This Is The Update of WHLP Member, B
I have taken a new step in this now 8 years of my hairloss journey….. Full Circle? 14 months now since I began CRP treatments with Dr. Greco and after 3 + years of hair wearing, I am back to sporting my Bio full time, as of about 6 weeks ago. It’s crazy and believe me, also very very scary. I really never thought that this could happen, but my reaction to treatment with Dr. Greco has been so positive that at this point anyway, my bio hair looks nothing short of purely normal. Whatever that is…… My view of what normal hair is / looks like / feels like is so skewed from years of emotional hairloss trauma that sometimes I have to remind myself that true “normal” when it comes to hair just does not exist for me. Never will. IN my head anyway. But ON my head, for now, things are going well. Regardless, I do not feel like I will ever reach a point with my bio hair when I don’t think GIMME MORE HAIR!
Don’t get me wrong. I harbor absolutely no illusions about the high probability / fact that I may indeed need to wear hair again in the future. It’s been now more than a year since I’ve had any major shedding action (basically since I started treatment with Dr. Greco) but that doesn’t mean I feel safe from it. I don’t know that I ever will be. That’s CTE for you! But I am prepared for that….. I have grown my hair out since last year when I was sporting a shaved in the back / long in the front for blending with my wigs style until somewhat recently and I basically now have a short bob that right now looks like a blonde cloud…… i don’t love it and I feel like my whole last year of growing has kept me in a pretty awkward hairstyle but at least it’s growing growing growing….. And like I said, my hair looks incredibly normal at this point so it seems like a green light to have it keep looking good at a longer length. Fingers crossed! The moment my hair bio hair looks like ass again, I’ll change things up. I can tell you this though….. if / when I go back to super short hair – well, it’s staying that for good. Like forever and a day. Cuz growing out from super short / shaved to not short is not the most fun thing I’ve ever done….. And this is the second time around for me, from full on shaved to not short. If my bio hair goes, well, it all goes and it stays gone. I can always buy some more hair….. and to know that is certainly comforting.
I have taken precautions for my current situation. I have extra hair ready. Like ready for anything. My oldest wig, Olivia, has been cut into a short bob so that I can easily transition back if I need / want to at any point in time. I did wear my newly shortened wig for a few weeks after having her cut because I needed to be mentally READY for the transition back to BIO. As I have always said and will continue to say, hair wearing is about ME. All of this needs to be done on the timeline that makes ME comfortable. I spent years with hairloss making me uncomfortable with myself and that will not happen anymore. If I wanna go bio, I will. And if I start thinking it’s not so awesome, I’ll slap on a wig in a second. My helper hair is always at arms length.
My right temple is my barometer for all things hair related. If I am losing, that area just drops. Scary quick. When I first went to Dr. Greco and his team for treatment last September, that spot SUCKED. Like it was pretty much bare and it was becoming very hard to blend in with my wig front. We discussed how that was my worst spot. God, that was a hard appointment, going in with awful hair and having them examine it….. You all know just how traumatic it is to have anyone picking through your hair, no matter what your stage of all of this. Anyway, I truly had great results immediately from treatment and when I went back, his team actually commented (unsolicited) on how much better that area looked. Smiles! Yes, it did look better but I did ask if maybe with this second treatment, they could add a little bit of focus to that area and they did. Well, that area (which scares the F outta me always) is nothing short of furry, I swear! I love touching it. I have actual HAIR there! My husband actually told me my forehead was smaller. Ha. And indeed it is! Thankfully….. When I last saw Dr. Greco in late July for my last (third) treatment, he remarked on how amazing my improvement has been in that area and then he did add in our later correspondence when I told him I was actually considering morphing back into bio-ism, he said that yes, it might be a good idea to avoid pulling on that area with a wig because that area is clearly sensitive. Well, there ya go!
Moving forward to this next step has been very challenging and has had some stresses and as I said and I will never, ever be without a good stockpile of Helper Hair to use as needed or even as desired. I’m not super in love with my current bio cut and sometimes I have some anxiety about it and I’ve even had one idiotic colleague mention after my bio debut a few weeks ago (which came at a high mental price obviously) that my current haircut “ doesn’t really match my usually edgy style.” Thanks, asshole. She hasn’t even seen my bio hair in four years, by the way. But I mean for real???? Who says that shit? Oy. Pass the Xanax and champagne and move on…… Just add eye roll….. I do feel like with another inch or so I might feel better about my bio style and anyway, if things go down the drain (literally), I have my small army of Follea’s to reach for. I’m not fully back to making eye contact with the Bio hair version of me yet, but maybe some day. I am hopeful.
In my ideal world, well, dreamworld style, i’d get my original pretty pretty princess hair back! But that’s not very realistic. So my new ideal is that I can wear my bio hair forever and feel ok about it and it will look “ normal” but if / when it doesn’t or when I feel like wearing hair because truly i DO love the way I look more with long, flow wig hair, well, I’ll slap on a wig and go. I’ll take it as it comes and will always do whatever I need to do to be COMFORTABLE. I am going back for my fourth treatment with Dr. Greco in early December and I seriously cannot wait. Gimme more hair! Onward as always……
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi B,
This is such amazing, wonderful, awesome, incredible news and I am so, so happy for you. And while you say it’s not your pretty, pretty princess hair, it still looks pretty damn pretty : ) And you are right, that colleague of yours is beyond an idiot. Who DOES say that shit!?!?!?!
I wonder how many of Dr. Greco’s patients have stories as successful as yours? I have been struggling mightily with this HL hell for @ 4 1/2 years, and am sadly very near to the end I fear of being able to disguise the loss and will have to soon say goodbye to the bio hair version of me, and unfortunately I am just not ready for that. My dread, fear and anxiety of helper hair is so intense, it practically takes my breath away just typing this post. But the thing is my bio disguise is so delicate and carefully arranged, that my fear of the outdoorsweather is almost as bad and for all intents and purposes, I’ve become a barely functional agoraphobic,
so the thought of traveling to FL is pretty overwhelming. (I live in Pittsburgh, PA.) But yet if the results could be as promising as yours…..
Happy Thanksgiving Friend and you rock that beautiful hair….and you are BEAUTIFUL, inside and out.
B! Beautifully written post. Thank you for sharing your journey with us!! Also, THANK YOU for always giving encouragement on the forum. ;)) Congrats on your success:)
That is absolutely amazing! I’m so happy for you. I’m going in for my second treatment in two weeks. The first one helped noticeably but I’m hoping the second will kick start real growth as I’ve heard it often does. Plus, I need to be checked for pernicious anemia which contributes to hair loss. Oh, congratulations!!! I know how wonderful this must be for you! Thank you for sharing. Beth, I share your agoraphobia due to hair loss with you.
Dear Beautiful B – Thank you so much for sharing your update. I am beyond thrilled that PRP / CRP has proven to be as helpful for you as it has for me! I know it’s not a one size fits all for everyone, and works to varying degrees for everyone, but you are surely a CRP supa success! So awesome. You look amazing .. you always do. Short hair, shaved head, wig, longer grown out hair… all beautiful. I like that you have a plan for if your hair jumps ship.. I think that helps a lot, for dealing with hair loss at any stage, in general. Congrats! XOXO
Dear B,
I’m SO happy and relieved for you. I’m 64 and have been thinning since age 26 starting after childbirth. My hair looks pretty rotten, but my scalp is quite lovely, ha ha! I’m so sick of dealing with this and prefer staying home. Your story makes me grin and I pray you keep your bio hair for the rest of your life!!
Nomi
Hi B,
Thank you so much for sharing! Your hair looks great!
Do you need to keep going back to Dr. Greco, or will your treatment end and you won’t have to go back anymore?
I also have CTE and I’m getting to the point that it’s harder and harder to camouflage my hair loss. I have not yet gone to helper hair and I’m wondering if I should instead be looking into CRP. I just don’t know if I can commit to going for CRP treatments forever, and not sure if I can afford it!
So, do you expect to eventually not need to see Dr. Greco anymore?
Thanks!
Hi B,
I am happy for your success with CRP, it gives me hope. I have been dealing with hair thinning / loss for 7 years now. I read all of your stories and I feel as though they are my story. I have spent so much time and money trying everything to keep my hair. It hasn’t worked. Each year my hair is thinner than the year before. Early on I went to the Hair Club. They sold me shampoo, a laser comb, and once a month treatments that were going to save my hair. It didn’t work. One of the stylist, who also suffered from hair loss and wore one of their systems, told me no matter what I did I wasn’t going to be able to stop my hair loss. I was so upset and thought what a nerve this woman had to say such a thing to me. Those words come back to me all the time. I’m afraid she might have been right. BUT then I read your story and I have hope! I actually had two prp treatments over the summer. My hair shed so much after each treatment, I was so afraid. However, I did notice my hair seemed shiner and perhaps a little fuller. The next month I came down with shingles and other health issues so I put off the third treatment. Two months later I had the third treatment and my scalp has been itchy the last couple of days. The doctor suggested a scalp biopsy to rule out infection. I agreed to go although I don’t believe that is the problem. I’m so afraid I’m going to start shedding again. Have you ever experienced an itchy scalp after a treatment? I have considered going to Dr. Greco in the future. I am not able to get there now as I live in NJ and my work schedule doesn’t allow me time off right now.
I wish you luck and I will be checking in to see how you are doing. It makes me feel better to see I’m not alone. My husband is very supportive, but its not the same as sharing with someone who is going through the same thing.
Thanks !!
K
Hi,
I apologize but I’m having a hard time navigating through here, what was your initial diagnosis for hair loss? Was it a form of alopecia? Do you have any pictures that you are willing to share to show what your hair looked like at its worst? To me those pictures you posted if your bio hair looks like you have a ton of hair which is amazing!
I’m suffering from thinning with no answer. I live in an isolated city in northern Ontario, Canada with no help or doctors willing to help me. It’s frustrating. All I have is the Internet so your story really intrigues me.
So many congrats! Wow, what a roller coaster. Your bio hair looks awesome but yes, I understand how after having such an emotional time, it’s just practically impossible to have any sense of normal around the whole subject of hair.
Was your diagnosis AGA or CTE? Just wondering if anyone with AGA (like me) could get such results with PRP. I cannot imagine the treatment – I had PRP in my achilles tendon. I swore the clinic blue and near passed out with the pain!
Oh B, I am SO HAPPY for you!! Your hair looks SO AMAZING :)) Thank you for sharing this with us 🙂 Lots of love and hugs and best wishes sent your way xo
Hello, B
Congratulations! Your pictures are amazing!!
But I have some doubts.
I’m from South America and could understand:
– what’s a “bio hair”?
My case is androgenetic alopecia and I decided to go to US to make PRP, because there isn’t in my country…..
Are your results after 14 months, right?
Thank you
S.
@Beth2011 – thanks for the compliments. Hairloss is such a wild ride and I’ve been there with the whole staying inside thing. God, there used to be a passage from a parking garage at JFK to the terminal that was a Wind Tunnel Sent Straight from Hell purely to torture me that I invented the craziest longest re-route around just to avoid that when I finally dragged my husband on my own personal get to and from the terminal, he seriously was like WTF?!?!? The first time I walked that with a shaved head i nearly passed out with joy. Stupid hair loss is just so traumatic. As far as sucecss rates with Dr. Greco’s treatments, I really have no idea…..
Hi, Carlene – how’s it going now that you’ve had another treatment?
Y – yep, taking life as it comes! You’re a huge inspiration for me.
Andrea – I really don’t know if this is a life long follow up kind of thing and I’m not at the stage where I’ve asked as I still defintiely need the treatments and also, luckily, I live only a few hours drive from Dr. Greco so the distance is not an issue for me. I have had 4 treatments now and am scheduled for another one in April. I do believe that at this point, it’s a treatment that does require ongoing sessions, but I think I remember from my first appt with Dr. G saying that at some point maintenance appointments may only be required once a year. Just like with everything else, we are all just slightly different. I’m still in the every 5 – 6 months range depending on my travel schedule. Also, Andrea, honestly, I’ve had a few diagnosis at this point but after going through all of this now for 8 years and seeing how my hair behaves, I, now know my own situation better than any doctor. I get major bouts of CTE and yes, I suppose that at my age now, I have a very normal amount of slight AGA. AGA happens slowly with aging to most people and so I do think that now at the age of 41, of course my hair is not nor will it ever be when I was…. 28. That’s just life. But my major issue is CTE< which I now know that my mother has quite severely and my sister also exhibits sometimes. I actually cannot upload pics to this page and I would not be comfortable at all posting a pic on an open page that kinda makes me wanna puke every time I see it. I don;t know if you are a member of this site but said pic is buried in my old pics in my profile. You can also look up my first blog on this open page about PRP and see a difference in before treatment and after pics side by side. The difference is pretty obvious. I'll post a link to it separately after this post.
HI, Kathy – I'm very sorry to hear what you are going through and have heard shinges is an absolute nightmare. Are you better now? How's your hair doing?
@bayareagirl – see above about my own diagnosis but yes, I do know someone with AGA that has had incredible results with this treatment.
HI, Sylvia – When I say "bio" or "bio hair" I just mean the hair growing straight out of my head! After being a hair wearer for years now, there's just become a verbal distinction between my wig hair or helper hair and my bio. 🙂 The results above are after 14 months of treatment. As soon as post this comment, I will post the link to my first blog after PRP showing much earlier before and after pics.
As promised here is the link to my first blog about this treatment. These pics are before treatment and I think one month later. I really had a very quick turnaround https://www.womenshairlossproject.com/prp-therapy/prp-is-it-my-miracle/
Hi B. Do you have any updates? I am considering PRP but I would love to hear if you are still having success.
PS. Your beautiful in all phases of your journey. If we could just see ourselves through others eyes. XO
D – thanks for the very sweet comment. It is indeed true that we are so much harsher in how we see ourselves than anyone else is. These days, I do know that. Some days it’s easier to remember than others of course…… but THANK YOU for the reminder. Yes, I am still seeing great success. I did go through a very small shed this past month (very typical timing for me and I did get worried) but it was minimal and lasted a few weeks and now I’m back to GROWING. My bio looks pretty damn good I must say. I got a haircut the other day, did some color work on myself yesterday. And I’m off this week to meet up with one of my hair-wearing besties. I have not worn hair since last September but I am bringing one of my Follea wigs with me in case I just feel like wearing her. Sometimes I now actually MISS my wigs!
I haven’t been on here in awhile but wanted to comment on
Your beautiful hair! It looks amazing! Am assuming all is still going
Well and your treatments w Dr G going well? I wanted to add here (and
I’ll put it elsewhere as well that I had a scalp biopsy a couple of weeks ago and am happy yet on the fence about the results. I’ve had burning scalp and major hair loss on & off for about 8 years now. Several docs said Female pattern thinning and possible scarring alopecia. Biopsy says absolutely NO alopecia but says Sebopsorasis (combo of seborreaic
Dermatitis and leading into “possible psoriasis”. I was given 3 week treatment of Clebatosol foam. After the 1st application things got much worse as far as severe soreness of scalp. I believe it is a fungal infection of
Scalp & am asking for the antifungal pills! I am also seeing an autoimmune
Specialist and waiting on testing. He believes a hallmark symptom of Lupus
And many other autoimmune diseases (there are over 600 of them according to him) include a burning scalp (from the inflammation of autoimmune disease) as well as hair loss. He also believes many autoimmune diseases are missed by regular practitioners as well as specialists bc they don’t look beyond the standard ANA testing and that
Many times certain people fall between cracks w the ANA route. He is running a battery of 35 different tests to flush it out. Also – pernicious anemia is another autoimmune disease w hair loss as a side effect. Just passing that along as a consideration.. lots of love and light. Women that
Have gone through this are one tough bunch!
newbie. What is CTE? Do you have AGA? will PRP help if you have androgen issues?
Hi B!
New to the site. Would love to hear any updates. If you are still doing PRP and how it is going. I suffer from CTE as well and probably a bit of AGA at this point, so I’m very curious how this treatment has worked for you over the years. I had an episode of loss about a month ago, and no one understands why this is so devastating to the point where it consumes my thoughts and dreams allll day. Glad to find a place that provides such great support 🙂
Jay
Hi B! Glad to hear that PRP is still working for you. I knew it would be. I am on the network but it has been a few years since I’ve signed on and have lost all login info. I’ve thought about you several times over the years, because you have been such an inspiration. I’ve reached out to Y to see if she can retrieve my login info because I don’t want to start a new account and lose my friends, etc…. Once I get that info I will private message you. Want to share something with you that I think will help you as well since PRP worked for you.
And as a general comment on here. I do believe PRP will help anyone with AGA or CTE. What this is doing is breaking up the fascia tissue fascia covers everything all muscles, organs, etc…. that is tightening around the scalp going into some sort of protective mode which in turn is suffocating the hair follicle. When the needles from PRP break the fascia up it allows the hair follicles to breath if you will, where the hair follicle is not completely destroyed. This worked so well for B because she has CTE which is probably being caused by the tightening of the fascia. Adding the massage manipulates this tissue and keeps it moving with blood, nutrients and oxygen. There are scalp massager out there electric ones that move the scalp (this isn’t just rubbing this is true massaging) and you can’t just massage an area for 5 seconds you must concentrate on all areas for at least 30 seconds and do it around 10 minutes a day. No doctor will tell you this because I don’t think they even realize it. The only way I know this is absolutely through God revealing things to me. I started having issues with my muscle fascia after slim lipo and I noticed that my body felt like my scalp deep burning itching etc…. bruised feeling. The thing they recommend for myofascial pain syndrome is needling/massage etc…. to keep this tissue moving. The needling breaks up the fascia so blood, etc…. can flow. If it is not address it can/ will cause an area to stop functioning; it is a nightmare but this was exactly the same thing I was feeling on my scalp! I got a scalp massager from Brookstone and my life changed. I told another lady who suffers from hair loss about she started using it and has positive results as well. Her shedding drastically reduced.
If you can’t afford PRP I highly recommend trying this. PRP for me seemed like the answer but I just couldn’t afford to maintain that kind of treatment. So I asked God to reveal another way, then one day I walk into brookstone with the light shining on the scalp massager. The one I’m talking about is made by different manufacturers etc…. but it is around $90 dollars. Hope this helps someone. It will hurt at first but just power through and it won’t be as bad.
B my right temple is extremely tight and I hold the massager there longer than anywhere 😉
Hello ladies,
I wanted to ask those with CTE if you also have burning and itching scalp and sensitivity around your scalp? I think this has to do a lot with stress and how it changes the gut, which impacts our immune system.