Parvati,
I know it’s been a few years since your post but has anything come of it since? Have you found a solution to it and has your hair grown back?
I’m scheduled for an endoscopy next week and further testing since my ct scan results came back with an enlarged liver and fluid in my abdomen. I’m not properly digesting and retaining nutrients.
I’m sure that my large amounts of hair loss that I’ve been experiencing the last few months is due to this.
I’ve also been questioning the birth control pill (tri lo sprintec) that I switched to 4 months ago. I will be discontinuing it as of today.

PROFILE: (important because I want to see if any of us ladies have any characteristics in common!!)

I am a 28 year old Caucasian, Australian (but just moved to Seattle this week!) and have always had thick curly hair. My hair loss started 2 years ago at age 26. I don’t take birth control (I only took the pill for a couple of years aged 15-19), I have low body fat, am very mentally fast paced and run on my adrenals a lot, a perfectionist, have irregular periods in regards to length of cycle, however am generally fine in this realm. I eat well, exercise, do yoga and surf, don’t watch TV, and I don’t have a lot of meat in my diet. I don’t absorb fats well, and have struggled with digestive issues my whole life (mainly gas and bloating). I have a MYHFR gene mutation (very common,read more below) which can prevent some nutrient absorption. I stay away from wheat and processed foods, I don’t take drugs and I drink on occasion. I eat a lot of dark chocolate tho!

Two years ago upon starting a highly stressful job I was very passionate about, moving to a new town where I had to make new friends, and going through a break up, I started to notice my hairline receding and eyebrows thinning. I would also notice a slight burning sensation where the hairs would later fall from, and some hair follicles would look red/inflamed around the base of the hair shaft. I also would feel pressure or slight pain on my head (when firmly touched) on certain pressure points an inch or so back from my hairline. to play devils advocate tho, perhaps those sensations always existed and it was only just now that I was noticing it as it was my main point of focus.

Rather than having long hairs fall out as would occur normally, I had little vellous hairs and short hairs around my temples, sides and front hairline fall to the point of noticeable recession. Although it sounded like a case of stress related TE – it continued to occur, sometimes fast, sometimes gradually. I also knew that TE would either present itself as bald patches or general thinning all over – but not as a receding hairline in a 26 year old healthy female. This only exacerbated the stress and anxiety I was already experiencing, creating great fear and self esteem issues.

Worth noting is that about a week before I first noticed my hairline receding, I had a very vivid dream that I lost all my hair and eyebrows. I awoke emotionally distressed and baffled as to why I had dreamt such a dream. Pretty freaky that it then started to happen! A week later! Perhaps it was already happening and my unconscious was telling me. We are powerful beings!

I then thought the worst and figured I may of had the permanent auto-immune condition – frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA) that causes a band like hair loss in women. I was terrified.

Rather than going to a hair specialist (trichologist) from the get go, I spent thousands on other practitioners. Once I made it to the trichologist however, she looked at my scalp under a microscope and told me that in her 25 years doing what she does, that she’d never seen anything like what I had – that what I had was unique – and that it didn’t surprise her as people were coming to her quite often these days with more and more unique/rare/new conditions that were likely environmental related.

She said that I didn’t have scarring (what would be present if I had FFA) however my follicles were indeed empty and she could definitely see the hair loss. She also said my hair at the back (where it should be thickest and healthiest) wasn’t growing normally either. She said that because she couldn’t see scarring that it could be possible for it to grow back, but couldn’t confirm that. She prescribed a full blood test (Full thyroid studies incl. T3 & T4, iron, auto immune markers, heavy metals) and it came back normal. Although my Ferritin (stored iron) was a bit low, even tho my iron reading was within range. Everything else looked fine.

My intuition told me to be sneaky and write B6 on the pathology referral to be tested, so I did. Sure enough my B6 came back really high (toxicity level) which didn’t make sense to me because I wasn’t supplementing any B vitamins, and because I have the MTHFR mutation which means I have difficulty digesting/absorbing B vitamins and folate – essential nutrients. The mutation also effects phase 2 detoxification, perhaps indicating the natural B6 in my diet was mint being absorbed into my cells, and instead building up in my bloodstream. I suggest getting blood tested for this by the way as it’s very common.

Once the trichologist found out I had the mutation, she more or less kicked me out the door after prescribing ever fish oil, probiotic, vitamin she could and telling me I had to seek professional nutritional support if my condition were to improve.

She decided to call my condition ‘frontal diffuse alopecia’ and noted that my hair follicles had an interrupted growth cycle.

I’ve seen naturopaths for years – VERY good ones, and they are great. They take a way bigger look at ‘your picture’ than any western doctor ever will. And to be fair, from my knowledge, the supplements the trichologist was prescribing me would be very beneficial (if i had a spare $3000 laying around). But I didn’t. I opted to just buy the essentials – high quality iron, probiotics and a Chinese herbs hair supplement (Fusion brand). I’m sure they helped but I didn’t notice much of a difference even after three months.

Over the last two years, my hair has continued to fall. I have noticed however that it seems to occur every 3 months for about 3 weeks. This also coincides with our hair growth cycle. I’ve noticed (I think) a couple of small hairs grow back over time, but they seem to just fall again. The hair is falling faster than it is growinge. What I am afraid of is that eventually all my follicles become affected to the point where my hair either falls out completely and doesn’t grow back, or it grows back for three months and then falls again.

I’m still determined to heal this condition and I really believe it’s inflammation/nutrition/mental health related.

Just for your info, I also saw:
– 2x western doctors – told me it was stress related and to just accept it.
– Dermatologist – said it was Telligen Ellufium, prescribed glycoma eyedrops to use on my eyebrows to regrow hairs (these worked great!). Also prescribed hair loss meds but I opted against it to figure it out naturally.
– Naturopath – conducted live blood analysis which showed a lot of inflammation, did gut analysis and blood work.
– Chinese herbalist – gave me great pills to work on liver/ digestion.
– Acupuncturist – worked on body stress, always a great outcome.
– Energetic Alergy testing via a’Listen 10’ computer thingy. She told me to stay away from wheat, and the machine picked also confirmed that I had alopecia). Prescribed a homeopathic remedy.
– started yoga and meditation (only recently in mid 2018)

I hope this helps someone with their ground work, and/or someone who has been through this and could shed some light on their journey.

It’s the worst it’s been right now (mainly around tops of my temples, hence my motivation for this post.

Sending strength and self love vibes to all!

When I was 18 I started BCP to regulate my periods. At first I had no real problems but then a whole slew of issues began. I had bad migraines, bad chest pains, I developed Melasma (sometimes called pregnancy mask), and to top it all off my hair was falling out big time. Like a lot of ladies have been saying, you are usually the first to notice and everyone else thinks you are crazy. I had my thyroid checked and it was in normal range (I want to expand on this though, so I’ll add a paragraph at the bottom). More time passed and it was only getting worse. I started taking pictures and documenting the whole thing cuz I was tired of people thinking I was nuts.

I went to Santa Monica and saw a Dr. there who told me I was suffering from telogen effluvium and it was my BCP pills (I was on Ortho-tri cyclen lo)
I went back to my gyno who put me on Lo Ogestrel. I stayed on that for a few months and saw no improvement, so I said I’m done with these people. I quit the BCP pills (was on those for about 5 years), started using Murad shampoo/conditioner that has the DHT blocker in it, started taking a hair supplement with biotin, laid off permanent hair dye, and slowly but surely my hair is as close to normal (what it was previously) as I could ever have hoped for. And I am no longer using that shampoo or those biotin pills.
It took about a year for my hair to return. And now it’s been about 3-4 years I have been off those BC pills.

In my honest opinion, I truly believe that most hair loss is able to be treated. As long as you catch it early enough. The crappy part is that there are a lot of doctors out there that, for lack of a better word, are just bad. Do your research and don’t be afraid of second or third or fourth or twenty-th opinions.
I’m a big believer in the shampoos that have the DHT blockers (along with Saw Palmetto) so like Murad and Bosley. I’ve seen results with my clients. Of course it isn’t a miracle product but it does help a little bit.

The last thing I wanted to touch on was: you should go see an endocrinologist for your thyroid to be checked. If you see a regular MD, even if you are higher in range they will tell you you are good. I think this assumption with range is potentially dangerous. Not to mention they don’t check certain TSH levels, which can be miss leading. And as most of you know, thyroid is directly related to hair loss.

I wish everyone the best of luck! Keep your chin up, things get better.

Just had a couple of comments/questions for a couple previous posters…

Massachusetts – I have been taking Miralax too and was wondering if it could be responsible for the hair loss that’s been getting worse for me over the last couple months. The only problem is I’ve also been taking a number of other things, most of which were started in the past year, so it’s hard to separate the variables. I’m going to try to figure out some systematic way of doing this though and will repost if I figure out the culprit.

Liz – Would you mind sharing the name of the derm at Yale who understands hair loss? I live in the area and would love to see him/her!