I get a lot of correspondence from people who tell me that they have a very sore and painful scalp that accompanies their accelerated hair loss. Sometimes they also have itching, flaking, or some discoloration (red or pink scalp) that is also happening. Many people ask me why this is happening and if there is anything they can do to fix or help it. I will discuss both in the next article.
Some things that can cause scalp pain with hair loss: There are a few things that may be causing this condition. I will discuss them one by one. First is telogen effluvium. This is basically an aggressive molt that can occur for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is seasonal. Other times, it is due to medical problems, stress, medications, or hormones.
Whatever the reason, detachment is usually very dramatic and disturbing. What is happening is that your hair is changing its life expectancy by going from growing to resting before what was actually meant to happen. In short, the hair cycle has been interrupted and shortened. As a result, tons of your follicles are going to undergo this change at once. Sometimes you can literally feel like this is happening. When it happened to me, the specialists told me that my pain could have been psychological because I was very worried and worried about my hair. I just don’t buy this. I know from the forums that this is quite common and the redness and pinkness that often accompany it is quite physical and apparent just by looking.
Another common cause of this is allergic or dermatological reactions of the scalp. Sometimes you use a new styling or beauty product (hair dye is a common culprit) that burns or adversely affects your scalp or causes some kind of allergic reaction. Occasionally, you will develop a new sensitivity to an old product.) The hair loss that follows is a direct reaction to this, but is often short-lived once you stop using the product.
The final cause that I will discuss (and the one that many believe to be the most common and likely) is that the scalp is reacting to androgens. Sometimes this is because you are in a phase of life where you are genetically prone to becoming more sensitive to these substances. And sometimes the hormones that would balance this start to wane or decline. Other times, something in your body overstimulates your follicles or scalp and causes excess androgens, oils, or sebum. Whatever the reason, pain, redness, tightness, or itching is the direct result of these androgens. And this, in turn, can damage or affect the ability of the follicles to retain and grow healthy hair.
An important question: Did the scalp pain start before or after hair loss ?: If you can identify which action happened first, this can sometimes help you figure out why this is happening. In the case of telogen effluvium and with dermatological problems of the scalp or allergic reactions, a sore scalp usually appears after hair loss. It is the action of the follicles that change the cycles that makes this happen.
But, with AGA (androgenic alopecia or genetic hair loss), sore scalp often (but not always) occurs before hair loss. Sensitivity or androgens appear and then as a result of these struggles the hair cannot hold as before because it is continually being adversely affected. To be fair, in all of these cases, losing so much hair in such a short time can lead to severe inflammation that can make things worse on the scalp or lead to the problems discussed in this article.
So what can you do to help in this situation? Well, in terms of TE, you can do everything you can to decrease inflammation and eliminate any triggers that are causing the shedding. For dermatological problems, you can remove the offending product. In the case of AGA, you’ll want to address both androgens and sensitivity. And all of these scenarios can be helped by topical anti-inflammatories to help soothe the scalp and stimulate regrowth, without clogging the follicles.