by Y on September 27, 2007
I hope for this to be a constantly evolving list with other women adding their own suggestions that have helped them. These are a few that have helped me to try and avoid focusing on my hair loss and just live a more normal life.
1. Be positive and maintain hope. Everyone’s hair loss situation is very different, and yours may actually be telogen effluvium caused by some type of stressful event, or perhaps may be a temporary shedding due to a hormonal change. If it is not, you still must remain positive, even on the down days. Believe that there is a possibility of a brighter tomorrow.
2. Vacuum A LOT. I think the vacuum is the hair loss sufferers’ best ally. By vacuuming frequently you avoid seeing all your hair all over the place. The less hair I see on the floor or on the counters the better I feel, even when I am shedding a lot. Constantly seeing your hair everyone is just a frequent reminder of your suffering and doesn’t allow you to focus on other things (at least that is the way it is for me).
3. Get Rid of Your Shower Drain Hair Catcher. I’ll wait while you throw it away 🙂 That thing is evil! Counting your hairs is one of the cruelest forms of self torment. I am guilty of it myself.
4. Invest in a sticky roller brush. I make sure before I leave the house that I’ve given myself a once over with those sticky roller brushes that are meant to pick up animal hair (I even keep one in the car). I do this because I would prefer to take the hair off my own clothes rather than have the person I’m with feel compelled to pick it off my back for me. UGHH. I hate that. If I was having a good day, that would ruin it for me. I once had a friend I was out with tell me how much hair I was shedding… gee thanks. This was early on in my hair loss and she had no idea I was losing my hair, but that certainly put a damper on my day. I also had another person tell me I was shedding like a cat, I think you know how the rest of my day went after a comment like that. [click to continue…]
by Y on September 26, 2007
Seeing so many women walking around with hair loss is agonizing. I just want to run up to them all and give them a big hug, let them know that I know exactly how they are feeling about their hair. I notice all the little things that probably no one else does, the frequent touching to the head, eyes down, general display of uneasiness. I look at all those women, and I see myself. Do they see me? I do those same things as well. I wrote a past post talking about the high prevalence of hair loss in women today, called “Hair Loss, Hair Loss Everywhere – What’s In The Water?”
Shouldn’t there be a universal sign all women hair loss sufferer’s should have to acknowledge from afar that we are one of the same. I feel like jumping up and down and waving my hands in frustration that there is so little women’s hair loss awareness. It is a life upsetting disorder, it has robbed me of being the person I really am. Feeling self conscious has thrust me into the gates my home and made me a prisoner for years. I am working on improving that, improving my situation, improving my life. Realizing I am more than my hair and if other people judge me because it, then shame on them.
How do we create more women’s hair loss awareness? It’s hardly ever taken serious by the media, it is frequently not taken serious by doctors. Several of the doctors I visited early on in my hair loss either brushed me off saying that they didn’t see any hair loss or stating that it was probably “just” telogen effluvium that would stop on it’s own. Hello doc, that was 8 years ago. Where has the bedside manner of physicians gone? When they do tell you it’s androgenetic alopecia (female pattern hair loss) they frequently like to allay any of your fears by letting you know “hair loss isn’t going to kill you.” Maybe not, but it has killed a part of me, a part of me I haven’t seen or known for the last 8 years. I have made myself sick over this, and it has caused tremendous feelings of hopelessness and despair.
So I guess that’ll be my universal sign to other women suffering with hair loss, I’ll jump up and down like a crazed lunatic, flailing my hands wildly above my head, at least that would make you smile 🙂
by Y on September 25, 2007
After years of driving myself crazy, using all sorts of products, including polysorbate 80, on my hair, I got a wig. The woman was wonderful, she put me at my ease and came in with styles and wigs that she felt would work. I kept with my natural hair color, very dark brown. It was 1987 and I was 49. Some of my hair showed at the sides of my face and under the back of the wig. That added to the natural look. About five years later, I was fully coloring my hair, my problem was on top, and decided to try a wiglet. I had a beautician cut my hair to fit and she showed me how to use it. Wiglets are lighter than wigs and you feel better because more of your hair is uncovered. The color of my dye and the color of their dye matched perfectly.
Now I am 69 and almost a year ago decided to stop coloring, even tho I knew getting a match would be difficult. After several mistakes, one too dark, one too light, to be put away for the future, I have found something that is fairly close. When I went for a haircut today, the girl did not know I had a wiglet on until I began taking it off. She was nice enough to cut my wiglet to match my haircut. [click to continue…]
by Y on September 25, 2007
I think if you ask 10 different people, you might get 10 different answers. This definitely is a subject of much debate. My opinion is that nutrition certainly does have some effect on hair loss, having said that I don’t think that genetic hair loss can be reversed or stopped simply by nutrition alone, but it makes for a good adjunct. For myself, I’ve attempted to employ strict nutritional perfection for long periods of time in an attempt to help my hair loss, but it never seemed to really help me, but it possibly could help you because we all all made up so differently and the causes of our hair loss are different as well.
You should always try to eat as nutritionally balanced as possible, good nutrition provides for a better more stable and clear mind, which is always helpful when dealing with anything traumatic or stressful, such as hair loss. Also, I see food as a drug, it can have immeasurable unpleasant damaging effects on the body or really great wonderful effects. Ever eat something that causes you to be sleepy, wired, cause an allergy attack or become nauseated? Something is taking place in our bodies when we eat different foods, and the effects are going to vary from person to person. I would never downplay the importance of good nutrition, not just for hair loss, but more importantly for your health. Later in this article I’ll point out the connection between the body’s insulin level and it’s testosterone level. [click to continue…]
by Y on September 24, 2007
by Y on September 24, 2007
You know you are in trouble when you start envying your dog’s hair. I frequently have stared at my dog’s thick coat and thought to myself, “I’d gladly take his hair, even if it had to be that color, all black and tan” 🙂 I have become incredibly obsessed with staring at everyone’s hair. It seems as though I can no longer watch a movie, a tv show, a commercial, the grocery clerk, the mail lady and not focus on their hair. After I watch a movie I can explain in detail every character’s hair (man and woman) right down to the diameter of the ponytail, color, thickness.. and on and on. I may not know what the movie was about, but I can surely tell anyone who cares to listen, all the intimate details of the actors hair characteristics. I even notice when a hair shed’s off their head and falls onto their sweater. Ha! It actually can really get quite annoying because I would just like to watch a show without focusing so much on hair. After all that is suppose to be a time to relax, but it isn’t for me. I’m much better off reading a book, I think it’s healthier for the mind anyway.
I guess its normal to focus on the things we lack, once had, and wish we had back.
by Y on September 23, 2007
Throughout the time I’ve suffered with hair loss I’ve had several episodes of scalp pain, sensitivity and a burning sensation. Trying to touch my head, lying down on a pillow or even moving my hair slightly would cause excruciating severe pain to my scalp. I had no idea what caused this and why it was sporadic, it would last for while then just disappear, last episode I had was this past July. Apparently there is a correlation between hair loss, telogen effluvium and scalp pain, also called trichodynia.
This is what I found about it on Wikipedia:
Trichodynia is a condition where the patient experiences a painful sensation on their scalp. The pain sometimes is described as burning. Trichodynia often is associated with hair loss, but some studies show it has no connection to hair loss. Often there is an underlying psycho-somatic cause, such as stress, depression or anxiety.
Only a few studies have been conducted on this condition. A theory behind the condition is that nerves innervating scalp hair follicles send pain messages back to the brain when the follicle no longer has a hair in it, in a similar way to phantom limb pain. Another theory is that people who have this condition (sometimes called “ponytail syndrome”) have super-sensitive nerves in their scalp.
A possible treatment is to halt hair loss in the patient, however it is important to understand and address any underlying psychologic comorbity (humm…of course I’m thinking, easier said than done)
I also wanted to share this article I found about it:
Hair Pain (Trichodynia): Frequency and Relationship to Hair Loss and Patient Gender
Barbara Willimann, Ralph M. Trüeb
Background: Patients complaining of hair loss frequently claim that their hair has become painful. Objective and Methods: The aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency of this phenomenon and its relationship to hair loss. Patients seeking advice for hair loss either spontaneously reported or were questioned about painful sensations of the scalp. [click to continue…]
by Y on September 22, 2007
I talk so much more now about shaving my head with my fiance, he is all for it. If you are wondering why I would want to do that, please read my hair loss story. I cannot treat it anymore, my medications have stopped working, but yet I still am a prisoner to them. I fear if I remove myself from them I will experience greater shedding from a hormone shift. Shaving my head would free me. It would allow me to get off my medication now and not have to “see” the shedding. It is the shedding that tears me up inside, a constant reminder that very soon I’ll just have thin patches of hair around my head.
Talking isn’t doing, but that fact I am talking about shaving my head is really healthy. I am getting more comfortable with the idea each time I really try to envision it. I’m starting to believe that I will eventually be able to make that choice. Thinking about it makes me sigh a breath of relief… I’d be able to finally get off the aldactone and orthotricyclen I’ve been using to treat my hair loss. In my post titled “Regretting Past Decisions on My Hair Loss” I relay my regret about ever getting back on the pill to treat my hair loss, knowing it was the very cause of it. I didn’t really think it through. I didn’t realize that even if it worked I would have to be on it forever to maintain the hair that it saved. But what about children? I haven’t had kids and have felt that that option has been ripped away from me. How can I have kids on the pill? I can’t. But how can I get off knowing that I could have even more increased shedding that would depress me so much I couldn’t get out of bed. How would I be able to be a mother then? I wouldn’t. Not to mention who knows the damage of taking birth control pills and aldactone, an antiandrogen which is essentially a blood pressure pill, long term? I don’t have high blood pressure yet I agreed to take Aldactone for it’s antiandrogen properties, I didn’t think it all through.
I suppose my feelings would be all different if the treatments continued to work warding off impending hair loss, but it isn’t. Not after 8 years it isn’t. It did help me before (I think) although I never will really know what would have happened if I just decided to let be what would be 8 years ago. Would my hair loss have stopped on it’s own? Would my hormones or whatever was causing the extreme loss after getting off the pill rectify by itself? Maybe. Maybe not.
Part of healing will be accepting the decisions I made. Accepting myself. Once I’ve done that, I think I’ll be ready to shave my head and start living again. I look forward to that day.
by Y on September 21, 2007
I try not to run away from who I am, or to compare myself to who I was
I try to look forward
I try to embrace my existence and to be thankful for all I have
I try to realize that all I have today exists in part because of all the sadness and
all the pain and suffering I have endured
I try to see the good in that.
I try to think who would I be if not for who I am today.
I try to see the light.
I try and talk to god.
I try to maintain hope and faith and an unbridled belief that things will resolve and then I hope a little more and pray that is enough
I try not to weaken although each day I die inside
and although I feel like I cannot go on
I will, because
I try not to run away from who I am, or compare myself to who I was
I try to look forward.
*******
by Y on September 20, 2007
So the great thing about having a supportive man in your life is being able to joke about things that aren’t really funny. Yesterday my fiance was saying something from afar that nagged me (completely unrelated to hair), I forgot what, but I replied to him “Hey, be nice to me, I’m going bald!” As the words left my mouth I started to laugh and so did he once he could hear I was only joking.
My mind found a joke in there somewhere to pick myself up because I was feeling pretty down yesterday after the shower gauntlet of shampoo, rinse and comb. Oddly enough, I picked up a T-shirt to put on that I think was mailed to be a few weeks ago when I bought something on the internet ( it was a free gift) and the back of it said:
Determination
\di-tur-muh–ney-shuh n\
a: a fixed purpose,
the power and will to persist,
resolve, to have the drive,
to have the grit, to go the distance,
to be hell-bent on reaching a goal
and getting it done no matter what
After I read that my spirit lifted up a little and I forced myself back into my “strong mindset,” and said to myself “I am determined.” Determined to not let my hair loss eat me alive, to beat this, maybe not with treatment because that is beyond my control, but with my mind, with my heart and learning to love myself and not care so much about what other people think.
Anyways, I thought it would make funny bumper sticker “Be Nice To Me, I’m Going Bald.” a little humor never hurts.
I am noticing a lot of new traffic coming in from different places and I wanted to welcome all the new reader’s to The Women’s Hair Loss Project and to write a little about our community. I started this blog to basically start journaling my life with hair loss. I write my daily thoughts as they come to me with all my quirks and sadness too. I write about my 
