Hair loss from Kenalog: Is it going to grow back?

Hair loss after steroid injections

 
I’ve selected this question below for this week’s question of the week. It allows us to review some concepts in hair loss from steroid injections.

Question

I have hair loss from kenalog injections. Is it gonna grow back?

Answer

Thanks for the question. The short answer is that it really depends on your full story and why you are getting steroid injections in the first place. I would need to see the scalp up close and know your full story to best answer this question.

If your hair loss patches is indeed from the kenalog injections AND THE REASON FOR THE HAIR LOSS IN THE FIRST PLACE WAS A NON SCARRING ALOPECIA it has a high chance to grow back provided you don’t keep having more and more injections in that spot. If you keep having more injections you run the risk of worsening the atrophy and affecting recovery even more profoundly. It can take 2-6 months for improvement to occur but there is a high chance of improvement (assuming that hair loss condition is being treated with some other strategy).

For example, if the patient has alopecia areata and develops worsening hair loss from steroid injections, the hair may grow back if the kenalog is stopped and some other strategy like topical minoxidil, topical JAK inhibitors, oral steroids, oral immunosuppressants are used to control the inflammation.

If your hair loss patches is indeed from the kenalog AND THE REASON FOR THE HAIR LOSS IN THE FIRST PLACE WAS A SCARRING ALOPECIA it may or may not grow back. Sometimes the scarring alopecia itself is so intense that kenalog can not stop the destruction. The patient has steroid injections and the scarring alopecia goes on to destroy more hair. The hair loss in some cases is from the scarring alopecia. Even if there is a bit of hair loss from the steroid injections, sometimes the destruction is so intense that hair growth and recovery of the shed hairs does not occur.

In summary, the original diagnosis is really important here. In a case like this, I would want to know does the patient have alopecia areata? does the patient have lichen planopilaris? frontal fibrosing alopecia? other ?

ARTICLES YOU MIGHT FIND HELPFUL:

ARTICLE 1: Atrophy from steroid injections

ARTICLE 2: Atrophy from steroid injections: Should I be stopping?