u/AcrobaticRadish8472

CW: hair and scalp :(

so this started about a week after my final college exams in mid may - chunks of my hair will come out every time i run my hair through it in the shower, i shed all the time and a couple strands will fall out everytime i so much as even touch my hair. in the pic, that's how much comes out after running it through my head twice, and even more came out as many times as i worked shampoo and conditioner into my hair.

i had a really rough couple of weeks leading up to and during my finals (spending 14 hours a day in the library and only coming out for lunch and dinner) but for the effects to last for months is so dramatic. this is accompanied with dandruff/sebborheic dermatitis which I've had before and comes and goes but never as bad as it has been recently.

I've been taking b-complex pills daily because that's what my father said fixed his sebborheic dermatitis + 4 pills of 900mcg biotin to help with it, but zero changes seem to have happened. all the biotin did was make my fingernails super strong. I'm terrified to brush my hair in the morning because the horror of seeing just how much I'm losing. I've been trying to convince myself my scalp looks fine but i really think 19 is too early to be balding.

any advice is greatly appreciated :(

the first image i took just now, the second is from 3 weeks ago.

following advice i got, i recently purchased the ordinary 2% salicylic acid and niacinamide serums as well as started using a clay mask 3x a week. my oily skin got much greasier compared to how it usually is, i was in denial for a bit but eventually realised it might be the new products. everything i've read has said these are the best ingredients for my current problems so i'm shocked that it has somehow become worse. is the product not entering my pores because i tap it in instead of rubbing it in??

if it helps, this is my current routine:

oily skin cleanser

dr. leo 3x acid pore cleansing clay mask (thrice a week, cleanser after)

aiken salicylic acid tea tree oil toner

TO 2% salicylic acid serum (twice a week)

TO 10% niacinamide (twice a week)

aiken gel moisturizer

biore UV aqua rich sunscreen

hi, i cleanse with an oil cleanser and use tea tree oil toner every morning and night and use a chemical exfoliant and clay mask once a week, yet my pores still look the same. i rarely break out or get acne but instead my pores always fill up with oily beads because I have oily skin and i end up having to squeeze them out because they are so huge and don't come out on their own, in the second picture that's what they sometimes look like although usually they're a bit smaller.

when i cleanse and when i exfoliate i try to rub hard so that the product can enter my pores but it is never able to because the dark spots are still there and they look deep in my skin. i am reluctant to rub harder than i already do or use a mechanical exfoliant in fear of damaging my skin further. is there anything I'm doing wrong, because i have no idea what to do with the large holes the sebum beads leave behind and they usually fill back up forcing me to repeat this process. thank you in advance, any advice is greatly appreciated