Female Hair Loss Is Treatable: Carolyn’s Patient Story

I’m Carolyn Cox, and this is my patient journey. My hair loss, looking back, I think started a number of years ago, but it was something that was so slow that I didn’t really recognize what was going on until maybe about five years ago, when my hairdresser started spraying my scalp because it gave the illusion of thicker hair. We went with that for several years, and that seemed to work, and I really wasn’t too worried.

And then a couple of years ago it moved to very dry hair. We tried conditioners, the best conditioners that my hairdresser could find, and the dryness just really did not subside.

That had been going on for two years, and then I noticed one day. This doesn’t happen overnight, but the process is so slow that it seemed that overnight I looked in the mirror and I was astonished at how little hair I had, and I thought, I have got to do something about this. That was in August of last year.

I called Doctor Anderson’s office and got an appointment in September to go in and have an examination of what was going on with me and what we could do in restoring some hair. I knew to go to Doctor Anderson because I’d been reading about him in various magazines, interviews with him, and I never thought that I would be the patient.

I always thought about it being my husband, because they’re the ones that go bald, right? They have the male pattern baldness, not the girls. I was so delighted that he had an office here in Avalon, not very far from where I live.

So I came in, and he took the pictures, and when I saw the pictures of my scalp, because of course I’ve never looked down upon my scalp, I couldn’t believe how little hair I really had. There it was. And he diagnosed me with female pattern baldness, which I’d never heard of.

So we did that treatment. He said it’s going to be about six months before you notice anything, and that was true. When I came back for my six-month review, it was astonishing, the hair growth that had started coming back.

I also have a couple of things that I do at home every day. The red light cap therapy, every morning I do that. It’s easy, no problem.

And then a couple of topical things that he prescribed. So we’ve got numerous things going on that are all working together to produce a better look.

It is interesting how your hair has so much to do with confidence. I was starting to wear wigs because I was losing so much confidence in my overall appearance. I just feel like I’ve gotten so much of that back again, and I cannot recommend Doctor Anderson enough.

He does not make promises that he cannot keep. He did not tell me you’re going to have the hair that you had when you were 17, but he said we can help enough come back that you’re going to feel good about yourself again. And I do, and I’m very grateful.

People are noticing. We were with some friends a couple of weeks ago that we hadn’t seen since last November, and immediately my girlfriends noticed. They said, gosh, your hair looks so good.

And then I went through with them the treatment that I had had. I don’t mind talking about it with people, but unless it’s someone I’m really close to, I don’t say anything unless it’s mentioned to me. But people have noticed, and what that tells me is that if they’ve noticed that my hair looks that much better, then they had been noticing that it wasn’t looking that good in the past.

It was not bad at all. With the injections, he numbed my scalp, so I really felt nothing at all when he was going through that procedure. I didn’t have any downtime, and I did not have any pain.

My head was semi-numb for a couple of days, which was fine, but that was easy. The home experience doesn’t take that much time. That’s very doable.

He has made everything very simple and easy to do, with a very honest outcome.

I think just realizing what’s really going on is the first thing. I do wish that I had realized it earlier, realized to this extent what was going on, because coming in earlier I could have saved more hair. It was about five months into the treatment when it was almost an overnight thing.

One day it was like, oh my word, I cannot believe it. I was telling my husband, look at my hair, look at it! And he was astonished too.

Doctor Anderson had explained, I’m not going to grow more hair, but the hair is going to be healthier. So more hair was coming out of those follicles, and it was so healthy. A total transformation in the texture and the health of my hair.

I wish I had known how serious this was and come in earlier, because then I could have saved more of those follicles. But I’m really impressed with what he’s done so far.

I would say, just realize that it is not going to get better. You’ve got to take some action. If you want a full treatment, meaning you’re going to have your hair really come back, Doctor Anderson is the one.

It’s not going to be just something that gets treated and looks better for a while. We’re talking about, from now on, go to the best, go to the professional. My experience here has just been outstanding.

When Doctor Anderson asked, because I was giving him so many accolades in the office, whether I’d be interested in sharing my personal experience, I said absolutely, because I think one of our purposes in life is to help one another. People have helped me with other things by recommending things that helped me. So if I can do the same in this realm, I am just happy to do it.