Telogen Effluvium Treatment Options

October 04, 2021

Advanced Trichology founder William Gaunitz, WTS, has been working in the trichology space for over 20 years, researching, refining, and relaunching new products, tools, and information to help consumers regrow the hair they inexplicably started losing. When WebMD wanted to know the latest and greatest in treating telogen effluvium, they went straight to the expert with the most experience.

Here is what William and Advanced Trichology recommend to treat telogen effluvium:

• Minoxidil: 5% minoxidil used twice daily for men or once daily for women can be effective at slowing the length of time telogen effluvium is impacting an individual. Because minoxidil is clinically proven to increase microcirculation to the hair follicle it seems to encourage the hair to shift back into the anagen phase of growth faster increasing the speed of recovery.

This may increase the shed temporarily for the first four weeks but then should continue to be reduced down to normalization three to four months thereafter. Then with continued use, hair regrowth should return to normal within 12 months.

• Low-level laser therapy: Low-level laser therapy for hair growth, like an LC Elite Laser cap with 80 diodes, for prescription use has shown good improvement in early-onset telogen effluvium in minimizing the shed and encouraging faster regrowth.

With twice weekly usage at 15 minutes, shedding should slow within six to eight weeks, and new growth should be visible by month four, continue use to full recovery between 12 and 18 months.

• Platelet-rich plasma: PRP, when done properly utilizing a five times platelet concentration or higher and injected into the subcutaneous fat layer of the scalp, has shown to slow down additionally the TE shed and fuel a much faster hair growth recovery.

PRP may halt TE within four to six weeks but will need to be re-performed at week six and then again at week 12 to continue the momentum of stabilization and arrest the TE shed. Thereafter, one more maintenance session may be needed around month nine for a full recovery.

• Topical melatonin: Topical melatonin like the NutraM Scalp Serum has shown success in two clinical studies for regrowth for androgenetic alopecia, but in my experience, it is shown remarkable impact at halting the shed of telogen effluvium and encouraging regrowth faster especially when used with the previous medical treatments.

Topical melatonin may slow or stop the TE shed within 90 days and encourage regrowth and normalization of the hair growth cycle between nine and 12 months. Once normalization has occurred, you can discontinue the use of the product.

• Vitamin D3: Vitamin D3 plays a large role in any stress-induced hair loss. I have seen that taking 2000-3000 iu of vitamin D3, if your blood levels are lower than 50 ng/mL, to be very helpful to also assist in reducing TE. Be sure to retest your blood levels of vitamin D3 after three to four months to ensure your vitamin D level does not exceed 100 ng/mL.

If there is a deficiency, vitamin D3 can support all other modalities to encourage greater stabilization of the hair growth cycle, faster regrowth, and minimize the impact of stress on growth. It’s best to have the optimal vitamin D3 range between 60 and 80 ng/mL. In my experience, this is a supportive measure not a direct impact for telogen effluvium and other inflammatory hair loss.