Female with ongoing hair loss which nothing seems to alleviate

I posted last quite a few months ago but lurk regularly on this forum   Basically I'm a 38 year old healthy female with no obvious hormonal issues from blood work. I have been losing hair excessively for a year and a half (I have a definite trigger, but that is no longer relevant now). I definitely have occasional itching (inflammation) with hair loss where I feel the itch, loss of shorter hairs/regrowth as well as the long ones and probably miniatuarization as I lose very small thin hairs as well. I was diagnosed by biopsy with 'androgenetic alopecia' a year ago. I do not have high testosterone from my blood results. All other hormones are in the normal range. I don't think I am close to menopause yet. I do not have PCOS which can have hair loss as a symptom. I am normal weight, not anemic, and have a reasonable diet with low processed foods. My mother does not have hair loss but my father did lose his at an early age.

I am close to giving up on the hair loss now having tried many many things, and several supplements mentioned on this forum, without much effect at all on either the constant loss of hair or on the regrowth. I am also using Rogaine once daily (which I would love to get off) and am taking 0.25 mg Propecia daily (again hastily started, but luckily no side effects which seems to be the case in women).

It seems that a lot of you have success with various regimens and lowering shedding and I would love to fall into that category. It is the constant thinning that is so draining. Can somebody please advise on the best way to help with inflammation as I think this may be the root of my problem? I also have a tight scalp so it may be that massage could help but I feel scared of the manipulation increasing my shedding. I wash my hair every day or every other day.

Supplement wise I take: B complex, biotin, tocotrienol and flaxseed oil. I have tried saw palmetto, ecklonia cava and curcumin in the past.

Hi Medal--

I'm kind of in the same boat as you.  Female, ongoing hair loss.  

In reading your post, a few things jump out at me.  

Diet is key.  You say you eat a "reasonable diet"...but in my experience "reasonable" is a very subjective word. What is reasonable for someone with no hair loss might not be reasonable for you to accomplish your goal.

Do you eat margarine? Is your fat intake mostly from vegetable oils (polyunsaturated fats)? If so, change that. Use butter and olive oil only. NO MARGARINE, EVER. Changing to healthy fats if you're not eating them now may help cut down some on your inflammation.

Also, it sounds like you may need to avoid processed foods entirely, at least for a while.  Go from "low" to "no".

Eat only organic meats, fruits, and veggies wherever you can afford to make the switch.  Particularly milk and eggs if you eat them.  I like milk and eggs, and find organic milk and eggs to be particularly a key for me.  Non-organic milk and eggs  are a big source of synthetic hormones in the human food chain.  

You list almost no anti-inflammatories in your supplement list.  Start researching them and particularly look at Immortal Hair's supplement line/regimen.  Choose some anti-inflammatories to start with.  Vitamin C and alpha-lipoic acid being two keys.  Also look at some minerals like selenium and magnesium.

You may need to do some detoxification or heavy metal chelation.  Just throwing that out there at you.  Do some research and decide if it's right for you.  It helped me a great deal.  Lots of different approaches, you just need to figure out which one suits you best.

Have you had your thyroid checked beyond TSH?  If not, you might want to research and look into having some in-depth thyroid tests done.  Thyroid is frequently key to hair loss and TSH does not show the whole picture, so knowing exactly what's up there can be very helpful.  I can't advise you exactly on what to ask your doctor to order, but if you research on this forum the answers are here somewhere.

I highly recommend the manual methods, and in my experience they are about the cheapest way to positively affect your hair quality and hair loss in a short amount of time.  However, unless the sole cause of your hair loss is circulatory problems (highly unlikely), manual methods will not be your cure-all.  But they will probably help you like your hair better if you do them daily for at least three months.  You may shed initially, but overall your hair will probably improve.

If you decide to brush, use boar bristle only.  If you hair is long, do not brush the length of the entire hair with every stroke.  Also, regardless of length (short or long), do not brush your hair back, like from temples to the nape of your neck.  Instead, part your hair in the middle and brush straight down, like from the part on your crown down to your temples, then from your part down to your ear, from the crown of your head down to the nape of your neck, etc.  If your hair is long save the last few strokes for the entire length of your hair.  Overbrushing will cause long hair to split and frizz on the ends.

If you decide to massage, do some research for best way to massage.  Lots of different ideas out there.  The main point of massage is to get the blood going, though, so you don't really need a technique as much as perseverance and mindfulness to go all over your head.  A vigorous massage feels really good and you can feel the blood coming to the surface, so you will know if what you're doing is having any effect.

Those are all good starting places.  But one thing you should know is that none of this is easy.  I must warn you that all of this stuff can be expensive and insurance doesn't usually cover supplements.  Sometimes it won't cover all the tests.  It's a journey of trying stuff and seeing what works for you, because what works for me may not be what you need, and vice-versa.  No substitute for experience.  It's hard work, and nobody can really tell you what's going to work for you or not.  You have to experience it all for yourself.  So if you're looking for someone to tell you exactly what to do...nobody can really do that.  Not even a doctor.

But look on the bright side...at least you're starting early.  Like I said, I wish I'd had this forum and the internet and all these great choices to buy supplements when I was your age.  I think my head would be different now...inside and out.  ;P

Good luck.  Keep us posted on what works.

Thank you so much for your reply. No I do not take vitamin C or ALA, I will start these.

I don't eat margarine, mostly EV olive oil and butter. I do not have organic dairy/eggs/meats and will think about these. By reasonable diet, I don't eat anything that is processed although I have occasional blips which will be controlled from now on.

I am confused about heavy metal chelation/detoxification! Can you shed some light on this for me please, I will also have a look to see what is available here and on the web.

My thyroid was checked when all this started and appeared to be normal, but I think it was just TSH, I will have another look at that.

Thanks for the encouragement with the massage/manual techniques. Boar bristle brushing also sounds worth a try. Since the hair loss started I have been very tentative about brushing/touching my scalp incase of worsening the loss. But I see this in itself is probably not helping.

You are right it is not easy and can be very disheartening when you have tried lots of things, hoping for just a little improvement, but not getting any. I've also PMed you - thank you.

Hi Medal,

I totally get behind the first response. Thyroid is critical, and you should absolutely have the more detailed panel done. Tell the doctor you'd like not only free T4, but also free T3, reverse T3, and the thyroid antibodies checked also. And there is also a ton of variation in the interpretation of TSH, to begin with. I've had doctors act unconcerned about a TSH in the 7's. I've had others who didn't like it at 3.5. You'll find endocrine specialists tend to be more sensitive to the sub-clinical hypothyroidism, but it varies by the doc. Personally, I've seen enough research and information over time to realize TSH ought to be as close to 1.0 or under as possible. That's not to say you necessarily need to jump on thyroid medication if your TSH is a little above that. Its just a compass, something to keep in mind as you try to establish where your problem might center.

I also agree the diet is crucial. The types of fats are really the crux, to me. They're tough to avoid nowadays but any form of hydrogenated plant oils have to be avoided. Aaaannnnddd there goes almost any processed product.

As far as heavy metal chelation goes, I do think its valuable. There really isn't any doubt that a good plenty of us have higher than typical metal levels. But that also doesn't mean its necessarily responsible for the hair loss you are experiencing either. Metal chelation is something you should spend a lot of time researching before you attempt anything. There are quite a few arguments out there for how to properly do it, and what materials will achieve it for you. Don't take one opinion on this topic because it can be dangerous. In my mind there are two strategies, which are "low & slow" and then the "fast & furious". Using iodine, silica, humic/fulvic acid complexes are going to do a slower, safer rate reduction in your overall metal load. If you look up Dr. Klinghardt, he uses chlorella and cilantro for this purpose. Chemicals like DMSA have a higher affinity and are going to stir up more, more quickly so those types of protocols (like the Cutler protocol) have to be a bit more carefully managed, in my opinion. And if you'd like to do this type of cleanse, I'd recommend trying to find a doctor literate in this area who will help oversee the process. Unfortunately mainstream medicine is not up-to-date on the problem, so finding said doctor can be difficult and will likely require shopping. I say this because metal ions are highly highly damaging to the tissues and the body sequesters them away for a reason. Stirring these up without ensuring their complete removal is only going to result in their migrating to possibly worse tissues. We tend to worry about the brain specifically. Not only that, but there can be bad reactions experienced when you start stirring up metals, and things like intravenous vitamin C can make the process easier and safer.