Hair loss (again) after moving to New York City

I have not officially announced it in a blog post yet but many of you know that I moved to Manhattan, New York in July 2015. It's been around half a year since and I'm finally ready to talk about the stress of moving cross country and experiencing hair loss yet again. After my travels in Asia, I consistently used 2% minoxidil and my hair more or less went back to normal, had normal growth but not the thickness I had prior to traveling through Southeast Asia. I was OKAY with that. Eventually I stopped thinking and worrying about it and stopped using minoxidil.

But then an amazing opportunity arose for me to move to New York City - THE New York. THE Big Apple, with a cool new job that has proved to challenge me in many ways and a chance to experience NYC life in my twenties. How could I refuse? I was becoming too comfortable in California and felt I had plateaued quickly at my previous job with no real indication of further possible career growth. So you know what, I decided to take the leap and do it. I packed my life into 2 checked bags, 1 carry on, and 1 backpack, I booked a one way flight and arrived in the heat of summer 2015.

Finding an apartment, getting acclimated to my new career, and settling into the hustle of Manhattan life opened a world of stress for me that I never stepped foot into before. I began losing hair and tremendous amounts of it. I became self conscious of this hair loss and stressed about being stressed.

This is how much hair i loss after just casually running my fingers through my  hair for a few minutes. Bear in mind that I have shoulder length hair.

I eventually loss so much hair along the crown of my head that it was becoming painfully obvious. I felt like an old man trying to hide his imminent baldness with a useless comb over.  There are far worse angles but I can only bring myself to share one. I'm starting to see the humor in all of this. Stressed out, Kim?! Let's tell the world by showing them your scalp!! Hah.

BUT, that was 4 months ago. Here is a photo from today. It's still obviously a work in progress but look at all of those baby hairs! Progress in the right direction, yes please. This is the result of several practices, including the following:

1. Consulting a dermatologist and my PCP
2. Seeking scalp therapy
3. Returning to diligent 2% minoxidil usage
4. De-stressing through physical activity such as kickboxing and yoga
5. Starting to read and learn more about how the world works (somewhat random but somehow soothing)
6. Using gentle hair care products and taking vitamins and supplements

I may do individual posts on each of these methods but it shall depend on time constraints and inspiration :)