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This was my hair?!

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Jeff and I... about 16 years ago.

Jeff and I… about 16 years ago.

The photo that you see in this entry was taken about 16 years ago. It was at my mother’s 70th birthday party. I like this photo very much because it brings happy memories. When that photo was taken, Jeff (my now husband) and I had been dating for about 4 years and we were very much in love.

I have this photo in the refrigerator because it reminds me of all that good time in our lives. Nevertheless, in the last months that photo is a continuous reminder of something else: I used to have beautiful healthy hair. What in the world happened to it?!

Just one of the locks of hair falling over my shoulder in the photo equals to my whole hair now. It is sad to see what it once was. I guess this happens also with the whole aging process: body, skin and hair never get to be what they used to be in our youth. Up to a point the only solution is resignation, because it is true that it is impossible to stop time. We need to embrace our new selves and get the best out of it.

Nevertheless I still refuse to embrace the current state of my hair. I believe there is much I can do in order to improve it. So, I am doing everything I can in order to achieve something close to what I had one day.

My hair had been terribly damaged and abused even before the alopecia showed up; it had thinned considerably and it was mostly dry and lifeless.

Therefore, I have decided that if I recover my hair I will stop the compulsive drying, styling, dying or sun exposure. I will focus in good healthy food and vitamins. I will keep taking the Biotin (will talk about it later on a different entry), a multivitamin, I will keep using the minoxidil; I will invest in good shampoos, and I will try as much as I can to get my stress under control.

And I swear it is not vanity (or maybe it is)… it is just that I miss my hair!

 

 

 

The seven stars mallet

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According to the Wood Library Museum of Anesthesiology  the Chinese mallet http://woodlibrarymuseum.org/museum/item/503/moxibustion  (also known as qixingzhen and plum-blossom needle tapping) is a Chinese ancient practice related to acupuncture. The mallet is made out of flexible plastic and it has typically seven needles in the head.

One has to grab the mallet by the handle and repeatedly tap the area of the body where the acupuncture points are. The library goes on to say that “the force and speed with which the tapping is applied varies, based on the purpose and location of the therapy. It may be used for a number of conditions including headache, arthritis pain, dysmenorrhea, stomachache, insomnia, constipation, and certain skin diseases,” including alopecia.

Chinese Mallet

Chinese Mallet

I was kind of surprised by the lack of information on this device on the Internet and I only learned about it because of my nephew, who learned about it through his mom (my wonderful sister in law, Laura).

Laura is the wife of my brother the neurologist, they met in medical school long time ago. And while he pursued a career in neurology, she did it in natural medicine. She has a huge knowledge in homeopathy, acupuncture and other natural alternatives to medicine. She even went to China to study acupuncture.

Well, now I know that when my nephew was diagnosed with alopecia areata and looked for the help of traditional medicine, Laura insisted on trying the mallet. Finally he agreed (he is already an adult… so no easy to tell him what to do) and, according to him, after the first couple of weeks of using the mallet he started to see hair re-grow.

So, I started, everyday for three minutes that I split between the bald spots. The spots ended up covered with blood, but apparently that is how it is supposed to be. Then I cleaned the spots with alcohol and  repeat the following day.

On my last trip to Mexico I met with Laura and she asked me to bring it out the mallet to show me the correct way to do it. She did it harder than I ever did giving me some breaks to recover from the pain. That session with Laura draw a lot of blood… I could see the faces of my brother and sister sitting in front of me quite impressed. She told me that I didn’t have to use it every day, I could take breaks but I have to tap more strongly.

In one of the few websites that talk about this therapy I found a link in  http://www.ehow.com/how_5771914_use-acupuncture-treat-hair-loss.html

I have seen some hair re-grow. But I have to confess that by know I have no idea what has worked and what not of the many things I have done. I will talk more about my incipient (but precious) hair in a following post.

The almighty Chinese mallet

Martillo chino

As I have mentioned in previous postings, it turns out that now that I have alopecia areata I have found out that a bunch of other people have had it too. One of those affected by the disease was one of my nephews, who told me that he has had two bouts of bald spots and no recurrence in the last two years.

 

When he found out that I had Alopecia he got in touch with me and he told me: “I really recommend you to use the Chinese mallet.”

 

“What is that?” I said, and he explained that it was a little mallet with little needles in one end. To use it one has to basically hammer the area affected with the needles and one has to expect blood to come out.

 

After a few inquiries here in Cuba I realized there was NO way that I could find such a mallet in here. I got in touch again with my nephew and asked him if I could use a fork for the same purpose. He said “no,” it had to be the Chinese mallet. So he sent me his with my sister.

 

In the minute I touch the device I knew the procedure was going to hurt, but my nephew told me he started to see hair in his bald spots very soon after starting to use the mallet. He also sent me by email a link to a video that show how to use it:

 

 

You saw the video? You saw that BaldieGirl saying that it is painful? Well, let me tell you something: it is painful and bloody.

I am using it, although right now I am taking a break from it. In a future entry I will talk more about it and more about how my nephew got his hands on this mysterious device.

Minoxidil… for men?

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This is the Minoxidil I am using with a dropper, 1 ml twice a day.

This is the Minoxidil I am using with a dropper, 1 ml twice a day.

As mentioned in previous posts my sister arrived to Cuba from Mexico for a short vacation on April the 15th. She brought with her two main things that were not available in Cuba and that I have been using since then: one was the antidepressant (that I already talked about in http://mydearhair.com/2013/05/22/not-depressed-but-in-need-of-antidepressants/), and a bottle of Minoxidil 5%.

I think I mentioned before that when I discovered the first two bald spots I started using the Minoxidil 2% immediately. I had bought it time ago when I started noticing an overall thinning of my once abundant hair. However I never got to be disciplined with the required “two times a day” application. The instructions say that it would take at least 4 months to notice some progress. I don’t think I ever passed from one week of continues used.

Nevertheless I had it here and I started immediately. But also, during those first days of my alopecia areata I read that the Minoxidil 2% (which is the one for women) was not really effective in the treatment of this disease. So I asked my sister to bring the 5% solution with her.

In Mexico, by the way, it is pretty expensive. A small bottle that lasted less than a month was about 40 dollars. Nevertheless I was surprised to see that my medical insurance covered the cost of it.

I also order some from the U.S. and a few weeks after it was brought to me by a “mule” (someone that makes his living bringing things from the U.S. to Cuba) for a small 15 dollar transportation fee. The one I bought in the U.S. (via Ebay) was 16 dollars for a three month treatment (something I can afford for the rest of my life, if needed).

Since then I have religiously used the Minoxidil twice a day (1 ml each time as indicated) and I am starting to see some changes but I am not sure if I should attribute this to the Minoxidil or to any of the many other things I am doing or to all of them.

Anyway I will talk about the changes in a later post.

In the warnings included in the label of this mediation it says that it should not me used if (among other things) one is a woman, has patchy hair loss, and has no family history of hair loss… (check, check, check…).

Nevertheless the dermatologist said that I should continue to use it since it has proven to be effective in the treatment of alopecia areata.

I will report any changes, although I am doing so many things now that I will not know to what to attribute them to.

Flowers for my head

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Healing myself with flowersOn March 12, after my massage day, I had an appointment with Carlos, my friend and psychiatrist. I was not supposed be a counseling session, but and evaluation of my emotions according to specific questions design to help determine which was the best mix of healing flowers for me.

As mentioned in a previous posting these flowers, called Bach Flowers, were discovered by a bacteriologist called Edward Bach and are believe to have healing properties, primarily for conditions such as depression, anxiety and stress.

Carlos is my friend, and a very intelligent man, so it was easy to talk to him. We discussed a little how this condition makes me feel: anxious, afraid, insecure, and desperate… among other things. We also talked about my moods in the last few days and then he asked me questions which help him decide that I am a woman that is over controlling, totally impatient, very apprehensive, one that tends to worry to much about her health and that of her loved ones. “I could have told you that in ten seconds,” my husband joked.

Carlos said that those characteristics of my personality were creating extra stress in my body and could be a contributing factor to the alopecia. He also said that the events on my life such as our imminent repatriation to the U.S. and the changes that come with that could be causing stress, along with some other things.

So I have my flowers now, I have been taking 12 drops a day (4 drops 3 times a day) for a whole month and generally I feel much better, less anxious, less afraid. Nevertheless I still have very bad moments most of them triggered by the hair I see falling when I wash it, is it normal? Is it more? Will I get more spots? And then I get anxious again!