Shereene IdrissBoard Certified Derm, Founder and Chief Nerd

Emotional Hair Loss (Part 1) #shorts

28 Aug 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:58

A short YouTube clip (Emotional Hair Loss (Part 1) #shorts) featuring Dr. Shereene Idriss, a board-certified dermatologist, responding to a patient diagnosed with androgenetic alopecia. Dr. Idriss emphasizes that hair loss can be emotionally impactful even without complete baldness, uses an "Amazon rainforest vs Central Park" analogy to convey perceived density loss, and briefly lists several alopecia subtypes (androgenetic alopecia, alopecia areata, telogen effluvium, alopecia universalis).

Chapters

I've been diagnosed with androgenetic alopecia from both an endocrinologist and a dermatologist.
I'm a board certified dermatologist and I'm here to tell you that you do not need to be bald to be emotionally affected by hair loss. For starters, not everybody has the same density of hair. So if you are somebody who's used to having the Amazon rainforest on your head and all of a sudden you just have Central park on your head, it's going to take an emotional toll. Yes, Central park has trees, but. But you are the Amazon rainforest. And second, not all hair loss is created equal. You have some people who lose their hair in small round patches. That is also known as alopecia, but that is alopecia areata. Then you have people who lose their hair all over their head all of a sudden, maybe three months after a traumatic incident. That is known as telogen effluvium. Then you have people who lose their hair all over their body, including their scalp, their eyebrows, their eyelashes, their privates. And that's known as alopecia universalis. So not all alopecia is created equ.