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Hi guys,
i’m writing this with tears in my eyes because I’ve finally reached my breaking point.
I came across this site countless times during my hours of extensive research, but today I decided to tell my story.
Everything started almost exactly five years ago, the summer of 2013. I had always had the most gorgeous hair, thick, long and A LOT of it. My hair went down to my hips and I loved to style it in all kinds of ways. However, my ends were a bit dry - no split ends - just dry. But it was shortly before my high school graduation and I wanted everything to be perfect, so I decided to go to a hairdresser and said that I’d like to have them cut about 1 - 2 inches.
But she cut all my hair off. I went to the hairdresser with hair to my hips and when I left it barely touched my shoulders. I was devastated. I cried every day and every night for about two weeks. Years of growing that beautiful hair - all for nothing. And there was no way I could do up my hair the way I had in mind for prom.
Something else happened during that time: I started taking an anti-androgenic birth control pill due to my skin. It cleared up quickly, but around three months later, my hair started falling out in clumps. Up until this point, I had NEVER EVER been able to just pull out hair. Of course, the occasional hair came out combing or washing my hair, but it was so little that I hardly even noticed. I probably lost about 5 hairs per day and 15 when washing them once per week. But all of a sudden I was able to pull out about 20 loose hairs every morning and every evening. In the shower, clumps of hair started to fall down in the tube. Then I also started to experience severe psoriasis on my scalp.
After some research I quickly found out that birth control can make your hair fall out and I stopped taking it after 3 months. But instead of getting better, the hair loss got worse. I started to lose more than 100 hairs a day and up to 500 in the shower. I went to several doctors without any success. My blood showed no anomalies regarding the thyroid and all the other usual suspects.
It’s now been five years „living“ in this nightmare. During all this time it never slowed down or went away, every morning and evening you can still pull out about 50 hairs and don’t get me started on wash days. I don’t feel like myself anymore and the hair loss is destroying my life. It’s caused severe depression and I’m becoming suicidal.
Over the last 6 months I’ve been using iron supplements and a hair water containing Alfatradiol. This helped a tiny bit, lowering the hair loss to about 40-50 hairs per day. But there is no further improvement and I’m losing hope. My hair loss is diffuse, although the temples are probably affected the most. I lose hairs of all sizes - from 0,5 inches to 15 inches. I do have to say that my hair never stopped growing (I always had regrowth) and it looks rather „normal“. My scalp doesn’t shine through. I still have psoriasis, especially in the front right behind my hairline.
It says on the internet that chronic gelogen effluvium can last up to 7 years. However, I’ve read a lot of posts where people still experience this condition way beyond that. I’ve pretty much lost all hope that this is going to go away on its own. The only two things I haven’t tried yet are rogaine and birth control. I’m very reluctant to use rogaine as it will probably make my psoriasis even worse. My psyche also can’t handle a shedding phase right now. And I also do not want to be dependent on romaine for the rest of my life.
So right now I’m debating whether I should go back on birth control - but not the pill that made my hair fall out. Years before that I once had taken a different birth control pill - without any side effects. I’m pretty sure that the second birth control pill messed up something in my body. I’m thinking that this other birth control pill might get the hormones back to normal.
But I know that this might backfire and everything will get worse.
I just don’t have the energy to deal with this anymore, I’m very close to ending it all.
Can you guys help me decide what I should do?
None of my family and friends understand what I’m going through and I need help from people who know what it’s like.
Thank you for reading up to this point.
Thank You
i’m writing this with tears in my eyes because I’ve finally reached my breaking point.
I came across this site countless times during my hours of extensive research, but today I decided to tell my story.
Everything started almost exactly five years ago, the summer of 2013. I had always had the most gorgeous hair, thick, long and A LOT of it. My hair went down to my hips and I loved to style it in all kinds of ways. However, my ends were a bit dry - no split ends - just dry. But it was shortly before my high school graduation and I wanted everything to be perfect, so I decided to go to a hairdresser and said that I’d like to have them cut about 1 - 2 inches.
But she cut all my hair off. I went to the hairdresser with hair to my hips and when I left it barely touched my shoulders. I was devastated. I cried every day and every night for about two weeks. Years of growing that beautiful hair - all for nothing. And there was no way I could do up my hair the way I had in mind for prom.
Something else happened during that time: I started taking an anti-androgenic birth control pill due to my skin. It cleared up quickly, but around three months later, my hair started falling out in clumps. Up until this point, I had NEVER EVER been able to just pull out hair. Of course, the occasional hair came out combing or washing my hair, but it was so little that I hardly even noticed. I probably lost about 5 hairs per day and 15 when washing them once per week. But all of a sudden I was able to pull out about 20 loose hairs every morning and every evening. In the shower, clumps of hair started to fall down in the tube. Then I also started to experience severe psoriasis on my scalp.
After some research I quickly found out that birth control can make your hair fall out and I stopped taking it after 3 months. But instead of getting better, the hair loss got worse. I started to lose more than 100 hairs a day and up to 500 in the shower. I went to several doctors without any success. My blood showed no anomalies regarding the thyroid and all the other usual suspects.
It’s now been five years „living“ in this nightmare. During all this time it never slowed down or went away, every morning and evening you can still pull out about 50 hairs and don’t get me started on wash days. I don’t feel like myself anymore and the hair loss is destroying my life. It’s caused severe depression and I’m becoming suicidal.
Over the last 6 months I’ve been using iron supplements and a hair water containing Alfatradiol. This helped a tiny bit, lowering the hair loss to about 40-50 hairs per day. But there is no further improvement and I’m losing hope. My hair loss is diffuse, although the temples are probably affected the most. I lose hairs of all sizes - from 0,5 inches to 15 inches. I do have to say that my hair never stopped growing (I always had regrowth) and it looks rather „normal“. My scalp doesn’t shine through. I still have psoriasis, especially in the front right behind my hairline.
It says on the internet that chronic gelogen effluvium can last up to 7 years. However, I’ve read a lot of posts where people still experience this condition way beyond that. I’ve pretty much lost all hope that this is going to go away on its own. The only two things I haven’t tried yet are rogaine and birth control. I’m very reluctant to use rogaine as it will probably make my psoriasis even worse. My psyche also can’t handle a shedding phase right now. And I also do not want to be dependent on romaine for the rest of my life.
So right now I’m debating whether I should go back on birth control - but not the pill that made my hair fall out. Years before that I once had taken a different birth control pill - without any side effects. I’m pretty sure that the second birth control pill messed up something in my body. I’m thinking that this other birth control pill might get the hormones back to normal.
But I know that this might backfire and everything will get worse.
I just don’t have the energy to deal with this anymore, I’m very close to ending it all.
Can you guys help me decide what I should do?
None of my family and friends understand what I’m going through and I need help from people who know what it’s like.
Thank you for reading up to this point.
Thank You