The Hair Radio Morning Show LIVE #901 Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023
We have with us someone who has been courageously fighting hair loss and her name is Mary, we want to welcome you to The Hair Radio Morning Show, today. Thank you. Glad to be a part. Thank you very much. Now let's just jump in Mary. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Now, I've been living in California for the past 40 plus years. I'm originally from Arkansas. I started dealing with hair loss in California, probably about 10, 12 years ago. Tell us about that. When you say you were dealing with hair loss, tell us what you mean. Well, at first I got something like, it was almost like a pimple in the top of my head. As I was combing my hair I really didn't think anything about it. And it was really sore. And then it was there and it would go away. And then it didn't bother me for a while. My hair, I didn't notice any changes in my hair or anything of that sort. And then it seemed to occur every two or three months. And then more often. So finally I started seeing hair loss. I went to the doctors. The doctor did a diagnosis of me. He had me come back several times. And then he also had me come back several months with a pool of doctors from the Sacramento, Los Angeles area. And I believe he had a couple of doctors from some parts of Texas too. I felt like I was on display because they were all kind of looking at my scalp. Took hair samples to look under the microscope. They also looked at my scalp under the microscope. And it took them a few weeks to come back to me with a diagnosis that I had alopecia areata. And they gave me a little bit of information about that. Indicated that it could be from straightening comb. When I was using a straightening comb, which I really didn't use very much. But they said it could be from straightening combs and from perms. A combination. My type hair loss is the, I kind of have a male baldness. It started off real thin and now in the very top. I really kind of have no hair and it's gotten very thin around the edges. So I kind of got a little depressed, discouraged. So at one point I just shaved it all off to kind of see what would happen. The edges came back. You know, but the top where it had came, where it lost the hair did not come back. I was also instructed by a hairdresser at the time that was taking care of my hair to use a brand on the market, shampoo and conditioner. And that was supposed to be really good. But I think it was good from what I understand. If the hair loss wasn't as severe as mine. And of course, I mean it felt good to the scalp, but it really did not bring any of my hair back or do anything. So at that point I started using wraps and different things for the hair because I was very uncomfortable. I was very uncomfortable with wigs and wraps. But it got to the point that I lost so much hair. I went to a place that specialized in cancer and alopecia patients to look at wigs. And then they introduced me to some wigs that was soft to the touch of the skin versus, you know, really some of the wigs are really sticky. Kind of sticked your skin and real itchy. So I started wearing those and I got a little bit more comfortable. And I'm comfortable with them, but it would be nice if I had hair. But I don't think that that's going to happen at this point because it's been so long and I keep losing hair. Once in a while now the pimples will come back, not that often. Maybe once every two or three months or so I may get that. And it's very sensitive for me to touch my head or comb it. I still shampoo my hair, condition it every other day because I work out and I sweat a lot. So I still want to make sure that it's clean. Mary, we want to let everybody know that you're still being treated, correct? Right. This is ongoing treatment for you. Yes, it is, but nothing is happening, really.