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Will it ever grow back? Anyone else lose all their hair after having babies?
Has anyone lost their hair so drastically after pregnancy?
Can anyone tell me about having their hair grow back after totalis?
I have had only brief instances of alopecia areata in my early twenties. A patch here and there only every few years, but the hair would always grow back. However, during my first pregnancy, my hair started to fall out more rapidly and aggressively. After I stopped breastfeeding, I started cortisone injections and the hair started to grow back. A year later, I became pregnant again, the rapid hairloss resumed and I thought the loss would stop and the hair would grow back after I stopped breastfeeding. My family was worried and associated my hair loss with breastfeeding. I always reassured them that it would all grow back after I stopped breastfeeding. Unfortunately, it was too late. It never dawned on me that it would just all fall out and never grow back.Even when I stopped breastfeeding and started back with the cortisone injections, the hair kept falling out. I have lost most of my hair.
I have not tried any other treatments and now I'm almost completely bald with just a few sad patches left. I am devastated and I feel so horrible about myself. I just can't look at myself in the mirror or be comfortable around my husband, children or anyone with my real appearance. Yet, I am tired of the itchy and hot wigs and the scarves. I don't want to be negative and I don't want this to effect me the way that it has.
I don't want to whine, but, being a woman, your hair is associated with your identity. I've been wearing a wig daily now for about a year now. I recently saw someone who I haven't seen for about 10 years and she said... Oh, you were the girl with great hair. You're hair is great!
I miss my hair! I miss my straight shiny asian hair. I miss washing and rinsing my hair. I miss swimming in the ocean and feeling how your hair slicks back after getting out of the water. I miss ponytails. I have to straighten and gloss down my wig every day because it frizzes! What is this? ahhhh!!!!
I am not trying to sound petty about having hair. But, sniff/sob, man, do I miss having hair. I hope I can be as strong and accepting as most of you one day.
But really, I hope I get my hair back.
Thank you for reading this....
Can anyone tell me about having their hair grow back after totalis?
I have had only brief instances of alopecia areata in my early twenties. A patch here and there only every few years, but the hair would always grow back. However, during my first pregnancy, my hair started to fall out more rapidly and aggressively. After I stopped breastfeeding, I started cortisone injections and the hair started to grow back. A year later, I became pregnant again, the rapid hairloss resumed and I thought the loss would stop and the hair would grow back after I stopped breastfeeding. My family was worried and associated my hair loss with breastfeeding. I always reassured them that it would all grow back after I stopped breastfeeding. Unfortunately, it was too late. It never dawned on me that it would just all fall out and never grow back.Even when I stopped breastfeeding and started back with the cortisone injections, the hair kept falling out. I have lost most of my hair.
I have not tried any other treatments and now I'm almost completely bald with just a few sad patches left. I am devastated and I feel so horrible about myself. I just can't look at myself in the mirror or be comfortable around my husband, children or anyone with my real appearance. Yet, I am tired of the itchy and hot wigs and the scarves. I don't want to be negative and I don't want this to effect me the way that it has.
I don't want to whine, but, being a woman, your hair is associated with your identity. I've been wearing a wig daily now for about a year now. I recently saw someone who I haven't seen for about 10 years and she said... Oh, you were the girl with great hair. You're hair is great!
I miss my hair! I miss my straight shiny asian hair. I miss washing and rinsing my hair. I miss swimming in the ocean and feeling how your hair slicks back after getting out of the water. I miss ponytails. I have to straighten and gloss down my wig every day because it frizzes! What is this? ahhhh!!!!
I am not trying to sound petty about having hair. But, sniff/sob, man, do I miss having hair. I hope I can be as strong and accepting as most of you one day.
But really, I hope I get my hair back.
Thank you for reading this....
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tallgirl on
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After children and nursing, within a few years I started losing hair again after having had it grow in for about 15 years. It went to AT and, briefly, AU...then AT again except for some edge hair...and has stayed the same for about 11 years. I am not thinking anything will change at this point, and I refuse to do any more shots...unless they are limoncello or something. But after the 30th birthday party, no more tequila shots...
Old me is gone. New me is here. I have to get to know New Me, and find friends who will stay in my new world. THEY have to deal with it! THEY have to make the changes...because my change already came. It is their turns. If they want to discuss heads, I'll just turn the topic to make-up and earrings. What other cool things do you like about you that ARE still around?
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Permalink Reply by B on
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LOL I didnt' mention that I was pregnant... again! ;-) so no shots for me... Thank you!
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I think pregnancy and nursing, with all those female hormones flowing, actually bring ON the hair. My photos with each new child show thick, straight brunette hair on me. Then, after nursing stopped, back to what the body would have been doing anyway! Maybe pregnancy just put the coming alopecia on pause!
Yea, no shots. (I didn't have aspirin, alcohol, coffee, either, when pregnant and nursing.) Have a healthy time! But hey...we can't stop what The Force has already going within us. We just have to deal with it.
Kids love The Mom anyway...to them, we ARE the world. (Until the teen years, anyway!)
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Thank you so much. It is so nice to hear a very similar story and to hear that you can change perspectives on things. I am still in a bit of the shock stage transitioning to the mourning stage, I would say. I will get there... I still have to shave my remaining sad little tufts.
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Permalink Reply by Norm on
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Bern, these 2 peeps are soooo right..... don't focus on the bad (pining for the "old" you), look for the positives instead!
Look, you're gonna change as your life goes on, anyway. You won't look the same in 10 years, and you don't look the same now as you did 10 years ago. As of now, one of the changes is that your hair went off for a life of its own. But you're still the same girl inside.... that's not changed.... and that's the important bit!
What would you do if you lost a limb, or something like that? Sure, you'd be down and depressed for a while, because you'd have to adjust to it and alter your life to take account of it. This is the same, except losing your hair doesn't fundamentally change the things you can do (not counting hairdressers etc. here!) Try and be positive... think of the good things about not having hair! Stacey and Tallgirl are doing more than alright with it... Stacey even has a whole stable of admirers she sometimes parades for her delectation and delight, doncha, Stace?? ;)
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Good points. Thank you!!!... I am a positive person and a survivor so I know it will be fine.
I used to have admirers... maybe one day again... hahaha :-)
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That's sweet. At least I know my boys love me. :)
They're 3 and 1. When I switch from hot wig to scarf at night, the 3 year old asks, Mommy, why do you look so different. Or how did you take your hair off mom? Whoa! How did you do that?!?
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Permalink Reply by tonia on
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My hair fell out after I had each of my kids...I have three. This last time has been the worst and lasted the longest. It all seems to start falling out when they are about 18 months old and by the time they are two it is all gone. My hair did start growing back about a year ago after I ordered my first vaccuum wig...go figure. I have had to shave my head every day for over a year. Finally in May I started letting it grow out just to see if I could go without my wig. I would say I have 80% of my hair. It is even growing on my arms and legs. The problem with the 20% not growing is it is right in the front. I know what you mean...I miss my hair so bad sometimes....and it is something I think about every day. I hate it and wouldn't wish it on anyone.
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THanks for replying! Thanks for missing hair with me. I feel bad for feeling bad. Everyone says, it could be worse (cancer etc). I know that. I don't want to feel sorry for myself since I'm otherwise healthy, but it is a struggle to be positive when you look in the mirror and feel so bad about yourself. Anyway, thank you so much for understanding. Maybe I'll invest in a vaccum wig too. ..
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The B: don't feel bad about feeling bad, or you'll just end up feeling.... er.... bad....
Look, it's fine to get down over loss - it's a natural human emotion. Compare your hair loss to those who've lost loved ones - exactly the same thing. Examine how they go through a grieving/acceptance process, and where they end up - they never forget those they've lost, but they reach an accommodation with it.
You need to get to that stage too. It may well be that your hair's not coming back, and this is how your life is gonna be from now on. (Sorry if that sounds harsh - it's not meant to be... xx) But, the thing is, not having hair doesn't mean you're unattractive! Just as lots of women really like bald guys, the converse is true for men!
Don't think "it could be worse", that's still reinforcing the belief that Bald Is Bad. Think "this is me from now on, and I'm still pretty cool!" (and, strangely, hot at he same time.... ;) )
Anyway, I went to Vancouver 10 years ago and it seemed like a very cosmopolitan place.... I don't see that you'd stick out there, even if you went out bald! :)
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Good points about the paradigm shift. It's just the new me. It was just so abrupt and I kept believing that the problem would just resolve itself and it would just grow back if I ignored it. I'll just need some time adjusting to the new me. I can't wait to just shave the rest of the little patches off. That's probably way worse than just clean and smooth bald. I'm starting to look forward to it already..
And you're right about Vancouver. Bald wouldn't be overly shocking.
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Permalink Reply by lisa on
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Three months after having my son I started losing my hair and by the time he was 7 months old I was bald. I went to see a Dermatologist around that time who thought I wouldn't lose it all since he seemed to think it would have already happened but two weeks later it all fell out. By the time he turned one I had gone through AA, AT and finally AU, and he is now almost two. I haven't bothered with treatments because I've always had mild AA since I was 13 and while cortisone injections helped I do have divets from where it was injected and I don't want to take oral prednisone for just hair loss. I'm just hoping it'll grow back someday.
Surprisingly enough, I was ok with scalp hair loss.When it started to fall out I figured it was just postpartum hair loss, but once I had 80% of it gone I started to look into wigs. I held on to the few patches of hair left, even after getting the wig but a few weeks wearing it I realized there was no point keeping those patches, so buzzed they went. Wearing a wig is a pain, but I wear it for work and usually going out, otherwise I wear a bandanna or scarf. I miss my hair, especially on days where it's really hot and I can't pull up my wig into a ponytail but what I really really really miss the most is my eyelashes. If anything I just want those back, even though I wear eyemakeup I haven't had any luck with false eyelashes and I think my eyes just look so strange.
I do wonder if it would grow back if I got pregnant again, when I was pregnant it was so thick that I considered getting it thinned out, ha! Had I only known! I still wonder about the relationship between hormones and Alopecia but my Derm insists it's nothing more autoimmune.
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