czyphr

Beauty, Lifestyle, & Events

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casual photos that surprise, made it on my feed ahaha #WeArePHInfluencers #phinfluencers #lawofattraction #manifesting #bossbabemovement #beautybloggerph 🧿 (at Bonifacio Global City) https://www.instagram.com/p/CY1Y-IaFNcc/?utm_medium=tumblr

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2021 was a rollercoaster ride. (at BGC, Taguig City) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYOApS7lEsN/?utm_medium=tumblr

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✨ claiming it, for the good of all and with harm to none ✨

#manifestation #bossbabemovement #plc #phinfluencers #WeArePHInfluencers #lawofattraction #playalacaleta #affirmationoftheday

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CWWmYmdhv3L/?utm_medium=share_sheet

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Warsan Shire, “Backwards” / Squidward, Spongebob Squarepants

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Green Fame Photoshoot Dump 💚 pt 3

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Green Fame Photoshoot Dump 💚 pt 2

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Green Fame Photoshoot Dump hehe 💚 pt 1

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Farewell.

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I think I should revive this blog.

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CSC: Confidence, Support groups, and General Updates

It was definitely an internal battle earlier.

To shower or not to shower?

Showering still won though. I know I have to, so I will. And I did. Yay to having the courage to shower three days in a row! I think it also helps that I am seeing less and less shedding every time I comb my hair. It’s now almost back to the amount of hairfall I get when I was still “normal”.

I now have more courage to wear…

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Current State of the Crown: Victim Blaming, Noticeable Progress and Plans to Move

Victim blaming is never a good idea and yes, I will call you out if you do.

Before anything else, I just want to say that I appreciate all the messages I’ve been getting lately. I was so scared of judgment that I can seriously count on my fingers the number of people that I told about what is really going on with me. And even within that group, less than half knows what I’m going through.

I’d like to say I’ve never missed a day of blogging ever since I got diagnosed, and…

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Current State of the Crown: Rollercoasters, Goals, and Expensive Wigs

I spent the weekend in an emotional rollercoaster. I spent Friday extremely productive. I booked an appointment with a dentist (this is long overdue) and an gynecologist (because it’s about damn time and I’ve read about the possible links of AA and the female parts). I finished about half of my laundry load, I deep cleaned my bathroom and I tried new (vegetarian!!) recipes.

Then from that lovely…

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My Ideal Week

Time is gold.

I came across Michael Hyatt’s blog post about making an ideal week, suppose you have 100% control of how your time is spent. The idea is that since time is a resource, it will be treated as a resource, and is allotted to certain “departments”.

As Michael Hyatt explained it,

My Ideal Week—the week I would live if I could control 100% of what happens—is divided into a simple grid. Each day has a…

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Smiling despite being heartbroken.

I have come to the point that I can no longer style my hair to hide the spots.

Still, the fear of people knowing or being curious strikes fear in my heart.

Fear of judgment. Fear of gossip. Fear of pity.

But what can I do?

Not covering it up would invite much more questions.

  Highly visible bald spot.

I’ve been listening to a motivational podcasts lately and one thing stands out.

Fear becomes progress and struggle is beautiful.

I have an ongoing battle within me, the good wolf and the bad wolf. Both of them ready to kill each other any minute of the day. Both are mortally wounded but neither have any indication of backing down.

Spotify: Motivational Podcast Playlist  by Landon Lynn Clark

Everytime I listen to these podcasts, I see in my mind’s eye that the good wolf is growing bigger, stronger, fiercer than the bad wolf. Everytime I get lost in my thoughts, the bad wolf growls louder and prouder. There have been multiple times the bad wolf has grown so big the good wolf looked like a newborn pup.

But somehow, the good wolf slowly recovers and catches up with the bad wolf.

I almost let the bad wolf win earlier. I was so fearful of what other people are going to say that I almost didn’t want to go. But I have to, and so I did. I’m so proud of myself.

But now I’m here.

Standing strong and facing all these struggles. One day at a time, one step at a time.

Lately I’ve been researching so much about my condition, learning about any possible cure (there’s none), chances of relapse, chances of passing it down, possible causes, diets or regimens that I can try.. All sorts of things that I can do to help myself.

Looking for something that can help me step up, get up, rise up.

The common denominator is to take care of myself. To realize and remember that I am a human being, I have limits, I need down time.

I am proud of myself.

I am proud of being able to push myself farther and harder in everything I do. I am proud of creating me.

But I am not proud of abusing myself.

There’s a thin line between pushing limits and abusing capabilities.

I very well believe that I abused my capabilities. To bounce back, to endure, to ignore.

How will I proceed?

I’m not really sure right now.

But sure enough, I will overcome this.

I decided to start with making an effort to keep myself healthy. I got a new Fitbit Zip for starters.

New Fitbit 🙂

As for the actual Current State of the Crown, here we go;

01/11/18

Weight:

Mood: Flatline

Temperature:

Blood Pressure:

I think I’ll also add in a screenshot of my Fitbit Dashboard somewhere.

Regarding my second day of taking corticosteroids, I feel mildly bloated and my favorite feels a bit too tight on me. I don’t really have an appetite as well. I think I’ve eaten less that a thousand calories yesterday.

The ointment is still the same — meh.

I skipped the medicated shampoo today, as I’m only to use it MWF. So I used the gentlest shampoo I have, Johnson’s Baby Shampoo.

I still have a lot of shedding though, and even thinner hair. Oh well.

mde

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I guess I have nothing else to do but take care of myself and as always, trust the process.

Note: These Current State of the Crown Posts are posted a day late. Please refer to the date noted in the post instead of the date the post went live.

Fear becomes progress and struggle is beautiful. I have come to the point that I can no longer style my hair to hide the spots.

[czyphr]

So I decided to make a blog series about my experience with Alopecia Areata, starting with out with my hair’s current state and some progress pictures.

I will also be sharing with you my trichoscopy photos and how my medication is affecting me. I’m hoping to make this a daily post, but will most likely be an every other day thing. I still want to post about different things and I have a couple of posts that I am pretty excited to post about.

So, let’s get started.

As mentioned in my previous post, I was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata on the 9th of January, 2017 by my father’s cousin, Dr. Felix Paolo Lizarondo. If you need a friendly, understanding and knowledgeable dermatologist based here in the Philippines, I highly recommend him!

    Just a heads up, some people may be a bit grossed out by the next pictures, which are my trichoscopy photos.

Trichoscopy is a hair and scalp evaluation technique which helps in distinguishing conditions like Alopecia Areata and and Telogen Effluvium in my case. These are usually 10-fold or 70-fold magnifications but I think mine is just 10-fold.

The red flags of alopecia areata are visibly noticeable on my scalp, such as the exclamation mark hairs, coudability hairs and broken ends or what I used to call regrowth. I included a photo from the internet for comparison.

  I also have the yellow dots and black dots, indicative of hyperkeratotic plugs and destroyed hair follicles.

Hyperkeratotic plugs are an indication of a presence of an abnormal quantity of keratin resulting in rough, cone-shaped, elevated papules. The openings are often closed with a white plug of encrusted sebum.

As for the scaling and irritated parts of my scalp, those are mostly after effects of me not washing my hair everyday — resulting in itchy scalp, dandruff and icky stuff.

Now that we have that laid out, let me show you how my hair currently looks now, fresh out of the shower.

01/10/18

I have Diffuse Alopecia Areata, so rather than having patches of bald spots, I have very noticeable thinning all over.

Here are photos taken in a similar fashion so you can see the progression easily.

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burst

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I have a very active case of DAA , which is why Dr. Lizarondo decided to act fast and prompt my system to hit the brakes. I was prescribed corticosteroids to be taken daily for 2 weeks. I started taking them on the 10th of January 2017 and holy fuck I wish I was warned about the taste. And the after taste. and the after after taste. Heck, even my burps taste like it !! The only thing that was able to “extinguish” the taste was a cup of milk.

I was told to monitor myself for anything out of the ordinary, and girl, I took that to heart. I am now monitoring my weight, mood, temperature and blood pressure.

01/10/18

Weight: 53kg

Mood: Irritable

Temperature:

Blood Pressure:120/90

I think I’ll monitor my water intake and food intake as well. Just for shits and giggles. I mean, I used to, and I don’t know why I stopped. Life, I guess.

I was also prescribed a topical scalp ointment, calcium and Vitamin D supplements and a medicated shampoo. Let me just quote my journal entry for my first impressions regarding these products.

…the shampoo, well, it’s medicated. What can I do. The smell is not too bad and it doesn’t really linger. No irritation so far, except for a teeny sore bump I had on my nape after shower. It’s gone now though. The shampoo felt a little weird when I washed it off though, as if my scalp absorbed the bubbles and it’s just some viscous liquid that I applied. The cream is.. satisfactory, for the price. Come on. It cost nearly 3k for that tiny bottle! Of course I expected at the very least a cooling sensation, or a nice scent, or something. But no. It was just a semi clear gel that smelled literally invisible and felt like nothing when I applied it. Just a bit greasier.

To end this, I’m just a bit disheartened to know that it’s not recommended to use a hair concealer or spray to hide the obvious balding spots yet, as it may interfere and contaminate my scalp and treatment. I mean, it’s for vanity purposes, yes, and I know why it’s not recommended, but your girl needs a little boost you know? I can’t live in hoodies and not going out forever. Which means 2-3 months, since that’s how long it takes for hair to actually and noticeably grow back.

Do I have anything else to say?

Hmm. Nope. Don’t think so. I guess I can always add it in if needed.

That ends the first Current State of the Crown, meeting adjourned.

Information provided by my doctor, American Academy of Dermatology, Philippine Society of Cutaneous Medicine and National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

Overnight success takes years. So I decided to make a blog series about my experience with Alopecia Areata, starting with out with my hair's current state and some progress pictures.

[czyphr]

I have Alopecia Areata

Today I got my questions answered.

The hardest part is overcoming the fear.

My fear.

My fear of judgment, of other people’s opinion, of how they see me.

I am going for my dermatologist appointment later, my grandparents are coming with me. The two people that I have disregarded and taken for granted before are now the two people I can’t live without. They are my rocks, my foundations. I’m glad they will be with me later.

My doctor…

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How to Auto-Reload your BPI Amore Card

I discovered something new today! #BPIDebitCard

I discovered something new today!

  I have been wanting to setup my payroll account to “auto-save” but I have not been able to get around to setting it up. Then, upon playing around the BPI site, I discovered that I can just use my debit card to save up! I have been using it as an “extra” savings card, but I think this is a great way to build a savings fund as well!

By extra savings, I remove any…

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