Hello,
I am 24 year old female. In the past year I have experienced extreme hair shedding, noticing large clumps of my hair coming out during the day and in the shower. My hair has become thinner all around, my ponytail is much thinner, and my crown (which always had very fine hair) is beginning to show my scalp through. I also lost more than 20 pounds, became underweight and suffered through extreme emotional stress. I went to a few doctors and had a full blood panel done, revealing iron deficiency and vitamin D deficiency. I also had a dermatologist look at my scalp through a scopic lense, which he claimed showed miniaturization all over my head. The hair shedding has since slowed down (or so I've noticed) and I'm working on gaining weight and dealing with my stressors. I am curious: could this be telogen effluvium? Or does the apparent visual of miniaturization immediately doom me into having androgenetic alopecia? I am hoping my hair begins to come back, as I recently noticed a few tiny ~1 inch hairs sprouting along my crown, as well as some of these tiny hairs falling out, on my pillow, etc.