Greetings, and HELP! Am I deluded?

[blamelessvestal]

Hello all,

Been lurking for a little while but thought I simply must join. My hair growth journey has been an uphill battle which has only recently gone steeply downhill.

I'm wondering if you can help me. You all seem to have wonderful hair, and I hope to learn from the enlightened elders.

I've never had long hair due to my mum cutting it very short when I was a kid, I was tomboyish and preferred it that way. I'm now 21 and I've been struggling with shoulder- to collarbone-length hair for a couple of years after a post-breakup drunk undercut which left me looking like Skrillex. I am a lot more chilled with the mirror haircuts now and have my heart set on hair growth and 'normal' styles.

A big realisation I've had this past year was discovering my hair is a little wavy, it's 1C at straightest and in the 2s at its waviest. It looked great all summer, a little thin but I was styling it well and it was nicely oiled quite regularly. I bought a diffuser and experimented with the 'curly girl method.' Having previously thought it straight, I was very chuffed with this. My heritage is Turkish and Jewish so it makes sense I had never been able to get on well with typical Western styling approaches for dead straight hair.

However, the odds are not in my favour. My mum, who is in her 50s and has hypothyroidism, has lost a LOT of her hair and it is very short and thin. Though I tested negative for anything wrong with my thyroid I suspect I do have some sort of genetic predisposition towards thinning, weak, brittle hair. I have just been through an immensely stressful period of my life which is ongoing: my housemate passed away, my grandpa is very sick, I'm in my final year of university, my job sucks and life is not treating me kindly.

I have noticed LARGE amounts of hair coming out in the shower over the last couple of weeks. It has never been on this scale before, even though my hair has never been particularly full. I am so upset, I have always dreamed of having long, beautiful shiny hair in my 20s. I can't believe I'm going bald at 21, before I ever had a chance to experience my 'prime' as they say. I am praying this is some phasic 'Telogen Effluvium' or just stress-related so I can have some hope for regrowth.

It's not like I ever took great care of my hair, I dyed it constantly as a teenager. But I like to think I take OK care of it now, I try to sleep with a satin bonnet, I eat quite well, haven't used any dye other than Henna for a while, nor any sort of perm or hardcore heat treatment. I just don't know what I can do to recover it.

Am I deluded or is there an actual chance I can save my hair? What do you recommend?

I currently have a pot of rosemary water steeping on the stove, as I type this.

Yours
BlamelessVestal

[ETJ CURLS]

Welcome! Sorry to hear that you're dealing with so much.

If you suspect anything internal to be the cause of your hairloss, it is highly advisable to consult with a medical professional. Nothing topical will correct an internal issue.

However, you can baby the hair you currently have.

I would start with noting your current hair routine, how often you wash it, how you brush/comb it and what tools you use, what products you use, what you do with your hair on daily basis, how you sleep, etc., and then start tweaking small things one at a time so that you can figure out what is and isn't working.

Give it about three months (generally about how long it takes to see any change from stress etc.) and see if the condition is improved.

[lapushka]

No panicking, please. Definitely, first, have some bloodwork done; not unimportant. Welcome!

[Nefcerka]

Hello, welcome here BlamelessVestal !

You came to the right place. Don´t worry, don´t panic.
Hair does not usually react right away (only in extreme cases), so whatever is causing your shed now, has been likely caused by an event some months ago. Stress, illness (especially covid, flu, surgery, etc.), rough handling or bad hair cosmetics.
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies also take quite some time to manifest. When it comes to hair, it´s especially iron, zinc, selenium, magnesium, D3, biotin and B-vitamins to watch out for. But your GP should do the tests and tell you exactly - taking multivitamins randomly is not a good idea in general.
Henna is good for strengthening. But you should look if it does not dry your length, and if so, compensate with a bit of oiling/moisturizing.
You are young, don´t despair! And thin hair can be beautiful as well (I have it genetically and all I can do is try to make the most of it, instead of despairing). Learn and wear protective styles - plenty of info about those on this site - and your hair will experience far less breakage. When you gain some length, there are so many hairstyles that can help even thinner hair look beautiful.
Also, as was mentioned above, don´t try everything you read here or on social media at once. Take at the least two weeks, ideally a month with one new method to see and evaluate how it works for you, before moving onto next.
Good luck with your hair journey and we look forward to seeing you around the boards!

[spidermom]

If the season is changing where you live, that might be why you are seeing increased hair shedding. I always shed a lot more hair at the end of summer, beginning of fall.

I agree with the advice given above.

[SandyBottom]

Nice to meet you! Wow...it sounds like you do have a lot going on right now, but you've come to the right place and the rosemary/satin bonnet/and healthy eating are a good place to start. The others have given some great advice. Try not to stress over this. It really won't help. You mentioned you've been oiling your hair. Do you oil the scalp also? If you are, that doesn't work well for everyone. I did it for awhile, thinking that's what I was supposed to do, and lost hair in handfuls in the shower. Good luck on your journey

[blamelessvestal]

I oil the scalp, often leaving it in overnight, I do a deep shea and rosemary mask.
I learned yesterday this can actually be too much for the hair, I will restrain myself to doing it for 3-4 hours and work on diluting the rosemary more in jojoba and castor oil.

[blamelessvestal]

If the season is changing where you live, that might be why you are seeing increased hair shedding. I always shed a lot more hair at the end of summer, beginning of fall.

I agree with the advice given above.

Yeah, it's got pretty cold in London recently x