You must be very young. I would guess you are in your early 20s and that is important because the shape of your hairline is a youthful shape as it is rounded.  I would need to see pictures of you with your eyebrows lifted high before rending an opinion on your hairline.

I have been taking Benadryl for years as needed for allergies. About five years ago, I started to notice that the top of my head was getting thin. I began to wear weaves because it had gotten to the point where I was almost bald at the top in an effort to cover it up. Now, it’s completely bald and I’m wearing a wig now. I’m trying to combat it by using the Keranique Hair growth system. We’ll see if it will help my hair grow back. Through researching, I realized my hair loss had to be because of Benadryl. Something should be done and we as consumers should be compensated. I’m going to speak to an attorney to see what my options are.

You should see an expert about your hair loss.  Maybe it is not due to the Benadryl but something else.  Focus on your problem first and think about lawyers later.

After 6 months of excruciating pain, I was prescribed gabapentin. I took this drug in January 2018 for nerve pain related to Herniated disc in C6 & C7. I took the drug for a month while waiting to get everything in order for disc replacement surgery. Then, the day of my last appointment before the surgery, I woke up pain free!!! No pain since. I could not believe how fortunate I was. Was it the drug? Did my body heal? I didn’t care as long as I was pain free. We postponed the surgery. If the pain returned, we would move forward. 2 months later, I still had no pain. Then, I noticed a little extra hair when I brush or wash my hair. It turned into hand fulls of hair! I had waist length, full bodied hair. So much that I fought to wrap a pony tail holder around my hair twice. It is June 2nd of 2018. I can now wrap a pony tail holder 6 times. Yes, 6 and it’s loose!!!! I touch my hair. I pull back loose strains. From May to June, I have lost an estimated 75% of my hair. If I had known this was a side-effect, I never would have taken this pill. There are other options. I have started taking folic acid in hopes it will trigger the hair follicles to begin regrowing.

I am assuming that you are a female.  You need to meet with a doctor who specializes in hair loss. The figure 75% of your hair lost is more than I have ever heard. Without seeing you, I can’t give you an opinion.

Hi, I’m Chloe. I’m also 15 and I have the same thing! Everyone is commenting the same stuff but where are the answers? My hair was SUPER thick and SUPER long for ages, I’m in year 10, and since around year 8, my hair has been falling out A LOT and I don’t know why!! I have curly hair and I wash my hair only once a week. I straighten my hair after washing only once a week (I use a heat protectant spray and I let my hair air dry completely before straightening). I’ve been doing this for about 3 years but only recently has my hair been falling out so much! People have told me to not brush my hair after straightening and in the morning before school to keep the straight hair longer. This does work obviously because it lasts a week before I have to straighten it (so do this if u want to straighten less). I tie my hair into a pony tail every morning, so this could be it, but I’ve done that my whole life? I guess I don’t have the best diet because I’ve read in a lot of places that healthy diets are good for your hair. Since no one is really replying to other peoples comments with answers, I thought I’d add some things that I know.

1. Losing about 80-100 strands of hair A DAY is normal. If you don’t brush or wash say every 3 days, then think about the 3 days worth of strands that are supposed to drop and fall out; so all at once will seem daunting and really bad.
2. IT’S NOT CANCER. There may be some forms of diseases like alopecia that make you lose your hair, BUT people lose hair from cancer due to the TREATMENT of cancer, which is chemotherapy and not the cancer itself.
3. It could be hereditary — so ask your parents if they’ve ever had this or their parents. This is harder to treat because its in your genes so you can’t avoid it.
4. Have a healthier diet and eat MORE fruit and vegetables and milk. If you’re already eating enough, drink more water (I know you’ve probably heard this everywhere).
5. This is could be a result of you’re mental issues (ie – depression, anxiety, stress, lack of sleep or whatever), so I guess there is no simple answer for those causes. Try to de-stress and sleep more. (Also if you take antidepressant pills or anything those also have side affects of hair loss)
6. Try and buy some good hair vitamins or iron vitamins or any vitamins you might be lacking (Check with your doctor). These will actually help but you will only notice results 6-8 weeks after. You have to give it some time and be consistent. (Combine this with a healthy diet and it’ll be even better).
7. Hair styling -Try to cut down to no more than once a week straightening or styling with heat. USE A HEAT PROTECTANT SPRAY; it will help more and try to air dry your hair. Trust me, it’s way better. Try to find alternatives such as wearing your hair naturally without straightening it.
8. Try and do less tight hair do’s such as REALLY high and tight pony tails or braids or a bun everyday. Try to keep it in one loose braid. Also, when taking out hair ties, hold ur head so that it pulls less which might make it easier.
9. USING REALLY HOT WATER IN THE SHOWER IS LIKE A HEAT PRODUCT. Try to use cold or lukewarm water, because it makes your head really hot. Therefore, when you run your hands through your hair in the shower, more will fall out. Also, brush your hair before you wash it (like right before entering) as it makes it easier for your hands to glide through when it is wet or when you are using conditioner as it makes it easier. Don’t be rough with you hair because it is vulnerable and soft at this point.
10. Sort of connects with number 9, but don’t rub your hair a lot in the shower or when you’re towel drying it because that makes it frizzy, more damaged and easy to break.
11. DONT WASH YOUR HAIR EVERY DAY —THIS IS BAD. Washing it every 2 days is okay but it is best to do so every 3-5 days. Hair loss is occurs most often in the shower, so more showers means more loss. When you brush your hair, don’t brush it for too long or too hard, instead take little bunches and brush through the fix knots along way rather. Don’t brush youur hair too often either, give it time to be still and not disrupted.

COMBINE ALL THESE TOGETHER AND IT SHOULD HELP (I hope).
Sorry it was really long but I hope all of us get our hair back!!

Comment by William Rassman, M.D.:  I have been prescribing this drug for years. The problems that is discussed below have generally not been seen in most of my patients. Any drug, ANY DRUG, runs some risks when it impacts your body function like hormones, mood, etc…  When you take any pill, you must recognize that this is a man made item and although the FDA may clear it for safety and effectiveness, there is no guarantee that you will not develop some unusual problem like the many discussed below by this very knowledgeable person. I felt that this comment was important to make. You should know that I am now taking finasteride and my son has been on it for 15 years and neither of us have seen any problems with this drug in our system.

The fact that this poison is still being regularly prescribed undermines the legitimacy and perceived objectivity of the American medical system and the pharmaceutical industry. There have been plenty of publications that have come out over the decade that have shown 5-alpha reductase inhibitors to be dangerous, even to those who appear to respond well to them, which I’ll link at the end of this comment. I am glad that the FDA was objective enough to deny the approval of these drugs as chemo-preventative therapies – who knows how many lives would’ve been destroyed if they’d been approved for that – and that they decided to finally label the drugs with serious warnings, but it’s not enough.

The risk of full-blown Post Finasteride Syndrome, while apparently low, is not something to dismiss. Additionally, the odds of developing side effects increases with time. These drugs have been shown to chronically lower neurosteroid levels, the most significant of which being allopregnanalone, which is responsible for anxiolytic, anti-depressant, pro-sexual, and other important effects. And as it turns out, DHT isn’t useless after puberty like many people seem to claim. There is no way to screen for who is at risk for post-5ARI syndrome and who isn’t. Even if the odds are low, you’re playing with fire. And many men who don’t develop the condition will still eventually have milder side effects, like a loss of morning erections, weaker erections, lower libido, increased anxiety or depression, etc. all to save a few thousand hair follicles. How do physicians justify this? It’s one thing to prescribe it for a hyperplastic prostate (and even that’s questionable), it’s quite another to prescribe it for vanity. Any physician that considers prescribing this drug for hair loss, as far as I’m concerned, should never be allowed practice medicine again, and should be sued for malpractice and negligence. Clearly they’ve never considered “first do no harm”.

Many physicians’ ignorance of what they’re prescribing is astounding, and the denial of a very real condition when it happens is, at the very least, cruel and pathetic. This sort of science-denial is akin to climate change “skeptics” or evolution deniers. I don’t think I need to explain why this is a terrifying trait to see in a licensed physician. The science is in and has been for years now.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4064044/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960076017301024

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308996540_Exploring_the_neural_mechanisms_of_finasteride_A_proteomic_analysis_in_the_nucleus_accumbens

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28289563

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11930-015-0061-y

There is a risk with any medication and Propecia (finasteride) is no exception.  It is hard to surround the statistics on the permanent negative side effects reported here by this reader. Some say that the negative sexual side effects that are permanent are as frequent at 7,000 out of the millions of men taking the drug.  That is a small number, but if you are one of them, it is 100% for you.  Every medication has risks and I always inform my patients of these risks and never push any medication on them. Those men with great results from taking the drug will argue with this author, but everyone is empowered to make their own decisions once they know the facts.

Not every complaint about permanent sexual side effects are real. One of my patients took finasteride and reported impotence in 2 hours, before the drug peaked. Although I told him to stop the drug immediately, he refused and said he preferred impotence to hair loss. His call! Not what I would recommend.

I need your advice regarding reflex hyperandrogenicity.  I went on propecia in March of this year.

The doctor who prescribed me the drug told me to come back in 6 months for an evaluation. Within probably two weeks, I started to experience what I thought was the usual shedding. I was obviously concerned and turned to discussion boards where I found countless responses indicating that the shedding, regardless of the severity, was just part of the process.

I wanted to believe that that was the case so I carried on. I was (and still am) experiencing hundreds of lost hairs every day, increased (though admittedly not drastically) acne, increased sebum production, increased sexual function for about two and a half months. Finally, I went to see the original doctor who prescribed it and another doctor. They both confirmed that this is not anything close to normal. Actually, the second doctor (not the prescriber) told me that he had prescribed Propecia to thousands of patients over the years and he had seen maybe a dozen patients who responded like this.

Obviously, I am distraught. I don’t know what to do. I am one week off this Propecia and still shedding like crazy. I have lost maybe 60% of my hair. The hair loss is all over my head, but it’s worse on the crown and the sides (I NEVER experienced loss on the sides before Propecia). Both doctors told me cautiously that some of it may grow back eventually. The saddest thing is that my male pattern baldness wasn’t even that bad. I was losing my hair for sure, but I turn 40 next month and I probably would not have got to this point for a good number of years.

Most of the hairs I’m losing are thick dark hairs and most have NO bulb on them.

So my questions are:

(i) Given your experience, do you believe that some of my hair may grow back?

(ii) Is there anything I can do or any product I can use, to increase my chances of getting my hair back?

You have to wait it out for a full year to give finasteride a chance. Minoxidil, an additional medication, also works best for the crown (not the hairline) and it also takes a year. When used together, you will have a better overall response. Hair transplants become an option if this approach does not solve your problem.

I am a cosmetologist and have been so for over 25 years. I’ve been doing extensive research on hairloss for several years. Recently I’ve been experiencing hair loss myself. I have rosacea, the kind that results in acne like bumps. It creeps into my scalp also. After finding out that I have an inflammatory condition found in my lungs, it’s all starting to make sense. My pulmonologist is drawing lines connecting inflammation in my skin and scalp to this. Many people who have acne or other inflammatory conditions also experience hair loss. This is believed to stem from inflammation brought in by either infection, autoimmune disease or allergic response. I have rosacea and hair loss. I’ve not taken any oral antibiotic for this, although it has been prescribed (minocyline) . This drug is used to treat inflammation, not so much as an antibiotic. I’ve used metrocream on my face with no great results. My dermatologist switched me to soolantra and it is working wonders on my breakouts and redness. She says this cream works to fight against the allergic response to skin mites. It is so interesting that the inflammation is due to an allergy. It’s probably also in my scalp too. If you have an inflammatory skin condition, you most likely also have the same in your scalp. Because of the cycle of the hair growth and shedding, you might be experiencing hair loss a while after the inflammation began at least 6 months or so. I’m curious how many of you have experienced other inflammatory problems like IBD, joint pain, high blood pressure.

Stress from inflammatory disease can be a cause of hair loss. It sounds like you solved the problem. Your story is a good one so thanks for posting it!