Hair loss and bright lights don’t mix. As I was responding to some comments left today on the blog my thoughts were turned towards mirrors and bright overhead lighting. For me that is my kryptonite. I actually select my chair at a restaurant based on overhead lighting. I pick the darkest spot at the table, always. My fiance doesn’t like overhead lighting either, but he’ll take the bullet for me if we are out to dinner so I can be comfortable in my dark spot. I run past mirrors in department stores, at all costs avoiding looking in their direction. It makes buying clothes quite a difficult task. Abercrombie has the worst overhead bright lighting, while Gap has nice dark dressing rooms 🙂 The things you pay attention to when you have hair loss. At least I do. I keep track of all the restaurants that are nice and dark. I’m most comfortable there because that way I don’t have to feel my head is on display the whole night.
I got some wonderfully helpful comments today and I think others would benefit from reading them as well so I’m posting the links to them here so other women can get to them quickly. Thanks again Julie – You are a strong, beautiful woman.
As many of you already know from reading my story, I am currently taking the medication synthroid for low thyroid. Recently I’ve been seriously looking towards that as being the cause of my excessive hair loss, and what seems like an endless hair shedding that has been going on for years non stop. Let me first clarify that I know for a fact that isn’t what initially started my hair loss. What started my hair loss was from stopping high androgen index birth control pills, however, I think that synthroid may be exacerbating the situation.
When I first started losing my hair approximately 8 years ago I would notice that my hair shredding would sort of go in cycles, there would be 4 months of a crazy shed and the next 4 months it would seem to slow down tremendously. That break in shedding would would allow for some hair to grow back. But, as of the last couple years I’ve been shedding non stop with a recent tremendous increase this year. My thyroid medication dose has been raised this year and last year as well. I don’t know if that is just a coincidence or it that level is too much for my hair.
I came stumbled across a website today where people were sharing their experiences with hair loss and Synthroid. The stories were very mixed, similar to what you will find in any forum, which is precisely what my gripe was yesterday when I was talking about my issue with hair loss forums. But, I still find myself scanning various internet sites in hopes to find something… anything that may help me. I do think that certainly enough people complain that they believe it is the cause of their hair loss, that I should start looking into another medication to treat my hypothyroidism.
It is always scary switching any medication when you are suffering with hair loss, at least it is for me. I want to try and find a local thyroid doctor who believes in treating his/her patients with a natural thyroid.
So I received an email recently from a woman who thought it would be a great idea to start a hair loss forum on this site. The thought certainly crossed my mind when I was putting together this blog… I even installed the forum and then took it off. Why? I guess because for me hair loss forums never really helped me. The idea is great, and I think there certainly is an element of support and togetherness that makes them really important, but I always felt worse after spending time on the hair loss forums because I felt more confused than ever. Everyone is so individual, you may read on a hair loss forum that some treatment someone is doing that is working for them, but isn’t working for you, and you may end up feeling bad. Or perhaps you are taking something that you think is good for you and then you read that another women had devastating results from it, but yet another women had success with it, and you may feel lost and confused. It makes you second guess your own course of treatment, for better or worse. [click to continue…]
Do you talk about your hair loss with anyone? Do they understand? I am very secretive about my hair loss, I don’t like sharing my feelings about what is happening with family or friends. I rather pretend it didn’t exist, but I know they know. It sort of forces me into seclusion, withdrawing from social events because it is too much of an ordeal to deal with my hair… or maybe better said, to face my hair in an attempt to make it look normal and not like the thin, lifeless disaster that it is. My fiance is very supportive, but I don’t even like talking about it with him, he knows of course. He sees my suffering, and wants to help… but he can’t.
Hair loss has made me incredibly self conscious and very isolated. 🙁
Today is a better day as far as my general outlook. It’s not because my major hair loss shedding episode has come to an end, it is better… just because. I got up, put my hair in a ponytail and decided to not spend each minute of the day focusing on my present hair loss situation. The good days come and go, I take each day as it comes.
I just finished cleaning up the kitchen, which by the way I have no idea how two people can use what seemed like 30 pieces of silverware since 7:00pm last night when I last cleaned the kitchen. By the looks of the kitchen you would think I was running a catering service, but I digress. Anyways, as I was cleaning the kitchen I was reminded of one of the many horrible things about going through a massive shed. No matter how hard you try to get on with your day you are constantly reminded about your struggle because your hair is EVERYWHERE. It’s on the counter, it’s on the sponge, it’s in the sink… if I pick up a splenda packet off the floor 9/10 times there may a piece of my hair attached to it because my hair is all over the floor as well. It’s usually not visible when I’m standing looking down at the floor.. well sometimes it is, but often not. Fortunately for me my hair and the floor are pretty similar in color. But it never fails, more often than not when I reach down for a paper I get a hair with it. How lovely. right? The other day in the car my fiance dropped something on the car floor, picked it up and what do you know my hair is with it. It’s on your clothes, even the clean ones hanging in the closet, in the bed, on the couch… am I leaving anything out? I’ve not touched on the obvious.. the shower.
I stumbled across something online today that said that Tina Turner actually suffers with alopecia universalis. I’m not sure if thats true or not, as many African American women wear wigs and hair weaves. Most often I think it is for style, but who knows this could be why I have never actually have seen a picture of her without her wig. She always looks so fabulous, the wigs just add to her beauty.
But after reading that I started wondering about the other famous women who are known to wear wigs all the time. Cher and Dolly Parton are the ones that come to mind instantly. Is it for fashion and style or is it because they are also losing or have lost their hair. I guess my personal thought is that they most likely have some form of hair loss, whether it is alopecia areata, or just plain old androgenetic alopecia. I could be wrong, I don’t have any evidence to support that, but why else would you spend your whole life wearing a wig?
When you lose your hair I think you often look around for others who are experiencing the same condition, you just don’t want to feel alone. Maybe thats why I think they too have hair loss, it could just be my minds weak attempt to cope better by trying to lump their situation into the same category as mine… diagnosis hair loss.
I found an interesting article that was published back in 2003 titled, “Dolly Parton Unwigged? Never!” In the article Dolly Parton says she would never step outside the house without the wig and makeup, she joked, “unless my husband is dying of a heart attack, and even then I would think about it.” Funny.
I came across a video on youtube put up by a woman from Sweden who has alopecia areata. She has but together her story from pictures starting from 1987 when she was a child, though the diagnosis in 2003 all the way until today. I admire her strength, courage and acceptance. She’s beautiful with hair, she’s beautiful without. She looks so comfortable with herself and in her own skin. I really want to get to that place. It’s definitely a must watch video for any woman suffering with hair loss.
As I write this I can barely see the screen becaue I am flooded with saddness. I rarely surf the internet anymore for help with women’s hair loss because I found that whatever I would find would only made me feel worse about myself, since I always ended up in the same place I started, only more confused. I don’t know what possessed me today to start poking around some old forums I used to visit frequently… I wish I hadn’t. I remember why I stopped going. I found a story of a woman who made the decision to stop taking her birth control pills and just ride out whatever shedding would ensue, and she said after two years her hair came back. (If you are confused about what I’m talking about read my hair loss story here) I always regretted getting back on the pill as part of my hair loss treatment, I always wondered if I left everything alone 8 years ago I would be back to normal today. I am so trapped, I can’t make that decision because I don’t have enough hair to withstand the enormous shedding that could happen from stopping taking a pill, I’m already shedding so much. [click to continue…]
Today I’ve come down with some sort of bug and have been laying around on the couch while working from my laptop. I’ve had an crazy shedding day. I keep pulling out my ponytail holder to refasten it, only to see tons of hairs around it, then to further torture myself I keep swooping the ponytail only to be able to get out what seems like a gazillion hair each time. Obviously it is not a gazillion, but it is a lot. And then after all that, I pull the back of my shirt towards the front so that I can pick off the rest of the hairs that have fallen while I’ve done this little crazy routine. [click to continue…]
Most Pantene commercials are enough to bring any women suffering with hair loss to tears. Women with gorgeous long, thick soft hair tossing their heads while the hair perfectly cascades around them. However, recently Pantene has launched a new campaign called Pantene Beautiful Lengths. This new program encourages people to grow, cut and donate their hair to create real-hair wigs for women who’ve lost their hair due to cancer. Their video for the campaign is incredibly touching.
The responses to the video on youtube are mixed. Some people think it’s such a great idea and a moving video, while another person thinks it is wrong for Pantene to use cancer for product placement. I think that any endeavor towards building awareness to a cause and helping those in need is a worthwhile venture, regardless of what anyone thinks the motives are.
I want to first write that I am not a fan of hair transplants for women, I personally
think that most women with androgenetic alopecia are NOT candidates for
this procedure. Having said that, I get emailed all the time from women looking
for a good hair transplant surgeon.
If you are deadset on having a consultation, please visit the International Alliance
of Hair Restoration Surgeons. The IAHRS (http://www.iahrs.org)
is an organization that selectively screens skilled and ethical hair transplant
surgeons. Read
my thoughts about hair transplants here.
As many of you already know from reading my story, I am currently taking the medication 
So I received an email recently from a woman who thought it would be a great idea to start a hair loss forum on this site. The thought certainly crossed my mind when I was putting together this blog… I even installed the forum and then took it off. Why? I guess because for me hair loss forums never really helped me. The idea is great, and I think there certainly is an element of support and togetherness that makes them really important, but I always felt worse after spending time on the hair loss forums because I felt more confused than ever. Everyone is so individual, you may read on a hair loss forum that some treatment someone is doing that is working for them, but isn’t working for you, and you may end up feeling bad. Or perhaps you are taking something that you think is good for you and then you read that another women had devastating results from it, but yet another women had success with it, and you may feel lost and confused. It makes you second guess your own course of treatment, for better or worse. 
I stumbled across something online today that said that Tina Turner actually suffers with alopecia universalis. I’m not sure if thats true or not, as many African American women wear wigs and hair weaves. Most often I think it is for style, but who knows this could be why I have never actually have seen a picture of her without her wig. She always looks so fabulous, the wigs just add to her beauty.
