I have either hair loss or hair breakage - I'm not even sure anymore.

About 3 years ago I noticed a lot more hair in the drain (and on my hands as I washed my hair) and started to panic that I was losing my hair. I really looked at the lost pieces and figured it to be breakage - I didn't see any root, jut a partial pirce of hair. My hair was SHORT at that time - not even chin length.

I got pregnant a while after that and the breakage stopped at about 9 weeks along so I started thinking it was a hormone thing and told myself after the baby I'd look into it.

Well, baby is now 14 moths old and the breakage came back with a vengence not long after she was born. I know there is shedding after pregnancy (she's baby #4), but it's worse than ever and waaay too much to be normal shedding. And now, today, I really looked at the lost pieces in the tub and I now see what I think is the root end, but it's thinner than the rest of the hair. (Unless it's the 'free' end, but it's about 1/8" of hair that is definitely skinnier than the rest, so I can only imagine it's the scalp-end). So now I'm back to thinking it's actually falling out and not just breaking off.

I saw my gyno last week for my yearly checkup and he ordered some bloodwork. Thyroid, diabetes, maybe cholesterol? Everything came back alright and he said maybe see a dermatologist. Unfortunately when I went to him it was was before I was back to thinking it was falling out, so the bloodwork was based on the 'breaking' theory. He ruled out homones based on that (as opposed to falling out) and now I don't know if we did the right tests for my problem.

Do I go back to gyno for more tests, or a dermatologist or who? It's really getting upsetting and I don't know where to look for answers anymore. I'm 35 if that matters, and believe it or not even with 4 kids my life isn't what I would consider stressfull.

Thank you so much - any help would be appreciated!

I see more scalp than before - not in patches, but any kind of part is more obvious than before.

And I guess I wasn't 100% sure if the dermatologist was the next step since now I don't know if the bloodwork the gyno asked for was based on the right symptoms. I've thought it was hormonal for some time, which he didn't think because I was talking about breakage. Now that I'm thinking that it's actually falling out I'm wondering if he may have asked for different tests.

I think I'm going to call him tomorrow in either case and see what he says.

And thank you so much for the response!