difference between a definitive hair loss and a telogen effluvium

What is the difference between a definitive hair loss and a telogen effluvium?

An effluvium is a diffuse hair loss, usually linked to an attack or a deficiency. It stops the cycle but does not kill it permanently. Usually, before a definitive hair loss, the hair experiences a period of several years during which it grows slowly and ends up being miniaturized.

effluvium telogene hair loss definitive

How can people make the difference between a chronic effluvium and a permanent fall out?

On the one hand, the telogen effluvium concerns the whole scalp, which is not the case with the fall from androgenetic origin. On the other hand, the effluvium is often linked with a well known reason dating back two or three months earlier. Finally, if there is still any doubt, it is possible to make a test called trichogram. They tear off about fifty hair and they check their aspect, which allows to differentiate dead hair and living hair. It is also possible to make a photo-trichogram. It consists in cutting  a small long-haired surface very short and observe its evolution within 2 days. The hair in anagen phase will be the only ones to have grown. In this way, it is possible to evaluate the proportion of dead hair in comparison with living ones.

main reasons effluvium telogene

What are the main reasons of a telogen effluvium?

The telogen effluvium corresponds to the hair transition from its anagen phase (growth) to a telogen phase (death). It takes three months for the dead hair to come off. This is why the effluvium always occurs a certain time after an aggression.
The causes are stress in a wide sense : general anesthesia, childbirth, important fever episode, hormonal changes, or stopping taking birth-control pills, post partum, iron or zinc deficiency, or taking certain medications causing reactions     (antidepressants, depressors, cholesterol lowering pills, anti-inflammatory, anti -ulcer, antihistaminics …)

hair transplant old young age

I’m 22 years old, and I started losing my hair when I was 16. My skull is almost bald. Somebody told me that it is not recommended to have a hair transplant when you are too young. What is your opinion about it?

What matters the most is not the age but the stage of baldness reached. Obviously, it is important to be very careful and reserved when a young person, with a little baldness, wants a hair transplant. If you do not understand precisely the causes of the hair loss, it is better to wait and postpone the surgery. Moreover, some medical treatments like minoxidil and finasteride are often very efficient at that age but if the baldness reached an important stage, it is possible to make a hair transplant before the recommended age, which is 25 years old. It would be best to see a good doctor, who will analyse your case and recommend you a therapeutic solution.

Shock loss second hair transplant

Doctor, in August, I have had an hair transplant (not with you but with another serious surgeon, who is registered at the National medical association too) on my back area and I think I am feeling the hair coming out of my head. I already had a hair transplant with this Doctor, about 3 years ago, and I was really happy about the final result. At the beginning of August I asked him to perfect the previous surgery because a little line was hairless…but what worries me is the fall of the grafts implanted three years ago. In fact, although grafts existed on the left side of my front area, now I have this hairless strip. A few days ago this Doctor told me, once more, that the older grafts are going to grow back. If I am still worried, and I needed to ask to another specialist his advice, it is because after 4 months those grafts did not grow back (they fall 2 weeks after the second surgery). That is why I would like to know if the grafts that I lost (because of the anaesthesia? of the shock due to the new grafts placed next to them? …) will grow back for sure, and never fall again like the former ones?

Considering this hair loss process, it seems that you had a shock loss. Even if usually the shock loss occurs on the third month. Shock loss concerns, very often, already existent hair especially if there is a high degree of miniaturisation and it is linked to the degree of aggressiveness of the procedure. Personally, I am always extremely careful when there is a risk of shock loss. I never use adrenaline, and I reduce the number of incisions. I always ask my patients to take propecia and to use minoxidil during the weeks preceding the surgery. A shock loss of former grafts is very rare, really unusual. In spite of the fact that when you lose hair because of a hair transplant it can be permanent, with former grafts it is very exceptional ifthey do not grow back. That is why I recommend you to wait a couple of months before to consider a correction..