Diffuse balding is not male pattern baldness

[Old Baldy]

I'm sorry Return I must be getting old.

I simply do not understand what you are talking about.

Can someone please explain to me what Return means?

Thick hair, massive shedding, gradual loss over time....... propecia and minoxidil. never proven to help this type of loss. :? :? :?

He's going too fast for me and is all over the board. I just don't get it. There are no specifics or concise ideas of the cause of this so-called different form of hair loss. It isn't male pattern baldness, it isn AA, then WTF is it?

I mean what does Return think causes diffuse hair loss? I asked him if DHT is the culprit to get things started but he never answered. If it's in the horseshoe area isn't it pattern loss for Godsakes!? :hairy:

 

[Johnny24601]

" we are the people on this forum who complain of massive daily shedding but have pics with full heads of thick hair. however, over a gradual period of time our hair gets thinner and thinner. years go by and eventually our hair is too thin to style. does this sound like your typical case of male pattern baldness??? of course not. "
Um ya that is normal and is certainly male pattern baldness. It effects many of us. One thing that is important is to note to others who first start to see shedding is that, if they want to save their hair for as long as possible, they have to start treatments BEFORE it becomes a problem!
"we also know that diffuse thinners are in the minority. take a look at the boards and at the world population and you will see many bald people with norwood type loss, and far fewer with diffuse thinning and a perfect hairline. therefore, my initial point was: based on diffuse thinners being in the extreme minority, what evidence do we have that propecia and rogaine were tested effectively on diffuse balders??? NONE!!!!!"
Not sure how you make this conclusion that diffuse thinners are the minority when most receeders eventually have thinning all over as they age and thus become thinners. These are generic terms to describe male pattern baldness. IMO I would say it is more like 50/50 on this board, perhaps we have a different point of view on what diffuse thinning looks like. Oh, and then you speak about "seeing" so many bald people and most have norwood type loss. You seem to discount the millions of men who are um slick *** bald. They WERE diffuse thinners at some point but as is the nature of diffuse balding they lost it quick and it all is gone but you seem to not count them. I believe the finasteride trials incorporated men over the spectrum of balding process, surely some of these men had diffuse loss. I have seen many men on this forum who have diffuse loss and have seen improvement from finasteride. I have thining over my entire head and feel like finasteride has really slowed my hairloss and I have photos to prove it. I just don't understand what you are talking about as I think you are jaded and angry over your hairloss and making uninformed reaches, which is understood but not helpful to the discussion.
I hate to sound like a jerk but I think you have to come to grips with your hairloss as this is just you and there is nothing "wrong" with it. Your genes have instructed your body to start destroying the follicles on the top of your head. You are using the best society can safely offer to combat the hairloss, it is a natural condition which eventually effects a majority of men. Unfortunately we are forced to deal with it earlier then others and have to live in a a society that makes us feel ugly and unhealthy for it. Pehaps you will not respond to any treatment. Use this as a motivator to improve the look of the rest of your body, mind and sole. Hair is not as important to women as men think.

 

[NYVic20]

I have to agree with return on a point; I had a similiar experience with my diffuse thinning. I started shedding a lot of hair since the past year and if you looked at my hair when it was dry, you would think I had a full head of hair. It was only when my hair was wet and combed down that I noticed I had an agressive diffuse thinning over the whole top of my scalp and that I had already probibly lost between 30%-50% of my front half of my scalp hair although my hairline remained intact. Based on the current availiable science, I don't believe that diffuse thinning is different than male pattern baldness other than that it's more agressive and doesn't occur in a specific pattern like male pattern baldness but who knows perhaps, there might be something else that might be facilitating hair loss alongside dht. Bryan even mentioned that Dr Proctor believes that's the case with the W shaped receding hairline. Regarding treatment, it is definitly much harder to treat diffuse thinning than male pattern baldness since you have to apply any topical you're using all over the top of your scalp and work with hair getting in the way. I have personally seen my shedding decrease remarkabely and I'm only on topicals like revivogen,minoxidil,tricomin,spironolactone and ketoconazole which is why I'm hopefull that finasteride might be able to maintain what I have. In contrast, I have barely seen any regrowth except a little on my hairline. For those not responding to finasteride or dutasteride, it's also possible that over time, the hair follicles might become too sensitive to dht that even the slightest contact causes the follicle to atrophy. Maybe this is why in the 5 yr study on Propecia, the amount of responders and hair count continued to decline over those years.

 

[douggie]

I am not reading thru this whole thing...I was a diffuse thinner...finasteride and nizoral for 3 years, going strong, no visible loss, and my hair is essentially as it was before I started losing it. My hair looked like Sh*t at 8 months, 12 months, and at least one other time. It was worse at month 8 than it was when I started.

 

[viperfish]

I am a diffuse thinner too. I have not had any success with any treatment over the years. Although, I was only able to use propecia for about 3 months, due to side effects. Maybe finasteride would have worked for me. Right now I am using proxiphen and I will give it a full year. I hope something happens. If not I think I might as well give up. My hair continues to get worse. I really think that diffuse thinning is the worst type of hairloss going.

My hair is uniformily thin. The sides are as thin as the top and in the back. However, I have had my thyroid checked three times and each time it comes back completely normal. I think my hair is genetically thin all over, as I have never had thick hair. I used to have friends tell me I was going bald in 7th and 8th grade. Can you imagine that??? I do know that my hair is getting worse though.

My mother had incredibly thin hair and in fact she lost alot of it after menopause. I think I have inherited her type of hairloss. I really don't fit on the norwood scale either, as my hairloss is more like female pattern loss.

 

[Skaff]

Return,
I think you've got Telogen Effluvium.
Telogen Effluvium comes in all forms and has all sorts of triggers...could be diet, stress or any kind of shock to the system. In many ways, it can be worse than male pattern baldness because it's often progressive and sometimes impossible to diagnose (and, therefore, treat)...despite blood tests, scalp biopsies, etc. I bet they're many people in this forum that are mistreating their Telogen Effluvium with finasteride and/or other meds. It's a freakin difficult situation to be in!

I think one indicator of Telogen Effluvium is: diffuse thinning, no response to finasteride but a response to minoxidil.

Also, I'm sure Telogen Effluvium can be genetic too. Just because you have a family history of hair loss doesn't mean it's a family history of male pattern baldness...all the men in your family could have the same genetic Telogen Effluvium inducing sensitivity.

You're absolutely right...Telogen Effluvium suffers are the forgotten victims of hair loss and not enough is being done to help them.

 

[returnoftheshedi]

Return,
I think you've got Telogen Effluvium.
Telogen Effluvium comes in all forms and has all sorts of triggers...could be diet, stress or any kind of shock to the system. In many ways, it can be worse than male pattern baldness because it's often progressive and sometimes impossible to diagnose (and, therefore, treat)...despite blood tests, scalp biopsies, etc. I bet they're many people in this forum that are mistreating their Telogen Effluvium with finasteride and/or other meds. It's a freakin difficult situation to be in!

I think one indicator of Telogen Effluvium is: diffuse thinning, no response to finasteride but a response to minoxidil.

Also, I'm sure Telogen Effluvium can be genetic too. Just because you have a family history of hair loss doesn't mean it's a family history of male pattern baldness...all the men in your family could have the same genetic Telogen Effluvium inducing sensitivity.

You're absolutely right...Telogen Effluvium suffers are the forgotten victims of hair loss and not enough is being done to help them.

i dont have Telogen Effluvium. i've been losing hair for 6 years.