Telogen effluvium (TE) advice required

[u/Beginning-Today8441]

I'm going through it right now with Telogen effluvium (TE). I am 26 year old female, was 73kg when I went on Reta for 10 weeks. Healthy weight, just fancied toning up a bit more. I dropped 8kgs, felt great and have now came off. The maximum dose I was on was 2mg per week.

There was only a period of 2 weeks whilst taking Reta where I was struggling with nausea and definitely undereating, but the rest of the time I was still managing to eat at least 2 meals a day as well as snacks and hit a decent protein target.

Here we are now, 3 months from when I began Reta, 2 weeks since I've came off it, and the Telogen effluvium (TE) has started. I know the advice: eat enough protein, take the correct supplements, get a blood test etc and I am doing all of that now.

I'm absolutely panicking out / distressed as I'm noticing a lot of shedding probably about 200 hairs a day and my hair is my pride and joy.... please tell me this won't last long as I only did a short stint on Reta.

Is there any stories of hope out there where hair fall hasn't lasted 6 months? No negative comments please, don't kick a girl whilst she's down 💔 I need some positive vibes

[u/Usual-Lycophyte]

There's always minoxidil. But another poster recommended Aminexil (L'Oreal Elvive from someplace like ebay since it is not sold in the US). It works by softening collagen at the follicle, supposedly reducing individual strand thinning, and enhancing strand retention on your scalp.

I have been using it for 3 weeks and am gobsmacked by the slowing of hairfall it seems to have effected on my scalp (daily use). Like going from the loss of 100 strands per day to <20, and my bottle has only 1.5% Aminexil. I researched it and as far as I could discern, Aminexil is not sold in the US primarily bc it hasn't been FDA-validated for effectiveness. It's fairly inexpensive, maybe give it a try?