SnugglePuddles

SEPTEMBER POPSICLES

Autumn has arrived which means that soon everything will be getting a lot colder and wetter. This shouldn’t be an excuse to stop eating popsicles though. (Should anything be an excuse really?)

I’ve always loved popsicles, they are the perfect healthy treat and a fun way of helping you get your five a day. The great thing about popsicles is that the possibilities are endless, so it’s hard to get tired of them. They are as healthy and nutritious as you want them to be, making them the perfect treat to satisfy your sweet tooth without having to feel guilty afterwards.

SnugglePuddles As some of you may know, I’ve been blogging for ages. I started out about ten years ago. My blog being part of my portfolio website always made sense since I was mainly posting about my work… until now.

If you’ve read my previous post, you know that my hair has been falling out for quite a while now. I spent way too much time reading up on female hair loss, possible causes, what to do about it,… My hair loss is part of something much more complicated, so although this information was interesting, it was of no use to me. I told my friend that I was a bit disappointed that I had all this information in my head, but no way of doing anything with it. His answer was “So write about it!”. Some of my clients may very well struggle with hair loss (And I’m sorry if you do. I feel your pain!), but it didn’t really belong on my portfolio website… so here we are!

I am not the same person I was a few years ago, so I don’t really like to write about the same things I did back then. Although I still really love photography and retouching, it’s no longer the only thing on my mind. If you want to discover what else is on my mind, you’ll just have to keep coming back.

The plan for now is to have a blog post up every two weeks. I may post more often than that if I have the time and feel like it, but with everything going on I feel like it’s important to set a realistic goal.

To stay up to date, go follow the blog on Twitter, Facebook, or BlogLovin’. Those will be updated as soon as a new post goes live.

Girl on a mission: What to do when you’re losing your hair?

People keep telling me the reason my hair has lost half its volume is because I’m stressing too much. “If you stop worrying and thinking about it, it will grow back! It’s that simple!” How about no? We appreciate you trying to help and all, but many of us have spent a really long time researching hair loss and its possible causes. It’s not stress, thank you very much. And we’re way past “stop worrying” because we did that for a very long time and if we keep doing it, it’ll only get worse. *sigh*

Some women are lucky and find the cause of their hair loss pretty much straight away. A simple blood test can reveal things like a thyroid problem, iron deficiency, anaemia,… Others have a skin problem. But what happens when your blood test comes back fine and your skin is healthy? Er… In my case my doctor basically told me there was nothing he could do even though – among other things – my lips are blue, I have a hard time staying awake for more than 8 hours, I have bruises the second someone touches me, and my hair has filed for a divorce. You can scream all you want, many doctors just don’t really seem to care about your hair as long as you blood tests are okay and you’re not in pain.

On to someone who should care then: After vaguely going over my last blood test and without giving my head as much as a glance, my dermatologist told me to just accept it and prescribed Minoxidil. She said that sometimes there is no answer. Minoxidil is… er… it’s not known how exactly it works or why. To explain it in a very simplistic way: it prolongs the anagen (growing) stage so that the hair stays on your head for longer, giving you a fuller head of hair. Sounds great, right? Not quite. You see, the moment you stop using it your hair will go back to normal. You have to use it for the rest of your life, which in my case is hopefully at least another 60 years. It hides the problem rather than fixing it, which is something I really don’t agree with. She can tell me there is no answer as many times as she likes, something is causing this. We just have to find it.

I have seen more doctors recently than I have in my entire life. I now have to take something – which I had to promise not to google – and report back to yet another doctor in six weeks. (After which I will definitely google it.) He thinks my hair will start to come back as soon as my other problems are all gone. I also have to go see a cardiologist soon because although I’m digging not having to buy blue lip gloss, it’s probably not very healthy.

My hair loss is part of a much bigger problem and it won’t stop until I’m healthy again, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to make sure there wasn’t something I could do, or something I had overlooked. Here are some things I learnt on my journey.