Category: Female Hair Loss

Posted on

Hair Loss InformationIn the News – Reality TV Dance Contestant Uses Alopecia to Her Advantage – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

Franchesca BassSo You Think You Can Dance has done it again in Season 11 with another unforgettable dancer and audition courtesy of Franchesca Bass.

The 18-year-old dancer from Indiana was born with Alopecia Areata which made her stand out automatically in appearance but even more with her dancing. She took her condition and used it to her advantage by creating a character for her performance. She called herself an alien who was afraid to be around others. And holy crap, did she deliver. Her alien side came alive and got her a ticket straight through to Vegas.

Block Quote

Read the rest — ‘SYTYCD’s Stunning Franchesca Bass Doesn’t Let Her Condition Weigh Her Down

Check out the video of her dancing on YouTube or at the link above. This teen was empowered by her alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis, and used it in her dance routine to make it to the next round of this reality TV show.

Posted on

Hair Loss InformationAround the Web – How Dating Works When You’re a Bald Woman – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

Besides the odd proposition, dating is getting to know someone from the ground up. It’s sharing the deepest secrets about your childhood and family and bathroom habits. But above all, it’s about being hyper vigilant about your appearance. And that’s the crux of the unpleasantness for me: a huge part of dating is about making yourself appear attractive enough for someone to want to spend time with you and potentially have sex with you — a task that is, in my experience, fraught with feelings of anxiety, deception and fear.

I’ve been bald from an autoimmune condition called alopecia areata for most of my dating career. The condition causes your immune system to mistake your hair follicles for foreign bacteria, halting the normal hair growth cycle and resulting in bald patches (alopecia areata), the loss of all scalp hair (alopecia totalis), or the complete loss of all body hair (alopecia universalis). Alopecia affects around two per cent of the Australian population, which is close to half a million people. I’ve experienced alternating periods of complete baldness to having a full head of hair, but for the past three years I’ve had no head hair, no eyebrows and have lost most of my eyelashes.

It makes dating hard. Particularly as a young woman — someone whose physical appearance is weighted above all else as her most defining and valued characteristic.

Block Quote

Read the rest — How dating works when you’re a bald woman

This is a great article by Michelle Law as she talks about how life in the dating scene can be a challenge when you’ve got alopecia. Bald women should not be made to feel alienated.

Posted on

Hair Loss InformationIn the News – Henna Temporary Scalp Tattoos for Chemotherapy Patients – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

Complete hair loss is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. Patients often turn to wigs, hats, and scarves to cover their heads, but now there’s a new alternative.

Henna Heals is a global community of artists that tattoos temporary “henna crowns” on patients’ bald heads, as a form of empowerment.

In 2011, Henna Heals began as a group of five women in Toronto,Ontario, but has since expanded to nearly 150 artists worldwide — in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Australia.

Block Quote

Read the rest and see the photos — Overcoming Cancer With Henna Heals: Global Artist Community Empowers Patients With Temporary Head Tattoos

Henna

 

You can learn more about Henna Heals at their website.

Posted on

Hair Loss InformationMy Wife Is Losing Hair and I Want to Cure It! – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello Sir,
My wife is suffering from thinning hair from last 3 years, now one can see the scalp in front. However, she has got good long hair and the hair density is reasonably good at the back. But it is thinning in front which is really a matter of concern. Earlier she used lot of Richfeel products but none of them was helpful. Richfeel, is one of the company from India specialized in curing hair related issues.

Currently, one of the local dermatologist has suggested her Ducray’s Neoptide along with novophane plus tablets. I hope that this will work. It has been 45 days she is using those. I hope it wont have negative impact which lead to further hair loss.

I am really worried and am ready to take her to any part of this world to get the best hair of her dreams. Please suggest me the best treatment for her, do you think hair transplant is too early and that should be the last option to be considered. She is 27 now. I have also got her laser comb from hairmax, will it be helpful in any case.

I am so worried, because she is only 27 and I am really afraid that in 10 years time she will lose all her hair.

One good hope I can see is that she has got long hair and hope that with advance oil and medication she could easily grow her or make her hair thick on front side. Moreover, her mother has also got thin hair but not so thin like my wife. In fact my wife’s mother hair were good when she was 27 but my wife problem of hair loss has become serious now at this early age. Is it heredity that she is losing hair so early. Is it curable?? I hope there are no side effect of the medicines and lotions, especially in women we have to see when it comes to pregnancy and fertility related issues.

Please guide me.

Block Quote

We’ve written briefly about the Richfeel Anagrow product before, which apparently contains plant stem cells. Unfortunately, that is not going to do anything to actually treat your wife’s (or anyone’s) genetic hair loss problems. It’s garbage with no science backing up what they claim. You said that this company specializes in “curing hair related issues”, but there is no cure for hair loss.

I can tell that you’re trying to help your wife, but you’re throwing money at a problem that is not as simple to fix as you’re hoping. The LaserComb is unlikely to do much, if anything, for her hair loss. The only FDA approved medication for treating female hair loss is minoxidil (Rogaine/Regaine), and the collection of oils and lasers are more than likely just going to provide no results, wasted time, and poorly spent money. Female hair loss can be tricky to treat, as there are a variety of possible causes in addition to genetics. See a partial list here.

There’s no way for me to know if your wife is a candidate for hair transplantation without an examination first, but depending on the hair loss pattern, she might be a candidate for Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP). First though, your wife should go to an actual medical doctor (a trichologist is NOT a doctor) to find out the reason for her hair loss. It could be a vitamin deficiency or related to some other medication she is taking. Once a cause is determined, then a treatment path can be planned.

Posted on

In the News – Woman Living with Alopecia Totalis – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

Prom night sends most teen girls on a dizzying quest for the perfect dress, accessories and hairstyle to make their ensemble complete. On her prom night, Jennifer DeFreece was harried by one simple detail: “I just wanted eyebrows for my prom pictures.”

When she was just a baby, DeFreece was diagnosed with alopecia totalis, an autoimmune disease that results in the total loss of scalp hair. By her 1st birthday, she’d lost all of her hair.

“I was like Charlie Brown,” says DeFreece, now 33 and living in Northridge, California.

Alopecia is nondiscriminatory. It can occur in men and women at any age and is a strictly physical disease, but sufferers say it’s also a disease of the spirit, exacting a devastating emotional toll in this world of silky shampoo commercials and Rapunzel fairy tales.

Block Quote

Read the rest at CNN — How it feels to be a bald woman

Posted on

In the News – Woman Suing Microdot For Causing Permanent Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

They promised her a full head of hair, but it was a bald-faced lie, a $15 million lawsuit says. A real estate exec says she shelled out over $250,000 to a clinic that promised to “restore her hair and confidence” — and wound up leaving her permanently bald.

Deborah Betesh’s lawyer, Bruce Baron, said what happened to his client at the Microdot Technique was “an egregious case of fraud, misrepresentation and deceptive business practices.” “The defendants preyed on someone who was hoping to remedy something that was truly a burden and they’ve now destroyed her life,” he said.

Betesh, 56, first went to the E. 58th St. clinic in 2012 because she was worried about her thinning hair. She says techs at the clinic told her they could give her “the hair of her dreams.” They also told her it was “a safe and effective alternative to having hair transplant surgery,” and that just two to four hours after the procedure, “her short hair would become long, and that her thinning hair would become full again,” the Manhattan Supreme Court suit says.

Block Quote

Read the rest — Salon that promised to give woman ‘hair of her dreams’ caused her to go permanently bald: suit

Wow, that’s quite a bit of money and seemingly little research done. She’s claiming there was artificial hair surgically implanted, while the defendants are adamant about performing no such procedure. Without knowing more about this case specifically, the Microdot process sounds like it is just another type of hair weave to me.

Posted on

If I Don’t Want to Use Minoxidil for Life, Should I Even Bother Starting It? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am female and decided to have an FUE transplant of 1200 grafts just to fill the front centre. I have some existing native hairs there but it was just getting very thin and more and more difficult to conceal.

I am now due to start the minoxidil foam 2%. I was advised i should use the foam once a day in the evening for at least 6 months. I do not wish to use minoxidil for life and would stop after the 6 months. My question is whether i should use it at all if i plan to stop..? is it necessary to use after surgery? Will it cause more hair loss if I stop after 6 months?

Many thanks

Block Quote

You must use minoxidil for life to maintain any benefits you may see from it. If you do not plan to stick with a minoxidil treatment beyond just 6 months, I don’t really see a point in starting it. If you do start and then stop after 6 months, you will lose any hair that regrew from the medication… though it’s not likely you would’ve seen much regrowth after only 6 months anyway.

Follicular unit extraction (FUE) to the middle of the head for increased density may have a negligible impact. A reasonable alternative to your surgical plan might be Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP), as it is less expensive and the results are instantaneous. See an example female patient here — Bride-to-Be Received SMP Before Her Wedding to Cover Her Thinning Scalp.

Posted on

In the News – Breast Cancer Patients Find Strength in Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

Kim Irish had just started a new job and was in California for a training session. She had her tests and was waiting for the results but had asked the doctor not to call her so she could concentrate on the training.

She was set to return to Indianapolis when she got the call from the doctor confirming she had Stage 2 breast cancer. “I was standing in the security line at San Francisco airport when she called me, and I can still see the people in line around me,” she said.

Irish had a lumpectomy followed by four rounds of chemotherapy and 33 sessions of radiation. “My doctor told me my hair would start to fall out three weeks after my first chemo. The moment he said it would start — it started.”

Block Quote

Read the rest (and watch the video) at USAToday.com — Breast cancer patients find strength in hair loss

Fair warning: The video automatically loads when you click that link.

Posted on

Hair Loss InformationI Was Diagnosed with PCOS Six Years Ago and I’m Losing My Hair! – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am 23 years old. I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 17 and was placed on birth control pills. I started to take them regularly, but they started making me sick, so I quit taking them and didnt take them for several years. Just recently I went back the the practitioner who diagnosed me with this and she placed me on a slow-release iron tablet daily along with a new birth control that has iron in it.

I have started losing hair around the middle-back of my head mainly around the crown area. It looks like my part is getting a lot wider, and the part is spreading down to the back of my head. I used to have really thick curly hair but now it is getting thin around the top, and in some patchy areas.

At first, since I am a Registered Nurse, I thought stress was causing it. The last time I went to the doc, she said I was anemic with low iron levels, hence putting me in daily iron, so I thought my anemia was causing it. I’ve been on and off birth control, so I thought that could be another cause.

Am I too young to use a topical treatment such as Rogaine? or Sephren? Sephren is an oral and topical treatment for hair loss in women. What do you recommend? I feel like I am losing more and more hair by the day and it really stabs a knife into my self image and self confidence. I’m desperate for some answers. I wish someone would lead me in the right direction so I can start growing hair in those thinning spots. I don’t want to be bald by the time I’m 30. PLEASE HELP!!

Block Quote

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) causes hair loss in women who can also inherit the genes for balding/thinning. It is a very difficult condition to treat, as the treatment is often unsuccessful. Since you’re already under the care of a doctor, I’m not sure what I can offer. You need a good doctor/patient relationship.

Hormone therapy might help with the PCOS-related hair loss, though since you mentioned stress and anemia, those are other potential reasons for your thinning hair. I just have no way to know what is causing your loss, or whether it is a combination of things. You aren’t too young for minoxidil (also known as Rogaine, which is FDA approved to treat female hair loss), but the oral Sephren is just a vitamin supplement with no peer-reviewed published clinical evidence that it works.

There is a new cosmetic treatment that we’ve mentioned here called Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP) which we offer to address the thinning problem in many women. One such patient can be found here.

Posted on

Hair Loss InformationI Chemically Treat My Hair, Wear a Ponytail, and I Saw Female Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am a 40 year old african american woman and I process my own hair. I also typically wear my hair in a ponytail. Couple of months ago I notice that I had experienced some hair loss at temple and back of head. It has slightly grown back. Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again and can I continue to chemically process my hair…

Block Quote

What you are describing may be traction alopecia caused by pulling from a tight ponytail or possibly triangular alopecia, which can be genetic. The loss could even be from the chemicals if the process you used caused damage. I won’t know what type of hair loss you have without a physical exam.

If you feel your hair loss is from chemical damage (which may be the case, but again, I don’t know) then stop the chemical treatments. If you are wearing your ponytail too tight, then stop wearing a ponytail. If the loss is due to genetics, hormonal imbalance, or a vitamin deficiency, your doctor should be able to give you a better idea of what you can do.

I apologize for such a basic answer, but there isn’t much I can say without an exam and further history.