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Comment by Mizza | Hacker News Reader

This is for alopecia universalis - don't get your hopes up, gents!

As someone that has had alopecia aereata in the past, I will get my hopes up! There are definitely worse fates in the world than alopecia aereata, but not having people ask if I intentionally shaved a random section of my head would be nice.

I've had success mixing Rogaine foam (for blood flow) with max-strength hydrocortisone cream (for local immunosuppression) and applying 2-3x/day to the affected spot.

Best prevention I've found is to minimize stress levels, though. Haven't had any issues since I left my old job a couple years ago (used to find a new bald spot once every few months).

Not trying to be a jerk, but why don't you just intentionally shave the rest of your head?

As someone who has it, it's not that simple. Imagine a quarter sized bald spot somewhere random on your head. Maybe it goes away in a month. The next time imagine 3 dime sized spots on the edge of your hair line. It's one of those "going full bald " seems like overkill when you are so close to "normal" in most cases. Also, I can't speak for his experience but that's a lot harder when it's an eyebrow, which is my current situation... Maybe it will come back, maybe it won't.

Shut up and give me arthritis pills :P But you're right, if it really was this simple we would have found it..

Is it made from cat sweat?

My wife has alopecia universalis, so I'm going to get my hopes up ;)

anything for gray hair yet? :)

Several years ago (07) when resveratrol seemed to hold promise, I tried 300mg/day for a few months. I gave it up after the only benefit I noticed (ok, maybe better sleep) was that I stopped growing gray hairs.

I went prematurely gray due to being very ill. I was told that PABA (a B vitamin that often is not part of B complex supplements) and adrenal support can sometimes reverse gray hair. I am now 49. I still have some gray at the temples but I think it is less than it used to be (in my mid thirties). I took a boatload of supplements for a long time (for health reasons, not vanity -- I figured if gray hair was caused by adrenal stress and vitamin deficiency, then it was an indicator of what to treat for).

It's relatively cheap if you want to try it and see if it does anything for you.

You have any before and after photos?

Unfortunately, not really (in part because I sort of have no old photos of myself).

I have some recent-ish photos (made in the last two to three years) on my blog. But I have located only one photo from a few years ago. It was made under very dark conditions and really does not show anything. For one thing, it is too small. A confounding factor is that my hair goes readily blonde, so I look wildly different from one photo to the next, depending on a lot of factors.

This is the only old photo of me that I know I have: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v4b3_qtrnP8/UvlaGATv1UI/AAAAAAAAAQ...

This should be all the posts with pics of me on my blog: http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/search/label/Selfie

I will additionally clarify that "gray at temples" may be misleading. It is more like on either side of my forehead, along the edge of the hairline. So the old photo of me where I kind of have bangs -- those bangs would obscure any gray hair. Newer photos where my hair is swept back would be much more inclined to reveal gray hair against the brunette -- at least in photos where I am not so blonde that you can't really tell the difference between the blonde strands and the gray ones.

I'm having early onset white hairs on facial hairs. Small count, 4 or 5 but so noticeable... very unsettling.

i've recently started finding white eyelashes: not initially by appearance, but by them catching on the normal ones as the white ones are straighter.

Some people say astaxanthin helped them.

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