Thin hair in the crown area :(

Hi and Namaste,

My name is Sahil and I live in India.

I started dreading on march 21st 2013, and ofcourse soaring eagle has been a great inspiration.

But i have a small problem, i always had a small patch of thin hair in the crown area and now after im 24 theres a more than little patch of my bald scalp quite visible and as i have decided to go with the neglect method ( thanks to soaring eagle ) the hair around is getting knotty and as a result my bald scalp is more prominently visible and the top looks flat.

Please help as i wana grow proper dreads without any scalp or gap showing between them, i wash my hair once in 10 days with mild shampoo and before was i apply almond oil and due to fear of getting bald i also apple minoxidil at times a night before the wash.

And as my thin hair are not being good friends with their neighboring knotty hair, they look lose and hence make me sad

I dont want my dreads to look ugly because of my thin hair and bald patch.

Please find attached a photograph of my bald patch taken under a flash of a camera.

updated by @sahil-fernandes: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM

hi sahil, welcome to the community

well there can be many reasons for thinning hair as far as i know.. twisting too much, rubbing, using unwanted products could well be the reasons.... is ur bald patch becos of hereditary issues..? is ur mom's father bald? then it may happen to u too with age.. and i guess theres not much u can do about it. there are many many people in this world who are partially bald and still have a handfull dreads and they look awesome on them.. if u have a bald patch u would still have it no matter what... dreads or no dreads..

and washing 1nce in 10 days is way too less... u should wash twice a week n keep them clean.. what kinda mild shampoo is it? most shampoos contain conditioners so they never let ur hair dread.. they slip out and never knot up.. moreover they can leave behind residue that smell after a few days.. so watchout for that...

u could look out for natural essential oils that help in hair growth n see if it works for u.. dilute them in water and then use it on ur scalp. see if it helps. i use rosemary oil which nourishes the scalp and helps in hair growth. hope this helps u bro. haha n me and u come from the same country by the way.. :P good luck on ur journey..

Hey Ojays,

Greetings of the day !

And apologies for a late reply, its been almost a month

Thank you for looking into my issue, and trying to help me with it.

First point i would like to share with you is that my mom is a Sardarni, hence my NANA wears a turban all the time and my mom says that she's clueless about her dads hair :p

But anyways rest of my scalp has very very dense hair growth, its just this small and not so narrow gauge that kind of looks like a permanent section maybe because since i was a kid i have been applying oil, shampoo and other hair products first in that portion of my scalp and then moving towards the rest part of my head. I guess its like that part of the garden where you keep walking daily and hence one day you notice that the grass is not as dense and as fuller as it is on the rest part of the garden. Plus for the last two years i have been combing my frizzy and extremely curly hair every single day because i had to tie them neatly at work. So lost a lot of hair due that too.

Now after noticing all this and deciding to get dreads the natural way its being a bit difficult for that part of my hair to dread because 1: the hair is not so dense, and because of the knotting thats happening around it, the portion is more exposed. 2: And after shower my hair gets sectioned all by itself leaving that thin part all alone so again thats effecting the dreading procedure.

As for now, i have been applying minoxidil one in ten days couple of hours before the shower and also a bit of almond oil. And you are quite true, that the shampoo i use, does make the procedure very slow, but then can you please help me with selecting the correct product for my hair? And what do you have to say about Biotin, would it help my hair RE-grow? Also please let me know if you are aware of any websites or salons in India that can provide shampoo and other stuff required for the dreading procedure, or maybe you could let me know what shampoo you use !

Looking forward for your reply.

Thanks and regards,

Sahil Fernandes.

Ojas Acharya said:

hi sahil, welcome to the community

well there can be many reasons for thinning hair as far as i know.. twisting too much, rubbing, using unwanted products could well be the reasons.... is ur bald patch becos of hereditary issues..? is ur mom's father bald? then it may happen to u too with age.. and i guess theres not much u can do about it. there are many many people in this world who are partially bald and still have a handfull dreads and they look awesome on them.. if u have a bald patch u would still have it no matter what... dreads or no dreads..

and washing 1nce in 10 days is way too less... u should wash twice a week n keep them clean.. what kinda mild shampoo is it? most shampoos contain conditioners so they never let ur hair dread.. they slip out and never knot up.. moreover they can leave behind residue that smell after a few days.. so watchout for that...

u could look out for natural essential oils that help in hair growth n see if it works for u.. dilute them in water and then use it on ur scalp. see if it helps. i use rosemary oil which nourishes the scalp and helps in hair growth. hope this helps u bro. haha n me and u come from the same country by the way.. :P good luck on ur journey..

Maybe the members on this site who are hair & scalp specialists can help you, send them a message. You can find them by going to the members tab at the top of the site, click on that for a new page, near the top of that page you will see a small white area that says hair-scalp health experts. Click on that. You will now see 4 members that may be able to help you out. Send each one a message. Try to make sure you are detailed with your message, like if your twisted your hair, what you used so far, etc...that way they can be accurate for you.. If it is just genetics, I gotta say that your dreads will still look awesome, so don't worry......Good luck...Peace

It looks to me like your hair grows in a very common swirl pattern which can cause a strange part. It can make it look thinner in the area but it may just be the way your hair grows in a different direction and wants to lay that way. I dorecommend Biotin. It is great! My hair has tons of new growth. I have been taking it every day for over 2 years. My hair has never grown so much and so fast as it does now.

Thank you so much Barrellady, il do that right away.!!! And thanks for being so positive )

the Barrellady said:

Maybe the members on this site who are hair & scalp specialists can help you, send them a message. You can find them by going to the members tab at the top of the site, click on that for a new page, near the top of that page you will see a small white area that says hair-scalp health experts. Click on that. You will now see 4 members that may be able to help you out. Send each one a message. Try to make sure you are detailed with your message, like if your twisted your hair, what you used so far, etc...that way they can be accurate for you.. If it is just genetics, I gotta say that your dreads will still look awesome, so don't worry......Good luck...Peace

Hey Taye,

Thank you for your time, and yes i have already started my daily supplements of Biotin

I would totally agree that my hair does have a swirl pattern, but just beacuse they are very curly and hence heavy, it results in exposing the thin hair part / swirl which doesnt look so nice But its okay, i hope biotin helps my hair to over come this phase.!!

Thank you for helping )

taye said:

It looks to me like your hair grows in a very common swirl pattern which can cause a strange part. It can make it look thinner in the area but it may just be the way your hair grows in a different direction and wants to lay that way. I dorecommend Biotin. It is great! My hair has tons of new growth. I have been taking it every day for over 2 years. My hair has never grown so much and so fast as it does now.

Greetings! I hate you're having to deal with this problem. I'm female, but I was on some medication for an under active thyroid that made me have many bald patches. I did not know that this was the cause of my bald spots at the time. I started to use theminoxidil and my hair fell out worse than ever. Then I did a bit of research and found out thatminoxidil WILL help you to grow back some hair IF it's caused by genetics, for example, male pattern baldness. Now here is the bad part.... When you first start usingminoxidil it will actually CAUSE significant hair loss in the beginning!!! Eventually you will shed that old hair and the medication will start to help you re-grow hair, but that can take a couple of months. Also, do some research,minoxidil has some pretty bad chemicals in it. It can actually cause other health problems. I remember one being fast orirregularheart-beat.

I'm not advising you on using it or not, only suggesting that you might want to look it up, how it works, and the side effects.

In my case, the hair loss stopped when I switched to a different medication for my thyroid problem. Like Barrell Lady suggested, I started taking Biotin, it takes a few weeks to start to notice, but my hair is very healthy now. It's worked great for me! Just don't expect a change overnight from it. If you try the Biotin, you'll probably notice changes in about 2 months. I wish you luck, and I know how frustrating it can be. Take care my friend!

Heyy Amethyst777,

Greetings, and thank you for you suggestion

I totally agree that minoxidil does help, but its not permanent i.e it makes your hair dependent and also does result in irregular heart beats, i have finally stopped using it regularly ( i use it once in fortnight ).

And im quite sure that its not genetics, its just that over the past years i have abused my hair alot just for the sake of keeping them in a well groomed state, i would oil them daily + shampoo daily + brush and comb daily ( not good for the type of curls i have ), its like a small epicenter created on my head in the crown area because i would pour shampoo, oil etc starting from that point and then rubbing it all over my head. But anyways thats history, now i think the situation should improve

But now that i have started biotin, im quite sure that il see positive results in few months.

Thank you so much for your positiveness )

Take care..!!!

amethyst777 said:

Greetings! I hate you're having to deal with this problem. I'm female, but I was on some medication for an under active thyroid that made me have many bald patches. I did not know that this was the cause of my bald spots at the time. I started to use theminoxidil and my hair fell out worse than ever. Then I did a bit of research and found out thatminoxidil WILL help you to grow back some hair IF it's caused by genetics, for example, male pattern baldness. Now here is the bad part.... When you first start usingminoxidil it will actually CAUSE significant hair loss in the beginning!!! Eventually you will shed that old hair and the medication will start to help you re-grow hair, but that can take a couple of months. Also, do some research,minoxidil has some pretty bad chemicals in it. It can actually cause other health problems. I remember one being fast orirregularheart-beat.

I'm not advising you on using it or not, only suggesting that you might want to look it up, how it works, and the side effects.

In my case, the hair loss stopped when I switched to a different medication for my thyroid problem. Like Barrell Lady suggested, I started taking Biotin, it takes a few weeks to start to notice, but my hair is very healthy now. It's worked great for me! Just don't expect a change overnight from it. If you try the Biotin, you'll probably notice changes in about 2 months. I wish you luck, and I know how frustrating it can be. Take care my friend!

Hair whether on dreads or not should still be properly nourished. I would recommend you to take biotin. Biotin prevents hair loss and promotes hair regrowth. You may try biotin from Hercules Vitamins.