Hello everyone!
I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I am about to start am interesting journey and wanted to share it. Before we start, I wanted to share an update on our crazy little crew.
First off, our little nugget Emerson is doing amazing! He is 19 months old and totally a wild man! Since Nick and I both work for a school system so we took full advantage of our 2 week Christmas break and it was awesome! I wish everyone was able to get that time off. Santa brought Em this huge Hot Wheels roller coaster for the back yard and he can’t get enough of it! We are looking forward to 2020 and all the wonderful new things in store for us.
Now, on to this journey I am on. As some of you know we had a rocky road to getting and staying pregnant. While figuring out why my body was rebelling against us, we discovered that I have a gene mutation called MTHFR, which stands for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, but looks like an abbreviation for mother f**cker, which it is. Basically, with this mutation my body does not process folic acid or other important B vitamins like it should and can cause an array of issues including cardiovascular/ thromboembolic diseases (specifically blood clots, stroke, embolism, and heart attacks), depression, anxiety, chronic pain and fatigue, migraines, recurrent miscarriages, pregnancies with neural tube defects, like spina bifida and anencephaly, and that’s just to name a few. It was terrifying to learn I was facing this, but luckily my OB was amazing and knew just want to do. The next time we got pregnant, we were healthy and on a roll! And 9 months later we got to meet our sweet, healthy, baby boy, Emerson Robert.
SO what’s the issue? I am losing my hair. From the time we had our first miscarriage to now, I have lost a substantial amount of my hair. At first I thought it was just due to the stress and depression I was dealing with after losing my first 2 pregnancies. And then once we got pregnant again I thought it was just hormones. And then when Em got here I thought maybe it was just post-partum hair loss, but here we are 19 months later and it is getting thinner by the hour, I swear! From the research I have done, your postpartum hair loss should subside within 8 months to a year after birth, mine has not.
Now this may sound vane or petty or however you want to look at it, but I have always been the girl with big hair. In fact, my sisters fall into that category as well. We have always been “the Emrick girls with the big hair.” My hair was lush, think, and curly and I loved it. It was part of my identity, of who I was. And now I feel as if I have lost that part of me completely. It affects my mood and my self-confidence. Even on my worst day, I could usually count on “having good hair,” it was something I could always fall back on.
But friends, I have been putting on a front. I have been so embarrassed and upset about my hair loss I have been getting tape-in extensions for the last 6 months and hardly telling anyone about it! And my hair dresser is such a rock star (seriously, I will give you her info) you would never know the difference! She makes it look so nice and natural, I finally started feeling like myself again. Honestly, I love them! She and I decided I would do the extensions until my natural hair was back to the length and strength it used to be, but that has yet to happen. Unfortunately, it has actually continued to decrease in volume and health. It is short, fragile and constantly breaking off. The last time I went to the salon I sat in her chair and cried as I looked at what is left of my dull, brittle, straw like hair. I take good care of my hair. I never bleach or dye it, and I only wash it every 5 days or so, which sounds gross but is actually pretty good for your hair. I use heat protectant products and leave in conditioners. I just don’t understand. I kept asking her what was wrong with it and she wasn’t sure either but that he way it was thinning was definitely not like anything she has seen. It’s from the lower back of my head. Most hair loss is on the crown or top of the head or in the form of a receding hairline.
In my search of what may be going on I decided to start with the dermatologist. My doctor really didn’t seem super worried about it and I felt like she kind of blew me off since I had found that the extensions really did help with my confidence. They did blood work on me and when they called with the results they were pleased to tell me that everything came back normal, which was great. So I asked what the next step to figuring out what was going on and they said there was not one and that I was healthy….not so great.
A few days after my derm appointment, I had a hair appointment and sitting in my hairdresser’s chair crying, I decided that it’s time to stop being embarrassed and really try to get to the bottom on this. We’re not embarrassed when we get our nails done or wear a pair of lashes, so why should I be embarrassed about this? Especially if it something I can’t control! So it was settled, I would start the process of taking my extensions out, so I could just focus on my natural hair. It is terrifying, absolutely terrifying and truly makes me feel naked. Once they are out, my hair will be the thinnest and shortest it has ever been in my life. I’m serious, I have never cut my hair shorter than my back bra strap. It will now be a little over my shoulders, and very thin, with a slight gap in the back where it is just so thin it’s barely there. For now, we put a few less back in and cut the extensions to better prepare me for the length change. One more visit of moving them up and thinning them down and they will be out for good.
The next step was to schedule an appointment with my family doctor. They were very helpful and reviewed all the tests that the derm took. She told me thyroid results came back fine as did my iron levels and a few other things they check with hair loss. She referred me to a gene specialist at Children’s Hospital. I will let you know what comes of that. She told me we would figure this out and if they didn’t find anything at Children’s she would refer me to a more specialized dermatologist.
At this point, I just want to know what is happening. If it is a reaction from the meds I was on while I was pregnant? Or it really is the stress still having an effect? Or if it is from the MTHFR? Or maybe I have some wired form of alopecia areata that’s just thinning instead of bald spots. Maybe it’s the extensions pulling on my hair and once they are out it will solve things. Or maybe it is something deeper, and more serious. I have no idea! But I want to get ot figured out. We are hoping to be pregnant again by the end of the year and I don’t want any more stressors than necessary during that process. Plus, I just want to make sure I’m healthy for the baby I already have!
Below are the items I am currently taking so I can better track if maybe those items have anything to do with it:
- Loryana Birth Control
- Vitafol Prenatal Vitamin
- Metafolate
- Vitamin B 12
- Woman’s Daily Multi Vitamin
- Melatonin- when I can’t sleep.
- St. Tropica Hair Growth Vitamins- I just started this. I saw some posts about it on Instagram and I am desperate so I thought I’d give it shot!
I will post some before and after pictures of my hair once I get my extensions out.
If anyone else is on this journey with me, or has been already, please let me know some things that may have worked for you! One of my sisters uses Monat and she raves about it! Her hair has really taken off and looks super healthy! But I have also heard horror stories and am a little scared! Are there any of shampoos or conditioners anyone knows about?
As always, thank you so much for reading through all of this! Hopefully we get some answers soon (:
As always, stay sassy,
thewrightbrunette.com 
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