Women in the Military Lost Hair After Iraq Deployment
Hi!I thought after 8 years,after being in the army and deploying to Mosul, Iraq. Me and my battle buddy were some of the only women to still be losing our hair. I’m now 32 and that happened when i was 23. My hair has almost completely fallen out. I now have to wear wigs probably for the rest of my life and I’m fighting the VA for some kind of acknowledgement and compensation that this is happening to military women after being in Iraq.
I have seen specialist many thing i was exposed to something but don’t know what so they call it Alopecia. But I know its something more, its time this has finally come out. Theres other women with the same problem. So soon the VA will have to pay us for this. Thanks
Alopecia is just a generic term for hair loss, so that doesn’t exactly pinpoint what is causing the loss.
I honestly do not know how being in combat would contribute to hair loss for this long. If there is extreme stress, one can argue that could be causing the hair loss… but that would apply both to men and women, and it would be reversible (unless it kick-started a genetic process that would’ve occurred anyway).
Many women who are not in the military or in combat have diffuse hair loss, and sometimes it may be due to genetic causes or to stress. In your case, you’ve been experiencing the loss for 9 years, so I’d expect the stress-induced loss would’ve regrown by now. I’m stumped on this one.
I’m so sorry to hear that you are noticing hair loss. fortunately, female hair loss should be easier to deal with than male hair loss. You may benefit from a topical antiandrogen or something like AHK……see mpbtreatments.com. I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH THEM SO DON’T EVEN GO THERE you other people on here! I’M JUST TRYING TO HELP!!!!!!!!!! You can also have any experimental medicines TESTED using various academic labs that offer this service. You must do what you need to do to help yourself. Hair is an EXTREMELY important part of self confidence. You can get the AHK and antiandrogens (topical) from other sources besides mpbtreatments probably. AHK and topical antiandrogens may not cause the notorious shedding that minoxidil would cause upon discontinuation. Minoxidil is also supposedly not allowed to be used by military flight crew…….AHK is awesome!!!! You can even buy Tricomin or RUSK hair spray and pour the AHK in it to these bottles to increase their concentration of AHK and spray it on your hair. Dermarollers (1-1.5mm) can be used to help thicken up the hair and increase absorption of medicines.
I’ve known men and women from the gulf and Iraq wars and hair loss and skin disorders are incredibly common. I would assume a lot of the men had normal genetic balding but the many cases of female hairloss suggested to me that the high use of various chemical proppelants and possibly radioactive material in large war theatres might have had an effect.
You’ll find very few soldiers have had much recourse as decades of cases have never been properly investigated or answered and a lot of medical trials have not found one single clear explanation (it’s very possible there are numerous different hazardous contaminants in field operations). Sadly a lot of people will never know what caused their disabilities or other issues. Best of luck with your case.