the itchiest (and most successful?) alopecia areata treatment i've found: squaric acid dibutylester

in may, my dermatologist and i set out on a fun new alopecia areata adventure where we made my body allergic to a compound called squaric acid dibutylester (which from here forward i'll just refer to as squaric acid because dibutylester is a ridiculous word to type more than once) by applying a concentrated solution of it to my arm. (see amazing bicep photo below). this photo does not do justice to how itchy this got. like, the itchiest itch i've ever itched. it took about a week for the reaction to peak and eventually the reaction had to be stopped with cortisone (yay, steroids!).

next step was a less concentrated formula that i applied to my bald spots once a week. on a scale of 1 to "the itchiest itch i've ever itched", the formula that i apply on my scalp is probably a 6 or 7. the sensation lasts for about 36 hours, then it gets flaky, then at day 7 it looks like a "normal" bald spot again and it's time to reapply. i'm so happy to say that it's all worth it because typically after a few weeks of applying, i can start to see hair growth. (see amazing scalp photo below).

the idea behind squaric acid is that when applied to a bald spot, the allergic reaction earns the attention of your immune system as something to fight, rather than fighting with innocent hair follicles. i believe this treatment is also done with poison ivy, the downside being that poison ivy is a substance that you could run into in nature, whereas squaric acid is man-made and there's very little risk of running into it on a hike and having an over the top allergic reaction. does that make sense? i'm not a doctor.

i'm still applying the squaric acid to my menagerie of bald spots every 7 days, and happily scratching away, eagerly waiting to meet my new hair sprouts.

yay, chemistry!

a story about the time that a hair product changed my life.

friends and strangers, gather 'round for a sweet little story about a girl with alopecia areata who wanted to confidently go out into the world, without wearing a wig. the story has pictures, calm down.

i'm a pro at rocking the female combover, unfortunately for me, one of my bald spots has gotten large enough that my female combover is coming up short. enter life changing product, sure thik. it's an easy to use, lightweight powder that's available in a bunch of shades (mine's medium brown, thanks for asking). here's how i use it: i sprinkle the powder over any bald-ish areas, gently pat it down, re-position my combover, give it a spritz of hairspray to hold it in place and voila! (see photo for voila moment).

there are similar products on the market, but i specifically chose this for a few reasons:
1. the ingredients are natural. there was nothing crazy sounding that i couldn't pronounce.
2. my dermatologist gave it a big ol' dermatologist's thumbs up.
3. it's canadian (yay canada!). this point won't matter to you if you aren't canadian. it might not even matter to you if you are canadian.

i'd highly recommend this to anyone looking to cover thinning / balding areas. i live in canada where it's currently winter and sure thik definitely holds up against the frigid, snowy, windy elements. it's made it so much easier for me to go out with confidence (and without a wig). it's $30 for a bottle that lasts me for a couple of months. not a bad price to feel good about yourself.

alopecia areata + gluten + steroids

a lot of people have a lot of opinions about gluten. perhaps not surprisingly, since i started blogging about my adventures with alopecia areata, a lot of people have told me i should try giving up gluten. due to my intense love of / addiction to gluten, i mostly laughed in these peoples faces (or to my computer if the comment was online). fast forward to two weeks ago when i started seeing a new naturopath. after an hour of her asking me questions about my health, my diet and my poop, she suggested that despite having no other obvious symptoms, i might actually have celiac disease. when she mentioned that celiac disease is an auto-immune disorder, the worlds largest, brightest lightbulb exploded above my head. my mom was diagnosed with celiac disease when she was a teen. i've always known this, but had no idea it was an auto-immune disorder and had never made the connection between her disease and my alopecia. my naturopath told me there's a simple blood test that can determine whether or not someone has celiac disease. i did the blood work that day, stopped eating gluten that night and felt the most relief i'd felt in a long arse time that maybe somebody (whom i'd just met, no less) had solved all my alopecia problems.

after two weeks of not eating gluten (and awkwardly staring at people as they ate gluten), my test results came back negative. the good news is that i don't have celiac disease! the bad news is that i still have alopecia areata.

my naturopath has suggested i try an anti-inflammatory diet consisting of lots of lean protein, veggies, fruits and beans, as well as exercising more and spazzing less. good luck, lindsay.

she's also tweaked my vitamin regimen a bit. check it:

natural factors, zinc citrate 50mg / day
nutrasea hp (high concentrate fish oil), 2 tsp / day
vitamin d, 4000 iu / day
thorne, ferrasorb (iron) 2 / day
natural factors, vitamin c, 1000mg / day
natural factors, biotin 300mcg / day

plus
he shou wu (from my tcm practitioner).

i've actually decided to stay off gluten. i've never been a farty person (i swear) but my stomach is totally silent since i've stopped eating gluten. downside, no more embarrassing stomach sounds during meetings at work.

in other news, my dermatologist is a little worried that my bald spots seem to be increasing. my hair is growing back much quicker with the cortisone injections, but he recommended 10 days of oral steroids to stop this round of alopecia areata and get some new hair sprouts, sproutin'. i told him i'd have to think about it, as roids sound kind of terrifying (side effects include being extra spazzy and eating everything insight). i mentioned the roids to my naturopath, and much to my surprise she was actually quite supportive of it. i see my dermatologist again at the end of february... i'll decide about the roids then based on how much hair has collected in my shower drain.