College Students with Stresses

Hello doctor,
I am a 19 year old freshman at university. The transition seemed like a decent one. I didn’t feel like I was experiencing too much stress during the first month. However during the end of first simester when essays and midterms were coming up I started sleeping less, my face was covered with large zits that would not surface and then leave marks (some of which I still have 2-4 months later). During this period which started about 5 months ago, I was on an emotional rollercoaster too. I had almost no time to see my friends. My social life was quickly becoming extinct. I had no self-esteem because of my new-developed acne problem. It was bad. I think I have started to get the hang of the stress, now that winter is almost over everything seems a lot easier to deal with. But what I have been noticing for the last 2 months is a lot of thinning at the hairline. It was not so bad about a month ago but now my scalp is becomeing VERY visible to the point where I cannot use all the hair I have at the front to cover somewhat “balding” areas. There are no patches persay. It is ver diffuse, but also very noticable. I have had at least 3 people commnt on it. It is beggining to scare me. I have always had fine hair but my scalp has never been visible before. I started taking Vitamin B Complex about 2 months ago for the stress, and am now taking this product called samson’s secret which is full of nutrients that nurish the hair for about 5 weeks.
My question is, does this sound like a temporary thing such as telogen effluvium? And if so when should I be expecting to notice my hair back to normal? Also I am worried because final exams are coming up next month along with more essays worth an even larger percentage of my mark. I am doing amazing but that only makes my expectations of myself even higher, causing me to stress out lest I mess up and the GPA I have worked so hard to achieve and maintain falls. Does this mean that I am only setting myself up for more hairloss and a vicious cycle that will make it extremely hard for the hair to grow back?

I realize this is a rather long post, thank you so much for your time.

Stress definitely plays a part in hair loss. However if you have a component of genetic male pattern hair loss , hair will not grow back. If this become a big problem for you, you may consider making an appointment with a hair transplant surgeon who can map your scalp hair for miniaturization pattern and formulate a Master Plan for future hair loss.

You have many issues, and some of these things like self-esteem are inside your head as much as outside. For example, when I turned 60 four years ago, the changes in my body should have taken my self-esteem down to low levels, but I somehow managed to focus on the good things in my life. I have said many times, you are the director, writer and actor in your ‘life story’, so write it the way you want it to be. Direct it to work out that way (if hair loss is the issue then tackle it correctly). Act like the man you want to be and get your grades up, for that is clearly in your power. The world will not march to a down tune, only to an upbeat one.