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Permalink Reply by Dawn on September 6, 2017 at 7:06am

Your situation sounds so much like mine, Camryn. I had to step in here and tell you about my journey to find relief. I'm not an expert, and God knows we are each walking our own unique path in these alopecia struggles. But beyond the prescriptions, I found an important key to be hair care products. When I learned (the hard way, as all such learning seems to happen) that the itching lessened when I stopped using hairspray (which held my combover in place), it was a revelation. I experimented and found that each time I eliminated a hair care product, things improved. When I got down to the last one, cream rinse, I had a sitdown with my dermatologist. He told me me to get away from shampoos that had two ingredients: sodium laureth sulfate and -- oh, geez, I'm struggling to remember the name of the second. It's a sudsing agent and has the prefix "coco.". Cocoamide? Well, go stand in front of the shampoo counter at your hair stylist or drugstore and read labels. Try to find one that doesn't have those ingredients. Impossible! My dermatologist recommended Acure Organics Everyday Clarifying Shampoo. Remember that exact name, because Acure makes a zillion different formulas and all the packaging looks similar. This is a white tube with pea-green printing on it. Amazon carries it, and it's about $10 a tube. When you shampoo, use a small amount. My dermatologist spoke of a half-teaspoon. Heavens, I've never been able to make THAT small an amount work, but the point is, don't unthinkingly squeeze a mountain of it into your palm and go to work. The amount matters. The difference was like night and day when I started using it. And when you wash your hair, be gentle. No fingernails! Use the pads of your fingertips to wash. Now, two years later, this is the only product I use on my hair, and it has brought me relief from the awful itching. I'd love to tell you that it has lessened the hair loss, but alas . . . I wear my hair short and shampoo every day, and am so thankful to have found an answer. Good luck in your journey, my friend.

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Permalink Reply by Camryn on September 6, 2017 at 11:26am

Thank you, Dawn, for those suggestions! It's good to hear I'm not the only one but it's such an irritating thing. I've been using a sulfate free shampoo since discovering the bald patch. It's L'Oreal Everstrong and it really seems to work in strengthening my hair. I used to always lose so much when brushing and combing (even before being hit with alopecia) so I wouldn't want to change that out. The only other thing I use is an awesome detangler called It's a Ten. Whenever I skip it or switch in another detangler, I lose LOTS more hair (which is fairly long) during brushing and combing which is obviously the opposite of what I'd want. My hair has always been super fine and tangly and I use to basically railroad through it to the degree that now I have to wonder if what I have is not alopecia areata as diagnosed but some kind of traction alopecia. I'm super, super careful with it now but since the minimal products that I currently use seem to be helping me maintain the hair that I do have (no more has fallen out since I found the large patch last January) I'm reluctant to switch at this point. It's just the itch that's a problem. Has you hair grown back or is it in in the process of growing back too? Sending luck back your way and thanks for the suggestions. I'm bookmarking thing to keep tracking of the shampoo name.

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