hair thinning

[coffeehour]

hi there, 21 year old woman here who is very concerned about thinning hair particularly around the temples. I went to see my GP and got a bold test, but everything other than vitamin D came back as normal and I have been taking a supplement since. Lifelong vegetarian, started eating meat again for the iron and protein. Cut my long hair shoulder length and tried to wash it less. I have been through a lot of stress as a student and home carer, in addition to having money and relationship problems, but I can't imagine it's stress as the nurse said it would have to be extreme, like the death of a loved one. I'm currently taking about 10 vitamins, midoxinil foam, taking good care of my hair but I'm still noticing strands coming out. Thought it might be birth control-related, but I quit the pill and still see it happening. Could be the morning after pill but it seems unlikely. Any help would be really appreciated, as it's making me extremely anxious. Thanks! :)

The thing with minoxidil is you will now have to use it for the rest of your life if it helps, as soon as you stop the effects will wear off. Washing hair less isn't the best way to tackle it, often stimulating your scalp by washing, drying (gently) and combing (again, gently) will help to promote new growth. I have been in your position after the birth of my third child, I actually developed a bald patch. I found that trying to relax as much as possible, taking a good supplement with biotin, and using a thickening shampoo helped me. Don't be afraid to go back to the gp, they often try to fob us off with things like this because it's not life threatening but it's very distressing and you are entitled to help to combat this. Good luck.

The ordinary does a scalp serum, it gets good reviews. It will take at least three months to start to see a change though from what I can tell.

It could well be stress, in the first 3 weeks of lockdown I lost loads of hair. It’s tailing off now as I relax a bit.

Is your diet good? I don’t see the harm in being vegetarian or vegan if your doing it right. If it’s full of processed rubbish though your not giving the body much to work with.

coffeehour It could well be stress,i went through a lot of stress including a relationship breakup, that was almost like grieving,and my hair fell out ,i have a few bald looking patches, but seen a dermatologist who says it will grow back, but this was over a year ago, it's still coming out but not as much, he reckons by the end of summer it will have grown back,[hoping so] i have been wearing a hat since last summer
Try strong biotin, i have started some from a place called Troo [spelt that way] health, very reasonable £8-79
Could be low ferritin, but if you have been tested for that, i would say stress related

Get your ferritin levels checked. They don't tend to check them on a normal blood test (they check your iron levels and assume all is well if they look good). I ended up going private over my hair loss and found that my ferritin levels were at 10. They need to be at 70 for hair growth. It takes a long time to build the levels back up again and you have to diligent with taking supplements and eating well.