Alopecia Areata is the clinical term for circular hair loss. Triggered by an autoimmune disease for which stress is the primary cause, there is no perfect cure. When alopecia areata is triggered, your body fails to recognize itself and attacks healthy hair follicles as though it were foreign inflammation. Ranging from scalp hair to beard hair, the areata, or spots, can grow to entire regions.
THE 5 STAGES TO RECOVERY
1. Denial
Surely stress can’t be your reason, right? Other people’s input starts to give rise to buying lots of tinctures and Amazon quick fixes you think you’ll need. Nizoral, tea tree oil, onion juice, cayenne, and castor oil may come up in searches, but ultimately they will not help this condition. Buying into the array of shelf gimmicks will ultimately just dry out your bald spot.
2. Anger
The standards for beauty are higher than ever.
As Tina Fey wrote “Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.”
What she left out was: And hair that demands its own religion!
Putting society's image aside, the maddening Catch-22 of alopecia is stress begets hair loss, which begets more stress. You may not have even been aware of your hair, until it’s gone in patches.
3. Bargaining
About 50-60% of those with alopecia areata notice hair regrowth within a year without any treatment. This statistic might make some gleeful to know that time is on your side! So, convincing yourself that kicking back with rest, healthy supplements, exercise, and diet will do the trick, are all positive steps. But sometimes it’s just not enough. And not getting signals from your body fast that recovery is here, can lead to a concerning next step.
4. Depression
That mental chase to the past is hard for others to understand. Hair is an integral part of body imagine. Depression and chronic stress can make matters worse. Your health doesn’t have to be compromised; it’s not contagious; the recovery rate is better than that of most autoimmune diseases. So what is next?
5. Acceptance and Treatment.
At some point you may stop worrying about the amount of hair you lose, and start caring—not just tactical but with a holistic measure—for yourself. Supplements and exercises may not reverse the hair loss, but they can help other areas of your life as well : feeling stronger, happier, and grounded.
At Robert James Clinic we treat clients with alopecia areata with a customized laser therapy program. The stimulation of blood flow in the area of loss from laser therapy and the overall reduction of inflammation has created drastic results for clients with alopecia areata.
