Hair Loss

Some people's furniture is covered with cat or dog hair. I like to go a different route....

My hair is falling out again. After years of going through periodic hair-loss, I've got in the habit of sticking the loose hair to the shower walls, or in this case the back of the shower chair, as a way to stop my drains getting too clogged up.  I don't really think about it too much - once it's dry, it goes in the rubbish bin and I forget about it - but when I came back into the bathroom a couple of hours after having a shower this morning, I was surprised to see just how much had come out today.

I'm constantly picking bits off my clothing, and there's always a fair bit left on the couch or pillow whenever I've been sitting or lying somewhere. I've taken to wearing my hair up, as the temptation to run my hands through my hair leaves me with a handful of loose strands. For the first time, I've actually found small bald patches, as I seem to be loosing more from the sides of my head than the back.

I'm not really bothered by this. I am quite glad I decided to donate my hair, as I think this would be really disturbing if the strands were four times as long, but even with the bald patches, my hair has always been so thick, you can't actually tell the difference unless you're examining my head at close range.

I wanted to post this, because hair loss is one of those things that people don't really get about autoimmune disorders. I remember having someone say to me: "How come you're loosing your hair, if you're not on chemotherapy for cancer?" It kind of one of those questions that's hard to answer. The doses of chemo used for autoimmune disorders are significantly lower than those used for cancer, so they don't necessarily cause hair loss for everyone, but they can still have some effect regardless of what diagnosis you're on them for.

At the moment, I'm not quite sure what's causing the hair loss for me. I have recently upped my methotrexate dose, so it could be down to that, but I've also been flaring quite badly, so it could be that my body has decided to shut down anything of low priority, such as hair production, to conserve resources. Either way, I'm hoping it settles down soon. At least so I don't have to vacuum so much, if nothing else.

Thanks for reading,
Little Miss Autoimmune