Hey, guys. I'm Anakin Wildstar from Washington State. I'm a 46 year old male from the Seattle area. I've had thick brown hair every since 1995, when I noticed a very small nickel sized patch of hair loss right on the hair line above my right ear. I thought nothing of it and just continued with my life. About a year later, I noticed another patch on the left side of my hair line above my ear, but was a bit bigger. I started thinking:"Hmm, something's not right, here", but I have an introverted internal dialogue which, I guess, was a conditioned thing to not deal with things of this nature, so again, I just shaved my hairline on each side a bit higher and colored the rest in with my sister's eyeliner. lol.

In October of 2001, I woke up one day and noticed the right side of my head had a much bigger patch of missing hair along with a dime-sized patch on the back of my head(which quickly grew back, for some reason), but the ear patch on the right stayed bald. I quickly went to my Physician to figure this out and all he said was: "It's stress, relax and it will eventually grow back". I still felt something else was going on, but I wasn't sure what. So, I shaved the sides of my head, and got a leopard tattoo in the bald spot above my right ear to kind of 'turn something bad into something cool' type of answer. The tattoo hurt like HADES, I even had a panic attack in the middle of the session and had to go back the next day to finish it off. He shaved a lot of my hair off to perform the tattoo, so I decided to shave my entire head with a low setting on my clippers, thinking it would all come in evenly and together. It never grew at all. I just shaved it with a razor afterwards, because during that time, I noticed bald spots on my wrists, legs and one on my eyebrow.

I went to another Doctor and they pretty much said the same thing: stress. I DID have some stress going on, but I ALWAYS had stress going on in my life. I couldn't put 2 and 2 together on what was happening to my body hair. Then, in the spring of 2003, it went from A.A. to A.U. i had no hair on my head at ALL, but i had a beard, brows, lashes, and some body hair. And in the summer of 2003, I watched it ALL fall out, mustache(I had one since i was 12 and always loved it), eyebrows, eyelashes, armpit, pubic, leg, arm, name it, it was ALL gone. I had NO idea how to act/react. I was in complete shock. I had to wear a NIKE beanie and big eye glasses to hide my hair and eyebrow areas. I became extremely depressed, house bound and had NO idea what to do. Doctor's said it was stress. Made no sense to me, again, I always stressed the same way/mindset.

Something triggered my hair loss and I started diving into websites that could help me understand this dis-order. It was my genetic predisposition+_________. I tried to fill in the blank with 'stress,diet, environment, toxins, viruses, infections,' etc,., and nothing made much sense to me. So, I just lived with it. Wore a hat everywhere I went(store, college classes, etc,.,), but I rarely went anywhere anyway. Once, I tried "moducare", an immunomodulator that claimed to hault alopecia and i started growing my hair back in one month(as the book said), and i figured out it was nothing but the placebo effect growing my hair back, which all fell out a few months later. I tried every kind of snake oil on the market and nothing worked, except Kenalog eyebrow shots in my eyebrow areas, which subsequently fell out after a few months. It was like a cat chasing its tail. The moment one area grew hair, the others would fall out, but at least i had SOMETHING and could wear a baseball cap the right way, instead of wearing it way down on my face so you couldn't see my eyes. I just accepted the fact that my body wasn't balanced.

To make a long story short, I had no hair at all since 2003(except a few months with eyebrows with Kenalog), and every day living was crazy to put it lightly. People looked at me funny. Family members made rude comments, like "Wtf happened to you?", or "You look like a monster". I took it with a grain of NaCl, lol, because my family just spoke out loud what other people were thinking on the street or work inside. Didn't bother me as much though, because I HATED shaving and showers only took 5 minutes, now.

That was the ONLY up side to A.U. Down side was I couldn't get a girlfriend unless I paid for her. No social life what-so-ever. Finding a job was next to impossible. How in the hades could I dress nicely for an interview, unless it was something like a second rate warehouse job??!!?? I gave up, hid in my grandma's basement from about 2003 to 2011 when she died. I took care of her while she took care of me, reciprocation. I got a large inheritance of 40K$(which my 'dad' tried to steal, and eventually did steal 5K$ of it-another stressful event in my life's journey), but I was too shaken up to spend my 35K$ wisely, drinking heavily and getting a few tattoos and t-shirts was all i had to show for it. I was broke, and barely surviving being homeless, bouncing from family member to family member, all of them taking advantage of my generousity and money. (another set of horrible events in my life). I ended up being homeless finally, in late April of 2014, after my own kid tried to throw me under the bus(yet another putrid event), and I gave up. No home, no hair, panic attacks, broke, drinking heavily, and extremely depressed and suicidal, picking fights on the streets and sleeping underneath bridges.

I got lucky in June of 2014 with a random encounter, meeting a councilor who helped me get low-income housing, and i've been here every since. I met and married another homeless woman by the way, and bought her a van so we can spend nights together in while we stay here in the day(rules only allow guests from 9-9pm daily).  We're both Altruists/Atheists, so we both always help others before ourselves. Must be some kind of intrisnic value we both possess, but we clicked from the very beginning. We're never separated, except the bathroom, lol. **I'm just laying out some of my history, is all** I happen chance to have found this website and joined it about a week ago(Feb 7th or 8th), and I like what I see, with the new options of JAK-Inhibitors and cream versions coming out(or already out?).

I just set up a Doctor's app't for March 8th to get the ball rolling with the R/A drug "Xeljanz"/Tofacitinib, by Pfizer. I've read/heard a lot of good things about this immuno-supressant and how most are regaining some/most/all of their hair. I'm concocting a regimen of Xeljanz,Moducare,WhitePeonyTea,LowDoseNaltrexone,and Another "Booster drug" to kick-start the Xeljanz and others into growing my hair back, along side being vegan and taking lots of vitamins, minerals, probiotics, teas, etc,., This WILL be the method to get my hair back, at least until they perfect the Stem Cell Therapy treatment for AA/AT/AU. I began my regimen Monday, and my goal is to have my hair back by the end of the year.

I thank you all for taking the time to read some of my life's experiences( a lot of bad things happened that I didn't add that stressed the sh** out of me ), but I'll add those in forthcoming comments as I document this '''WILDSTAR vs A.U.''' journey. All comments and advice are welcome! WISH ME LUCK & HERE I GO...........

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Wildstar,
Best wishes to you! I hope you have the best possible outcome!
I'm glad you took my suggestion to post your story. I'm sure a lot of people will benefit from your background and positive strides towards recovery.
Its funny, you don't believe in the God of the Bible and I don't believe in the God of Good Luck that the Bible speaks about. But that's a matter for a private conversation, lol!

Unfortunately science has not produced any cures/treatments since I first saw AA in 1979. There was nothing before that date and nothing up to the present day.

Luckily there is one thing that treats AA: Natural remission.

Lucky me had it four times over a 25 year period. 4 years of AA and 21 years  of a full head of hair.

The drugs available now are a complete waste of time and don't deal with the problem.

In the future T cell retraining looks the best thing since ?   remission.

Always remember! this is a forum for support. It would not have a market if there were any treatments, let alone a cure. You would just go to your local GP.

People who tell you some treatments work for some people are mixing up remission with some useless paste, oil, vegetable splatter.

Cosmetically acceptable hair is not a hairstyle. It's just a covering of hair. I once had CAH. Believe me ha ha. It's a very poor imitation of remission.

If you can't have Remission(luck) then only one thing comes near to it......acceptance or gradually learning to accept Alopecia.

Millions of satisfied customers  (including me)

If a cure like T cell training came along and was safe. Natural remission would have an equal!

You have a really cool way of wording your story, random observation. 

Good luck with everything, glad to hear things are working out for you.

I like your moniker "Cue Ball of Steel." Cool

GOOD LUCK...I hope all good and soon 

pretty amazing story. It takes a lot of guts to open up and share that much. Respect. I am confident you will beat this thing WS. Stay on the path you are on. This disease can be beaten

I am also putting my hope on dr. Angela Christiano; according to the latest research, her team is close to a solution (which may take years), but at least there is a little bit of hope. We can't give up! I am also interested in LDN; will discuss with my derm next week. It has worked for some here.

Sorry to hear you lost your place Wild Star. Glad you are back on track to getting your Xeljanz. Keep us posted!

Good to hear you are on track with your life and a viable treatment.  I agree with your sentiments on religion.  I think a key factor in immune disorders of hairloss, is the restoration of the "ring of immune privilege" around the hair follicle.  The chemical constituents that make up that ring are disrupted in AA,AU,AT. Hair and nails have immune privilege. They are outside the body and inside the body at the same time.  Few things are allowed this privilege of entry.  I would caution the use of DMSO topically.  It can be an irritant in itself.  That might be a good thing or it might be a bad thing.  My advice would be to use only one thing at a time for at least 2 months.  That way you know the full ramifications of that one thing.  i.e. - You don't want to void the positive effects Xeljanz. You want to first see that Xeljanz is working before you add something else.  Also, it is difficult to gauge how much / percentage is appropriate for the element you are trying to enhance penetration into the dermal layer.  Too much, and the element will enter the blood stream.  Drugs which enter the blood stream directly (not passing thru the stomach first) can be much more potent and have unpredictable results.  I have experimented with its use numerous times in the past, and prefer not use it.  Good luck with your continued journey of finding a remedy.

You are only going to need the Xeljanz Wildstar once you get it. Do you have your prescription yet?

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