It can be difficult to know what to do when you find out that you have Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia (CCCA), because there's a lot of misinformation out there.
But once you know what CCCA is, how it progresses and the treatments available, it's much easier to manage your condition effectively. You can take a variety of steps to manage CCCA hair loss when you know what it is, how it progresses and what treatments are available.
First and foremost, the most important thing is to educate yourself on CCCA. It’s natural to be worried about your health and appearance as a result of having this condition but you may find that once you learn more about it, your fears lessen.
The more information you have at your disposal, the easier it will be for you to make informed decisions regarding your care.
Get the right diagnosis
The first thing you should do when you discover that you have Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia is to see a specialist that specifically understands CCCA. This can be a dermatologist, a trichologist, or any other qualified healthcare provider.
It will also be useful to get a diagnosis as soon as possible so that certain treatments can be started right away. The sooner the treatment starts the better it will work and the better chance there will be of saving your hair.
A diagnosis can usually be made by looking at your scalp under magnification or in certain cases a scalp biopsy may be necessary.
Manage your stress levels
Stress can cause hair loss. It's that simple.
When you're stressed, you produce more cortisol, which causes your body to start producing more androgen hormones like testosterone, which in turn makes it more difficult for the body to produce healthy, strong hair follicles.
Managing stress when you have CCCA is essential to not making things even worse.
Stress is also a known trigger for flare-ups in people with certain autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis; when these flare-ups occur, they can hinder treatment effectiveness by causing an increase in inflammation throughout the body—and since CCCA is correlated with inflammation as well as scarring from past flare-ups, this means that stress could speed up its progression significantly if left unchecked over time!
Eat a well balanced diet
Eating a well-balanced diet is important for all of us, but it's especially critical for patients with central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia. You should focus on eating foods that are rich in iron and other vitamins.
You'll also want to avoid foods that are high in salt and sugar, because they can make you feel tired and sluggish, which will hinder your ability to exercise and perform daily tasks.
As you're selecting foods, make sure you get enough protein. Vegetables like broccoli and kale provide plenty of vitamin K (which is necessary for healthy hair growth), while nuts like almonds contain zinc—an essential mineral that helps prevent hair loss by strengthening the roots of each individual strand.
Track your condition over time
When you have CCCA, it's important to track your hair condition over time. Using a hair diary can help you do this by keeping a record of changes in your hair. The same way that people with alopecia areata keep records of their symptoms, a CCCA patient should also keep track of when they notice changes to their scalp and how they respond to treatments they try. This will help them decide what works best for them and give them information about when doctors should consider other options if current treatments aren't working.
It can be difficult watching the thinning process happen, but there are some things you can do right now that will make tracking your condition easier later on:
Take pictures before each treatment so you can compare results later on
Use a combination of treatments
When managing your hair loss, it is important that you work with your specialist to determine what combination of treatments will work best for you.
When choosing the right combination of treatments for yourself, there are several things to keep in mind:
How much time do I have? - If you have recently been diagnosed with CCCA, then getting started on treatment right away is ideal because this type of alopecia can worsen quickly if left untreated
What is my budget? - There are many different options when it comes to treating CCCA including the traditional route as well as a more holistic route.
Conclusion
The most important thing to remember is that there is no one size fits all treatment for CCCA. It’s a progressive condition, so it can be difficult to predict how it will progress and what treatment options are best for you. If you have this condition, it’s important to talk with your specialist about the appropriate course of action for managing your hair loss.