Ray

Male

Warrington

United Kingdom

Profile Information:

Relationship Status:

Married

About Me:

Who am I?

I am a 57 year old male, born in Widnes, a northern town in England.I now live in south Warrington. I have Alopecia Universalis.


I have always had thick strong hair and I was the last person that you would expect to go bald. In fact it was a statement often made by friends whenever the topic of going bald was discussed.

Like most people, we all have friends who start to loose their hair. Some start to shed their locks very young while others start later in life. Some people never loose their hair and at one time most people would have put money on me always having plenty of hair.

Looking back on how this thing developed, I recall having a small itchy patch on the right side of my head just above my ear. I thought it was an insect bite at first and I remember feeling a smooth patch of skin but I just thought that it was due to the tiny sore brought about by a bite. The patch remained with my and after a while my wife noticed another bald patch near to the crown. This patch was not noticeable when my hair was dry but was very visible when I came out of the shower. Pretty soon another patch developed and at this point I went to see my doctor who referred me to a consultant.

The consultant I saw was absolutely brilliant. She showed true understanding of the situation and the effect that it had on people with the complaint. I was quickly given various treatments for the alopecia including a course of steroids and I also had steroid injections into my scalp. None of the treatments had any effect on the growth of my hair but I did feel better in myself.

As my alopecia progressed, the rate that the hair fell out accelerated. I woke up every morning to find lots of hairs on my pillow. When I showered lots of hair came out in my hands as I washed my hair. I found strands of hair all around my desk at the office and about my home. The problem became more and more at the forefront of my thoughts. I spent far too long dwelling on the matter and I worried about how the problem would end. My real low point was once when I was away in Ireland on business. I woke one morning and not having a rushed start to the day, I started to count the hairs on my pillow. Although I was feeling better physically, I realised that I needed to come to terms with my situation.

By this time it was late November and I had lost about 40% of my hair. It was no longer possible to hide the hair loss any more and as such I felt that I needed to shave my head completely rather than look like a “comb over” man. On 12 December 2008 I booked into my barbers, a personal friend who had been incredibly supportive throughout and told him that I wanted him to shave my head. He arranged to see me late in the day just as the shop was closing. As his staff left the shop he locked the door, sat me in a chair and said “are you sure”?

I can honestly say it was a most liberating experience. Suddenly I was completely bald!!!! There was not a hair left on my head and I felt fantastic.

I had been very nervous about shaving it all off before the act of liberation. What would I look like? Was my head a strange shape? Would I look like an old man? All the thoughts that went through my mind were worrying and left me quite nervous but it had to be done as I looked so very strange with patches in odd places about my head. It was not like male pattern baldness which usually follows a symmetrical pattern of hair loss. My hair loss was in random patches and I really did look odd.


My new image was fantastic. I looked OK, my head was not a funny shape and many people actually said I looked younger rather than older.

After shaving I obviously had no hair on my head but I was still left with a “map of the world” on my head as the areas where the hair had not fallen out were still showing like a black pattern. It looked a bit weird but it was better than having hair and bald patches. Now I simply had a bald head with a strange pattern on it.

I had to now shave my head every day as the remaining hair grew at quite a rate. I can honestly say that shaving my head was quite a pleasurable thing to do and I still enjoy the task. The feeling of having just shaved you head is excellent and I can really recommend it to anyone who is just at the point of considering that they should shave.

After the course of steroids I was given various blood tests which showed that I had a thyroid problem and I was therefore prescribed Thyroxin tablets to resolve the situation. After a while of being on these tablets I felt much better and I started to show signs of re-growth. The hair started to come back albeit white and rather fine like bay hair. The re-growth has continued no for 4 or 5 months and I have been discharged by my consultant. I have full re-growth albeit with white patches. I still shave most days but if I leave it for a couple of days my head shows a lot of stubble like a number 1 and the white patches are reducing. It seems as though they shrink as the outer edges change to my natural colour and the white patch gets smaller.

Even though it is all growing back I continue to shave as I am now fully relaxed with my new image and like being bald. I realises that my hair could all fall out again just as suddenly as it started before but what difference does it make now. I am happy as I am.

.

Do you have alopecia?

Alopecia universalis

Are you age 18 or older?

Yes - I am 18 or older

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