A Hairy Situation

I experienced another unwelcome side effect while I was sick. The first sign was when one of the nurses who took a liking to me offered to wash my hair for me. She started getting fistfuls of hair off of my head. I was a little alarmed, but she was scrubbing my head so hard I thought maybe it was my imagination, and I thought maybe since it was wet and sudsy, it just looked like fistfuls.

It wasn't until I got home and started brushing my hair daily that I saw it for myself. Every time I would brush my hair, I had to clean out the brush, which was full of my hair, reminiscent of what it looked like after brushing my hair for weeks and needed to clean it out. I'd run my fingers through my hair and have to many strands in my hand when I'd put my hand down that I wanted to cry.

I looked up the top causes of hair loss in women and my heart sunk.

A trigger event. Many people experience a general thinning of hair several months after a physical or emotional shock.

Examples of trigger events include sudden or excessive weight loss: check
surgery: check
or a death in the family: check


Medications. Hair loss can be caused by drugs used for  heart problems, high blood pressure: check 
 
Hormonal changes. This could be due to onset of menopause: check

 Hormone levels are also affected by the thyroid gland, so thyroid problems may cause hair loss: check.

I am the poster child of hair loss! I honestly figured I'd end up being bald. I stopped going out of the house without a scarf or hat on my head, but even those made me so self conscious.

In just the last few weeks, I noticed less and less coming out. I began to realize that it was due to it pretty much all coming out, and it was growing back. I also realized much to my horror what it looked like....

Short in the back with intermittent strings of long straggly pieces. I finally bit the bullet and went to the salon....

I felt like a new person! My self\confidence came back and I felt somewhat attractive for the first time in forever. It felt so good to go out without my head covered - I felt so normal.

I am so grateful to God that the loss stopped. If you ever experience a similar situation, have a little faith that its not not forever.  Now, I'm looking forward to letting it grow again!

Every day in some small way, it's getting better. God is good!