Hair loss - gutted :(

DUKE

Hi Mrs _Ryan, I'm sorry to hear that you're having such a bad time. When my hair first fell out after chemo in 2009 I embraced it because (for me) that was the least of my problems. I really do understand what you're going through & it ain't pleasant. I'm meno, grey, thinning hair, even when I go to the hairdresser it looks like a bad hair day. When I recently got back from holz & faced yet another op I really couldn't be bothered to sort me a cut & colour out so I did myself a Jessie J :eek::D I absolutely love it! Although my husband wasn't too pleased, but it's my head not his. I try & waltz around in long floaty feminine dresses, always wear my lip gloss, & I've just got me loads of costume jewellery. I don't mean to dismiss what you're going through, or do I want to moan about myself, I just want you to know how I cope with it. I live here if ever you want to talk xxx

pollypenny

No answers for my rugby fan friend, just sympathy.

Thankfully there is lots of advice here from posters who know what they are talking about.

Mrs_Ryan

Thank you so much everyone for all your lovely advice and support. I'm off to work now but I'm going to hopefully have a chat to one of my managers today and speak to my GP tomorrow and my consultant when I see her Friday. You're all stars thank you xx

Goldiegirl

Hi, I just wanted to add my support too.

A couple of years ago I was having my hair cut, and my hairdresser noticed a couple of bald patches

I was horrified. Until something like that happens, you have no idea how important, as a female, that a full head of hair is, regarding how you look and feel.

I went to the doctors and was given steroid cream. I also improved my diet, upped my iron intake, and got more exercise.

Fortunately, my hair did grow back.

I think it was linked to stress, as I was very stressed at work at the time, which was crazy as I only work 2 days a week. I really had to have a word with myself, to try and alter the cycle of stress that I was in.

Best wishes to you, hopefully the doc will be able to help

building_with_lego

I don't have alopecia but I do have a bald patch

I was born with a skin tag on my swede, right at the crown. I remember my mum's attempts to part my hair on the other side, get the tag removed and get the bald patch reduced. I remember parting my hair myself in order to try to hide the patch.
Then I remember chopping my hair short and realising that I didn't actually care what other people thought. Sometimes now I meet people with clear cases of alopecia and, while I may initially notice their bald patches, it doesn't in any way affect how I think of them as people. I can tell if it bothers them but it doesn't bother me, and if it doesn't bother them that's even better. I know it's easy to say but having the confidence to be you and stop caring about other people's opinions is tremendously freeing.

Edit: I've just read that back and it sounds somewhat glib, I didn't mean it to. I do know how exactly it feels to be self-conscious about baldy bits but just maybe we don't need to.

Tiddlywinks

building_with_lego wrote: »

Sometimes now I meet people with clear cases of alopecia and, while I may initially notice their bald patches, it doesn't in any way affect how I think of them as people. I can tell if it bothers them but it doesn't bother me, and if it doesn't bother them that's even better. I know it's easy to say but having the confidence to be you and stop caring about other people's opinions is tremendously freeing.

Edit: I've just read that back and it sounds somewhat glib, I didn't mean it to. I do know how exactly it feels to be self-conscious about baldy bits but just maybe we don't need to.

I know you mean well... many people try to say it doesn't matter, rise above it, it's the person inside, just be confident and hold your head high etc etc

But it DOES matter unfortunately... the majority of the people in our society are not used to seeing a woman with thin or no hair. They do stare, they do avoid your gaze... just as they would for a scar or a birthmark or anything else unusual in appearance.

Platitudes don't help - they just reinforce that the person giving the kind words has absolutely no idea how it really feels to be you at that moment.

I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

webtalk

How awful for you.

See a dermotologist and have a blood test. Hopefully there may be an easy fix.

My gp said my blood was ok but dermo felt otherwise and took action. Now all fine tho it falls out more when stressed.

My loss was minimal compared to what I have read here.

welshbookworm

A lot of my hair fell out when I was in my late teens(1970's), my Doctor didn't do anything but send me to The hospital (which took months). I went 'punk' and dyed the rest of my hair blue and put it in plaits, so it looked deliberate.
Took about a year before it was blending in.
Mine was caused by stress.

meritaten

~Reiki can help a lot when hair loss is caused by stress. the treatment is so relaxing - and the effects can be long lasting. I don't claim it can heal all ills - in some cases nothing will help.
I am a master practitioner in Usui Ryoho Reiki - the original form of the healing. there are also other 'branches' of Reiki and some outright 'fakes'. if you do go to a Reiki practitioner ask to see their credentials and their insurance documents. a genuine practitioner will be happy to show their certificates and insurance documents. if they aren't - don't use them! oh and the most important document to the genuine Reiki healer isn't the certificate - its the lineage. this shows the person who taught them and who taught them all the way back..........and the person at the top SHOULD be Mikao Usui - the father of Reiki.

singlestep

No new advice to add, just sympathy and shared experience. I started losing my hair aged 12-13, over twenty years ago, and can understand somewhat how you must have felt. My hair has never grown back for any length of time and it took a long time for me to come to terms with, mostly due to that awkward age coupled withthe inevitable staring and comments etc. It's totally natural to be upset about it, especially after it was coming back in.

Over time, I've learned to be glad I was otherwise healthy. A family member lost her hair during chemo and it's never properly grown back at the front. She tends to see it as a 'war wound' (for want of a better expression) and a sign of what she's come through.