Judi
11-17-2010, 04:38 PM
I'm a 20 year old girl who has been suffering from hair loss for the last 5 months. It started during summer, one week after I spent a weekend at the seaside and went home with a huge sunburn (I even had blisters all over my arms) and a heatstroke. First I thought my hairloss could be related to this sunburn, but I cannot find anything about a possible link between the two. During the first month I lost so much hair at once that I decided to go to a pharmacy to ask for help. They told me to use Aminexil from Vichy Dercos for 6 weeks, but the situation only got worse. After these 5 weeks I visited a dermatologist, who said it might just be stress causing this all. I had to start taking vitamine supplements and biotine, and use a lotion which is based on Resorcinol. I'm using this now for two months, but still, I'm losing more hair than when I started with this treatment.
And what made it even worse, 2 months ago I noticed that I also lost more hair on my arms and legs. Since a month my eyebrows and eyelashes are falling out as well. During the last 2 weeks half of my left eyebrow disappeared, and I'm actually considering to just shave them off next week. My dermatologist did some bloodtests, but everything seems fine. My hair is so thin right now that I don't know what to do with it anymore, and I can just start crying every time I look into a mirror.
What makes this situation very complicated for me is the fact that at the moment I'm studying abroad. I'm originally from the Netherlands, but right now I'm studying in Estonia, on the other end of Europe. So, I've never been able to visit any doctor or dermatologist who spoke my mothertongue. Most of them even had trouble speaking English, which made it even harder. Besides that, I only saw my parents and boyfriend for one week during the last 5 months. Although they are the ones I would like to talk to about how i'm feeling and the emotional stress this whole situation causes for me, I don't feel as if they really get what's going on. I'm going to visit them for christmas (also to visit a Dutch dermatologist, finally!), but I'm scared like hell to see them. They never saw me with this little hair, or without eyebrows. They think it's rather annoying that I have to bring in the hairloss every time I talk to them. It is very hard for me to meet new people here, and introduce myself to others several times a day, while my self esteem has never been this low. I hardly told any other students about my situation so far, because I only know them for a rather short period of time, and many of them are just coming and going.
I'm probably just posting this here because it feels good to me to finally write down everything which is going on in my head. But besides that, I'm also interested whether there are others who suffer from total body hairloss. So far, I have no clue what might be causing this. I haven't been ill, I didn't go through major stress, I didn't have any vitamine shortages, my hormon levels were fine, and no thyroid disease. So far I only heard about alopecia areata universalis, but since my hair doesn't fall out in patches, I guess that won't be it.
Furthermore, I'm wondering whether there is any way to get into contact with a person from my own age who also suffers from hairloss. So far, I don't have anyone to talk to about this, but I think it might really be helpful. I feel like my hair is really turning into some kind of obsession for me, even though I know I should just accept it the way it is right now to feel better.For the last 5 months I thought hairloss was a pretty unique thing which I couldn't just discuss with others. After seeing all the messages here from other women, I feel way more confident already. I'm definitely not alone in this!
:>
And what made it even worse, 2 months ago I noticed that I also lost more hair on my arms and legs. Since a month my eyebrows and eyelashes are falling out as well. During the last 2 weeks half of my left eyebrow disappeared, and I'm actually considering to just shave them off next week. My dermatologist did some bloodtests, but everything seems fine. My hair is so thin right now that I don't know what to do with it anymore, and I can just start crying every time I look into a mirror.
What makes this situation very complicated for me is the fact that at the moment I'm studying abroad. I'm originally from the Netherlands, but right now I'm studying in Estonia, on the other end of Europe. So, I've never been able to visit any doctor or dermatologist who spoke my mothertongue. Most of them even had trouble speaking English, which made it even harder. Besides that, I only saw my parents and boyfriend for one week during the last 5 months. Although they are the ones I would like to talk to about how i'm feeling and the emotional stress this whole situation causes for me, I don't feel as if they really get what's going on. I'm going to visit them for christmas (also to visit a Dutch dermatologist, finally!), but I'm scared like hell to see them. They never saw me with this little hair, or without eyebrows. They think it's rather annoying that I have to bring in the hairloss every time I talk to them. It is very hard for me to meet new people here, and introduce myself to others several times a day, while my self esteem has never been this low. I hardly told any other students about my situation so far, because I only know them for a rather short period of time, and many of them are just coming and going.
I'm probably just posting this here because it feels good to me to finally write down everything which is going on in my head. But besides that, I'm also interested whether there are others who suffer from total body hairloss. So far, I have no clue what might be causing this. I haven't been ill, I didn't go through major stress, I didn't have any vitamine shortages, my hormon levels were fine, and no thyroid disease. So far I only heard about alopecia areata universalis, but since my hair doesn't fall out in patches, I guess that won't be it.
Furthermore, I'm wondering whether there is any way to get into contact with a person from my own age who also suffers from hairloss. So far, I don't have anyone to talk to about this, but I think it might really be helpful. I feel like my hair is really turning into some kind of obsession for me, even though I know I should just accept it the way it is right now to feel better.For the last 5 months I thought hairloss was a pretty unique thing which I couldn't just discuss with others. After seeing all the messages here from other women, I feel way more confident already. I'm definitely not alone in this!
:>