Week 19th- still very slow progress

So 7 weeks from the last picture and not much progress...now I have 16 new hairs compared to the 10 from week 12....around only 1 new hair pair week. What is good is that the new ones are now longer and cover a bit more space. As I wrote the biggest improvement in the study came from 4 to 8 months...and I am there now. If I keep the same progression I will have around 35 hairs at the end of the 8 month which would be excellent...but who knows? I keep on trying and posting.
Regarding the little hammer I stopped using it in both the scalp and beard. The hair in the scalp remains there so that is fantasctic news, and also the new ones I got in the beard, but it is just a bit too much the 30 minutes that I had to use every day. Still after new years I am planning on using it every day until March. I am so happy with it!

Week 12th - The seven star hammer results

I didn't post any picture for the week 12th as there is not much difference with week 11, except for 2 or 3 tiny new ones.The progress is soooo slow again. I must have now around 10, so I will begin to post pictures every second week.
But instead I would like to post the pictures for the hammer results. I think they are quite conclusive, in 8 weeks all the spots are gone. I still have a few areas where you can see that there is less hair but I will continue to use it for two or three weeks more to have a full re-growth. In the beard it is also working !, not so fast, but it is working and I am quite happy. I will post the results in some weeks, although I do not have good start pictures.
I cannot say that the seven star hammer is actually a solution until I wait a couple of months to see if the hair does not fall, but I honestly feel very very happy and can say that the hammer can be a solution for the Alopecia Areata when it is NOT totalis or universalis.I would also like to ask a doctor, so I will soon ask for an appointment and ask the doctor what he thinks...I guess he will say I am crazy for using that little hammer.

11th week

I am writing the eleventh week lines a bit late. It is now  2 months and a half and still not such promising results, but I got 3 new ones so I am back to 8 :). The Christmas target seems to be the perfect one now but I am not sure that in the coming 9 weeks I will get a completely re-growth. I have improved a lot when it comes to my morning anxiety so that is probably helping as well. I MUST post the picture from the scalp. The seven star hammer seems to work as a  solution for partial alopecia areata as I am getting a good growth both on my scalp and my beard. Beard is taking longer as I am only applying the hammer to a few areas, under the nose and under the mouth, but it is slowly working...good! Will the results be permanent? ...I doubt that but it worths trying.
 In the picture you can see almost all the new ones coming, but they are not enough to cover any area..so lets keep on trying!

Week 10- going backwards

So it seems that I am going backwards now. I didn't get any new lashes and instead I lost two. That makes six. This counting of new lashes seems a bit stupid now, but lets keep it until I reach 10 :). I will wait another week to post a new picture. I am now going away for a whole week and I will take Latisse with me of course. I have used it every single day for this 10 weeks. I will also take this week to rest from the seven star hammer and post a picture when I am back. I think it is going well  the hammer but it is not a miracle. At least 2 months are required to bring the hair back which is quite normal.
Last week, one of the days I was trying to bring blood to the area with the cotton swap I think I got the lid too red so next day three people on the same day asked me what happened to my eye... I think I will not do that anymore. Instead I will use an eyeliner, but only a little,so the difference on the eyelid is not so easy to notice. I will use that only when I go out. That's a good trick as most people will not notice that we don't have lashes if they see a black line on the lid.

Week 9- sloooow progress

Well, so I reach the 9th week with Latisse and the 5th with the seven star hammer. I have 8 black new lashes, I got 3 new ones this week. So 8 out 75...makes a very small amount. If I get 3 new ones every week it will 25 weeks to cover the lid or I guess around 10 weeks more to have a decent amount. Christmas in my target! Anyway I will be happy if I have the same progression and have eleven by next Wednesday. I thought once new ones would come they would come quickly but..that is not the case. Reading the study from Spain: "The average time needed to induce eyelash regrowth was from 4 to 8 months". I think most people with Alopecia Areata do not wait long enough when using Latisse.

Regarding the little hammer, I see a decent but not spectacular re-growth. Anyway, it it only 5 weeks. In the scalp seems to be working better than in the beard as in the beard I see almost no results. Anyway, again, it is only 5 weeks, I will use it until Christmas also and then evaluate. I will post a picture very soon and compare with the other one. I dislike that it takes around 40 minutes to every day together with the Latisse and it is a bit painful.

Week 8- some hope

I am now in week 8 and I see a little bit of hope. The lashes that were not affected seem stronger now and I have not experience any falling in the last weeks. Instead I see that 5  new black tiny  lashes coming out where there was no hair. Considering there are around 150 lashes, I have probably lost 75, so 5 out of 75 is not so good , but probably the beginning of the recovery...lets keep optimistic!
I have also spent sometime on the internet reading forums. I found out that Latisse may be approved soon for Androgenic Alopecia (could it help me as well there?) and it is widely used also for eyebrows. I am not gonna test it yet for that and I will keep my self focusing on the lashes with the clear target of having full lashes by Christmas. Then it would be almost 24 weeks and a good time to analyze results of Latisse for Alopecia Areata.

In the meantime,on the other eye, the lashes are definitively longer and maybe darker. Lets wait one week and get a new picture on week 9 and see if the black tiny ones are having new friends :)

(Unofficial) Cure for Alopecia Areata II -plum blossom needle

This is an interesting video about a girl describing the use of the plum blossom needle for alopecia areata. It was working for her but she didn't give any more feedback. As I wrote I think this little seven star hammer could be of some use as a cure for alopecia areata for people with just a few spots, but I think (and again I am not a doctor of any type) that this is not a solution for areata totalis or universalis. It can probably "cheat" the immune system for a while and definitively bring some blood to the scalp, but my guess is that after a while the immune system will again "attack" the hair. As I wrote yesterday, it is also working for me in the scalp pretty well and I will post some pictures after 6 weeks of use. I started using it in the beard but I started a week later and 2 weeks is not enough to see results. Be aware it is a bit painful.

Week 7

This is the picture from week 7. I have started noticing that the remaining lashes are getting longer. The lashes on the other eye are also getting longer. I think you can easily see that it is getting stable...I am not losing many since the picture from week 2...only a few lashes...so that's good. It is not possible to see in the picture that I have a few tiny blond ones and that a few of them are growing ( a bit) but none of them are getting black. I spent sometime yesterday reading on the Internet about Latisse again. 16 weeks, that's the target! I hope I will get new black ones by then!

Update on the 7 needles hammer: It is three weeks since I started using the hammer and I am resting now for 4 days. So I use is every other day for 3 weeks and then resting 4/5 days. I will post the picture after I am finished with the second period that I will start on Monday. So far it looks like a some black hairs are growing. I can see it specially in the middle, but it would be too much to ask to get a full re-growth on only 3 weeks, so lets wait at least until the second period is finished and then I will post the pictures and can evaluate the changes.

(Unofficial) Cure for Alopecia Areata I -plum blossom needle

When becoming desperate about Alopecia Areata, one can get to the most strange remedies. One of this kind of "desperate" remedies that you can find on the internet and that your doctor will never recommend you is the plum blossom needle (or seven star hammer). Well, I have bought one and I am gonna test it.

This is a picture I got from the internet but mine looks exactly like it:

 This was my scalp a week ago. My hair was growing a few days in a row, although I normally shave it every day. The reason is not alopecia areata but androgenic alopecia.

Treatment: I clean the hammer using alcohol, and then I use the hammer to hit my spots until there is some blood coming. It is a micro-bleeding, nothing severe, just to get blood to the skin and get it a bit irritated and red. After I clean the spots using Minoxidil 5%. I do it two days on a row and rest one. I will also rest two or three days after two weeks and change the head of the hammer (maybe my head also :)))) It is a bit painful and takes around 10 minutes.

As you can see I have only a main spot and a few tiny ones. I  have been using the hammer for 9 days. Once I am back to my house I will take a new picture (total treatment 3 weeks) and see if there are any results. As I read in order to complete the treatment I may need 6-8 weeks. It is probably not a good idea and I would not recommend this to people having AT or AU. But it may work for people with just several spots like myself. We will see!

These are a few studies on the use of the hammer for Alopecia Areata:

Treatment of 40 cases of alopecia areata by plum-blossom needle plus rubbing with ginger slice

Treatment of 42 Cases of Alopecia Areata with Plum-blossom

Treatment of alopecia areata with plum-blossom needles plus moxibustion: A report of 53 cases

 

5th week

And here it comes the picture from the 5th week that I have just taken. Nothing, so far  I don't see any new lashes coming. It is too soon anyway. I know it takes at least 8-12 weeks to see some results. And even the studies say that 4-8 months. I am just hoping that at least I never need to use the faked lashes...but it could happen in a couple of months. This last week has been pretty stable. I am finishing  my vacation at the beach and I will be one week fully offline. I hope that when I am back I have some tiny ones coming. :)
Enjoy the blog and please comment. Positive experiences and good humour is always welcome!
Did Latisse work for you? Please let me know! :)

How to treat alopecia areata (I)

Excellent diagram on how to treat alopecia areata. Read also this link : Alopecia Areata a new treatment plan.

Fourth week

So here I post the picture from the 4th week. No big differences except for the fact that I got one single new black eyelash growing. This one which was small before is over 0.5cm now...is that the effect of Latisse? I am sure it is not. Lets be patience! The blond small ones are still there and I continue losing several every week. This week was not good at all. I lost the three long ones just in the very middle. I think I have now only 50% (probably less) of the eyelashes. But I can certainly see that the remaining ones are getting a bit longer and that is a good sign. I still use Latisse only once a day and after carefully massaging a bit the area (trying to get some blood in there)

I have to excuse myself because the lights on the pictures are pretty different but I am on vacation so its not possible to take the picture from the same spot.



2nd week                                           3rd week                                    4th week

All studies so far on the use of Latisse for Alopecia Areata

We have those four studies plus a last one from Universital Hospital Virgen Macarena, Sevilla, Spain on the use of Bimatoprost that says that  24.32% of subjects showed a complete regrowth, moderate growth was reported in 18.91%, slight growth in 27.02% whereas no response in remaining 29.72%.

So the numbers are good and there are reasons to be optimistic.  The two main studies say that almost half of the people will get a complete or moderate growth. There is a lot more to study and of course better studies to be done, but again, my personal opinion is that it worths trying. I am doing that, lets see :).

Before my dermatologist suggested me to use Latisse I read different comments on forums on the Internet, and I can say that the numbers match what I have read in the studies. There is a 50-50 recommendation on the use of Latisse by people with total or partial alopecia on the eyelashes. But please, consider that it requires time, I am going to give it at least 24 weeks, that is 6 months, if it has not worked in those six months, then I can say that it doesn't work for me. If I get my lashes back, I cannot assure that Latisse has worked but I would be quite satisfy :). Fingers crossed.

Third week of Latisse

After the third week, I have noticed two tiny black hair growing and new several small blond/white hairs. They are sometimes the first step before the growing of the good black ones, I hope so.
But so far Latisse has not stop other eyelashes from falling. I have lost several, three or four, but just in the border, meaning it is still expanding a bit. Like 2mm per week, which seems nothing but almost makes 1cm a month, which seems nothing but we have to consider that there are not so many cms in the eyelid.
Yesterday I started using a cotton stick to massage a bit the eyelid before applying Latisse, just to try to bring some blood circulation into the area.
I feel in good mood now as I am going on vacation for a month, but I will still update the blog. My mood is up and I am feeling quite well, except when I see one of the "border eyelashes" in my face in the early morning.

Second week                                                                Third Week

Latisse and Alopecia Areata

This is my first post regarding Alopecia Areata and the use of Latisse. I have created this blog in order to share my experiences with this illness and specially when it comes to the use of Latisse to regrow the eyelashes but I will write also about other things related to AA,  which in my case is affecting my scalp and  my beard for the last 10 years and my eyelashes for the last 2 months.

There are only a few studies regarding the effectiveness of Latisse with Alopecia Areata. I will comment them in coming posts. In general  there are mix reviews on the Internet about how effective Latisse is for AA. I am gonna try it myself and we all can see how it goes. Whether it works for me or not, it does not mean much, I am just one single case so it could just work also with placebo or maybe it doesn't work for me but it does work for others...we will see.

I have AA due in my opinion to stress/anxiety...so I think it is stress related in my case.This is a personal opinion. I got it just 6 months after I started working for the first time and I can still feel the anxiety.
I had been "fighting" with AA since then and for last 10 years,  and got several patches on my scalp and several that I still keep in my beard. The ones in the head come and go but not the ones in my beard. The alopecia areata barbae has one good thing and one bad. The good one is that is more difficult to see, and the bad one is that is more resistant to treatment and harder to treat also. It is in the skin of your face, so I really have to take care not to damage it.

Eight weeks ago I noticed that I lost some eyelashes and have been slowly losing more until today where  I have lost lets say around 35% of them.  Two weeks ago I went to the dermatologist and he recommended me to use Latisse. I have been using it since then. The picture you will see today is after two weeks of use...no results so far.
For the last month I have taken AA  more serious since the eyelashes is something that you really can see...its not like the scalp, or the beard. So I have started going to the psychologist for a month and am trying to get the anxiety out of my body. That will hopefully also help.
 
I will be happy to read your words and your experiences. Sorry about my english as it is not my mother language, and please contact me for whatever you may like to share.


Current Treatment:  Psychologist to treat anxiety
                              5% minoxidil once a day for my scalp (treat scalp spots)
                              Sun (when sunny trying to get at least 15minutes of sun/day)
                              Latisse (on both eyes, once a day)

This is the picture taken after two weeks of Latisse.