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(Genesis 27:11)

(For latest news about Paul's hair - follow this link!)

Alopecia Title

Jane started teasing me about my bald spot in June 1998. I didn't take it seriously at first, but in July I noticed my hairline was receding, too, and by the end of July, the rate of hair-loss was starting to seem a bit unnatural, not least because I was also losing my eyebrows! In August I went to a doctor, who sent me to a specialist, but by then my hairdresser had already made a diagnosis about my increasingly patchy hair - and the specialist didn't really tell me anything more than I already knew. It was Alopecia. In October I shaved off what was left, and a few weeks later I was more or less totally bald - all over. It took about four months...

What is Alopecia Areata?

(This definition is taken from the excellent web-site on KERATIN.COM)
"Alopecia areata (AA) is a non-scarring, inflammatory, hair loss disease that can affect men, women and children. The factors that activate the onset of alopecia areata and the mechanisms of its development are not fully understood. Circumstantial evidence suggests alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease where cells of an individual's own immune system prevent hair follicles from producing hair fiber."

It may not sound like a terrible disease - but just look at what it did to me between june and october 1998:

Hair today...Hair todayGone tomorrow... Gone tomorrow!

Yes, in four months all my hair fell out. And not just on my head, the same thing happened all over (yes: there too!). All that was left was a couple of wisps in my armpits - and pretty soon they were gone, too..

This has some social side-effects, too. People suddenly started talking to me in hushed voices, asking "How are you?" in the reverent tone normally reserved for the terminally ill. When I repled "I'm fine", they looked at me as if to say "How brave..." A very odd feeling. And then the other day someone saw me with Jonathan and Marcus and asked if they were my grandchildren! Uh... well... Perhaps he had bad eyesight.

Of course it's made an impression on the children, too. As Jonathan remarked on a windy day: "We have to go inside quickly, so my hair doesn't blow off, like Daddy's!" Jonathan has had nightmares, too: "The bad dreams won't stay in my head, they climb on top of my head and eat my hair up!" Nothing wrong with his imagination, anyway...

The question is: Will it ever come back? If it does - you'll see the pictures here!


UPDATE! 07.01.2000

The first few hairs...Wow: I've got hair! At least a little bit: Little patches have been developing on my head and face (if you look very closely at the picture you can see a few wisps...). The hair seems to be growing at a normal kind of rate, and the patches also seem to be getting bigger. But they are still only small patches, and to avoid looking like something from a horror movie, I have to keep shaving them off again. So no great hope. Ah well. We'll see what happens in the Spring.


Update! 22.10.2000

Well, not much happened in the Spring, except for the mysterious patches of hair getting slightly bigger. But as Summer and Autumn progressed, the rate of change appeared to pick up a bit. Now I've got hair over most of my head, although it's still pretty thin. There are a couple og hairs where my eyebrows and eyelashes used to be, and there is a little bit of facial hair, too. That's about it - but I'm letting the hair on my head grow for a while to see whether there's enough for it to be any use.

Jonathan, having now got used to having a bald (and smooth) Dad, has now complained that I'm too prickly. Just can't win!

Also in the course of the Spring, I discovered The National Association for Alopecia, so if you're Norwegian, you can have a look at their web-site HERE.


Update! 19.01.2001

Nearly normal...Here it is - my new head of hair. Almost all over, at any rate. Still not much on the face - and still nothing anywhere else. The funny thing is - it's only taken me a couple of months to get used to seeing that little fringe of hair again, so all the old pictures with no hair are already starting to look a bit weird. Was that really me??


Update! 18.01.02

Well, another year has gone, and through the year my hair kept growing, and I even had to start shaving again. But now it seems the process has gone into reverse again. There is still a fair bit of hair around the back and sides, but the top is reverting to baldness. Now this could be a coincidence - but I'm also on sick-leave, suffering from "work-related stress". Will the hair come back again when everything's back to normal?


Update! 21.01.04

People are asking me how it's going now. Well - I seem to have settled into a pattern where my hair grows doing the spring and summer, and then gets thinner again during the winter. The good news is that I seem to grow more hair in the summer than I lose in the winter, so I'm looking more and more normal as time goes on. I've also developed some more facial hair and even some body hair, mostly on the arms. So the long term prognosis seems fairly good. On the other hand I've developed a rash on my face that won't go away, so maybe I should have a web-site about that next!


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