Hey,

I am in my 8th month of alopecia areata, and it's been quite the trip thus far.

1. Lots of regrowth : mostly because of liquid oral prednisolone (lots of little growth after doing the pulse therapy of prednisolone, NOT prednisone), steroid scalp injections, lots more protein in diet, and maybe partly due to using scalp stimulating products for the shower and amino acid/biotin/multi vit supplements.

2. Lots of loss still. Don't know why, dermatologist, trichologist and primary care doctor say that's to be expected, but that we should focus on the fact that there regrowth, and our goal now is to sustain the regrowth/maintain internal body balance via diet, exercise and stress relief.

3. Confidence is way up after getting my wig from Bitz n Pieces in Manhattan, still not used to it (only got it mid Aug 2013), and can't tell if people are looking at me because my hair looks awesome or because I am paranoid and think they see that it is a wig (my friends and people I trust say it looks 100 percent real, so it's totally possible I am paranoid. Will upload a picture shortly). Haven't focused on my (still growing) patches since getting the wig, which has been really nice. Sometimes have trouble covering the lace, since I layer the wig on top og my natural hair, but it seems mostly unnoticeable. Really uncomfortable when people try to touch my head/hair, they all mean well and say "omg I love your hair, did you get a blow out?" but I am so scared they will feel the lace or clips so I back off. Only my doctors, wig salon people, family and very close friends know I have a wig on, so when I back off from my other friends, they joke with me and say variations of "HEY what gives :(" and I just all sorts of bad. Not sure how to get over that.

4. Still concerned about the excessive loss, but I am reaching that point of "well, there really isn't much I can do about that anymore, now is there?" so that is slightly nice. Would still LOVE to stop the loss though, duh, but "it is what it is."

That's it for now! I hope this is helpful to anyone reading this. Ask me questions, though I am a relative newbie still in the realm of AA!