Scalp burning, hair loss, 26 y/o male

Hi there!

I hope all of you are well. I horrible widespread TMS after finishing HS (intense shoulder pain, diffuse nerve pain, back pain, brain fog, etc). After discovering the TMS literature, I embarked on the long road to recovery and resolved most of my symptoms. That said, one symptom that did not resolve was scalp itching/burning/dandruff/hair loss. Lately, it's become my main symptom and I've noticed my hair has begun to recede along with some thinning in the back that I mainly notice in phosphorescent light (one hairdresser says it's just cowlick, another says it's a bit of thinning.)

I've gone through a ton of life changes lately and am prone to stress -- I'm in my 20s and have seen lots of ups and downs and a lot of moving around the country for jobs, grad school, etc.

Normally, I would just dismiss the thinning as MPB but my genes are decent (my dad already had a huge crown at my age but both grandfathers kept their hair until the day they died.) and something about the burning coupled with hair loss makes me think it isn't.

The pattern usually goes something like this. Stress + burning scalp + dandruff = intense hair fall the next day/morning. Sometimes my dandruff gets so bad that I don't want to touch my head around others for fear they'll see all the flakes falling. The burning/itching can get quite intense and though I try to resist, I sometimes do itch my scalp.

I don't know that my hair has necessarily seen growth in the past as it's thinned but the thickness seems to wax and wane -- family have made comments about it looking thicker/thinner (typically when I have more or fewer of the aforementioned symptoms.)

I've never really tackled this individual symptom with the heads-on approach I used to eliminate the other ones and am in the process of doing so. On one hand, part of my brain says it's mpb -- on the other, my past experience tells me that TMS is very good at mimicking other conditions to distract you and I have to concede that it's currently working. I've been very anxious and spending a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to combat the hair loss/scalp issues. I've got an appointment with a dermatologist but I worry they'll just dismiss my problem as MPB/increase the anxiety and delay recovery.

So far, I've begun visualizing myself with a health scalp + thick hair. I've also gotten a sulfite free shampoo and begun using conditioner daily (I went through a phase where I wouldn't apply properly and didn't use particularly frequently.)

Anyways, I'm very curious to get everybody's two cents. I haven't really found anybody else who's struggled with this exact same set of symptoms and I'm curious to know if anyone has overcome something similar.

Thanks in advance for your time.