Reoccuring TE

by Renee
(New York, NY)

I'm a 25 year old female who has been dealing with periodic hair loss for 10 years now. I have fine very dark hair. I'm active, have a very regular period, no known illnesses, try to eat good things, and am very rarely sick.

I haven't had en episode for about 2 years. Just when my hair was starting to look good for once, I have a big re-occurrence. I've been experiencing for what I believe is TE for about 2 months now. My hair loss is diffuse and is the worst after I've wash it. It comes out in handfuls. I probably loose between 300-400 hairs after it's been washed. About 6 months ago I lost my job and was really stressed out for about a week. Also around that time I stopped eating meat and ate a lot of soy products, but also took a multi-vitamin with iron. Both of these instances could be likely triggers, but I have no idea for sure.

When I was 15, that was the first time I experienced TE. I went through a phase where I was obsessed with tanning and was using the tanning bed for 30 minutes twice a week. That's way too much! I went to a few doctors who couldn't figure out why I was loosing my hair. They ran blood tests which came back normal and I was overall very healthy. One dermatologist said I had seborrheic dermatitis and prescribed some shampoos for me to use. I still have SB today and continue to use medicated shampoos, but I don't think SB is what causes my hair to fall out. Since tanning initially triggered TE 10 years ago, I feel like I'm more susceptible it. Between now and then I've experienced periods of hair loss, but right now I'm experiencing the worst case I've had in years.

It's very stressful and bad for my self esteem. I've done a lot of research to try and figure out a way to stop it, but nothing seems to work permanently. Right now I'm using my medicated shampoos and taking biotin, but I have yet to see the loss slow down.