I've been a member of this site for a while now and always thought about writing something about my experience so far but never got round to it. In this post I am going to be as honest as possible.

I found out I had alopecia in February 2012. I had one large patch the size of a goose egg at the back of my head. To my dismay I never noticed it although my younger sister had when it was the size of a 10p piece back in December 2011 and she couldn't find it in her to tell me.

I'm very fortunate to have thick hair so it is easily covered although I find it safe to keep my hair tied up in case the wind blows in the wrong direction.

Finding out I had alopecia areata was the most difficult thing I've ever been through. I felt ashamed of myself, anxious about how I looked, depressed and I wanted to know why it had happened to me. The first month I was so stressed I developed another patch at the top of my head. That patch never got bigger than a 10 pence piece.

The first thing I started to do when I found out I had alopecia was to go on forums such as this one and although I appreciated what people were going through, I found myself panicking because I started looking at everything as a worse case scenario, which for me would have been losing all my hair.

After visiting my GP who, to be honest, wasn't very helpful at all, I started looking at what would be the quickest solution for my hair to grow back. The waiting list to see the Dermatologist was 3 months so this meant looking privately.

I took a trip to the Belgravia hair centre which, in my opinion, and I can only speak of my own experiences, felt like they were praying on peoples vulnerabilities to make a quick profit. The consultant we saw was a saleswoman with no medical background and because of the amount of reading I had done on medical journals and peoples experiences on the Internet it felt like I knew more about it than she did.

The product they offer is a monoxidil solution. They charge about £150 for a 3 month course. I later learnt, once i visited the Dermatologist, you can buy this for £25 from your local pharmacy over the counter in the for of Regaine.

I was so disappointed with my experience at Belgravia that I did not go ahead with what they were trying to sell me and felt like I was back to square one.

I carried on doing my research and reading but I decided to stop going on the forums and instead googled positive stories about alopecia experiences. I came across this one blog that changed my way of thinking for the better. Here's the link if you guys want to read it;

http://pamzilla.blogspot.co.uk/

The reason why I liked this particular blog is because Pam accepted alopecia as a part of who she was and with just looking at her own lifestyle, her hair grew back without any medication. Obviously I appreciate this will not happen in all cases but I found it very motivating and decided to look at my own emotional health rather than looking for quick fixes.

Once looking at my lifestyle, the first thing I did was to manage any stress in my life. This was mainly work related as I always put too much pressure on myself to perform. In hindsight the stress I was putting on myself was unnecessary as I am still performing to a high level now but ensuring I don't panic in situations where I would have done before.

I had to wait until May for my Dermatologist appointment so there was a long period of time where there was very little I could do other than try as best as I could to manage my stress levels and be as healthy as possible.

Also in the meantime my GP prescribed me Dermovate which I'm not too sure how helpful it was as I had read that Dermovate doesn't penetrate far enough into the skin to reverse the autoimmune response.

Once I had accepted that alopecia will always be a part of my life, whether my hair grew back or not it slowly started to reappear (although there were occasions where I cursed woman with a full head of hair on the tubes to work).

I surrounded myself with friends, family and my boyfriend and found myself feeling happy and confident.

At this time of writing the top patch has now almost completely grown back. My large goose egg size patch currently has a full covering of small white hairs (I'm a brunette) and still has a long way to go. However there are some thicker hairs coming through in places.

Although the patch is still the same size as it has been for the past 3 months, I'm much more positive and looking forward to seeing it continuing to re-grow.

I went to the Dermatologist and he prescribed my Regaine, which is the minoxidil that Belgravia tried to overcharge me for. They also prescribed a water based steroid ointment that penetrates further into the skin.

Above all he told me that although it is not medically proven, in his opinion and he sees people with aa every week and alopecia areata is a response to stress and well being and that I should continue to be positive and accept alopecia as part of who I am.

I am continuing to do this and I hope to post again in the future about more re-growth and above all being happy despite whether or not more patches develop.

I hope this blog has helped someone out there as I understand how difficult this can be.