Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I'm having a hair fall. It's one of those things that goes with lupus, but I haven't had one for quite a while.

I cut my hair, so it doesn't seem as bad
when it falls out.

Since my steroids have been cut back, I've had extra pain and fatigue, and now the hair issue.

(Of course steroids caused their own hair issues as well - I had to wax my moustache and sideburns often. Before steroids I'd never thought I'd be doing that.)

I found it quite distressing, having handfuls of hair fall out. Other lupies on Twitter gave me some suggestions: B-group vitamins, Hair, Skin and Nails tablets, and pre-natal tablets.  (This last one I found amusing, imagining what the staff at the chemist would think if I bought pre-natals along with my regular truckload of pills. I can already hear all the well-meaning advice against becoming pregnant while constantly pouring this toxic cocktail into my body!)

So, next time I'm at the chemist's, and I'm there at least once a week, I'm going to look at B-group vitamins, and at Hair, Skin and Nails, and see which will work out the most cost-effective for me to try first. I'll give the pre-natals a miss, at least for now.

In the meantime, I've had the chop.  I decided that if my hair were half the length, there would only be half as much in the handfuls that fall out - and that would look far less disturbing. So yesterday morning, when I got up, I took my domperidone, and in the time I have to allow between that and eating breakfast, I went to the bathroom with a pair of scissors, and cut most of the length off my hair.

Cutting my hair has an extra benefit, in that it's actually easier to wash and brush than long hair. That's really important on the days when my shoulders hurt and make reaching my head difficult!

For a brief moment, I considered getting out the clippers and taking all my hair off - having the problem completely solved, at least for a short while. It wouldn't be the first time I was bald - in May 2006, on my 40th birthday, I had all of my hair shaved off to raise money for the cancer society's "Shave for a Cure". That was less than six years ago, when I didn't know I had my own horrible disease.