Update on hair loss after traveling (8 months later~)

Hi everyone, it's been a while! 2016 has been such a fast year and I've had many changes come about. I moved apartments (to get away from a wretched NYC roommate situation) to my own studio, traveled to Australia and had many new projects at work. I love my job so it's been an effort putting down the work laptop and picking up the personal one.

Okay, let's get to the point! Over the past 8 months, I continued some of the 6 items I mentioned and stopped some of them as well.

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

Consulting a dermatologist and my PCP | Seeking scalp therapy

Always see your doctor first! I saw a couple of primary care physicians (PCPs) and they all struck out. Under the assumption that I was vitamin or nutrient deficient, they all suggested that I take multiple blood tests to confirm. 8 (EIGHT!) whole tubes of blood later only confirmed that I am healthy as can be, which obviously a known iron deficiency (I take supplements for this already.) 

No luck there.

I went to a dermatologist and was put through almost a year of scalp therapy and cortisone shot treatments to my scalp to encourage hair growth. This was a weekly treatment which was both costly and time consuming. The end point of this came when I pressed my dermatologist to find the cause of my hair loss and he said he didn't know and only knew that shots would help. Well, this did not address any root causes. (Heh, see what I did there?)

Back to the PCP. One of my college friends suggested seeing an endocrinologist and while I pushed my doctors for referrals, none were interested in giving them out. Instead suggesting more blood tests...and less stress.

Returning to diligent 2% minoxidil usage

I hated this routine of applying minoxidil to my scalp twice daily. It, just like my dermatologist, did not fix the root cause but instead tried to increase hair growth, instead of preventing hair loss. Almost one year later now, I have stopped with the minoxidil and turned to seeking the fundamental issue.

Using gentle hair care products and taking vitamins and supplements

Yes! I started being more aware of the products I consume and use on my body, including both hair care products and routinely taking vitamins. Gone are the days of awful drug store shampoo and in are the days of organic shampoo!

PURA D'OR Anti-Hair Loss Premium Organic Argan Oil Shampoo (what a mouthful lol)

• This shampoo does not contain SLS or parabens.  Happens to be gluten-free (I guess that is a thing?) Hypo-Allergenic, which is important for me because I have sensitive facial skin and I'm not about to get pimples from a shampoo. Bonus points for also being cruelty free! Honestly, there are tons of shampoos like this but my main point is to focus on the health of your scalp, not just the hair strands themselves.

Vitamin E

• This helps keep your hair follicles healthy and decreases damage to your scalp skin, because that can get sunburned too!

Iron

• Mainly because I'm iron-deficient and my PCPs have suggested that this might be a larger contributor to hair los than most people are aware. 

Fish Oil

• There are so many articles and studies on fish oil, this can be up to your best judgement and probably guidance from your own doctor as well. I like it because I've noticed that my nails are so much stronger and grow much more quickly. I can only hope it helps my hair just as much.

DE - STRESSING! Yes! Yes! Yes!

This was the golden ticket!! After my initial hair loss from moving to NYC, I was again plagued by it upon some newfound life stress. Work, while I loved it, was getting stressful. My previous roommate made life thoroughly unpleasant at home.

So what did I do?

1. Got really REALLY REALLY into kickboxing. The sport just commands so much focus, both mentally and physically and I truly love it. There are many days I regret NOT going to kickboxing and there has never been a day that I regretted going. My instructors and everyone in the class create such a supportive yet challenging environment where you can punch and kick the s*** out of pads and bags.
2. Moved out of my old apartment into my own place. Life has never been better where I can be at peace at home.
3. Learned to manage work and projects better.
4. Started focusing on the big picture of what I want in life and not the small day to day things that usually stress me out. Traveling made me stress out, due to the planning and desire to do everything always. But I need to relax and treat traveling as relaxation, as opposed to the high intensity backpacking I did in college. I'm all settled in NYC now so the stress of that has decreased but is somewhat existent (What can you do? It's the nature of the city and I'm a Cali girl)