An Update at the 2 Year Mark

This week it has been two years since my whole Alopecia adventure began...since I found the first patch of missing hair, was diagnosed with AA, and started this blog.   TWO YEARS!  How time flies!  It felt like the right time for an update.

As you can see, my hair has still been doing well!  It's getting long, and I like it.  This is the longest it has been in about 8 years, when I first cut it short in college.  As far as hair loss, it's pretty consistent as to the last time I posted.  I haven't had a full on patch in a very long time.  I do, however, have continuous thinning in different areas.  That is the norm for me these days, really not a big deal at all.

The area at the crown of my head has gotten much thinner in the last month or two.  I parted it a bit for the photo, and I really didn't realize how sparse it's gotten until I looked at the photo.  When I have my hair brushed over how I normally wear it, it's hardly noticeable.  

It does seem to be falling out more lately; I have noticed an increase in loose hairs falling on my shoulders, my shirts, my pillow and in the shower.  We'll see what happens there.  No other areas have been thinning very much at all, which is good!

There have been several times over recent months where I thought I saw a patch coming in (or out, I guess).  I generally ignore them, then a few months later see baby hairs starting to come in.  YES!  It seems that my hair has really been trying to keep up with replacing what AA has been kicking out of my scalp, haha 

The photo above on the left shows the area that had the first, large bald spot when this all started.  The "OG" patch, as I refer to it as.  The photo on the right shows that same area today.  A reader requested that I show how it has filled in, so there it is.  At first, the patch of baby hair was very fine and curly, but after a while it started growing back like normal.  It's still not quite caught up in length with the rest of my hair, but it blends in normally like it was never even gone!

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I've had a few questions from readers of my blog, as well as friends and family, which I'll take a moment to answer now.

Do the hairs that fall out have a root bulb, or do you still have 'exclamation point' hairs?

Both.  I've noticed that some of the hairs I lose nowadays have normal bulby root ends, and some of them have the tapering exclamation point ends.  Which means that in addition to my normal shedding, I am still in an ongoing process of losing hair due to Alopecia Areata.  

Another thing I have noticed, more in the last few months than before, is that not only do these hairs have ends that taper off into nothing, but the ends also lack color.  The last 1/8" - 1/4" of the root end of these hairs go from dark brown to a translucent/whitish looking color, like they are missing pigment.  Interesting!

What have you been doing to make your hair grow back?

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  In the post I made back on March 18th, 2010, I talked about the options and my thoughts and feelings about pursuing treatment.  I decided not to do any sort of treatment at all, and have stuck to it since.  My hair started to and has continued to grow back 100% naturally and on its own.  The only thing I can really say that I did was to stop stressing over the AA and the state of my hair.  Once I did that, and started making a point to manage the stress levels in my life in general, my immune system stopped bullying my follicles so much.

Are you still worried that you might lose all your hair/ Do you still have a hard time having AA?

I won't lie, of course I worry about it a little.  The thought of suddenly and for no apparent reason being bald, partially bald or missing huge patches of hair sucks!  

With the unpredictable nature of AA, there is always a chance that it will happen again and without warning.  It could be worse the next time, I could lose all of my hair in as little as one week, I could lose one tiny patch and have nothing else happen, I could have an area get thin and just grow back with no real incident...who knows.  That is still the most frustrating part of it all, but as I've said before, I'm pretty much over it.  It's just part of my life and I don't stress about it or even think about it all that much anymore.  

If it's going to happen, it's going to happen.  Besides, I found a local store that has lots of fun colorful wigs (I saw an awesome blue bob there the other day!) you know, just in case :)

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I am really enjoying growing my hair out, even though it's thin.  I think it looks pretty good :)  

So after two years, here's to a positive outlook, supportive friends and family, and the fact that even if worse comes to worse, it is just hair.  Life has been so good to me, especially in the last few years that I have nothing to complain about at all.

Thanks so much to everyone who reads this blog.  Cheers!