Hello everyone, 

I have decided to share my story in a hope to help those that suffer from this horrible affliction.

My name is Campbell and I was first diagnosed with AA when I was 8 years old following the death of my grandmother. I suffered on and off sporadically throughout my teens with a few patches here and there that came and went from time to time. At this time I used to get steroid injections into the patches from my dermatologist which occasionally encouraged hair growth. 

However, when I turned 20, the patches I had then began to join together on my head and I then went completely bald. Being a young single man, I found this extraordinarily difficult to deal with, being already self-conscious about my looks, it really affected me. I returned to my dermatologist who prescribed me a tablet that I cannot recall the name of, which was ineffectual on me. Luckily, being a student and barista I was able to wear a cap/beanie at all times to hide the thing I was most ashamed of. 

When I thought things couldn't get any worse, my eyelashes, eyebrows, facial hair and body hair evaporated in a matter of weeks around my 21st birthday. This was without doubt the hardest time of my life. I already felt low, but this sank me to depths I didn't think imaginable. I hated looking at myself, catching a glimpse of myself or being around my friends as I felt like a different person and I will never forget that feeling. 

At this time, in desperation to get some shape back in my face I researched temporary solutions such as wigs and tattooing. I somehow stumbled upon a wonderful specialist in micropigmentation who did my eyebrows, and added a few eyelashes. This is no permanent fix as the tattoos only last 6-12 months before having to be refreshed, and was a fairly painful and awkward procedure to have done. Nevertheless, if the loss of eye hair is something you find difficult, I would urge to at least investigate this as a possibility. It restored part of my confidence at least. 

Also around this time my dermatologist referred me to a specialist in London (luckily where I was living at the time) because he had admitted he could not control my issue and could see how distressed it was making me.

Dr Jolliffe is one of the leading specialists in the world in research into Alopecia. She is currently trying to get JAK inhibitors into the UK to trial on patients. 

When I first went to Dr. Jolliffe she said there were still a few options in terms of treatment we could pursue. But what she kept reiterating was that there was 'no silver bullet', and no definite cure so as not to get my hopes up. She first prescribed me Hydroxycloroquine for 6-12 months that had no effect on me. She then, in the summer of 2016 prescribed me Azathioprine, an initial side effect was that I got hives upon first dosage, but this soon died down. These had no effect for 6 months, so told me to take 150mg a day. And this has done it. 

Now 23 years old, I am currently writing this with a full head of thick hair, all my eyelashes are back, most of my eyebrow hairs are back, and my body hair is patchy but returning. I know this may not be a cure for everyone reading this, but I thought at least if people know it exists that hopefully it can help someone else. 

If AA/AT/AU is something that severely effects the way you feel about yourself, which I know it does, please pursue these steps that I undertook. 

It is such a horrible issue to have and is so unforgiving. 

Good luck and enormous amounts of love to anyone that (has read this far) is struggling with it.