The Sides of My Head Look Thin When Wet
Doctor,
When my hair is wet, I can see thinning on the sides and back although it is still thicker than the top. I had taken SSRI’s in high school to treat an incredibly difficult case of OCD that left me very emotionally messed up for several years. Since then, I thinned out gradually most of which is over the top of my head and now I’m noticing some on the sides. Could it be that the medications and high stress situations have lead to sort of premature senile alopecia, or maybe took away many life cycles my follicles had because of such a hard time in my life?
I have been on propecia for about 15 months and it’s hard to tell if it’s doing much, maybe it’s slowing down the progression but I have avoided minox because of people claiming it causes skin problems and other serious side effects, luckily I haven’t had that problem with propecia. If the hairloss is due to this and I wasn’t destined for MPB (baldness in family is extremely limited, maternal grandfather was maybe a NW3/4 but had strong sides and back in his 80’s) could it just be that my hair follicles aged prematurely due to the stress and hard times. And if this is the case, is there anything I can do at this point or do I just cross my fingers and hope something like what Histogen is doing works?
There might be something going on, but given your history of OCD, medication, and stress, without examining you I can not render you a good opinion. If I examined you, I would perform two tests that might just nail the problem. These tests would be:
- Bulk measurements of your hair in different parts of your head with a specialized instrument
- Miniaturization studies on the different parts of your scalp
In addition, I would be able to take a careful history from you and also use my clinical skills to understand your exact situation. Simply put, you can not get a good assessment without a personal interview and examination.
I am 25 years old. I have always had a great amount of hair. My dad has hair,just a bit of a higher temple area, he is 55.. About a year ago I started taking cipralex for anxiety. After about 2 weeks of taking it my hair started exploding out my head. I ran my hands through my hair and used to get 4-7 hairs each time. Showering was the worst. To cut a long story short, I went to 3 dermatologists, one said I have receding temples. The other two said I have telogen effluvium, I constantly have little spikes on my whole head-back,side, hairline. I stopped the medication. But now it seams this experience has left me with receded temples and a crooked hair line. Some SSRIs make your hair fall out.