My Experience With Traction Alopecia

I believe it all started when I had a vitamin deficiency. There was an entire year where I just didn’t leave my house in broad daylight like that. It was a time where I was still trying to figure out which direction I wanted to go in life. Fortunately, I was a sponsored artist working with a Gwichin rapper /independent film maker from Alaska, and I was doing a lot in music at the time. My entire life that year was music and training, which these things would happen during the evening.

Anyways, let’s fast forward into a couple of months. One day I was in the train with my cousin and I slightly became blind for a split second. It freaked me out, I didn’t know what was going on. I started to realize that this would happen a little more often, so eventually I get checked out. I went to a hormonal doctor and spoke to him. I’ve always been pretty accurate and self aware with my body. However, doctors always seem to believe they are perfect when they are not. As someone in the wellness industry too as I am also a personal trainer and own my own business called Ktaow, doctors are like personal trainers. We aren’t perfect and we don’t always know everything. So, I speak to my doctor, he asks me some questions and having enough time to diagnose myself I was pretty sure I had a strong vitamin D deficiency.

My doctor refused to believe this was the issue, he said I wouldn’t have this much of a deficiency because I do not live in a 3rd world country. What he never asked me was my life style (like personal trainers ask our clients). When you tell people you were not going out during the day , they never take it literal but I was being very literal. I even described going slightly blind some days and he still seemed to be in denial about it. My doctor only prescribed me 10,000 IU. However, I researched that I need to be prescribed 50,000 IU and he said that would be too much (again being in denial). So I leave until my next check up.

I took a lot of blood work, and my vitamin D deficiency was obviously accurate. I was on the 10,000 IU and it didn’t seem to be helping me at the time, now I started noticing my hair falling out little by little. At this time because of training I had my hair in a braid , and sometimes box braids. So it was hard to detect where my hair falling out was coming from. At this time I never even heard of traction alopecia. Fast forwarding time, It was already time for my check up. I began my check up and the first thing the doctor does is apologize to me. He begins to do tests on me again, sees my results, and prescribe me 50,000 IU. A new symptom I developed at the time was aching bones from my deficiency.

So now i’m taking my 50,000 IU vitamin D , I’ve been training a lot, I’m looking good, I’m making money, I’m on top of the world right? Wrong. I started to realize my hair was falling out more and more. I go back to my hormonal doctor, and get checked out. I told him about my hair loss situation and the first thing he says without asking me any questions is “oh its just old age”. I told him I’m aware of balding and literally I have pictures of all my ancestors nobody was bald. So he said there was some blood test he could do to check to see if its genetic. We do the blood test and it comes out negative just like I knew it would. Now I go to another he recommended and he asked some good questions such as If i took supplements because excess magnesium is known to promote hair loss, but then he also hit me with the “its just old age”.

I’m still not buying it because literally I would feel inflammation on my scalp, and it would be painful along with my hair having breakage and shedding. Shedding would mean im balding, but literally my hair follicles would feel so painful sometimes its hard to explain. I began to book another appointment with this dermatologist. He didn’t really ask me many questions, it was pretty quick because i saw him during this pandemic. All of this was happening in the span of 4 years. The most improvement I saw with my hair was being vegetarian one year. The dermatologist looks at me and claims its male pattern baldness, and says its can skip generations (which i already knew) but if thats true why is my blood work saying its not genetic. Something’s not adding up. I just feel like people down play hair issues and dont ask the right questions. Hair loss is definitely emotionally taxing on men, to the point where they are in denial. However, if im telling you i just got blood work that says its not hereditary and you’re saying its male pattern baldness it means you are just trying to rush me to your next patient.

My doctor eventually prescribed me finasteride and minoxidil. See im prone to weird allergic reactions or rare symptoms like me getting myocarditis from the moderna vaccine. So reading the finasteride side affects some of them have to deal with depression and possibly never having kids. The never having kids is a deal breaker for me, i asked him about the side affects he said he’s never had someone go through that, but that also could be because most people are older when they need finasteride.

Losing my hair definitely was an emotionally taxing journey for me. There were days I was adapting to shaving my head, and there were other days I felt ugly. I didn’t feel attractive anymore and didn’t feel comfortable in my own skin. I thought I had buried these feelings many years ago as a child, and would never go through this again. It was hard for me because this was my entire identity. I had long hair my entire life. Till this day i’m not used to it. Speaking to a friend of mine who is a cosmetologist she was the one who told me it sounds like I had traction alopecia and she was right. I had every symptom of it, but its been hard because there are times I see my hair growing but then it sheds. I’m still trying to figure it out till this day, but I feel like if it was hereditary id have no choice but to accept my hair loss. The fact it’s not, is making me uneasy and want to restore it.