I would just like to say, "Thank you!!!" to all of the amazing people on Alopecia World. I could not have mentally made it through my struggle if it were not for the stories of all the honest and brave people on this forum.

I had been struggling with hair loss for quite some time. At first I actually thought it was cool that it took only half the time for me to dry my hair! Little did I realize how severe it really was until I one day, I very clearly saw my scalp through my hair after a shower. A dozen dr's appointments, many tests and a few biopsies later, I was diagnosed with CTE. The medical community wanted me to "stop stressing out", slap some rogaine on it, and take anti-depressants.

Thanks to the amazing information on this website, I was able to hone in on the REAL root of my problem. It wasn't long before I just knew it in my gut that it had to have something to do with my thyroid and or serum ferritin deficiency.

Turns out, I was right. After about 5 months after being diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease and getting on bioidentical thyroid hormone, and taking an Fe supplement because my iron was in the 40's, I have now SPROUTS coming in nearly everywhere! I don't think my hair will ever be as thick as it once was, but I've got enough to get by without toppik or a hairpiece and that's really all I was really hoping for. And now I know if it all heads south at some point, the amazing people at Freedom wigs can take excellent care of me!

In between the time of my initial "freak out" about the loss and the re-growth of today, I learned so much from the people on this site about finding your patience, the fact that you just can't control everything, and really no matter what is going on or how tough you think something is, you have to find your happiness within and be thankful for all the things that are NOT going wrong in your life. I literally went from an anxiety level of 9-10 and obsessing about my hair loss every second of my day, to just being able to shrug it off because I was able to accept it and move forward, thanks to the inspiring things I learned from this site.

God bless you all and I know there have been and will continue to be many more success stories because of your willingness to share!!!!

Knowledge is a BEAUTIFUL thing!!!