Eugh, hair shedding. I just need to vent.

[Lucyb]

This isn't the first topic I've made on this topic, so I apologise.

So I definitely feel like my hair is shedding more than it has for a long, long time. Trying to count all the hairs is an exercise in madness (and yet I still do it), but I'd estimate around 100-120 a day.

It's hard to tell, but it definitely feels vastly exessive for me: I don't brush my hair unless with conditioner in the shower, and my hair is super long and thick, and yet it's still constantly "releasing" these bits, which might be the full length of my hair, or only a few inches long. Either way they just seem to drop out of my hair. I've probably shed 50-60 hairs (though could be as much as 80?) hairs already today and I've only been up for six hours, and my hair feels incredibly tangled.

I feel like I've also been subconsciously conditioning my hair more in the shower, which might have led to the roots getting unfortunately greasy (or me getting obsessed with this), so creating more hair loss, maybe? And of course all of this creates stress, maybe causing more hair loss? It's horrible--but at least I'm physically seeing a specialist on Monday. Eugh, 5 days away.

This is all scary as hell, and I feel super depressed by all of this. My long hair has always been my pride and joy, but now it's coming out.

Yesterday was awful. My hair felt pretty tangled (and I didn't see that much shedding for a few days) but when I got into the shower in the evening and very vigirously shampooed and combed out my hair, I got about 90 bits coming out. Of course, some was probably breakage, but I also shed another 90ish as my hair dried! It felt horrendous. I thought **** it, I'm still gonna try and look good, so I took some selfies of myself yesterday and posted them online. I still got loads of complements on my hair, which honestly just made me feel somehow awful.

If only these people knew that I feel like some sort of horrible decomposing zombie.

I got sick and had a high temperature in early March, and I started some birth control medicine (though not any really known to cause hair loss) in the last month or so too, so there's a possibility it could be telogen effluvium, but how bad will it get if so?

I don't want to look different. I'm a vain woman, I admit it, and I don't want people to look at me and think "eugh" when I enter a room if my hair is balding and stringy. Not least because I'm transgender--chances are these folks might think "what a weird looking guy" too. My long hair is a symbol of how much I've struggled and fought to be myself, and I feel horrendous thinking about how it seems to be dropping out right as I've made the decision to be the best possible version of me.

[dagny]

I am sorry that you are going through this. I am going through a similar situation, myself, so I feel your pain. :grouphug:

Your previous illness and hormone fluctuations can definitely cause hair loss, as can other health issues so it is a good thing you are going to see a specialist. Make sure they check your Vitamin D level and Iron, as well as Ferritin and thyroid hormones. For most people, the situation reverses itself once the problem is discovered (if it is due to an underlying deficiency) or with time if it had to do with a prior illness.

Try not to focus too much on it (hard to do, I know!) and every time you feel depressed about your hair, force yourself to think about (and focus on) something you LOVE about your hair.

[Lucyb]

I am sorry that you are going through this. I am going through a similar situation, myself, so I feel your pain. :grouphug:

Your previous illness and hormone fluctuations can definitely cause hair loss, as can other health issues so it is a good thing you are going to see a specialist. Make sure they check your Vitamin D level and Iron, as well as Ferritin and thyroid hormones. For most people, the situation reverses itself once the problem is discovered (if it is due to an underlying deficiency) or with time if it had to do with a prior illness.

Try not to focus too much on it (hard to do, I know!) and every time you feel depressed about your hair, force yourself to think about (and focus on) something you LOVE about your hair.

Hah... so true. And such wonderful advice from such a wonderful person <3.

I actually had my bloodwork checked a few weeks ago, everything came back fine. So I presume if there was a reason for this sudden increase it would be my illness--the timing is absolutely spot on for this. Of course, I can't say for sure. Certainly the fear that I'm somehow making the shedding worse through either products or manipulation (my scalp is pretty flaky and greasy :/) is very real and can trap me in a sort of depressive spiral sometimes. I seem to be shedding lots of small bits of hair (1-5 inches) too, which I find quite disturbing. Who knows how much hair I really lose in a day? Could be even bigger than I presume.

Ah... but there we go.

How long has your shed been going on for honey? Any signs it could be slowing/regrowing?