r/TelogenEffluvium

I'm 24 yo (M) and I started noticing loss of hair when I was 21. At that time I had a very stressful few months and I noticed my hair falling out more and my scalp showing. That stress eventually went away and my hair became healthier again but not as It was when I was younger. This year I started a new job that stressed me out a lot in the beginning. I started seeing my scalp more and more and my hair more damaged and frizzy. I have vitamin d deficiency and an inflamed scalp. I don't know what to do to fix this. I've researched and I don't think I have the genetic balding. I "think" I have the telogen eflivium but I don't know what to do to reverse it because I am a very stressed and anxious person so that isn't going away. I would appreciate some advice. I'll post some pictures with wet and dry hair. My hairline is fine BTW, it's just the top that lost a lot of density.

as Short as I can make it background - im in a horrible relationship that’s emotionally and psychologically abusive. earlier in the year (Jan-April) severe trauma from this relationship caused me to worry that I would have TE. fast forward to July I first started noticing my hair falling out. Then in July due to my severe relationship stress and severe insomnia with no help from Kaiser doctors I got the shingles. (Still have scars from the shingles, also I had the shingles on my torso not face or head) I’ve been shedding since July. I’ve lost at least 70% of my hair. doctors won’t listen to me. I’m so depressed bc over the past seven years I’ve gone through so much I’ve had TE at least 3 times, this is is the worst I’ve ever experienced it. I barely touch it and it comes out. Washing it is devastating and the texture is dry and brittle.I’m so depressed , I barely , just barely started to see it coming back (I have no idea how much care I put into it and seeing results…. I was so happy about that but I knew that I might it lose it. I was worried in the back of my mind. please look at my pictures and any advice would help me. I had my ferritin checked it’s at 35. normally I’m like a 9 but I’ve been taking iron supplements on my own. of course Kaiser says it’s normal. I can’t even get in to see a derm. till December . I’m stuck. I have no support. I work as a maid. I’m unhappy in my relationship. I can’t leave I have nowhere to go. it’s destroying my mental and physical health. I’m worried I’m going to lose all my hair . 😔these pictures are over the course of these last few months. ending with tonight after the shower (hence the wet hair)

I wanted to share my timeline and recovery, because those posts were helpful for me when I was going through my TE experience.

After titrating up to the highest dose of Wegovy (2.4 mg), I essentially stopped eating for several months. I didn’t really notice how little I was eating, I lost a lot of weight, and I was happy with the results.

Three months later—late June/early July 2024—I started shedding excessively. I completely panicked, because my hair has always been one of my favorite physical features—something I’m known for.

I waited a long time—3 months—to see a dermatologist and get the TE diagnosis (I had just been obsessively googling and lurking here and on YouTube) which was a mistake; I think it would have helped me to know earlier on that it was definitely going to be temporary.

October 2024, after seeing the dermatologist, I started taking 1.25 mg of oral minoxidil daily. I also stopped taking Wegovy, because I was terrified it was the medication itself and not just the lack of calories/protein that may have been the trigger.

I was in active shedding for 5-6 months. It slowed and eventually went back to normal in December/January. The panic and constant rumination and fixation persisted. It was one of the most anxious times of my life. By the time the shedding had stopped, I’d lost between 40-50% of my hair.

I started noticing regrowth shortly after the shedding stopped. I did the blow dryer trick—pointing a blow dryer at your hair while you hold it up with a brush to blow the short hair away so you can see it—constantly, to reassure myself. I included a photo of this.

In April 2025, I wanted to make sure I was doing everything I could to speed regrowth, so I had my blood work done, and my ferritin was low. I started taking 72 mg of iron nightly. I also started taking OMI hair peptides. And, with MASSIVE amounts of anxiety, I decided to trust my gut that it was the lack of nutrition and not the medication that caused the shedding, and I got back on a maintenance dose of Wegovy—first .5 mg for a month, then up to 1 mg, which I have taken weekly since.

Since then, I’ve just been slowly regrowing—no issues with the Wegovy—and I’m thrilled to say that my hair is fully back to original thickness, length, and texture. My hair is naturally curly, but it became so damaged it completely lost its curl when I was shedding—you can see the difference between the regrowth and damage in one of the photos. It took a little over 2 years since I started shedding to feel 100% recovered.

Here are some photos of the journey. The ponytail just under 2 inches was October 4, 2024. The ponytail just over 3 inches was today, October 4, 2026.

(I still take the minoxidil, iron, and OMI daily—I imagine I always will.)

Just some random advice from someone who was diagnosed with TE. I don’t know if I have it too. I have thick, fast-growing hair, and whenever I get a haircut, my scalp isn’t visible. However, things suddenly changed when summer started and it became very hot where I live. I don’t know if the heat damaged my scalp, but from August until now, my hair has been severely shedding and thinning. I’m losing around 250–300 strands a day, almost every day, and most of them have a white bulb.
I’ve also been experiencing some fatigue and occasional headaches. I had a bruise on my arm that lasted for about a week, but it’s gone now.
What I did was buy a ferritin test kit from the pharmacy, and the result showed that my ferritin was low. However, the day after, I had a CBC test, and my serum iron was normal.
Do you think I’m going bald, or could this just be TE caused by low iron or a vitamin deficiency? I haven’t seen a dermatologist yet because I know that if I ask my family doctor for a referral, it might take a few months before I get an appointment.

Started shedding in Jan 26, then got better by June 26, and started shedding again by August 26. My derm told me in May that this is TE but I’m so worried I’m going bald. Ferritin, vit D normal but not optimal. I am taking supplements to fix.

So long story short, I had hair loss due to methylphenidate ( adhd medication ) which continued on elvanse, which I then stopped over 6 weeks ago and hair loss is still prevelant meaning I have TE, I had a blood test the other day for cortisol as I was trying to figure out why the meds caused my hair loss and my cortisol was 504nmol/l and the normal range is between 133-537 meaning my cortisol is on the higher end of normal and I suspect the adhd meds made it much higher

Had anyone had hair loss due to high cortisol? If so how did you help lower it? I need to be back on my meds asap as I am completely non functional since stopping and it’s been hell, but I want to also not stress my body out and be able to lower my cortisol so I have less chance of this all happening again

Has anyone ever dealt with hair loss on adhd medication and managed to control it?

Picture attached is 5 weeks of hair loss on wash days alone whilst on adhd medication ( it was also falling out weeks before hand and weeks after, I was tracking it every wash day and dating it etc to see the progression of the hair loss to see if it was improving or getting worse and I put it all together in a pile the other day just to show how much hair I lost in a short amount of time )

I’ve been having hair shedding for an about a month now, and got diagnosed with TE during that time, but it feels like my part has been widening as well, especially the crown. It also sometimes feels irritated and has redness and slight dandruff. I just want to know if this is normal for TE or not.

Today I learned that if you are losing hair already because of stress and you get an extremely high fever, apparently it can cause you to shed basically all your hair. These pictures are taken literally one day apart: