Whitney Watson (age 44): Vitiligo Scalp Treatment – Case Study
Vitiligo Scalp Treatment – Case Study:
This story is based on fact, but the names of the people involved have been changed to respect their privacy. The story demonstrates a true account with real events, told as truthfully as replication and effect allows.
Log on to Instagram on any given day, and you will see someone with rainbow-coloured hair. Male and female alike, this is a fashion statement meant to cause a stylistic divide. Love it or hate it, you can see this trend on football fields, basketball courts as well as on high fashion magazine covers. It is daring, bold and edgy – if done right! This is a trend not for the faint-hearted!
Whitney is a healthy, stylish, 44-year-old woman who loves to experiment with quirky fashion and funky hair colour. The local hair salon kept Whitney’s hair looking healthy and trendy. She was a procurement manager, working in a large department store. Life was good for Whitney – until she lost her job due to the Covid-19 pandemic!
Undeterred, Whitney set up a home office and launched a new career as a celebrity stylist. She still had good relationships with the fashion designers that she had dealt with during her years in procurement. She felt certain that her background knowledge of photo shoots, fashion shows and style trends would stand her in good stead for her new career.
Unfortunately, Whitney used her savings on an online certification course and her monthly trips to the hairdresser had to be shelved. Whitney decided to use a box colour to lighten her hair. She hoped for a platinum blonde look. She applied the colour and prepared to wait the 30 minutes suggested on the directions sheet.
After about ten minutes Whitney’s scalp started to tingle. She read the instructions again to make sure that she had made no mistake. The tingle turned into a burning sensation. Whitney immediately rinsed the colour off and allowed her hair to dry naturally. Her scalp was still too sensitive to use the hairdryer. At this point, her skin was pink and very tender.
Box colour is made so that it can potentially alter a wide range of hair types and shades with no guarantee of shade results. Most box colours use 12% developer or higher to ensure a result and include chemicals such as parabens, DEA or sulphates which are bad for hair and skin.
A few days later, Whitney visited her doctor, because she was worried about the small lesions that she could see at her hairline and on parts of her scalp. Her skin was not painful anymore, but she could feel little scabs had formed on her scalp. The doctor gave her a soothing lotion to use, with the diagnosis that she had had an allergic reaction to some chemical in the hair dye.
Dyeing your hair can cause an allergic reaction, the culprit being a chemical ingredient in permanent hair dyes, called para-phenylenediamine, or PPD. It is found in more than two-thirds of commercial dyes, including many of the top-selling brands. The PPD reactions present as painful rashes around the hairline or on the scalp.
After Whitney’s scalp and hairline healed, she noticed small white spots around the areas that had been affected. There was no discomfort, so Whitney waited a few weeks to see if the spots would disappear. They didn’t. In fact, it seemed to her that the white areas were growing bigger and joining to form larger patches! Whitney again visited her doctor, and she was diagnosed to have developed Vitiligo and told that there was no cure.
Whitney had always had healthy self-esteem, but she soon realised that her confidence had been based largely on her appearance. Knowing that she now had a somewhat disfiguring disease, Whitney realised that she again had to reconfigure her career plans. More than anything, Whitney worried about potential social stigma in a world where beauty was largely valued as the way a person looks. Coupled with the fact that Vitiligo is regarded as a progressive disease, Whitney struggled to find a silver lining around her dark cloud.
A month after Whitney’s hair-dye disaster, the white patch on the left-hand side of her hairline had spread downwards onto her forehead. It was approximately ten centimetres wide and had become more conspicuous against her skin. Whitney decided to shave her head, hoping to make a fashion “statement”, like Winnie Harlow, the famous US supermodel.
This drastic step failed! Whitney became depressed, understanding that she didn’t have the psychological and emotional skills to cope with her new reality. Her Vitiligo was now very much on display, and she only ventured out wearing a large hat and sunglasses.
It is essential for people with Vitiligo to learn how to cope effectively with the anxiety and depression that they may experience when diagnosed with this disease. Vitiligo has a set of emotional symptoms which are especially frustrating. Shame, embarrassment, insecurity, and loss of self-esteem are all a result of Vitiligo.
Whitney, always a proactive person, decided to try a different approach. Because she had become socially withdrawn and had time on her hands, decided to research Vitiligo to find out how people in similar circumstances were coping with Vitiligo. At this stage, she was in her second month since her Vitiligo diagnosis, and the patch on her forehead was the size of her palm. Her hair had grown about a centimetre but didn’t quite cover the Vitiligo patches on her scalp.
It is extremely important to not only find a reputable Vitiligo treatment company but also to act quickly to stop the spread of the Vitiligo patches. Make sure you read the testimonials sent in by people who have tried the products listed on the website, for themselves. There will be many instances where their story aligns with your own Vitiligo symptoms. This will give you a truer overview of the treatment options and their effectiveness.
It didn’t take Whitney long to land on the Vitiligo Treatment website, where she found the Vitilox® Pigmentation Cream. It was important to Whitney that this company had a global reach, with outlets on three continents.
Because Whitney’s Vitiligo had started so aggressively and had spread so quickly, she was a bit sceptical about the claims made by the website. She decided to fill out the assessment form and sent through some photos of her scalp and forehead. A consultant phoned her to discuss her Vitiligo experience and ascertain her emotional state. The lady was truly empathetic and knowledgeable, and Whitney immediately felt at ease.
Whitney was recommended the banded pack of the Vitilox® Pigmentation Cream and the Vitilox® Vitamin B12, Folic Acid & Vitamin D3 Vitamin capsules. Vitilox® Pigmentation Cream is formulated to repigment the Vitiligo-affected areas of the skin and stimulate the melanocyte cells into producing Melanin (skin pigment) again. The capsules stop the spread of the Vitiligo patches and support and promote cell health. Vitamin D3 is associated with an increase in tyrosinase activity, and melanogenesis which contributes to repigmentation in Vitiligo macules.
Whitney’s mother decided to buy her the Vitilox® Cover Cream Kit so that Whitney could regain some of her self-confidence. This product can be applied over the Vitilox® Pigmentation Cream whilst treatment of the Vitiligo patches is underway. The high concentration of pigment makes this product the perfect formula for the concealment of depigmented areas.
It is waterproof, sweatproof and long-lasting – 24 hours, and is smudge-proof. Whitney was happy to find that the Vitilox® Cover Cream has a sun protection factor (SPF) of 35. The high pigment concentration allows the cream to cover effectively without having to use more than a small dab of product on the effected skin. The Vitilox® Setting Powder in the kit sets the concealing cream and keeps it intact and prevents any smudging.
Whitney was advised to use the Vitilox® Pigmentation Cream twice a day after gently cleaning the area with mild, glycerine-based soap. She gently massaged the cream into the clean, dry skin. Whitney took a Vitilox® Vitamin B12, Folic Acid & Vitamin D3 Vitamin capsule every morning with breakfast. This product is slow absorbing and lasts up to 24 hours. When Whitney went out, she used the cover cream – happy that her Vitiligo was “under wraps”.
After using the product for a week, Whitney took photos of her scalp and forehead. She was a bit disappointed because there didn’t seem to be an improvement, so she again phoned the Vitiligo Treatment consultant. The lady allayed her fears and advised her to give the treatment another two weeks before taking any more photos. During that time, Whitney started to see small freckles of pigment returning to the Vitiligo site, and after another month could find no evidence of Vitiligo on her forehead or in her scalp.
Whitney now uses the Vitilox® Vitamin B12, Folic Acid & Vitamin D3 Vitamin capsules as a maintenance treatment. She is still overwhelmed with the results and the kindness shown her by the Vitiligo Treatment team. She also appreciates the help from her mother – the cover cream helped her integrate into society again.
Treatment Products Used:
Vitilox® Pigmentation Cream & Vitamins
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Published by Vitiligo Treatment