Am I normal?

As you might expect, I keep track of a lot of fellow hairloss sufferers, am engaged in a lot of hairloss groups / communities and read up a lot about it, not to mention the emails and tweets I receive along the way! Thinking specifically of Alopecia here, something many are keen to know is 'Am I normal?'

Some of the questions I've seen / received in the last few weeks:

• The areas of regrowth on my son's head is hurting him; is this normal?
• The hair on my head is regrowing, but it's white; am I normal?
• After years of no hair, it's suddenly regrowing; has anyone else had this experience? Is that normal?

The answer? Yes! Totally! Or maybe I should say no as well!

Let me explain! The longer I've had alopecia, the more I have read and the more people I have met, the more I have realised that actually, there is no normal, or everything is normal, whichever way you prefer to look at it! Every single person's story is different, and whilst there are similarities in the behaviour of each person's alopecia, there are no two stories which are exactly the same.

Answering the questions above:

• Some people answered yes, and some people answered no. I don't personally experience pain at regrowth, but I do when it's about to or falling out. I have however also met others who have pain when it grows, but not when it doesn't, and people who've advised they never get pain at all!
• Personally, mind always grows back white (expect for the eyelashes), and it's never reached the stage where it's later turned brown again. I've also met people where it grows back the natural colour immediately and those where it grows white then changes. It seems there is no normal regrowth behaviour with alopecia.
• I've had years of no hair, and despite as mentioned short bursts of regrowth that never reach any considerable length, I've never had it back. I've also met people who suddenly had a full head of hair which has stayed permanently, and those where the growth later fell out again!

When it comes to questions like these, I've come to realise that either everything is normal, or alternatively that there is no normal. Every single individual case I have come across has similarities and differences and as yet, I've never found two the same! I've met identical twins where one has lost hair, people on immuno-suppressants who shouldn't lose their hair but have, even a person born with an alopecia condition who has never grown hair! Baffling! Yet at the same time reassuring to know that whilst it may seem strange, abstract and even unsettling, there is no right or wrong way to have and experience alopecia and therefore the answer is yes, you really are normal!

Victoria x

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