Women’s Hair Loss Project

Before I share my story, I would like to thank this site for opening the door to a world of hope, understanding, and amazing strength. You are truly a remarkable young lady with a tremendously huge heart. Your words and intellectual spirit speak volumes about the very fibers of your being. Having this site, is a delight…… for sometimes, we have all been in a very dark and desperate place. Again, Thank You So Much!!!!!

I thought it was time to share some inspiration and background to my hair loss experience. I will tell you at times…. There where moments when I didn’t want to see the light from the sun, peer through my windows. The very thought of getting out of bed was a chore, a dreaded routine that was both exhausting and draining. At the age of 45 I have suffered with hair loss for well over 20 years. At first … it wasn’t that noticeable, after all, I was younger and had a busy schedule. Although it reared its ugly head I can honestly tell you I really didn’t put it all together until some 10 years later.

It was a slow process and more then likely I just ignored the signs… Back then I saw several doctors, truthfully… If I may be honest…. THEY SUCKED! The only thing they made sure of was my insurance numbers and mailing address were correct. Years of doctors and empty pockets, I realized that the traditional medical society for the most part reminded me of lawyers… They prey on your hardships and suck you dry! Years ago, doctors cared about following there passions in helping cure the sickly awhile tending to the needy with compassion and love. Today, while I am sure there’s a handful….. It is a commodity at best! I can tell you that worrying and obsessing over those things you cannot control only fuels the aging process as well as any illnesses you may have, The mind and body connection is real, and once you work with your body and not against it you will begin to see some beautiful things happen. (more…)

At 41, I gave my hairdresser free reign. She cut off everything but 1 inch of outgrowth in my natural color - grey. Under the lights in the salon, my scalp glowed just as brightly, but the white hair complimented the pink shine much better than the chestnut stained trimmings that covered the floor around the chair. There is no question in my mind that facing my reality - infertile, grey and balding at 41 - saved my mental health, and contributed to the end of my marriage. The disappointment in my husband’s face that day when I returned home from the beauty salon, showed me he could never accept me for who I was now, instead of wishing for the woman he’d met 15 years earlier. I knew that living with the truth was the only way for me, and that I would be doing it alone.

When my hair began to shed at age 31, I had thought nothing of it. It was so thick and wavy, I hardly noticed a difference, and simply passed it off as a slight change. By the time I looked in the bathroom mirror and realized the shiny spot on the top of my head was my scalp, it was too late. The Prempro I had been taking to mitigate the symptoms of premature ovarian failure certainly contributed to the loss, but because of the hormone changes from the POS, likely there would have been hair loss if I had not taken any hormones.

After denying the reality for a decade, mainly with new hairstyles and hair color, I couldn’t live any longer pretending to myself that nothing had changed. With barely an inch of outgrowth, I didn’t care if I looked bald when my stylist was done with me - I just wanted to have myself to look at in the mirror - whatever I actually looked like.

The divorce took 2 years - one year to finally say it, and one year to separate our lives and finances. (more…)

Hi, I started to lose hair about when I was 46. It freaked me out as one of my aunts wore a wig and my grandmother had very little hair. I went to a medical hair loss clinic and they said I had genetic hair loss and recommended hair transplants. I asked about taking finasteride (Propecia), which I had read helped men with hair loss and the doctor said no, it was not available to women. His assistant, however, said (when the doctor was out of the room) that they won’t give it to women due to pregnancy problems. I said I was menopausal and highly unlikely to have kids, but it was a no
go.

So I went looking for Hair Loss books and read as much as I could and found out that taking Saw Palmetto worked just as well as Propecia and without any side effects. It does the same stuff and can be enhanced with the use of a couple of other herbs. So I’ve been taking it ever since and my hair loss has really slowed down . I’ve stopped a couple of times and the hair loss increased - so I know it is working for me.

I take 160mg (standardized to contain 85-95% fatty acids and sterols) twice a day. I also take 300 mg of Biotin twice a day and that also seems to help. Both are available from a health food store and come in many brands. I take the cheapest Saw Palmetto. These supplements are often found in the section about men’s prostate health as they work for that too. Propecia was designed for prostate health and was then found, by accident, to also bring back hair growth lost within 2 years.It works on the androgen cycle which causes male hair loss and may also cause female hair loss. I don’t see a lot of research into female hair loss out there which is foolish as many of my female post menopausal friends are experiencing some hair loss now.

Perhaps this info might help someone else…
Karen

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Dear Karen,

Welcome to the site and thank you for sharing your hair loss treatment regimen that you’ve experienced success with. I often hear women say they taken biotin for their hair loss but I never really tried it myself. I do think I’m going to go to the vitamin store tomorrow and get myself a bottle. I looked it up on wikipedia and it stated that its uses are for “hair problems, cradle cap (seborrheic dermatitis), and diabetes.” Under hair problems it says, ” (more…)

Hi Everybody -

I just want to share my story with all of the women who experienced stress related hair loss. I started noticing that I was loosing my hair when I moved to a different state to pursue a completely new career. I was so stressed with my job, my new home, my family life that I ignored that problem. Until I went home (I’m originally from Poland) and my friend asked me what’s up with my hair and how come I don’t have as much hair as I used to have. I realized that I did have much less hair to play with and every time I combed/ washed or styled my do I was loosing tons of it.

I noticed hair everywhere. My car seat, my coat, everywhere. I panicked when I noticed bald spots on the side of my head. I started taking vitamins for hair, using the best available shampoos and conditioners but that didn’t help a bit. I was loosing more and more hair. I couldn’t wear my hair down, I had to wear ponytail styled carefully so the bald spots wouldn’t show. I went to a doctor (dermatologist) four times and she couldn’t help me. I mean she completely ignored my problem and told me to use Rogaine!! I was furious with her, because I already did my research I knew that my hair problem was stress related. It wasn’t genetic so Rogaine was a completely wrong solution. I tried couple other doctors, but they were as ignorant as the first one. All they could think of was Rogaine and maybe a hair transplant.

My hair problem lasted 3 years. Sometimes I would be loosing less sometimes more, but the fact was that I had less and less hair on my head. I went back home (Poland) and I went to a dermatologist there. She ran lots of tests on me (yes, we have universal health care, It didn’t cost me anything) and suggested that I should try aminexil treatment. I did. I’m on my fourth week of the treament and it works!!! My hair stopped falling out. I loose maybe 5 (!!) hair when I wash it. Before I would loose tons, sometimes a chunk the size of the golf ball (200-300 hair probably). (more…)

I was at the mall yesterday with my fiance and he pointed out a young girl that was working at a mall kiosk. She was very young, definitely still in high school, and she had severe female pattern hair loss. It appeared she had put some extensions in as well which were quite apparent due to the extreme thinning. She was interacting normally and didn’t really seem shy. I was thinking how hard it must be for her, to go to high school and work in a mall with a lot of young people and have to be going through something like hair loss. It was very hard on me to begin to lose my hair at a 21,but I can’t even imagine how hard it is to have to go through it while still in high school. Everyday I see so many women losing their hair, some are young girls and some are older. I’ll never forget a librarian I met back when I was 21 and in the infancy of my hair loss. I was of course at the library researching hair loss to try and help myself. She was sitting at a desk and I went up to ask her a question. Her part was so very thin and wide and I thought to myself “Oh my god, thank god my hair loss isn’t so bad,” but I was also worried I would be in her shoes very soon. From that point on I began to compare my hair loss to everyone around me. Her’s isn’t as bad as mine… mine isn’t as bad as hers etc etc. Sadly my answers are more toward the first statement nowadays. This was just recent though, mainly the last couple years. Before that, even though I was losing so much hair and suffering inside I was still able to fake it to the world. But I didn’t enjoy what I had along the way for that day, how could I when it continually fell out?

I look back and I wish I hadn’t missed out on so much because of my hair loss. The few people I had told about it along the way were always surprised to hear I even had hair loss. They didn’t know me before and know the thick thick hair I once had. My hair is so much thinner now, but I try and not let it get in my way anymore. After all, I’ve missed out on so much already. I’ll be 30 next year and realize I missed out on my entire 20’s. So why am I writing this? I want the women who are just losing their hair to know a couple things.

Hair loss is a journey. For some it is short and they luckily recover quickly, for others such as myself, we have to realize we have a long road ahead of us. The right side of the road is paved with sadness the left with happiness and in the middle there is acceptance. I spent 8 years walking on the right, always depressed, and never realizing I could move to the other side. I would try and get toward the middle but there always a strong force pulling me back. I am happy to report that more and more I stay to the middle of the road walking on acceptance and sometimes even making it along the border of happiness. Oddly enough this epiphany happened when I was at the thinnest stage of my hair loss. I don’t want other women to miss out on their lives. I know from the depths of my heart how hard and devastating hair loss is. I live it everyday. But at some point we have to appreciate what we have for that day and just do the best be can with what we have.

I still get sad about my hair loss and have my low days, I still run past mirrors to avoid looking at myself. (more…)

The number 38 can mean a lot of different things to different people. The number 38 is:

The number of slots on the American Roulette wheel

38 is the largest even number which cannot be written as the sum of two odd composite numbers

A 38 is often the name for a snub nose .38 caliber revolver

And…. 38 is the number of hairs I lost combing my hair after my shower today!!! That is a huge victory and success for me considering just a short while ago I was loosing 500+ hairs a day. I don’t want to jinx myself, but things seem to be getting better and my horrific shed that has lasted consistently for the last 2 years has finally slowed down. I can’t describe how much of a relief that is, and it gives me hope that perhaps I can gain back a little ground. For some people who never have experienced hair loss, 38 hairs lost in a comb may seems like a lot to them, but for me it is a giant step in the right direction. After living with hair loss for 8 years, I am at peace with settling for a lot less than I use to hope for, and I’m fine living with thin hair as long as my hair loss is stable. The panic that sets in is derived from the possibility of the unknown when the shedding continues with no end in sight. I’d be thrilled if I could regain some hair lost from 2007, but even if I couldn’t and things stayed as they are now, my mind would be at rest. I have very very thin hair, but at least I would be more comfortable exploring the option of adding hair to my own if the shedding subsides. So I’m staying hopeful and positive that I’m finally getting a break and looking forward to better days ahead.

What do I attribute the lessening in shedding to? I’ve lowered my synthroid dosage down to the level I had it at back in 2005. I’ve had a feeling that the excessive telogen effluvium was due to my synthroid dosage being increased in 2006 and then again in 2007. I’ve had other side effects that seems to support my hunch that the dosage given to me was too high despite what my blood work “chart” indicated. You cannot just treat the chart and you have to go by how you feel. Numbers on a piece of paper don’t tell the whole story. So with the support of a physician I had spoken to on the phone I went to the local Urgent Care and asked if they would provide me a lower dose for synthroid. I explained the whole story and even took my bloodwork records with me from 2007 back to 2003, and they agreed to lower the dosage as long as I came back in 6 weeks for a bloodwork recheck, which of course I’m more than happy to do. My regular doctor would not have made that change in medication for me because he was the one who prescribed the higher doses both this year and last, and according to the numbers that is the level he felt I should be on. But I just didn’t feel it was right. So I took action. It’s my body and I have to do what is best for me.

What else? I also started taking an Ayurveda herbal supplement 2 months ago that contains 41 different herbs that are suppose to promote health and vitality. It doesn’t claim to grow hair, and that isn’t what it is sold for. It’s rich in antioxidants and is suppose to help with detoxification. I am just trying to give my body the best chance at healing and if possible correcting any imbalances. The herbal supplement tastes so awful I feel like I’m gonna throw up after drinking it and it makes me gag. But who cares right? I’d eat 20 raw eggs a day if I thought it would help! I also am more consistent now with making sure I take my women’s multivitamin daily as well.

That is about all that is different. Oh and I started blogging about women’s hair loss I just wanted to let all of you know about my recent improvement to give you hope that no matter how bad your hair loss and shedding is today, it can get better. I’m not kidding you when I say this is the first break and improvement I’ve seen after about 2 year shedding battle. My fingers are crossed that the shedding continues to slow down.

On a different note, Happy Halloween to everyone! I’m armed with 4 bowls filled with candy ready for the trick’O'treaters. There are a lot of kids in my neighborhood. I try to make sure I get rid of all the candy by the end of the night, otherwise I’ll be wearing it on my thighs the next couple of weeks