Although many women find bald men to be sexy, aplocia areata can be emotionally devastating to a man or woman. Mind-body medicine may be "help-on-the-way" for this type of baldness and hair loss. In 1962, my father lost all of his hair in few weeks. The diagnosis was alopecia areata, which now considered an auto-immune response, is significantly influenced by stress. However, in 1962 it was a mystery and a curse to my father. At 42 years of age, he was psychologically devasted.
As a psychologist, now I can look back and see how the accumulation of stresses turned in to a hair-losing strain on his nervous system. At the time he had just lost his job to a depressed economy in the industrial city of Gary, Indiana. He had a wife and two children, a 10th grade education, no craft or skills, no savings left, lost the house, and the last straw was an automobile accident. In a previous blog I wrote about "metaphors" reflecting illness conditions, and in his case, all of these stresses were the "Crowning blow" for he lost the hair on his head first.
If my father had one major distinctive physical feature, it was his wavy black hair. He stood out handsomely because of h
is hair and he knew it. Now he stood out even more because he was hairless; eyebrows, eyelids, all body hair was gone. He felt like a freak and nothing could hide the change in his appearance. It was hardly the best of conditions to go job hunting without anything but laboring skills and a "bad back" residual from WWII. The war impacted him such that he never spoke of it and refused to go to the VA for help when he needed and deserved it.
I saw first hand, up close, the emotional toll that hairloss, baldness, alopecia areata could take on someone. Although no physician ever suggested psychology or psychiatry for treatment, he had about 25% of his hair return by the time of his death 35 years later. He was a model of adaptation, perseverance, and courage to me.
Why the memoir of my father's condition of alopecia areata? Because yet another application of my specialty - clinical hypnosis - is under study for this condition of alopecia areata. In the July-September 2008 issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, a study of 21 patients exposed to hypnotic treatment showed promise for hair growth. Twelve of the subjects achieved significant hair growth, and all patients achieved decreased depression and anxiety. I do not have persmission to publish the photographs of before/after results yet, but the hair growth was significant. The study was done in Belgium by Drs. Ria Willemsen and Johan Verderlinden. They made comparisons between pharmacological approaches and psychotherapeutic approaches, the they focused on the variety of imagery in the hypnotic approaches. These included hypnotic suggestions for:
- Vasodilation by imagining the healing effects of the sun on the scalp to increase blood flow to all hair follicles.
- Imagining gardening where patients were told that the land must be free of weeds befor new plants can grow. Patients were invited to imagine a garden and to garden in it.
- Tree metaphor involved suggestions to feel the strength of a big old tree and to imagine its roots going into the soil absorbing the necessary nutrients to grow more.
- Personal images were encouraged where the patients would find their own metaphor and images of hair growth.
- Healing imagery was suggested with images of healing energies flowing and immune balance.
- Mindful meditation along the lines of that taught by Jon Kabat-Zin were offered where the focus was on extending their awareness to the process of hair growth by their skin.
- Improving self-esteem was encourage to combat shame and embarrassment and to overcome any social anxiety and feelings of low self-esteem.
- Suggestions for recognizing emotions and their effects were offered to those patients felt to be more alexithymic or unexpressive or unaware of feelilngs.
The study includes laboratory analysis of blood to observe cytokine expression and T-cell activation to explore the underlying immune responses and to perhaps to develop a biological model for the hypnotic responses obtained. This study is another brick in the wall of our foundation for the mind-body connection's role in healing. Although not-scientifically controlled, my clinical experiences with alopecia areata patients parallel their findings. But it is always reassuring to see the empirical studies that confirm our clincal case results.
So, what does this mean to the patient with alopecia areata? Learn and integrate mind-body methods along with all other therapies you are using and give it your faith, belief and expectations for success. The beauty of disorders affected by stress is that we can become involved, empowered, and play a major role in the healing process.
For more information about alopecia areata you can check out the National Alopecia Areata Foundation 
or BaldGirlsDoLunch.org
