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Styling the small amount of hair you still have
I would like to know the do's and dont's. Different people tell me different things, but they don't have alopecia themselves and I rather listen to people who know out of experience what to do or not to do.
My 13 yr old daughter is loosing a lot of hair already for months, first we thought it is just something temporary. One good thing for her is that she gets lots of new baby hairs back (she hates them because they stick up). (this coming Monday she has her first appointment at the dermatologist). Looks are very important for a 13 yr old, and she did straighten her hair everyday, with a straightener. Sometimes even twice a day (i didn't know that till she told me that one day).
At the moment the straightener is history. After she did wash her hair with Tricomin ( cleansing and body building formula, boosted with key triamino copper complex, invigorates the scalp and follicles to restore structure to thinning fine or damaged hair) and conditioned it with conditioner (the same brand as the shampoo ) she lets me do her hair. (that saves a lot of tears in the morning, because she gets frustrated).
I put some chi silk infusion in it and nioxin therm activ protector with light plex. Then brush the knots out real careful (since we use the silk infusion they fly out). after that i blow dry it and use a round brush. She just gets really upset if its not straight, so that's why i do it for her. I asked her or she rather has less hair and straight then just a little "messy" hair, and try to keep every hair. But it needs to be straight. I personally would choose for messy hair, but i guess the looks for a 13 yr old are very important.
(when her hair is still wet it is hardly anything, you see a lot of scalp, but when its is styled and dry its a lot better, as long as you don't want to put it together, then you realize again that its hardly anything)
For a little while she was putting a nice cotton head band around her hair. (mainly to cover the baby hairs who are standing straight up). But a hairdresser told her, its the best not to cover it. She Also said loose hair is the best, no pony tails. and if you really have to (on the trampoline or when she rides her horse) just do a loose low pony tail.
Do you have any suggestions or recommendations?? Feel free to tell me what to do or not to do!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vicki on
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Hiya my name is Vicki, 32 and I've had alopeica since I was 11 but have mostly managed to disguise it using a couple of tricks! My alopeica became really bad when u was about 14 and as u can imagine it was quite tough in school. I went to visit my doctor to see if he could help and he suggested a cream called ' veil cover cream' it is actually designed to hide scars on the skin but it comes in many colours so I used it to colour in my scalp before styling my hair. It worked a treat! I would recommend trying this for your daughter as half the problem trying to hide alopecia is hiding the scalp as it is so white and show through ur hair. Good luck! Let me know if it is any help. Vicki. X
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Permalink Reply by Tovah on
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Hi Natascha:
I'm so sorry that your sweet daughter is going through all this right now. When I look back on it, I believe that my hair started thinning at about 14 years old.
This is not easy on an adult, let alone a child. However, you sound like a great mother who is willing to do whatever you can for your daughter and things may or may not work .
I'm not a doctor of any kind so please check out any of my advice before using it.
A couple of things that I've mentioned on these boards: 1) Unless he/she is a dermatologist with a good amount of work done with alopecia, he's probably not going to give you all you need. Your daughter needs to see a specialist, someone who can really help out, which is what I didn't have. She should probably have blood work done. I believe that she needs to see an endocrinologist. (I'm sorry it's been so long for me that I don't remember much about whom I saw.) I think the sooner you move on this the better chance she has of getting her hair back.
You can see in one picture that I have clip=in extensions in. So, even with the very little bit of hair I have, extensions have been wonderful for me. I have found the Real Hair Raquel Welch to be the best. You can choose the length.
Definitely see the dermatologist and ask lots of questions and s/he may just be great. Unfortunately, for me, the dermatologists were not very good.
Another thing is that the best cover-up for me has been Caboki. You can just go to their site and get a free sample. It's the best hair cover-up I've used and nobody has ever noticed it as far as I know. I'm just thinking that if you can master the part of putting in the caboki, your daughter can still probably wear her hair straight so less scalp would be showing.
(On my blog, www.hautecurvywoman.com, you can see MY ALOPECIA where you can see the rapid progression that my hair took. It really gallopped when I had taken a certain medication. I mean, falling out in clumps and I didn't have alot to lose. My hair had been down to the middle of my back and when I saw that even the sides were getting really bald, I realized that this was definitely looking bad and that a wig was probably the next step.
I felt a little bit better when I saw a dermatologist recently (who did another series of tests) and she said the it could take 9 months for my hair to get back to it's former (still thin) self.
I'm sending all my good thoughts your way and am so hoping that this is just a temporary setback.
Let me know if I can help in any way.
All my best,
Tovah
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If you are trying to protect the hair that she currently has then try using a silk pillow case. That will help with breakage. Also, don't brush her hair when it is wet. I feel for her. Thirteen is a hard age even without Alopecia. Also, Toppik has worked ok for me. It helps on those really bad hair days. Also, shorter styles tend to give the look of a fuller head of hair. Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Dena on
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With my daughter we used the wide headbands. I really didn't notice her losing hair any more rapidly with them. I am sure the blowing drying and straightening would probably pull out more hair than a headband. As long as they were the loose fabric ones, I think they would be o.k. I would just steer away from the headbands with the combs. We did stay away from tight ponytails. Another thing she wore a lot was slouchy beanies. They probably did the best at disguising her hair loss in the beginning because she still had a lot of long hair that hung out at the bottom. She thought they looked more fashionable than a bandana. The best advise I can give you is to be patient with your daughter. This is the worse part of Alopecia. Trying to hide it from everyone. We went a long stretch with my daughter hanging on to the last few strands of her hair. I knew it would look better shorter, but she just wasn't ready for it. Hopefully this is only temporary for your daughter. It is really promising that she is continuing to have hair growth. Talk with a Dermatologist, I can't even begin to tell you some of the bad advice I have been given from well meaning hair dressers. I wish you guys the best.
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Permalink Reply by chris for hair on
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I totally agree with the statement about well meaning hair dressers, we are taught many things that are just not safe to perform on people with hair loss issues. In fact, most of what we do damages the hair....
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Permalink Reply by Joanne Washington on
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Natascha, this first thing you want to do is have the doctor determine if there are any underlying health conditions. If she does you need a list of the conditions and complete understanding how it affects the hair. Ask the doctor to be specific about the biopsy, what is this test for? What is he looking for?. Here's the deal doctors are great when it comes to identifying any health conditions, however, most do not specialize in hair thinning problems. and have no ideal how you help solve your problem when it comes to hair loss. Let's be honest. I love doctors but they do not know everything. The trick is finding someone that can really help you. You child is losing hair for a reason and if the problem is identified early enough you can save her hair. It is unfortunate that most women, people do not know where to go for help once your doctor recommend standard treatments that they are aware of and accustom to offering their patience. Standardize treatments do not work. The problems we are seeing today go much deeper than using a product on the hair we have to know what is going on inside the body and well as what is being done to the hair daily. I would love to help you I just need to know more about her intake and daily routine before any suggestions can be given. I am currently restoring my hair and have 30 years in hair loss. I believe I can give you some information and tips that may help you save your child's hair. Keep in mind the more hair she lose the harder it is to get it back. Sign I would love to help
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email is fine hairoots@gmail.com I will be happy to answer any questions you have. thanks
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I know you want to hear about how to style the hair but I thought I'd put my 2 cents in as a stylist as it sounds to me like your daughter may actually have broken hairs off with the flat iron rather than lost and regrew them. It takes more than a few months for hairs that have fallen out to show when they come back (if they ever do) so this tells me that the hairs were broken rather than falling. Also, I understand that she wants what she wants, but the round brush and dryer is another culprit that causes hair breakage. If it were me, I would let the hair dry on it's own completely then iron it with a cooler temp flat iron only one pass through the hair and do not let the iron stop moving through the hair. You might be able to just iron the top layer and leave the underneath alone.
Clip ins may also stress her existing hair just like tight ponytails. I have clients with bald areas due to clip ins and the hair will never grow back in these areas. It also happened to me after only 3 days wearing tracks (hair tightly braided) I disagree with the hairdresser about the headband IF it is cotton and not pulled tight. Covering the hair won't hurt as much as ironing with a hot iron or blow drying with round brush.
Hiding the scalp with powder is probably the safest route.
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Anytime your are consistently losing hair, it is an indication something is wrong. The body is telling you that something is out of balance and in order to correct or find a solution to the problem you must first identify the " root" cause. If you are going to help your child keep the rest of her hair you must find out what is causing her to lose it. No brush, no comb, headband or lotion, salve or hair care product will stop hair loss especially if the problem is stemming from inside the body. If heat or chemicals are presently being put on the hair it must stop immediately.
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Where are the baby hairs? This is why I thought the hair might be breaking. Many people think new hair is growing when they see baby hairs, but it is actually hair that has broken. There are ways to measure this. I am a certified haircheck professional and we use a tool can determine exactly how much hair has dropped or broken. There are probably other companies that do this.
The temperature that is safe is the lowest setting that will still straighten her hair. On different hair types this will be different. Very fine hair usually straightens at very low temperature.
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Permalink Reply by Sunflower25 on
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There's a hairbrush I noticed helps - the Wet Brush. I got mine on Amazon. It doesn't pull the hair.
Honestly, if its going to fall out, it will, it doesn't matter what style is worn.
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Permalink Reply by Jessica Hoschouer on
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So, I myself being thirteen it seems fitting that I respond to this. With me I just started Jr. High in August and back in July shaved my head. I now use headband and flowers, I occasionally put my hair up in a fohawk which is really more a mohawk then a fohawk.
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