Help, I Lost 35-40% Of My Hair In 1 Month!

i have a serious problem. i am 20 yrs old and about a month ago i noticed my hair falling out.i believe in this past month i have lost 35-40% of my hair. yet it is not coming from the usual places for a pattern baldness condition. i have no receding hair line at all and my vertex is fine. i notice it mostly on the top and upper sides. from my research i found in most cases pattern baldness elapses over a long period of time i.e years or more. is it possible to have such an accelerated case. About 6 months ago i underwent lasik surgery and about the time this started i had gotten a huge tattoo done that took 2 seatings of 5 hours each which were very painful. i also feel huge anxiety and very stressed even before this and worse because of it. currently i am on propecia for 4 days and rogaine for 4 days. i am awaiting blood test results but my doctor informs me the chances of this not being perminant are very small. i have no bald or balding family members on either side. this makes absolutley no sense, out of no where and so fast. if it really is pattern baldness and my symptoms continue at this rate all my hair will be gone before the medicine even starts to work. i eagerly await your comments on this letter.

It is normal to lose hair after a stressful event in one’s life – a process called “Telogen Effluvium,” but it is less common (although not unheard of) to have an accelerated case such as you describe. Since your hair is falling out generally all over, I doubt this is male pattern hair loss, especially given your age and prior history. So your doctor is right to do blood tests – fast hair loss like you have can be the sign of a more serious underlying medical condition. I can’t reassure you completely without seeing you and examining you myself, but you should definitely wait and see what the tests show, and calm yourself if you can (stress will set up one of those vicious cycles).

As for treatment, that will depend on the cause but you should be reassured that you are on the only two medications that we can prove work for male pattern hair loss. Propecia and Rogaine will take months to work, about as long as the hair would normally take to grow back, so don’t give up on those medications in the meantime. Take heart, hair can grow back! – It often does miraculously even after seemingly huge losses, and you don’t have any answers yet that should make you despair!