Rapid Hair Loss and Eyebrow Loss?

        Hi I am an 18 year old male with about shoulder length hair and about two months ago I started rapidly losing a lot of hair on my scalp except for  the lower back portion of the head. I could run my hands through my hair and I could get a few hairs each time and in the shower when shampooing my hair I counted up to 30 - 40 hairs one time. After a few weeks of seeing my hair fallout, my head/hair overall began feeling much lighter due to the shedding. I also began seeing my hairline recede from the front about 2 cm as well as the temples in the first month. I also noticed that sometimes when pulling my hair back, I would feel a bit of pain from what felt like individual hairs which never happened before. Dandruff and dry skin on the scalp also began showing up which was very rare for me. As or now, it feels and looks like I have lost about 50 % of hair volume mostly in the front as well as had my hairline recede at least within 2 months.

     During this time I was losing hair on my scalp I also noticed my eyebrows have falling out as well which is really worrying me. The left brow is now noticeably thinner than my right but they have both thinned fairly quickly. For some reason the left brow has also become extremely flaky and dry.Some days I can see chunks of dead skin the brow and when I try to scratch it off, a few eyebrow hairs might come out out as well.

     I have already gone to my doctor but she just brushed it off as telogen effluvium, because I had been under some stress during school which started in Jan of this year and I also had my wisdom teeth pulled in March but I dont think I was that much stress especially to cause the rapid hairloss. She also tested my blood and everything came out fine for any thyroid problems.

    So my question is whether or not my problem is due to telogen effluvium or could it be male pattern baldness? and why is only one of my eyebrows becoming so flaky and thinning quicker than the other?

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Telogen effluvium sounds most likely as the diagnosis for your scalp.  Sometimes we don;t know what triggers it, but whatever it was would have happened 3-4 months before you noticed the hair loss, not right before.  Wisdom teeth pulling could do it.  I don't know what to make of your eyebrow complaints, and I can't connect them to those of your scalp.  Scaling of the eyebrows is usually seborrhea, a scaly rash that doesn't cause hair loss.  Scalp dandruff is part of the same condition.  I think you need a visit to a skin specialist to sort things out and convince you that you are not in fact going bald, which I believe you aren't.

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff

[jmbirds]

my mom is an old time RN and her old time Dr said thyroid can cause thinning of the eyebrows and hair loss so i would look into a blood test for vitamin defeciency  or hormone  hope you get some answers