Bad Hair Day?

[mati]

I have a funny story to share with you. If any of you are like me, you occasionally/often suffer from migraines from hell. They started to get intense when my dr's decided to decrease one med and increase another. Not to mention that I've really cut back on my caffeine intake lately.
Anyway...
My hair was all one length about 3inches below my shoulders and I ALWAYS kept it back in a ponytail. I was sick of it, so I went and told my fairy hairdresser to cut the ponytail off! I was thinking that if I couldn't pull it back, than maybe it would help my headaches. It helped until the decreasing med was decreased once again. I was just so darn sick of my head hurting. Guess what I did. Go ahead, guess! I shaved my head! I love it! I wore a baseball cap every time that I saw my mother until just last week and she completely freaked out. "OMG! Your hair! What have you done? It WAS so pretty, now you look like a little boy!" Keep in mind that I'm 5ft and weigh 90lbs. I just told her to chill, my head was hurting and she could not possibly understand how I felt unless she was inside it. Anyway, it'll grow back. It's not like I cut my arm off!! :P
I was looking in the mirror yesterday (wearing a grey t shirt and khakis, no make up) at my tiny little cowlick and thought to myself, "If I were a guy, I'd so check me out 'cuz I'm cute!"

I hope that you found that amusing. It really has cut back on the migraines and it was all worth it just to shock my mother!

[Bernard]

I have often expressed to Stacy my desire to shave my head. Hair is a hassle IMO. However, I don't think it would be helpful for my business and Stacy won't go for it. :shock:

Do you have two tennis balls and a sock?

[Nancy]

Well -- did shaving you head help the headaches ??

I didn't have a serious headache in my life until I started having those strange "spells" when I was around 44 years old. Ugh -- miserable, killer headaches ..... in one tiny spot - left temple and sometimes slowly moving to be behind left eye then moving to blast out left side of rear head..
When I was diagnosed with epilepsy Nov. 1990 (and as I've said before I had NO idea adults could develop epilepsy !!!) I was told headaches and epilepsy had no relation so I was "claiming" headaches to get attention.
My last neurologist said that migraines frequently arrived with seizures and ordered another eeg to show me certain brain waves/something that indicated migraines.
Now I take an assortment of triptans that help.
The brain surgery helped a lot too --- maybe eventually it will cure the migraines ?

[Bernard]

I was told headaches and epilepsy had no relation so I was "claiming" headaches to get attention.

Don't you just love it when doctors presume that you are full of twinkies? I wonder if that doc has ever been enlightened?

Seizures and headaches

[mati]

Sorry, Nancy, I guess I left out well basically the whole point of the story. But, yes, thank goodness it has cut back on the migraines tremendously!!! Not to mention that it's a great do for the hot weather.

I still do get the occasional migraine/headache, but it's not nearly as severve as it was before I decided to shave my head. Before I even cut the ponytail off, I was having migraines so badly that I stayed in bed with all of the lights out wearing a sleep mask and NO noise and didn't even eat for almost 2 weeks b/c if I did I'd vomit. It was just one long migraine. I thought my head was going to explode. I only got out of bed to go to the bathroom and feed my cats. It was awful. I went to the neurologist and he tried putting me on some kind of prescription migraine med, but as in the past that stuff does nothing for me. I can barely take Aleve, but it does work best for me. (We're all different!) Anyway, when I got the ponytail cut off it helped so much, but after a while I noticed that the pain was coming back. My hair was just long enough to feel really heavy and it's very thick. When I shaved it, I felt like I had just removed a few bricks from my head. I feel so much better. My head still hurts every now and then, but it's nothing that an Aleve can't take care of. I would have never dreamed this 2 months ago.

I'm not saying that everyone out there suffering from migraines should shave their head b/c it's going to make it all better. I don't know that. I'm not in there! Don't blame me when you are having a bad hair day. I'm just saying that it worked for me!

[NeeLee]

Shaving your hair seems strange to me in regards to migraines. I have suffered with them since I was 8 years old. When I started having seizures which was 4 years ago as a senior they tried adding Topamax to help control my Migraines which were up to four a day, each lasting about 4 hours. Severe with very debilitating Auras that prevented me from working and all other important functions almost full time. The seizures were also preventing me from a functional existence. I was also on Keppra to control them. Thankfully the Topamax gave me relief from the Migraines and I have only had some rebound auras and several Migraines which are contraolled with a pain medication. I do not understand how shaving your head other then the weight of a pony tail or heavyness causing additional pain during one would affect a Migraine. Migraines are systemic and have to do with blood and circulation etc. It is an Organic process that triggers and causes a Migraine. Someone please tell me how cutting your hair would affect that happening other then psycologically and if that is the case. That is fine. Anything that works-works!!! I have a hair thinning problem with Topamax and Keppra so I do not have to take drastic measures with my hair-- thankfully. The Meds, are doing it for me.

[occb]

I shaved my head when I was younger -- even going from short hair to no hair is a dramatic feeling. Your head weighs less, it's cooler in the summer and you don't have any hairbands, clips, or elastics that can pull hair and press on the scalp and bring about other kinds of headaches. Hairbands are the worst for this.

[becks]

Hi Matti, i did the same thing my hair wasn't so long but my meds were making it fall out quicker than normal and this was really upsetting, i trained as a hairdresser when i was younger and i still do hair sometimes so i have my own kit i sat infront of the mirror one day and shaved the whole lot off, it was so liberating and not having to worry about my hair falling out. Now my hair is shoulder length again but at the moment no desire to shave it off but i do tease my husband about it sometimes.


Luv Ya
Becks

[Endless]

Hey, Mati,

I used to have long hair when I was younger. It gave me regular headaches all the time. My regular headaches often progress to migraines. When I cut my hair real short, half the headaches went away because I wasn't sitting back on my hair any more! The barrettes I used to wear gave me headaches, too.

How long before you stopped reaching up to brush back your now nonexistant hair? It took me months to quit reaching up to flip mine.

[NeeLee]

Mati, I did mean to imply that shaving your head could not work, I do indeed envy that it works for you and others. I just find it amazing and wish I could find something other then Medication to work for me. Between the Keppra and Topamax, I have terriblke side effects and as for shaving my head to stop the Migraines I am already traumatized by my hair falling out from both of those Meds. enough to have my Neurologist change the Keppra and see if we can stop that from happening. But I wish there were another way without medication for at least one thing either the seizures or the Migraines. You are very fortunate to have found something other then drugs.

[Nakamova]

Reaching up behind my head to brush my hair has been a seizure trigger in the past (perhaps because of a change in blood flow to the brain), so maybe that's another consideration.

But I vote for a cooler scalp being the major factor in the migraine reduction... When the weather gets warm like today, I think about trimming my hair, especially because long hair sucks under a bike helmet. But if I shaved my head it would not be pretty.

[lureswinger]

i often found that kissing the floor at speed is a good reason to get stinking headaches let along walking into a shop and running up the stairs getting to the top step before blacking out and waking up to find out you are being bundled into an awaiting ambulance

[C0urt]

My mom shaved hers last time i got mine cut for comfort purposes, plus it is getting hot in the south.