My hair is coming back.

My hair has slowly started growing back.

And I mean painfully. Slowly.

Creeping back into existence…

chin with alopecia regrowth

regrowth on my chin

  • I first noticed it coming back and blogged about it way back in May 2012.
  • The image to the right shows my face squished against a black bag under a bright light so you can see (if you look really really hard) that there are some hairs there!
  • But that was all it was – wee whitey/blonde hairs that needed to be shaved off my face everyday.

I just carried on and forgot about this.

THEN – all of a sudden. . . .

January 2014 – my partner  (who takes all the pictures I share with you) said to me:

“Put your head down a second!”

After looking puzzled then twigging it was about my Alopecia (and therefore my vanity) I whipped my head down.

Arghhhh “It’s coming back! It’s coming back”!

Photographs

Naturally I wanted proof of this – here is an image from March 8 2013.

my disappearing hairline

slowly slowly

 

And here is an image from January 2014

 

My head in January 2014

My head in January 2014

 

Woohoo – still a long way to go but I am getting there.

 

I hope that my regrowth has given some of you a glimmer of hope.

Speak to you all soon and please get in touch with any comments, queries and concerns.

 

Reece.

 

20 comments

  1. Wow. So pleased for you. And yes your new post in your story has given me a glimmer of hope, as your journey is so remarkably similar to mine….
    Great news….

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      1. Unhappily, i am not using at this moment, i’m on a bad financial situation to start this program and do it right, but if were not for this, i would surely give a shot.
        But you seem to be doing really well, i know what you mean about looking in the mirror, i’ve been doing it for quite some years/time. I will try to stop it, but i don’t know if it is going to help me, maybe i should just drop it out of my mind. Kinda of sucks!

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  6. I have just finished reading your whole blog Reece. It has been a great insight to what may lay ahead.

    Mine started about 4 years ago on what side of my chin. I then had a bad accident which resulted in 16 stiches across my scalp. Another patch soon showed on the other side of my chin (possibly stress related due to accident).

    In the last 6 months the 2nd patch seemed to start growing back but just this week I have noticed a reasonable sized patch show up on my cheek near the 1st patch. This has been a massive kick in the teeth as I really thought slowly things were going to get better. I am now dreading it getting worse and thats why I am on here.

    Any advice at all regarding any changes in lifestyle, diet, cosmetic products that may have lead to a regrowth kick would be greatly appreciated.

    Anyway, I really am glad you are seeing results of it coming back!! Just wish some bright spark would find a way to sort us all out!!!

    Thanks

    Tom

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    1. Mine started as a spot on one side of my chin about a year and a half ago. Then a spot on the other side. It slowly has progressed to cover pretty much the whole beard. I am losing my hair anyway but no actual spots on the head as of yet. I have found no diet or lifestyle changes that have helped. I have tried them all. I quit caffeine, started taking vitamins and supplements. It just seems to steadily progress. Some regrowth, small white thin very fine hairs in the beard for months but little progression to actual colored hair. Steroid creams, expensive stuff like calosol, rogaine nothing has worked, save your money.

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      1. I agree with you on saving money. My light hairs are slowly slowly turning dark again and the holes on my head are closing up. I now go a few days without shaving – previously it was every day.

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    2. Hi Tom – my best advice is ‘come to terms with the unpredictability of alopecia’ and it gets better. Either with acceptance or eventual regrowth. Mine started coming back literally as soon as I stopped giving a crap whether it would.

      My lifestyle changes and pills and potions (all done in the first year) didn’t work. Neither was I particularly stressed. I had started to get to grips with it and suddenly my partner and friends began commenting on how much hair was darkening and coming back. I didn’t even notice as I had stopped the daily “ARGGGHHH in the mirror”. I truly believe that acceptance is the key. It’s also the only thing that lifestyle, diet or cosmetic products can’t give you.

      I know my answer isn’t probably what you want to hear, but for me – it is what seems to be working.

      Let me know how you get on.

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  7. Pingback: The treatments and coping mechanisms I tried and how they worked for me… | Photos and thoughts from along the way

  8. Hey Guys…I’ve posted here before. Mine continues to progress on the beard…still nothing on the head but pretty sure that’s where we are going. Been about 11 months into first noticing this so I guess I’m a bit of a slower progressor. I’m happy for you Reece. It’s like you’ve been to the other side and now coming back. You lucky bugger. 🙂 Life is just a roll of the dice sometimes isn’t it. 36 years I made it with nothing more than the flu or a cold…now I have this frustrating ailment.

    Anyway I am familiar with Robert’s RLT therapy. I’ve also spent countless hours researching this disease and auto immune conditions in general. I think I might have the answer but I’m just too busy/ freaked out to give it a try. Let me elaborate….

    They say autoimmune conditions are largely first world health phenomenoms and nicknamed the King’s diseases. Ie; people living in poverty and deprivation do not get them. So it got me to thinking after looking into the RLT program which basically calls for a 4 day fast followed by a vegan diet for the following weeks…..perhaps the key to resetting the immune system is in the fast itself. You have to confuse the body that it now has bigger problems….survival.
    Read the following article below. Leptin plays a key….as does an overactive immune system…makes sense why only 1st world people seem to get these diseases? People often die of opportune infections when in a prolonged period of starvation because the immune system basically shuts down. So to reset it you have to slow it down to a crawl….

    http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/news/20030116/feed-cold-starve-ms

    The closest autoimmune condition to Areata I believe is Rheumatoid arthritis. Read below particular cases of people who saw complete remission of the disease after going through a water only fast….. other conditions exist in there.

    Click to access autoimmune-waterfasting.pdf

    Here is a link between the genetic similarities between Areata and R. Arthristis

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100630132744.htm

    So there is some food for thought….or lack thereof. 🙂 I am probably going to try it myself but I need to find the time and courage. I have a fast metabolism and am an active person. This type of fast would be very difficult for me. Tons of articles on water fasting and the spiritual journey of such on the internet. For me I plan to do a one week water fast and then slowly begin to incorporate highly nutritional vegan foods.

    PS: I am not a doctor just a dude who wants to beat this. Unsupervised water fasting or fasting in general can be dangerous for some so I’m not promoting it Perhaps it is a shot in the dark but I’ve uncovered enough research to convince me it is worth a shot. I don’t want to look all gaunt and emancipated but it seems dedicating a month or so to this can and has yielded results.

    If anyone lives in Canada and wants to try this with me I’d sure like to have a brother in arms. Someone for support. One final article on a water fast from GQ of all places….seems like an interesting pursuit if only to test oneself. If the hair starts growing back all the better. Drop me ur email if interested.

    http://www.gq.com/life/fitness/201311/six-day-water-fast-diet

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    1. WOW! You are a braver man than me Jeff! Please keep us all posted re: your progress. I reckon 11 months in was my mid way point. And a lot of folk I have talked to who have had full regrowth state that theirs lasted around two years too.

      I watched the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and saw the restorative power of juicing – mainly vegetables.
      Well 100% vegetables cured the filmmaker and another guy of an autoimmune disease and made them both happier and healthier.

      Give that a go if you haven’t already seen it – before you just go for plain old H20 🙂

      GOOD LUCK!!!!

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  10. Did any of you have unprotected sex with a female with an already compromised immune system prior to the alopecia . She had psoriasis . I have been checked obviously for HIV and everything possible . When I think about the events leading up to the alopecia I have losing pubic hair , beard hair , and eyebrow hair . i had sex with her and a month later all my hair is falling out and Doctor tell me I have an auto immune disorders which is causing my hair to fall out . Coincidence ?? I also have been drinking 6 beers a day without missing a day for 6 years aswell .

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