Alopecia Areata: How I Grew My Hair Back

Hi, due to popular demand, I am dedicating an entire blog post about how I managed to grow all my hair back after losing it to Alopecia Areata. 

Regular readers will know that I lost my hair due to stress and anxiety around 3 years ago and made a video about it as I was scared about my classmate's reactions when we came back for the next school year.
You can watch the video here:

As you can see... I lost most of my hair in a very quick space of time, it took around 3-4 months for me to reach my 'peak time of baldness' before I started recovering. Looking back I can identify exactly what I was doing wrong in self care terms and I am happy to share them with you. 

1) I was eating way too much sugar and processed foods.

What I mean by this is that I was skipping breakfast, lunch and dinner and instead living off of processed foods such as microwaveable meals, pot noodles and large packs of crisps. This was super bad for me because it meant that for a long amount of time, my body wasn't receiving the nutrition it needed to maintain healthy functions, skin and hair. The fact that I was consuming 2-3 large packs of crisps and chocolate a day meant that my hair follicles were becoming weaker as they were not being renewed and restored. I have learnt that sugar is extremely dangerous to me, this is because I have a very fast metabolism so I couldn't physically see the harm that too much glucose was doing to my body as I didn't gain weight. 

As soon as I started eating organic and went on a processed foods and sugar free diet, I felt myself becoming stronger. My dad is a restaurant owner and has also served as chef, i'm lucky that he knows how to work with raw and organic foods to make perfect meals. He started cooking meals that supported my dietary needs which helped a ton. It helped to boost my confidence because I had something to be proud of, as well as gave my body the vital nutrients it needs. I believe that if I didn't change up my diet, I wouldn't have grown my hair back at the rate that it did. 

As Alopecia is an auto-immune disease I decided that I wanted to bombard my system with the vitamins that I was severely lacking. I went to my chiropractor to take a deficiency test, afterwards, she had me taking 6-8 large pills a day of the pure vitamin. 

2) I was not drinking enough water.

I cannot stress enough how important drinking water is! If you are not drinking enough water then your body cannot function properly, therefore making it 10X harder to grow back a full head of healthy and strong hair. The benefits of drinking water are endless... And if you don't like the taste of water, mix it with a low sugar cordial. If you struggle to find the time or find yourself forgetting to drink water, have set times like when you wake and before you sleep to drink water, you could also set specific alarms during the day reminding you to keep hydrated. 

3)I was straightening my hair everyday.

If you are losing your hair, it means that your hair is weak and you should probably stop faffing around with it. I was doing the complete opposite. I was straightening my hair everyday with the highest setting everyday without a heat protective spray. It was killing my hair and essentially killing my hair follicles, thus causing my hair to fall out. To avoid further scalp irritation, stay away from heat products and avoid hairstyles such as tight ponytails as it causes strain to the follicles.

4) I was extremely stressed out.

I was stressed due to my grades falling at school as well as other small and irrelevant things. On top of this, the thought of losing my hair brought me to an all time low. I fell into a depressive state where I slept all day, stayed in my pyjamas and never went outside. I started fighting against my stress by attending weekly chiropractic treatment to calm me down and also fix my neck(I was carrying my heavy bag on one shoulder and now that shoulder sits lower than the other). 

I also started practicing meditation and mindfulness. I focused on self acceptance and eliminated the fear of losing my hair by coming to terms with it. I researched the auto immune disease and accepted that it would take over my life for a little while. When partaking in some guided meditations, it made me realise the sheer amount of work that my body does on a daily basis, I learnt to change my mindset that ' my body is weak and that's why i'm losing my hair' into ' I can't maintain my hair, but I can maintain breathing, digestion and so many more amazing things'. This positive mindset helped me achieve a full head of hair and I think that without positivity, I would have found it hard to talk about hair loss therefore not being able to help others. 

I was introduced to the Law Of Attraction through the book " The Secret" which my mum was reading at the time. As a strong believer now, I can see that my positive mindset at the time helped me overcome alopecia and gave me countless positive opportunities.

5) I surrounded myself with the wrong type of people

The people that I surrounded myself with often had a lot of drama which brought me more stress. In a sense, the constant dramas created an unsettled. insecure and unsafe atmosphere, which was the opposite of what I needed. As soon as I changed my friend group to one that accepted me, I felt comfortable to be myself. Having 3-4 close friends where you can be 100% vulnerable around really help me to become bald and brave when talking to people. I tried my best to eliminate all the negativity in my life.

If anyone has anymore questions for me regarding Alopecia, leave them in the comments or feel free to Direct Message me on Instagram. ♡