Hol Mi Close

 I haven’t written a Hol Mi Close post in a while and lately I’ve been caught up in stresses and in the inability to find something exciting or interesting to say. Most of you should know I’m in my second year in university and it has been a struggle. But this semester seemed to be the most stressful of the two previous semesters. I mentioned some time or the other that I made a change from psychology and I’m now pursuing teaching. However, the transition was difficult and still is no matter how I try to indulge myself in it. I found myself not performing has I used to or how I should have been. I spent time mourning over my decision. I moved from my old apartment and got another roommate. I thought we could never live together, much less become close friends. Turned out we were quite the same in numerous ways. I suppressed a lot of my problems and slowly they were causing me breakdowns more than I could manage. I found myself becoming bulimic but it wasn’t a continuous practice. It was those varying moments were I felt that I could not hold up anymore. But it was on of those nights in the bathroom that I asked myself what does God think of what I'm doing. How can I try to be an inspiration or example to others when I find the unhealthy roots to becoming healthy?

No Longer Hidden: Alopecia Monocularis

I really started to notice that I had less hair on the right side of my head in high school during 2nd form/8th grade. I thought that I was seeing double or my eyes were merely fooling me. It wasn't until 5th form/11th grade that I saw that I was almost completely bald on that side. It made me very insecure and I felt that everyone was always staring at my bald spot (imaginary audience). I did some research and gathered that this was called Alopecia areata Monocularis. Which is baldness in only spot of the head. It was when I started my hair journey in November 2010 that I visited many forums so as to find remedies for it. I've done:

• Garlic rinses for the area
• Rubbing the area with garlic
• Massaging area with castor oil
• Olive oil infused with rosemary leaves
• Tea tree and Lavender essential oil massages

 The garlic rinses didn't do much for my alopecia nor my hair and it had become a pain to my regime. Rubbing my scalp with the garlic required me to wash my hair frequently and that wasn't working too well. Castor oil seems to make my hair shed more and so I stopped using it on my scalp. The olive oil with rosemary leaves wasn't too bad but yielded very little results. I went on to a website and started reading up about EOs. Tea tree and lavender oil were recommended for hair loss and other ailments and I found a combined blend by Now Solutions. I started using coconut oil and a few drops of the above mentioned essential oil (EO) and that was when I started to see results. When I first started using it, I irritated my scalp as I didn't dilute the EO properly. Over time I narrowed it done to 7 drops of EO to 2oz of coconut oil. I oil and massage my entire scalp with this mix; however, do a thorough massage on the alopecia area. There is a type of tingly cool feeling when I apply this and massage the area. I also add the essential oil to diluted shampoo so as to properly clean my scalp as the essential is anti-bacterial. The first picture in the image above is not the beginning of my alopecia; I had a picture where that section only had a little speck of hair and it was "very bald". But I lost that image. My alopecia is inherited but my tight pony tails and relaxer burns on the area were contributory. I try to avoid putting a lot of tension on this area whenever I do flat twists I do not use a rubber band to hold the flat twist at that area. That is where the halo came into play; it was my way to mask my bald area. I have a longer way to go but here's my alopecia story.

Now Solutions 100% Pure and Natural Lavender and Tree Tea
Benefits: renewing, cleansing and stimulating
Mixes well with: lavender oil, eucalyptus oil, rose absolute oil
Extraction Method: steam distilled from leaves and flowering tops