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). And I can feel new hair growing everywhere. I will spare you all the medical details of the aminexil solution, you can google it. It is not being distributed in the US but you can still get it online (it’s non prescitption). Kerastesse and Vichy have it in their european product line, (vichy’s product is called dercos aminexil sp94, and that’s the one that worked for me).
And one more thing, I’m also taking dietary supplement that contains taurine. I’m not sure if you can get it in US because I get it from europe. But taurine was used by vets on cats to prevent shedding for the last 50 years, so I’m hoping it is working for me too 
Best to all of you and good luck with your treatments. I’m sure you will find one that works for you. As I found mine
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Dear Anna -
It is so good to hear that you are having success battling your hair loss and that you are noticing quite a substantial visible improvement. Your story definitely gives other women hope, and it also lets us know that sometimes hair loss can be stress related. I am not familiar with aminexil, your story is actually the first time I’ve heard about it. How does it medically treat hair loss? After hearing your story I am incredibly interested in hearing the science behind it. I did some searching online but didn’t find a whole lot of information on any studies and things so I’d love to know what your doctor told you about the product and how the treatment works. Thank you for sharing and congratulations on your hair loss recovery success!
~Y
Technorati Tags: aminexil, hair loss, hair shedding, stress, taurine
November 29th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hi anna,
I am experiencing similar hair loss due to stress. I looked up your aminexil treatment and am making sure i am finding the right product. Is it a kerastase product? Its quite expensive! Thank you for sharing your story and giving hope!
Blessings
Amanda
November 30th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Hi Amanda, I don’t know much about the aminexil, but I do know that it is indeed a keratase product. I wish I had more info on it, but really Anna’s story was the first I had heard of it. Googling it was how I found out that it was a keratase product.
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Hi Anna,
I found the product Dermos Aminexil S94 to order but I wanted to know if you are using the men’s strength or the women’s strength. Also, when you need to reorder the dietary supplement with the turimine where do you order it from? I have looked for it at various locations and I am in need of knowing where to obtain this. My story is almost an exact replica of yours and I will try anything so please respond to my two questons as soon as possible. Thanks so much for sharing and best of luck.
February 8th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Hey girls..
After reading all of your stories I figured I might as well write mine too and help some of you out as well as to get the anxiety off my chest.
My first hair loss started when I was 12 and I was suffering from severe Anorexia. At the time I had a full head of fine hair..I had alot, alot of hair. Over the course of a year I shed so much that I had a pretty big receding hair line. My hair was brittle and weak. Luckily my mother put me into treatment and I got better. Two years later I had recovered my full head of hair without taking any supplements, just by eating again. I became Anorexic again at 15..this time it was juts as bad as the first time and I was shedding so much hair that I cut it really short, like a pixie cut..thinking that would help but it didnt stop the shedding one bit..even worse, I looked like a little boy. I was so depressed that I didnt even care at that point. I was put into treatment once again but with a whole nutritionist and psychological team this time. I regained the pounds and was back to being a healthy weight once again and started growing back my hair.My nutritionist reccomended that I t!
ake these Chinese Herbal pills by the name of Shu Wu Pian plus a Multi Vitamin. By the time that I was 18 I had a decent amount of hair but obviuosly less than what I had when I was 11.
At 18 I met whom I thought was the love of my life and I was head over heels for him. That relationship lasted 6 months because he broke up with me. My hair started falling out in clumps. It fell out for 6 months..I had many bald spots all over my head and a HUGEEE receding hair line. I always dreaded washing my hair and would go for 4 days sometimes without washing it to avoid the anxiety that it implied. I always put it in a bun and put hair thickening gels in it. Every dermatologist that I saw told me that they didnt know what it was and that I should look into Rogaine..but I was only 18. I went to doctors and there was nothing wrong with my hormones, etc. Finally, I resorted to going back to therapy and I was put on antidepressants/anti anxiety pills by the name of Celexa. After about 2 weeks I started seeing an improvement in the shedding..it was miraculous. The therapist attributed the shedding to anxiety and stress. I also started taking Shu Wu Pian again. A year l!
ater I had my hair back and better than ever. I had a few years of peace untill I turned 22 and my hair started shedding again out of nowhere! I felt suicidal and miserable. I thought that I had already undergone my fair share of hair loss over the past few years and I thought why me again???? I too looked at othre girls, envious of them being able to wear their hair down and straightened without ever having to worry about them losing their hair. My hair started falling out around the time that I was working full time in this retail store and attending summer school because I wanted to graduate from college already and I was working to buy myself a plane ticket to go see my bf in another country. I wore head scarfs and ponytails for those whole 2 months. Again I started on Celexa and It gradually stopped. Even though my hair seemed healthir and stronger, it didnt all grow back. It stopped and started AGAIN in January of 2007 and continued up untill June because I was also very s!
tressed since I had moved to another country and left all
my friends behind. I took up Celexa again but this time it wasnt helping at all. I freaked out and didnt know what to do. I cut my hair really short again but Ihad bald spots and had to wear headbands, etc. I put all kinds of weird herbal concoctions on my scalp at night and went to bed. Id wake up with herbds all over my pillow case and face and then Id have to rinse it all out. It was useless and I was hopeless and suicidal yet again. I consulted a homeopathic Dr. and he gave me some drops that did nothing. I took it uypon my self to double my Celexa dosage and it slowed the shedding down but didnt stop it. After 6 months it finally stopped. I was fine from June 2007 up untill January of this year (2008). I was left with very fine and little hair..but it was still somewhat normal..I just looked like someone with little hair but not someone that was balding. My hair started falling out again 2 weeks ago and Im severely depressed. I keep telling myeslf that It will pass just like !
it has all of the other times but its still just as traumatic as ever. Ive started using the Aminexil yesterday and started taking the double dosage of Celexa (cuz i had been taking half the amount for the past year)..Im also going to start taking a multi vitamin and the Shu Wu Pian again. Ive been keeping my hair in ponytails but Im starting to show bald spots around my temples and the top of my head near the part. This started after I had a bad fight with my bf for leaving the country for 2 weeks with his friend when we werent in a good economic situation. Im guessing its also stress related but I dont know. Hopefully itll stop soon and Ill be able to regain my peace and self esteem. I hope this has shown some of you that you´re not alone and that getting better is possible even if it means relapsing and going through it in cycles.
February 13th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Wow Lee, that is quite an ordeal. The worst part must be the uncertainty. I think its the worst part for all of us. I am not sure what the cause of my hair loss is, I only look at pictures of myself a year about and wonder what happened and how on earth it could happen.
My loss started about two months after I’d had an abortion and a month in to LAw School. I noticed my hairline on one side of my scalp was receding a tiny bit. I have always been obsessed with my hair, it was thick and curly and out of control for soooo many years. I wished for thinner tamer hair. Now I as I am able to tuck the ends of my bangs behind my ears like I always anted to be able to do w.o straightening my hair, I curse the days I wanted thinner hair and hated my ULTRA SUPER THICK HAIR ( as in every hairdresser I always had remarked “girl! You got a lotta hair!!).
I ignored this problem somewhat for the year or so its been going on. I sporadically take Rogaine bc that is what my HMO Derm NP told me to do. I was supposed to go back in 3 months, but I lost coverage and thought it was just due to the stress of law school. This is the most stressed out I’ve ever been in my whole life. However, I am pretty sure I caused this hair loss by picking on my scalp while studying ( I had really bad dandruff/psoris that plaques up and makes a perfect brainless activity to do while studying). By the time I forced myself to really really stop, ( about 1-2 months ago) I’d already destroyed the whole left side of my head–I can feel the pattern of my usual “picking” spots now as thin patches running along side the whole left side of my head.
I don’t know what to do–any suggestions would be welcomed. I am going to the school’s dermatologist on thursday to talk to her…I’m not very optomistic about her (She’s mean), but for some reason I just feel like g-d will give me back all or most of my hair. I can’t stop thinking this will just go away. But in order for that to happen I gotta do my part and go to the dr. and get checked out for the obvious stuff…..
I was feeling low but then realized how fortunate I am to have curly hair. If I had straight hair the loss would be SO obvious. As it is now, it’s only obvious to me. Some people still can’t tell and remark how “cute” my “new short hair cut” is. I want to cry bc I have always hated having short hair. This is the shortest its ever been and I am so scared. I can’t style it bc it will come out, it seems like every “trick” I come up with to make my hair look better, only makes it worse.
But today my hair actually looked nice
It was so thin it scared me, but it *looked* nice. I am thinking, you can’t ask for more than that.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Ariel:
How long have you been losing your hair? I started losing mine about 2 to 3 months after an abortion too. Did yours come out in clumps or was it just increased shedding(more than normal). I too always had alot of hair and was used to shedding but not this much. After a few months I noticed how thin it got and freaked.
Did you ever get a diagnosis? Mine was TE but I NEED to be 100% sure so I am getting a biopsy done on Monday.
Please let me know.
Thansk,
Lisa
April 18th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Thank you for the post on Aminexil. I’ve usually been up for the 100% percent natural route, but this product really seems to work. Did a bit of research and ordered some online, I got the Kerastase version, b/c they were the first to come up with the product. Will let you know how it works.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Hello Ladies,
I admire and respect so many of you for sharing your stories. What a tragedy it is to be losing your hair! I used to post with another website 4 years ago, prior to getting burned out. I have been searching for a cure for my hairloss since March of 2004. I’ve been browsing through some of the comments and have not come up with anything similar to mine. Please let me know if any of you have similar circumstances!
In May of 04′ I decided to have a breast augmentation after my 3 children left me looking like the cover girl for National Geographic! Anyway, within 3to 4 weeks my hair began to fall out. My doctor thought it might have been from the anestesia and would stop after 6 months. Well, one year after surgery it hadn’t stopped. My plastic surgeon thought I may have been allergic to the implants and did a removal of the implants (he’s awesome!) for me in March of 05. Fast forward 3 years, pages of blood tests, 6 different doctors (general, internist, endocrinologist, OBGYN, Naturopath, and even an irridologist) and countless supplements! Nothing seems to have helped. At one point the endo put me on Spironolocatone and birth control and within 3 months my hair slowly began to recover…until that 4th month when it all began to fall again for no reason. We could not figure out why it began to stop and then start again. Eventually she put me on Finesteride (5mg of Propecia!)but not even that could stop the loss. That’s when I decided to go the natural approach and still I sit today with no cure! My 1st year I did a hair count with the derm and within 5 days I lost 1,587 hairs!! We also did a biopsy which determined I had TE. The derm decided that she could do no more and that I wait out the course. Well, I’m still waiting!! I used to feel as though my life was over. Crying each and every time I had to wash my hair (its like the Swamp Thing!), blow dry, comb, etc. After 2 years it became too consuming and depressing and I couldn’t take it anymore. I decided it wasn’t going to beat me. I did my research and found a wonderful website on wigs (if it gets that far!) and decided I would take action on it when my husband and dear friends told me that it was getting too noticable. Until then, I wouldn’t talk about it, stress over it, and just thank God for each day that I still have even a little hair on my head! Every once in a while I allow myself to do some research on it to make sure I’m not missing out on some great cure for TE. That’s when I came across this fabulous site. So many of you have shared your successes as well as your breakdowns and for that I commend you! I would love it if any of you have had a similar situation after surgery as I did and wouldn’t mind sharing your experiences with me! Still searching and waiting for something to help!!
Thaks for taking the time to read this!!
Marie
July 9th, 2008 at 12:59 am
hi.. i am very confused myself… i am not sure if it’s just my hair because it’s always been thin.. (so that makes it harder to tell at least for me) i am very young.. (turned 20 in march) i went out with a past bf and it lasted for awhile.. after we broke up it was just a really bad ending.. involing plane rides and thinking i’d come back…anyways i came back to my hometown in 2006. i went through a period of time basically 6 months all i was doing is sitting down at the computer, barely eating, sleeping, and drinking lots of coffee and smoking a lot… just very torn in that time through the break up.. i was actually lifeless. one day i was so wired up by coffee and it was in the morning and it was getting light out..i was feeling very strung out on coffee.. i had this weird crazy image that i was gonna go bald or something just weird. (my hair was fine as of what knew, wasn’t really checking at the time for my problem) i can’t remember if this was during when i was going out when a new bf 6 months after the whole break up. obviously i went into a relationship without thinking.. but it has turned out well..(still dating since dec 06.. so it’s gonna be 2 years in dec.) eventually my feelings for my ex have worn off but still thought about him like.. a lot. now it’s to the point where i could care less about him (even though he’s a good guy, that’s why i was so stressed to lose him.. i ruined it) anyways.. just giving you some info telling you i barely have stress in my life now. but i am going to start off where i had that image… well i had that image then every night i went to sleep that image has bothered me for awhile. monthsss after i felt and noticed i had A LOT of dandruff.. i barely used hairspray and i washed my hair a good amount. it was odd so i was thinking maybe the cold weather. i touched my scalp and it felt like a lot of hair was trying to grow in but then i figured out no.. it’s the dandruff. (scraped off) around my hairline inched a lot.. i tried so hard to not itch it because of that weird image i had. months after that the dandruff is gone but now my hair seems thin. i’ve always had a naturally bigger forhead. (i wear sweep bangs) so it’s also hard to tell if it’s receding. my mom thinks it wont reced anymore.. but i have noticed the hairline should be just a tiny bit more lower. i started noticed my hair was very thin and i could see my scalp in my hair near the hairline.. i could have never noticed this before but obviously i am thinking hair fell out because i did notice it. months later it seemed to be thickening more up on the top but now this is wear the sides sort of receded.. then i am thinking once again maybe it was always that way but never noticed.. (i wear sweep bangs whenever i go out) then at work since i am working during this time.. last week this guy ask, after i totally forgot about my hair and thought it was just nothing and getting better. “are you balding? i said.. “no… i am not” then asked “are you just shedding?” then i said “i don’t know” when i got home i took a hand mirror and put it above my head so i could see in the other mirror.. and my part had big gashes in it.. and my part is always messing up now.. it’s almost like my hair trys to part on its own in the back sort of near the top but it goes down to far!! what’s very weird is i never really shed in the shower but if i sort of touch my hair and pull softly through my hair with my fingers.. only about 3 at the most come out.. so i do a lot of my shedding when my hair is dry or doing my hair. i honestly don’t know if this is stress related.. maybe i am unaware of my stress because i have gotten used to it.. i am a pertty calm person but i am sensitive and anger easily. i am a natural blonde.. and blondes are supposed to have the most hair i guess.. i don’t know if i should just forget about it till it becomes noticeable or just do something now.. or maybe it’s just paranoia.. but when i waved that mirror over my head.. which i’ve never done before.. my bang part was sort of… yeah really fine. i have no clue if this is from the past and that that’s what has caused it and i still continue to shed after it. i’m not really sure… sorry if i made any typos and am not typing how i usually do. (This is how I’d usually talk.) i’m just so lazy and tired right now.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Hi,
I am 44 with chronic TE from more than a year and I have lost more than 80% of my tick hair. Tried everything on the market with exception of Minoxidil. 10 days ago I started Aminexil - my hair loss increased and my scalp is very irritated as well. I am not sure if this is normal reaction or I am just allergic to it. If someone experienced the same symptoms after use of Aminexil,would you please,let me know if I should continue?
August 25th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Hi Everyone,
I’m 25 and have been losing some of my hair for the past 6 months. At first it was a little bit but lately I’ve been experiencing it a lot more when I wash my hair. It feels like its just shedding.
It wasnt until I went to a hairdresser late last year for a haircut and he mentioned it saying I must be under a lot of stress because when he was brushing my hair it was coming out a fair bit.
I was at the start of a long, stressful break up with my now ex fiance (which only ended 2 months ago) as well as studying 2 subjects at once in uni while working full time. Also earlier this year I was diagnosed with Endometriosis and had a laroscopy two months ago.
On top of this I have been diagnosed with mild general anxiety and panic in the last year or so and have also got problems with clenching and grinding my teeth in my sleep which causes my jaw to ach like I have wisdom teeth even though I dont have them. These issues I have had for a number of years.
I have just done a google search for hair loss in women and have found this site.
http://www.healthology.com/hair-loss/hair-loss-information/article3501.htm
It details how when a person undergoes extreme stress, taking some types of medication, diabetes, thyroid disorders, surgery and even pregnancy, about three months later as much as 70% of their can be lost as the stress at that point in time causes the hair to stop growing and eventually fall out.
It says that the hair will usually start growing within 6 months as long as the stress can be reduced..
For me I think this may be the case because of the extreme stresses of the breakup, studying, pressures at work as well as the impending operation compounded together in a short period of time, the worst being towards the start of this year. It makes sense that now the worst of my hair loss is happening about 2-3 months after all this happened.
My life is now starting to get on track and my stress is reducing so I’m hoping if I can keep it up the hair loss wont happen so much again. I guess I will know in a few months.
I hope that this helps people and makes them realise how much stress can affect your body and create a perpetual cycle. I also hope that it helps people relax
Stress and anxiety isnt a good thing and can do so much damage.