How to re-grow your widow's peak after shaving it off and how to leave your hair alone

I used to have a lock of hair that bothered me and I always shaved it off or tried to pluck it out. That part of my hair made me look like I had a widow's peak and I didn't like it. But the result was even worse.

I had been ill for a few years with many inflammations (bursitis, chostochondritis, gastritis) and had taken a lot of NSAIDS and other medication. These medications pushed my hair into telogen efflivium or a constant state of dying off, leading to painful roots and limp hair. My front locks would stop growing and would feel lifeless, short, and they would dangle in all sorts of directs. Telogen effluvium also makes your hair thinner and this causes it to break off more easily and lose volume.

Eventually hair around my temples would fall out, while one lock became darker, thicker and limp. It was the lock from my widow's peak. I tried everything to revive my hair: quality products, a barber visit, styling, oil treatments are simply leaving my hair alone. Of course getting off meds helped a lot but it takes many months to get normal hair again after using painkillers. Hair does not immediately grow back after falling out, let alone in a healthy way. In fact it can came back grey first if you have had a lot of stress.

After a while I did regain my health, but the front lock stayed limp. I figured something was wrong at the root. I did notice my hair becoming stronger again, but then came new illness in the form of leaky gut and adrenal crisis. I was lacking nutrients. My hair would grow mega slow and the ends were brittle.

So, my hair looking bad in every way. It was still a bit dyed, it was sick, dry, a little dead at the roots, fried from styling, etc... I changed everything, never dyed my hair again, stopped cutting my ends, stopped using rough towels, got a Mason Pearson Brush, a quality straightener, a high end iron spray and a Brita water filter.

But the lock stayed limp So I shaved it off... And kept shaving... and shaving... the stubble kept growing like crazy. I love a round forehead - like Alexis Bledel - but I looked nothing like her. My stubble looked so bad that... I started... plucking... Yes... plucking this hair out of my head. What was I thinking? I was just avoiding my hair becoming a few centimers long which would have been extremely awkward as it would just stick up.

I got more and more annoyed with maintaining the shaved spot. One day I went way too far. Basically, I took one of those facial razors for derma planing and started shaving the stubble. But the hair was so short and resistent that I had to push hard. You guessed it, I pushed too far and sliced right under the skin of my scalp with the razor. Not too far, but it sure bled a lot! That was the moment when I knew I had to stop and just grow out my widow's peak again.

Was it hard to grow back the widow's peak? It was, but only in the first month, when the hair was very spikey and stood straight up. Luckily, no one commented on it except my parents. It was too short to pin it down with anything and it was too far in the front to cover with any other hair. Their is not enough stubble to give the impression that there is a dark shade from the hair either, so you could see the skin through the hair. I looked like a recovering cancer patient. In a way I was recovering from a sort of radiation, only caused by painkillers instead of chemo. But I didn't care what anyone thought. I brushed in some brown eyeshadow and went on with my day. When I brushed up the locks behind it so they stood up a bit (Little Mermaid style). the vertical stubble would be barely noticable on that background of upright hair.

The peak stayed this weird triangle that was 10 shades lighter than my other hair because of the light that went through it. That's why I chose the winter months to regrow the peak. I also couldn't wear my hair back in a ponytail for 2 more months. Another month later I still couldn't do anything with the hair as it was only a few cm long. I couldn't pin it down, lay it flay, it was that short and stiff.

Now it's been 4 months and the widow's peak has grown 3 cm in total. I almost like it more now than when it was limp. You need to know that this lock was probably literally dead. I think the hairs would have popped out over time anyway. I couldn't grow it longer, I couldn't curl it as it held no curl at all, I was desperate. But looking back I should have just left it alone.

Six months after shaving my widow's peak and I'm healthy again, and my widow's peak is 5 cm long. It probably didn't grow 1 cm a month because I'd plucked it. But my hair and face look better than when I was sick. I have my normal face shape again, I look younger and more healthy. This is not thanks to messing with my widow's peak though! You should leave your hair alone and find other ways to make your hairline look rounder than what I did. Perhaps you need to drop certain medication, or fluoride, or god knows what. Maybe women in general take too many painkillers for their periods? I don't know. But I can tell you I haven't taken painkiller anymore.

Conclusion: never shave your widow's peak because it doesn't fall the way you like. It will ruin the shape of your face and make you look sick. It's better to change your lifestyle and to give your hair some rest, e.g. by looking into medication. If you do shave your widow's peak, don't worry, your hair will come back. Just grow it back a few centimeters and blend it in with the rest using eyeshadow and a styling technique.