Hair Chop!

Before

So it finally happened! 

GOT MY HAIR CHOPPED, YA'LLS!!

Drum roll please......


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Oh the anticipation!

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After

Cut: Right below the shoulder with layers. 

Sunlight is my filter

This lupus hair fall out wasn't playing! 

I heard that hair short was best for thinning hair. Short hair worked for me four years ago when I was first diagnosed and when my hair fall out was a bajillion times more traumatic.

My experience this time around isn't AS bad but still rough because as I said in my post about my hair falling out again, hair for us females means something to us. It's traumatic to see it fall in abnormal amounts. 

My current hair fall out opens up a whole can of warms. It brings me back to the pain I felt four years ago. It makes me worried about my health (hair fallout tells me my lupus is very much active). So many thoughts, so many emotions, so many worries.

Part of me was really sad to cut my hair. Growing out my hair and keeping it long was my "F*@k you" to lupus. I went from AT LEAST 75% of my hair falling out to about 85% regrowth. Yeah, yeah. Who knows what the actual percentage was... Point is I lost A LOT A LOT of hair BUT I also grew most of it back. Since my hair is naturally a big poof ball, I was able to create illusion of my once redonkulously full hair. 

HAIR EVOLUTION
Once my hair stopped falling out in 2010, I did use BioSil which is a hair, skin and nails regrowth and strengthening supplement. I honestly felt like it worked back then. As for right now? Since my hair is still falling out, I think it is just slowing down the process for now.

The evolution of my hair since it fell out in 2010 (I don't have many pictures from 2010- 2012 when my hair was at it's thinnest. I hated taking pictures!). 

Summer 2013

My hair was stronger and I was finally able to let it grow out without constantly cutting it

May 2014

Poor quality picture, but I wanted to show you how long my hair was

June 2014

My hair was loooooong

July 2014

Hair cut to right below my chest

September 2014

I cut my hair as it was starting to fall out in late August. One day I woke up with hair all over my pillow and I thought Enough! I cut it right above my chest. It continued to fall out more and more and so I chopped it off!

October 2014

Pictures the day I cut my hair

I was really digging the peekaboo brown underneath. Chopping off my hair means chopping off most of my peekaboo. You can still see the peekaboo brown but it's not as in yo face as it would be with my hair long. With sunlight (as in my after picture above), the contrast is more apparent.

No strong sunlight

SHORT HAIR PERKS

- I am using less hair products which makes them last forever! And it saves me money!

- My hair dries so much faster!

- I have less knots (my hair was crazy knotted underneath ALL the time. Rats nest!)

- Style time is cut down by more than 50%

- My hair does not get caught underneath my arm pits or even my car door...WIN

I haven't had my hair this short by choice since 2007 but I suppose change is nice :-) still re-learning how to style it but it's all coming back to me now. And it is quite fun to play around with. 

Just because I cut my hair short, my struggle does not end: Insecurities about hair continued and future fallout, concerns with my health, and feeling like I have "lost" (I know, silly talk!) a mini battle. Despite my crazy talk, I will continue to fight fight fight!

I am a lupus warrior! I am not giving up. 

<3<3<3