How thin is my loose hair going to get?

People whose hair has been falling out for quite some time or quite dramatically in a short period of time often try to investigate what could be the cause. And once they rule out medical causes or seasonal shedding, they are often left thinking they have chronic telogen effluvium or androgenetic alopecia. Many people start out hoping to have telogen effluvium which passes very quickly. But sometimes, as more and more time passes, they start to get the feeling that this may last longer than they expected. Many begin to fear that they may have long-term forms of hair loss. And then they start to wonder how thin their hair will get if this is the case.

I’ve heard of someone who said, “At first I thought I had seasonal shedding. Then I thought I had TE. But now I’m starting to think I might have chronic telogen effluvium or even androgenetic alopecia because it’s been four months and my shedding shows no signs of shedding.” decrease. My ponytail is only a fraction of what it used to be. I’m starting to wonder how thin my hair will really get. Will you be able to see my scalp? Do I have bald spots? Will I have to wear a wig?” I will try to address these questions to the best of my ability in the following article.

The depth of hair loss can vary from person to person and from month to month: I know from my own experience that it is very common to count hairs and then try to get estimates later. So, for example, you might think something like, “I’m losing about 250 hairs a day. Over the course of a month, that’s 7,500 hairs. In six months, that’s 45,000 hairs. In a year, that’s 90,000 hairs.” I’ll be bald by then and I’ll need a wig.

I know this is scary. But you can’t think of it this way. You are not likely to lose exactly the same amount of hair every day. There are likely to be some days that are better and others that seem a little worse. But it’s the averages that count. Another thing to consider is that unless you have androgen-induced hair loss and your ability to regrow hair is severely compromised, you will continue to grow hair as you are losing it. Therefore, people with telogen effluvium or even chronic telogen effluvium are much less likely to see bald spots or a large scalp than someone with androgenetic alopecia who does not have the ability to regrow healthy hair. shedding is occurring, it also continues to grow and should offer some scalp coverage. Of course, because the hair is new and short and needs to grow out, you probably won’t see an increase in volume for quite some time.

A second thing to consider is that you don’t know when you might see this improve or even end. This woman had been shedding for 4 months, but to have a diagnosis of chronic telogen effluvium, she had two more months to go. It was possible that next week or next month, the detachment would stop. Finally, keep in mind that we normally drop a few hairs, I know it’s hard to keep this in perspective when it looks like she’s raining hairs. In my own experience, I was sure that I was going to go bald in several months. That didn’t happen even though I was moving very aggressively for a long time until I started to find some things to improve my situation. I got extremely thin temples. And, my hairline widened but my scalp was never completely transparent. I used powder to help blur my scalp because I got a little paranoid.

Don’t assume the worst case: It might make you feel better when I tell you that many people don’t reach their worst possible scenario. And I think it’s important that you don’t just accept that that’s where you’re going. There are many things you can do to keep your hair looking presentable while you’re going through this. You can also try to minimize inflammation and support growth. But to answer the question posed, unfortunately I couldn’t tell this woman how thin her hair would get because I wasn’t sure what type of hair loss she would have, I didn’t know how much longer her shedding would last, and I didn’t know what regimens I was going to try to address things. I could and I told her that things often don’t end up being as bad as you feared and it is believed that stress and fear actually make shedding worse. So trying to stay calm and being proactive can help.