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Did any treatment "work" for you?
It's my understanding that there's no "cure" for alopecia, but I'm still interested in learning about the varying degrees of success alopecians have had with the various treatments that are offered. Therefore, if you have alopecia and have had any luck whatsoever with a treatment, please share your story here. Be sure to say whether your regrowth was temporary, permanent, partial, or full, and whether you experienced any pain or other negative side effects as result of the treatment.
PLEASE NOTE: I'm only interested in hearing from people who have actually struggled with alopecia and NOT the companies, organizations, and individuals offering treatments and cures.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brenda B on
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This was not treatment...but 2 years ago I had an iron infusion due to chronic anemia. Since then, my hair has regrown. I have a couple of areas missing hair which I easily hide...but those too seem to be getting smaller as well. I had tried cortisone shots, dritro-creme and numerous over the counter treatments (as well as some essential oil concoctions I created). No luck with those. I had been told by my dermatologist, based on my hairloss pattern, the prognosis was not good. So I at that point I accepted and worked with what I had (which was everything except hair). Then I had the infusion due to health issue and noticed hair growth in new areas...let it grow instead of shaving and here I sit today with some crazy curly hair again. I will tell people who ask...I am not sure what made it come back...but I don't know why it left to begin with...I am just happy it is here today.
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Permalink Reply by Keri's Mommy on
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Hi Jera. My daughter was diagnosed with Alopecia Totalis at 16 months. It all started after running a fever, then suddenly hair shed. Her hair thinned and shed until she was left with nothing but strings at the top of her scalp, and no eyebrows.Her hair begin shedding in the month of Feburary, the week of Valentines day. She was diagnosed with Totalis on March 15th. Her doctor persribed her steroid cream and rogaine, although he was skeptical that she would respond at all to treatment due to her age and the amount of hair she lost.
Myself and two other women begin to pray over Keri. I prayed over her every morning and night before bed. I also prayed as I applied the cream and rogaine to her scalp. My husband and I started to notice patches of hair...but we were not sure it was actual growth or just residual hair from her shed. Suddenly, at the end of April, Keri was sitting in my lap facing me...and I was praying for her. When I looked at her scalp, I noticed a very thin layer of hair growing in the lower left corner of her scalp.
At this point I was afraid to tell anyone. Instead I prayed more and asked GOD for confirmation. Once I recieved confirmation I told any and every body that I could about her hair growing back.
Little by little her hair grew back. By her birthday, which was in October she had a head full of hair. By christmas...she was wearing pig tails. Now she has a full curly fro...lol. I'm not sure how spiritual you are, so I hope I have not offended you. THis is a very unpredictable disease, so all I can do is continue to pray for Keri and put faith in our higher power that he will sustain her.
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By the way...Keri's doctor advised us to discontinue treatment the day after christmas. I was nervous of course. My husband actually hid the medication from me...lol...just in case I have a weak moment. We haven't needed it tho. She has been going strong and we are almost 2 years in.
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Permalink Reply by Michelle on
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Hi there.
I initially suffered hair loss often associated with pregnancy. I used Vitamin B-12 injections over a three month period and the hair slowly grew back.
I then lost my hair again after a big emotional stress plus a surgery involving heavy blood loss. I started off with a sudden loss of a big round patch of hair on the top of my scalp, it then spread to the back and nape of my head ending with the bits around my ears. It took two years for 90% of my hair to fall out. It might have taken so long as I fought to keep it by using every medication and method possible, from steroid injections to hypnosis.
Eighteen months after my alopecia began, and once I had lost almost everything, I started using micro-nutrition to help rejuvenate my cells. Within six months, eighty per cent of my hair had grown back. One year later I still have eighty per cent of my hair, unfortunately not 100%, but there is still hope.
Good luck to everybody.
P.S. I still find it a daily struggle to cope with alopecia.
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Permalink Reply by lina on
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Hi Michelle!
You are so lucky to have 80% regrowth! I wish I had 5%! Can you please tell me exactly what you mean by micronutrition?
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Permalink Reply by joeblack112 on
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I have Alopecia Areata, only one quarter sized patch so far, but luckily it is covering up. I started a treatment I saw on a pharmacy in Mexico (I live on the border) called Dermoprada Alopecia. It is meant to be used for patches no larger than 3 inches in diameter, which is of considerable size, a quarter is roughly 1 inch. Anyways, I started seeing regrowth the 1st week after treatment, slow at first but definitely an improvement over the completely smooth patch I had. I should also note that the patch was discovered by my hair stylist exactly 10 days after my previous hair cut, so he knew it was not there before, meaning that the patch was possibly a week and a half old at the most and completely hairless. I tell you this because I guess some might think that the fast regrowth might have been because of the age of the patch or something related. Might have been a placebo effect, I don't know, but I am happy with the results I'm getting. It's been 5 weeks since I started treatment and I already have about 75% of the patch covered, in small thin hairs obviously, but there is real improvement. I actually had my first haircut since that day today, didn't want to cut it before because I was kind of scared of him discovering other patches. But yeah, luckily it is only that one patch so far, and even he was impressed with the recovery since he has known other customers with AA before and had told me previously it might take a few months until it would start recovering and about a year or more until it was healed. At the rate it's going it should be completely covered in about 3 months. My best wishes to all of you!
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There are a few fairly successful treatments. Based on my experience, the most effective - and aggressive - is immunosuppresant therapy, which entails suppressing you immune system with a combination of steroids and other anti-immflamtory/ immunosuppresants such as Cyclosporine or Methotrexate, mixed with steroid injections to the scalp. The steroids - Methylprednisone - is most effective when given intravenously. I started out 200 mg per day of Cyclosporine (the drug commonly given to transplant patients so their body doesn't reject the organ, and one of its side-effects is 'increased hair growth') which I took for nearly 7 months.After 6 weeks on the Cyclosporine, I started 40 mg of Methylprednisone (a longer-acting form of Prednisone) orally (I couldn't stomach doing it intravenously, and it required visiting a hospital 2 days in a row each month), which I took for nearly 4 months. In addition to the oral meds, I would get steroid injectsion in my scalp monthly (I still do to this day).
The results were amazing. Within 3 months I had a full head of hair for the first time in over 5 years. Even my eyebrows, eyelashes, and leg hair grew back. Unfortunatley, as soon as I stopped the steroids, I started to shed. Which is why you stop the steroids first and continue the Cyclosporine or Methotrexate for an additional 3 months. I managed to maintain a good amount of hair for quite some time - nearly 2 years. It only recently took a turn for the worse, so I am starting on round 2 of treatment shortly. Only this time I will try Methotrexate instead of Cyclosporine.
There's also some more potentially good news on the horizon. A new drug for Rhuemitoid arthritis was just approved, and unlike most other arthritis medication, it's in a pill form rather than injections. My rheumatologist thinks it would be affective in treating Alopecia and is considering trying it on me, if this next round of treatment doesn't work. It's unique because, instead of shutting down your entire immune system - as the Cyclosporine and Methotrexate do - it targets only one group of receptors they believe are responsible for the immune response to your hair folicles. It's new, so it's expensive and difficult to justify for insurance purposes, but my doctors say they just need someone else to try it out or publish something on it, and they can try it on Alopecia patients. So there is some hope.
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Ivan on
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I wasn't out of my teens before I realised that doctors were clueless with regard to alopecia. Painful injections along the lines of my eye brows achieved little or nothing, and everything from paraffin to fancy liquids and creams rubbed into my scalp - well really! As my doctor was drinking his evening gin and tonic and laughing with his wife at what he had got his patients to do the fool was religiously following his orders, well away from naked flames and smokers.
Anyway I figured that if massage of the scalp could ever work it would be down to the massage, rather than the 101 alternative lamp fuels and lotions used.
In 6-9 months time I hoped to leave work and go to university and I decided that I wanted to go there not completely bald, but rather with a full head of hair. I had once owned really thick dark brown hair. I wanted it back. I wanted to be like all the other students.
So (and I exaggerate not) I massaged my scalp for three hours a day, via three sessions. My full lunch hour being spent sat on a toilet at work. I wonder if any colleagues heard my daily rubbings?
After six months I had indeed gone from absolutely nothing to a full head of hair, but my new hair was light coloured and only half as thick as before. But nevertheless as thick as most peoples' hair.
Having achieved my goal I stopped the massage process, but within a year or so most of it had dropped out again so I faced a repeat of the same trauma.
At that point (aged 20) I realised that my destiny was to be bald for the duration.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa Brunner on
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I've read that you do it two times a day plus head messages. I just ordered Hair Up from Israel for my four year old daughter who has Totalis...I will post results. She is also on an anti-inflammatory diet. All organic whole food :) I wish you light & luck with your recovery. Positive thinking is key :)
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