Added!  Make-up artists will be on hand for our lunch and beauty event at Twin River in Lincoln, RI…easy drive from all over New England. Close to Boston and Providence.

Bring your make-up challenges!  You’ll get help, answers and have a good time, too.

Bald Girls Do Lunch brow kits and sealer will be for sale.

RSVP today! Send your email to info@baldgirlsdolunch.org for all the details.

Close to many major highways and a short hop from Boston, Providence, New Haven, Worcester, Hartford, Bridgeport….it’s so easy to join us at Twin River.

Featuring our spirited BGDL lunch format lead by Thea Chassin. A professional make-up artist will be on hand to give individual help. Spend time with us while your friends enjoy the Twin River casino.

Bald never required at BGDL.

Case in point: today a blog alert pops up with a bold font headline that a major USA ivy-league university’s researchers have identified a gene for inherited baldness. It refers to a famous science magazine and gives the issue month.  It says that funding was provided in part by a well known alopecia research funding source. So you might assume this has something major to do with current alopecia research. BUT…a bit more exploration and a read of the original article reveals that publication was in 1998. The baldness being discussed is a rare recessive trait of 11 members of a Pakistani family where hair fails to grow after an infant’s ritual head shave at one week of age and members are born without eyebrows or eyelashes. Genetic studies are valuable, but “news” must be taken in context.

In the blog, the principal investigator is quoted…remember this is 1998…”The discovery of this new gene gives us endless possibilities that may allow us to effectively treat hair loss and possibly baldness within the next five years.” Whether this is an accurate quote or not, I don’t know….but there are too many who still believe if it’s in print it must be so!

So…the point is this: understand that there’s context and follow back to the original source when seeing hair loss genetic “discoveries” on the internet. And try to get the whole story whenever you see any bold face announcement “We found a gene!”

Please visit the photo gallery for new additions: Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Boston and Seattle.

Enjoy!

You may have heard of a photochemical treatment for AA using systemic or topical Psoralen combined with Ultra-Violet A light therapy (PUVA). The February, 2010 issue of the JAAD reviews current treatments and states why this treatment is no longer commonly used:

“Systemic and topical psoralen plus ultraviolet A light phototherapy have been used with limited success.  Long-term safety, side effects, and a high relapse rate have curtailed the use of psoralen plus ultraviolet A light phototherapy”

….”Two large retrospective studies showed that the response rate is no better than the spontaneous remission rate. Because of the high relapse rates, lack of randomized controlled trials, and the increased risk of skin malignancies with PUVA, this line of therapy has become a less favored treatment option.”

A short and meaningful radio clip from the North Bay Report ( 2008) Click and give a listen (mp3) to Bruce Robinson and Thea Chassin.

You’ve probably seen some numbers about AA, but they don’t tell the whole story. The  lifetime risk of having some form of alopecia areata is estimated to be nearly 2% (1.7%)….nearly 5 million in the US by today’s census. Lifetime risk means the percentage  of people who have a chance to have any type of AA( including transient episodes) over their entire life. That does not mean that nearly 2% of the current US population currently have a form of the disease.

The prevalence of alopecia areata is far lower…how many people currently have it.  That estimate is 0.1% to 0.2% of the population. Big difference.

A bit more than basic info about contact sensitizers in the treatment of Alopecia Areata.

We have a far better chance of improving lives when we take your focus off finding a cure and put it squarely on finding your core… values that is.

So you happen to have alopecia. What are you letting it do to your life?

This article was researched using patient surveys collected in the NAAR ( National Alopecia Areata Registry) a multi-center data collection project based at MD Anderson in Texas. History of atopy or autoimmunity increases risk of alopecia areata.

And at the bottom here, you’ve got a list of the scientific meeting presentations and published articles using the NAAR database. Just keep in mind that the identification of genetic locations (loci) and alleles (markers) is not a straight path to anything having to do with treatment. Kind of like zebras and oranges.

…well actually rip out the cosmetics ads from magazines. Save them. Study the faces. Look closely at the eyebrows. Start looking at the eyebrows of the people you meet every day. To put your best face forward, become a brow analyst. Appreciate the power of the eyebrow. It works.

One dollar from the sale of each HairDanna is being donated to our nonprofit. Click here to read the inventor’s story.

Would you like to be a BGDL Alopecia Ambassador(TM) in your city/region for Women with Alopecia month, July 1-31, 2010?

Send message to thea@baldgirlsdolunch.org

Mark the calendars. You won’t want to miss this event for alopecians, friends, family and supporters.

“Celebrate Three” party April 14, 2010: Mark Garrison Salon, 108 East 60th, New York City

Click here for all the details.

Reserve  early for the best discount.

in the inbox, that is. And if I find a product and service I just LOVE, I’ll spread the word. Many women at the lunches ask me, what make-up is on your face/head? Here it is: Lancome Absolue foundation. This week get free shipping and free samples with code below. I am on the Lancome-USA.com email list and got 9 different travel size products FREE with my order of one foundation today.

Step one: visit a Lancome department and find out your color (don’t depend on your computer monitor to be accurate). Not sure? Don’t be shy…they need your business so ask the artist to do different colors on each side of your face and wear it home. Or try both formulas of Absolue.

Step two: Always start online shopping at www.goodshop.com and enter Bald Girls Do Lunch as your charity. For this promo, enter Lancome as  your store

Step three: At checkout use code “warmth” (week of February 15-21, 2010) for trial samples and free shipping……AND if you login as a regular you get even more for a total assortment of  9 travel size products.

You search and shop as always and philanthropic companies send donations to nonprofits like ours.

1) Go to goodshop.com

2) Enter Bald Girls Do Lunch as your charity.

3) Know that major corporations are making a donation because you entered us in the charity box.

4) Every time you do that, know that we are thanking you very very much.

5) To make it even faster and easier, download our special toolbar.

Did her core values, interests, intellect, personality or anything about this person change in the time she went from long to bald? When you lose your hair, none of that changes about you either…..First step?  Believe it yourself. Watch.

that keeps on giving all year long is the one that  honors  someone else. Maybe your friend with alopecia. Or maybe someone you’ve never met who needs financial help to attend our lunch. No matter for whom nor how much…..we think any gift of any size is a lot of lovin’. Use our Donate Now button today. We’ll send a card to your recipient or you can be annonymous.Thank you for gifts of all sizes that spread  love and caring.

Someone who  discriminates or holds prejudice against others because of race is a racist.

Someone who discriminates or holds prejudices against others because of lack of hair is a hairist.

Click here for the answer.