Self-Portrait – January 2012

Before I get much further…

1. Yes. I chopped all my hair off.

2. Yes. It’s real snow in Seattle.

3. Yes. It’s an Instagram

Now I’ll elaborate a bit…

1. For the past 6 or 7 months my hair has been falling out. In chunks. I’ll spare you the photos with my hands literally full of hair or the bald spots on my scalp. I had had this happen once before, probably 4 years ago. Small bald patches that grew back and no one was the wiser. This time is started just before we moved to Seattle. I figured it was a mixture of stress and whatever had caused it the first time. And then it kept happening. To the point that I had major bald patches on the sides of my head, my bangs, and my top part. Besides not wanting to leave the house I was constantly hat shopping online. I scheduled several doctor appointments. I had lab work done. I started taking a plethora of vitamin and mineral supplements. And eventually had a scalp biopsy. All the while my hair was still falling out.

The blood results came back with slightly elevated TSH, and they put me on thyroid medication to get that in check. The biopsy ruled out lupus, alopecia, and a few other concerns. It’s not cancer.

I started seeing an acupuncturist. To see if it was stress related and maybe there was a way to balance that out some more. I don’t feel terribly stressed anymore. Sure moving across the country and the stress that led up to that was intense – but that stress is gone. (Side note – I LOVE acupuncture.)

It got to the point that I was only able to wear my hair pulled back in a ponytail. Leaving it down it was looking stringy and oddly thin. I’d had enough. I used to have short hair. I knew it would work. I was concerned because the hair on the sides, which had been bald, were only about an inch long. I found a fantastic stylist in Jake. I told him about what I was thinking and let him work. I love it. It’s much more “me” than hiding under/behind what wasn’t working anymore.

New year, new month, new city = new haircut. Sounds about right.

2. It doesn’t snow often they tell us – but these huge wet snowflakes were dropping super fast and thick Sunday (Jan 15th) afternoon. It was fantastic. Coming from Michigan (where it’ll drop 12 inches of snow overnight and life goes on like normal) it hasn’t really felt like winter yet. We got the excitement of the first snow. And the boys had snowball fights and built a snowman. I’m also looking forward to it warming back up a bit and turning back into rain.

3. I’ve been in love with Instagram since it first came out. I’ve ordered so many sets of StickyGrams I’ve lost count. (I gift them to my parents and my in-laws too.) For our annual family calendar I added several of my favorite Instagram’s from last year. So it only seems fitting that this month I start there.

That’s by far the longest monthly self-portrait ramble yet. All in all – things are good. They’re looking up and better than ever. (Besides missing my family/friends – which I hear never goes away.)

See ya next month.

Tagged as: hair cut, instagram, seattle, self-portrait, snow