Timeframe for Telogen Effluvium

Telogen Effluvium Question:

I am a 36yr old male. I went through a long divorce process that ended in March of 2006 and noticed my hair was “thinning” all over my scalp in early May of 2006. I did not know what to make of it so I discounted it as a bad haircut.

On Memorial day of that year, I had to be hospitalized for three days with a bad case of pneumonia, which caused me to have sustained temperatures of up to 105-6 degrees.

In September, I finally found what described my problem on the Internet. It was called Telogen Effluvium and is pretty well documented on this blog and other sites. I did the “hair pull” test and noticed white bulbs on the ends, confirming the description of TE.

It is now been a year and my hair is still uniformly thin. I have a high hairline anyway at the temples so I do not think my hair is receding. Adding to my problem is the fact that I was adopted at 1yr old and I have no family history to speak of.

I went to several dermatologists and each one told me there is no reason to do a punch biopsy at this time, that my hair looks “normal”. Unfortunately, they does not know how my hair normally looks. There are no balding spots on my head, just really thin all over. Are time frames different for each person suffering from TE?

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide.

I would want to map out your scalp for miniaturization and find out if you have a condition called DUPA (diffuse unpatterned alopecia), which would impact your permanent rim of hair around the sides and back of your head, or if you have genetic balding in a patterned loss. The information you supplied does not help me to help you. Reversal for TE varies with the person, but first let’s get a diagnosis.