seem to be thinning a bit, but they havn't really changed in the past 5 months best I can tell and not even that much since a year ago based on the one picture I have I think.

I do plan on also seeing a psychiatrist around the same time as I go back to the dermatologist (a few days after the derm), to hopefully get my anxiety sorted out. Since at this rate I AM probably going to go bald from just the stress I am putting myself through alone.

1 hour ago, pkipling said:

I remember very well the anxiety I felt in my mid 20s when I first started experiencing the fear of hair loss... And knowing what I know now, the best advice I can give you is to trust that whatever comes your way you can handle it. There's no magic pill or formula to make any hair loss stop completely. There's Propecia and Rogaine, but based on the information you provided above, I'm not sure it's even necessary.

I suggest you look into ways to effectively manage your anxiety and trust that should the time come when you need to look into treatment, you can step up to the plate and take care of it like so many men do - and keep your fingers crossed it never becomes something you need to deal with anyway.  

Thank you for the encouragement, as this makes me feel a lot better? Would you say based on the pictures I provided (including the more recent ones I put in my most recent post) that I am safe for now not to do anything drastic like take Propecia or Rogaine at this point? It doesn't don't know if my hair had gotten worse or not in the past year, as the one picture I have on my hairline is only on my right side and is a bit blurry and at a weird angle. I don't remember the temples looking as thin as they do now, but I don't really trust my memory for that.

That said, two dermatologists did tell me I had nothing to worry about for now, so I should probably just trust that. I am actually going back to see the one that did the biopsy in two weeks for a three month followup to see if the telogen effluvium they diagnosed me with has cleared up. I plan to ask them to compare the pictures they took back then with my crown and my hairline to see if they notice any change, as well as inquire about doing a miniaturization study.at some point (since another fear of mine is that there is miniaturization that I'm not noticing due to having always had very thick hair)

I'd just like to thank everyone for all the responses. While I have not been able to stop my anxiety on the matter, hearing all of this has made me feel a lot better. My only real concern now is with my temples which I feel may be thinning/recedeing, but I am not sure if that should just be expected at this age.

Are there any preventative steps I can do to stave off hair loss long term. I am really just looking for something to put my mind at ease so I can stop agonizing over this.

I apologize but I have one last question. Right now the corners of my hairline look a bit thin, as in it looks like there are fewer hairs there and are slightly higher than the center. Is this normal, or should I be concerned about is as a sign of the start 

My one remaining concern is that there looks like there are fewer hairs right at the corner of my hairline, going about 1/2 inch up into the hairline, particularly on the right side. Is that normal for a maturing hairline?

Okay I will try to stop agonizing over it best I can.

What sort of things should I look out for before I take further steps? And if my hairline is just maturing, har far would it need to recede from where it is now before I should get concern?

That said I did just see something that put the whole thing in bettet perspective: my younger brother who is 5 1/2 years younger than me already has a Norwood 2 hairline. So I guess even if I do lose my hair later down the road, I did dodge a genetic bullet there. Now I just need to pray I hit the jackpot and got my dad's hairloss pattern and kept a Norwood 1 into his 50s where he started to thin defusely

Edit: for the sake of completeness, here are some pictures of the front from today, as the last ones were from over a month ago.

Do these still look normal? What Norwood would you say these are?

23 minutes ago, Dr Blake Bloxham said:

Random, 

I see no real evidence of hair loss in any of these images (and I evaluate scalps for a living!). The crown looks very healthy, and I think the only "thinness" you are perceiving is the natural crown whorl (which is often accentuated in patients with finer, lighter hair). You do have some finer hairs on the hairline which may be due to natural follicle cycling or may be some remnants of what was your immature hairline of yesteryear. Either way, these are not indicative of genetic patterned hair loss alone either. And remember that shedding 50-100 hairs a day is perfectly normal. Even people with no hair loss whatsoever shed this many hairs from normal hair follicle cycling. You may be noticing more on your desk simply because you are hyper-aware and looking for it. I think you are in good shape all around. Like Spanker said above: keep an eye on it to make sure nothing really picks up (as the earlier you can address this, the better), but try not to focus on it too much because it all looks great. 

Thank you. That helps a lot.

For hairs I am finding they do seem to be a mix of lengths, some longer, some sorter. Thankfully the vast majority seem to be of normal thickness, with only about 1/10 looking to be slightly thinner in diameter and maybe 1 in 39 or 1 in 40 being extremely thin an brittle. Hopefully that's normal but at this point I know I am aggonizing over this and at this point I should probably be spending more time looking for a psychologist than for hair loss doctors 

At this point what Norwood would you say hairline is? My hairline is pretty low still actually, about 2.2ish inches from my eyebrows, with the center looking like it has stayed put from where it was in the single picture I found from a year ago, which I attatched here (i had worried about this a year ago for a few days too, forgot I still had a picture buried on my phone)

Really at this point my fears come fron not knowing for certain. Since I di realize if I am balding, I am in the crazy early stages and thus it would be hard to tell. Thus I am stuck in limbo, not wanting to start treatmenrs with side effects that I shouldn't take if I'm not balding, but fearful of letting things get worse when I could have been proactive.

That said I will try my best to relax and check back in the end of June to compare pictures I took back in December, then try to not worry about it for another 6 months.