wow!Girl if only you new how much your story touched me. It’s amazing, because for every girl loves having hair whether they want to admit it or not. Unfortunately most don’t realize this great admiration until they experience hair loss. I know i didn’t. Ever since i was a child my friends and family always loved how long and healthy my hair my hair (especially since i am an African-American). i must admit i enjoyed having very long hair because it was sooooo much easier to deal with. Well, i experimented with the weave corn rows (what ever you call them) a couple of times and they ended up breaking my hair dramatically. well, i didn’t fret about this because my hair was still thick and fairly long. Well, shortly after this i (very stupidly) left conditioner in my hair on accident. This insanely broke my hair to where i could not even wear it in a ponytail. To make matters worse my scalp eczema flared up during this time, creating an indescribable itch to my scalp. Honestly, Veronica, i would do anything to get rid of this extremely irritating itch. I used to let my brother hit me in the head repetively just to make it go away — at least temporarily. well, let me tell you the worse was yet to come. I actually began scratching my head with a mechanical pencil in order to relieve the irritation. i mean it almost became second nature. I would be sitting in class and i didn’t even have to think twice before attacking the itch. Well, everything was perfectly fine until i started noticing my bald spots. I mean i just hate my hair now. It’s thin and i can unfortunately see my scalp. I honestly don’t know the first step to achieving my hair to what it once was — very long, thick, and healthy (if i may remind you). From experience, i now completely believe that you never truly realize what you have until you lose it. Hair loss has created an extreme loss in confidence that i really don’t know how to gain back. I have shed so many tears because of the current condition of my hair. Not one of my friends or family understand my depression with hair loss (nor do they really care). All i can do is pray that God will help me through this unfortunate situation, help me to accept my hair, and take care of it to the best of my ability. It just makes me feel better that i am NOT the only one. There are actually other women (young and old) around the world that have had a similar experience and understand what i am going through.Thank you so much for reading my story. well, i’ll be praying for you and all the other women who have been experienced the tragedy of hairloss.

God bless you!!!

I am 47, and am totally bald. I have suffered with hair loss since I was 14!!!!A high school freshman and my hair started to fall out. First, it was just at the front hairline. Then, it proceeded to go all the way back (on the crown). What began then was a thirty plus year struggle with doctor after doctor. I was told I had male pattern baldness and to be ready for it to get worse. I did the female version of the “comb over” for about ten years and it became so thin that I couldn’t do it anymore. I am a teacher, and the kids started to comment on my “bald head”. I did the typical thing of tying my hair to my self esteem, which pretty much went to the pits.

I began to wear wigs at about 25 and wore them off and on until two years ago. My hair loss would improve, get worse, improve, etc. Finally, about a year and a half ago, it started the Alopecia Areata - falling out with the spots and then, no more.

I think what has saved me, finally, is that I started to go with the “natural” look around people I trusted. I realized that, for once, I am not just my hair, or the lack of it.

The lace wig has saved my life, professionally. They look so real that my students now don’t notice anything. Although, if I choose to, I change the color, the length and just tell the truth: “It is a wig. I don’t have hair anymore.” Most just go “Oh” and move on.

So, I think that it is time that we stop equating hair with our beauty, our worth, our attractiveness.

God bless you all as you struggle.

I really can relate to how you are feeling, I have been losing my hair at a very slow rate over the past two and half years and I just don’t know if or when it will stop.

I noticed you said you had sebum build-up where your scalp was covered in these seed things. What were they like? Were they white? Only, I have excess sebum and I have little white ball like substance in my hair. Does anyone here know what that is?

Also, does anyone have a red scalp? Mine seems to be slightly red, but there is no signs of any scabs or anything so I don’t think it is psoriasis of anything like that.

Any information anyone has would be a great help.

Thanks - Amanda

I too am so happy to have found this forum. Since the age of 19 I have slowly lost my hair. I knew my hair was dropping, but my family denied it because I had so much hair to begin with that the slow hair loss I was experiencing wasn’t immediately noticable. I was even chased out of hair specialists offices. Now I am 28 and my hair is SOOOO thin. I have a 5th of my original hair and I too have not been able to wear a ponytail in years. My hair grows fast, and the majority of the strands have their original width. The color has also stayed the same. It’s just I have lost about 80% or my hair density.

Hair loss to this degree does not run thru my family at all, especially in relatives so young.

I recently saw a dermatologist who was wonderful and listened to my story. I was recently diagnosed with Endometriosis and had two giant cysts removed from my ovaries.

My dermatoligst said that my hair loss was diffuse and did not follow the usual pattern of female balding. I took a blood test and found that my ferritin level was 12 (to maintain healthy hair you should have 40 and to have hair regrowth, it is said you should maintain 70). I am also boarderline anaemic.

My dermatologist has started me on a high does of Iron to boost up my levels, and my doctor put me on Yasmin to stop my periods to prevent cyst regrowth.

I noticed my hair loss started a few years after my periods started. Also, as a teenager (15 years old) I became very ill and my iron stores where depleted since then. I just never put Iron deficiency and hair loss together.

My dermatologist said it will take a while, but my hair should start to regrow once my iron is restored and maintained. I look at my scalp and see that it is not smooth, but still has bumps from the follicles.

I had a bad case of sebum build-up where my scalp was covered in these seed things (back in 1999). But it lasted a week and I would only find one or two of these seed things a day. Now I have none.

If any of you have heavy periods, or a history of low iron, get a blood test and ask what your ferritin levels are. They won’t tell you unless you ask.

i am praying so hard that the iron deficiency is the answer. it broke my heart to hear that if I caught this earlier, I could have saved most of my hair sooner. I was just told by my family for years that I was whining. I wish I listened to myself. I have had hair loss for almost 10 years and I am so scared that my hair will not return. I just sit in my office and on the train and compare my hair to the hair of women around me.

it is so tiring to have to be constantly self aware. I just want to think about something else other than my hair loss. My sister has such beautiful thick hair, it makes me sick to look in the mirror and deal with mine.

When I had a head full of hair I never gave it another thought. Now I feel like it is one of the most important things in my life. I have lost my self confidence, and I am so self conscious when I am with my boyfriend, that he can see my scalp, that I try and avoid being intimate.

Take care all of you.

Feel free to email me when you get your profile up and would love to have coffee sometime.

The integration piece was $450 and it is only 3 inches wide and 4 inches long. It sits about an inch behind my hair line (I do not want to wear bangs) and just covers the top of my head. You can order the piece in any size, shape or color…She pulls my bio hair through the tiny mesh and then sews the piece onto my exsisting hair. It sounds kind of confusing… The piece is very comfortable, I don’t even feel it on my head and the best part is there is no glue, braids, microclips, or anything that could cause traction alopecia…

I will look into making a profile… I too would love to chat more with you, hairloss can be such a lonely experience. I also know a girl who wears a bonded system from HRS and she just loves it! I met her on another hairloss forum and we have had coffee a few times now which really has been great!