Another thing that i use is minoxidil+hydroxyprogesterone which can be used starting from 2%-5% strengths.

And yes i do have hair regrowing which plan regaine did not do,im not saying it will work for everyone but its the only thing i have used thats worked.

There are some topical anti androgens that can be used in woman combined with minoxidil but as i have found in mens hair loss there are some dubious companies out there wanting to rip you off so i will try and find out more for you guys and be back.

 

Alopecia has taken me to some horrible places and dark moments in my life.  I am a lot better now thanks to counselling.  I thought EVERY issue in my life could be blamed at the door of alopecia and therefore there was nothing I could do about it.

However the counselling taught me that Yes, some things alopecia was 100% responsible for, no getting away from it... some things it was partly responsible for, and some things it had absolutely nothing to do with.

One of the biggest revelations and very very hard to grasp and believe, was that actually some of the experiences in my life the responsibility lay completely at my door.  In that how I chose to see the issues, how I chose to react, what I did or said or didn't do or say were adding to my misery.  Me was making me feel bad!!!  Believe me I was so upset and angry to be confronted with that, wanted to smack the counsellor, how dare he?  It took a while, to work through but eventually I saw he was right.  I would still have been hurt, still have been upset, but choosing a different way to handle it, I could have been far less upset, it could have been a moment in time, not this monster.

I guess I may have upset you too with these words... because of knowing what it did to me... but I didn't have anyone to guide me, to help me understand to fight my corner for me.  My family blamed me for having alopecia and there were no support groups or forums of any kind to get help.  Just being here makes me realise all the thoughts and feelings I had were very normal as an alopecian, that the world is not always a nice place.

Being an alopecian changes us... it shapes us... and not always in a good way, we might be shy, bad tempered, loud and obnoxious or quiet and invisible.  Sometimes its that element which stops our friendships, not the actual hairloss itself, who would want to be around someone who is just not pleasant to be with.  It doesn't matter if they have alopecia or not, we want to enjoy someone's company. 

I was out to dinner with a female friend, and she said to me, I envy you chatting easily with the waiter, I'm so shy and don't know what to say.   My reply was, I'm actually terrified to speak too, I don't like talking to strangers.  In reality both of us felt the same way, but her fear kept her from speaking, and my fear did the opposite, as in I'd better say 'something' - 'anything'.  Just because I was chatting, didn't mean I felt at ease and comfortable.  What I'm saying is my friend saw something which wasn't actually true.  She thought I was confident and assured and at ease, when inside I was nervous, and worried and wondering if I should run from the restaurant, honestly!

 

A lot of my life has been spent as less of a person because of alopecia, and more importantly because I simply didn't know it didn't have to be that way.  I would never have moved forward without the counselling, because I needed an outsider to guide me, I didn't have that knowledge within me to make the changes.  I had been brought up to believe that this was my lot, I had to accept it, and if I was miserable all the time, well tough.  I truly thought that for years and years.  I had no experiences from anywhere else to tell me that wasn't so.

It was the counselling which finally showed me that I, and indeed you and everyone else, has the right to feel good, has the right to feel as happy and contented as the next person.  More importantly it is possible for that to happen, but its not going to be something you can wait for, you do have to work at it, have to learn things, put things into practice.

I can't emphasise enough you can feel better than you do now, so seek out counselling from your doctor, there are self help books on building your self esteem or learning to cope with issues, and the forum has personal experiences, hints and tips which others have tried and found helpful.

Wishing you the very best

 

In the 1990's I tried taking the pill Dianette, which helped a little, but made me fat, so I gave that up after a few years.

 

My alopecia androgenetica is so bad that I don't just have diffuse thinning, but am totally bald on the vertex and crown and have severely receding temples - in other words, my head looks like the head of a middle aged male - and I'm a young woman!

 

As a young girl I used to cry a lot over that, but doctors still refused treatment. Had I known to what extend alopecia androgenetica would come to ruin my life, I'd have cried even harder!

 

I've been unable to find a husband or friends - even female "friends" have abused me over it, accused me of "really being a man", or even of being some kind of a witch. I have to date (I'm 38) been unable to find friends. In the Asian community (my gran was from India) I was accused of being a Hijra (a ladyboy, usually a prostitute, shunned by society) and I was chased down the road and stoned!!! There is still so much superstition amongst the Asian community. I was very hurt by this because I am proud of being part Indian. However, that's not to say that non-Asians have behaved much better. I have had to endure constant comments and accusations and people have convinced me that no man would ever find me good enough because of the alopecia.

 

Sadly, these people have been absolutely right. I have never had a proper boyfriend, and the few men I have dated have all been extremely abusive (one forced me into an abortion at 5 months gone, the last one kicked my cat to death). I am ashamed to say that I stayed with them - not only because I believed myself that I would never find another man, but also because I have noone else and felt too vulnerable all alone. So I stayed with them for far too long instead of finishing it there and then.

 

Now, being single, never having had a proper relationship, I get accused that "there must be something wrong with me" because at my age I have never been married - especially since now, with wigs an make up, I do look very attractive, and so people assume even more that there must be something wrong with me. Saying that though, I do only look good with make up and wig because I've also lost my eyebrows and eyelashes.

 

Doctors have throughout the decades been unhelpful, dismissive, accused me of "just imagining the hair loss", told me I should "get pregnant and that will cure the problem", and that I should "learn to comb over the bald areas" (nothing thee to comb over with!!!), accused me of "just getting old" (when I was 25!!!), and one dermatologist who had never heard of alopecia accused me of "just ripping my own hair out". To this I can only say, if that was the case, then isn't it amazing that I managed to "rip out my hair" in such a way that it resembles the exact pattern of male pattern baldness...   

 

 

 

 

My case shows very clearly how alopecia can ruin a life. After 26 years of having been treated in such an appaling way by people, abused and accused of all sorts of things, I am now almost a recluse, I shut myself away and only leave the house to go to work or shopping - even though I wear wigs now (beautiful wigs, long and curly), but what I have been through has left me terrified of people. Needless to say, I have now even less chances of ever finding friends or a partner/husband.  

I read this somewhere:

I am using a topical 5 per cent minox with some antiandrogens added plus oral proscar and my hair loss has stabilised as before use i had a lot down the drain hole when washing.