Im in my late 20's and believe I'm having my first AA episode. It's been about 1.5- 2 months. I have one bald patch on front side of head that I'm able to cover. Its maybe.. 2 quarter size if you put them side by side. I have been putting corticosteroid ointment on it 1-2 a day. I also notice I'm losing hair on other spots on my scalp but I couldn't find any bald patches. At first, I believe it may have just been that bald spot, now it seems like its in many places on my scalp. But then again, I tend to lose more hair when i grow it out..
I am goin to see a derm in a few days, possibly get the cortico shots. I read it takes awhile for the hair to grow back as well, but i am already seeing hair growth in the bald spot take place. Many fine grey with a couple of black hairs.

I do have a silly question, seems like my eyebrow hairs come out fairly easily.. is that normal? Never really messed with them since I started reading more into AA.
I did start taking vitamin D3 pills today too, cause I pretty sure I'm deficient with me never really seeing the sun due to job.


Wouldn't mind some advice either on treatment, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for your time.

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Hey,

I'm sorry this is happening. I find the injections to be helpful when u have few spots, they are painful though. Have you gone to the doc yet?
I have. Shots werent paintful at all to me. Maybe a slight prick.
I am still shedding hair pretty bad but doesnt seem to be getting bigger, I could be wrong.
I have alot of wispy looking hair growing. Im not a fan so i sometimes pluck them, maybe they'll grow back with pigment.
I have pulled a few hair with some pigment though, very fine hair. Hopefully this is a good sign.
Doctor aaid he'd give me the shots once every 3 months and that he's seen good results.
I still have to see him every 6 weeks though, but he said due to my financial situation, i wouldn't have to do the co-pay.

I cant wait for the hair to grow back so i can cut my hair. Sadly i think another one may be appearing on center hairline..sorry if my typing is bad, I am half asleep typing on a phone.
Its good to hear you got full regrowth. I'd like this to be a part of my past. Nobody really knows about it.
May sound vain but i have been using concealer.. atleast til my hair grows back, one called Caboki on the bald patch. I have thick, black hair so a bald spot sticks out bad, afraid the wind may catch it one day. Stuff wasnt made for scalp, i know.

Pulled out a few grey wispy hairs and saw there was pigment on the bottom. I've probably had hair growing back maybe.. 2 weeks after the patch appeared without shots. Wasn't alot though, but there are alot of the wispy ones now.. well, not so much wispy anymore, just grey and they tend to stick straight out. They're growing ridiculously fast too. I plucked them all out one day and 3 days later, they were maybe.. quarter-half inch long. They're very fine atm, do these hairs grow into your normal hair?

I also have very dark hair so my spots are pretty apparent.  In terms of concealer, I've never tried Caboki but have been using a product called DermMatch for the last ~20 years.  Wind has never been an issue.  Water, on the other hand, will usually take it off, i.e, jumping in a pool, ocean, etc. (they market it that only shampoo will take it off but that's not exactly accurate).  

Something I found out about concealing my spots - it can actually be easier to conceal when I have shorter hair rather than longer hair (when using DermMatch, not sure if this is true for Caboki or other products).  Long, thick, dark hair sort of emphasizes the spots and even when using the concealer you can probably tell something is a little off.  When its shorter and lighter, its easier to blend in the concealer.

What about sweat/gym? I usually have the hair combed over my spot, with some caboki on it. I also use hair spray to hold it in place at the scalp.
Short? Like buzz cut short? My hair may be around 3" long now. I consider that long. I use a tabogin? to condense my hair, makes the.. "caved in" section less noticeable when everything isnt so poofy.

I've looked at dermmatch for a bit, because it just colors the scalp, makes me wonder how noticeable itll be with short hair. Anything would be better than something as bright as reflective tape gleaming off your head though lol.
Do you have pics of how short?

Sweat hasn't been an issue so always felt comfortable going to the gym / playing sports.  Obviously you have to be mindful of what you're doing so not to mess it up (for example, laying on a workout bench will probably mess it up).

Whenever my AA gets bad I usually buzz my hair down to a 0 or a 1, and do that every 2 weeks or so.  I don't want to know how many hours of my life I've spent applying DermMatch to this point (guessing its in the thousands) but I've become pretty good at it.  If you soak the applicator in water before using the concealer, its going to look like paint on your scalp, which obviously you don't want.  Really just need a couple of droplets of water so that the applicator is able to pick up the concealer and then dab it on, starting from the edges inward (the wider spots will give you the most trouble).

Don't have any pics at the moment but can post some examples when I get home.  Been taking Xeljanz so I take progress pics every month.  When I started, my hair was still long.

I read alot on xeljanz, hope the best for you. Its also for AA? Thought it was only for at/au. Also read its suuuupppeer expensive, like 2k/mo.

I'll have to try and get some dermmatch, i hate how cabokie is messy in my hair. I only have the trial so far. My spot is a little bit over the size of a quarter, and a pea size one below it. And idk if one is forming on my hairline at the widows peak area, hair is thinned out but I see a few black specs of hair regrowing. I try my best not to worry about it.
And hah, I think black paint would look better than a white scalp on my head. Scalp almost looks like it glows in the dark. Thank you for your replies, was losing hope to talking to anyone on here

Yup, also for AA.  And yes, super expensive, more like $3k / month (though Pfizer provides some assistance).  To give some unsolicited advice, I wouldn't even be thinking about that right now if I were you.  Lot of options to exhaust before going down that route.  I only did it because I've had this since I was a young kid, 29 now, and just really tired from it all.  And truthfully, I'm sure the prognosis for you is a lot better than it is for me (since you developed it later in life, hopefully its a one off sort of thing).

May not hurt to try the DermMatch if you're not satisfied with Cabokie.  And happy to talk whenever you'd like.

Ooh no, wasnt considering it at this point. Caboki is fine for now since my hair covers the spot and if a little caboki shows, nobodywill really notice.
I checked the spot again, I do see a bunch of black hair now thats about a quarter of an inch tall that wasnt there this morning. Theyre pretty fine but gets thicker near the bottom. Im surprised how quick it grew since then.
I had no idea something like AA existed til i got it.
Always had nightmares about me losing my teeth. Now time to add losing my hair into my dreams as well lol.
Hopefully one day, a cure will be developed
Dang. Sorry to hear that. My hair looks thinner in the front portion of my head. Hoping it doesnt get any worse, my head is too big to be bald, haha.

Hi,

In my experience, the shots have been very effective. Usually I notice tiny hairs growing back after about two weeks. 

The eyebrow problem is normal as well. You can ask your derm to inject you in your eyebrow as well if you want. 

It kind of stings a little but no big deal at all. 

Hope I could help. Good luck!

Normal for AA? No spots have formed on eyebrows, just notice them shedding. May be a psychological effec... I start losing hair in one area and I become super perceptive to everywhere I lose hair on my face. I hope thats it.. my eyebrows are super thick anyways, may be a good thing for them to be thinned out.
Maybe in a month, i can finally cut my hair and itll look somewhat normal.
Im terrified of needles, and the shots i got weren't bad at all for me.

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