Regrowing Stress-Induced Hair Loss?

Dr. Rassman,
I’m 28, been on propecia for 8 yrs with Diffuse Pattern Alopecia in the front. The drug has done a wonderful job at holding the loss. I wrote a couple weeks ago inquiring about upping a dose from 1mg to 2.5mg. My loss picked up in speed a couple months ago and from what I guess has slowed down the last few weeks. I had a chronic stressor 3mo. before the loss. I noticed about a month ago there was hair that appeared to be growing in my hairline, and in my thin area. I’ve monitored it every so often and noticed that it still is growing longer.

Can a person with genetic balding grow hair back after telogen effluvium or other stress related loss? If so, that would be great but i’m under the impression that when someone loses hair, stress or not, and also is destined to genetically bald, there is no way the lost hair will grow back. I’m hoping you can explain it better. I would be happy if theres a shot at getting a few back after that loss. Thanks for the sight, its been great having access to such information coming from a professional such as yourself.

Telogen effluvium usually reverses by itself as the hair moves from telogen to anagen (see hair cycle info). This cycle varies between people, but usually the telogen phase lasts 3-7 months. Genetically impacted hair also cycles, so the answer to your question is that the finer hairs that are miniaturized will cycle and return, unless the time for apoptosis (timed hair death) occurs.

You do have a shot at regrowing your hair, but I can’t say how good that shot is. Only time will tell.