I had a bald patch over my left ear in January and had a remote appointment with my GP about it. She was really dismissive, made me feel silly and vain, as if I was wasting her time for something stupid, and basically told me it wasn't that bad, and that it didn't look like alopecia areata because it wasn't round. She said it looked more like I was just pulling my hair back too tight, as it was right at the bottom of my hairline on that side. She told me to stop stressing and just wait and see what happened. I wasn't that reassured, because I felt fobbed off, but I desperately wanted to believe it wasn't alopecia. I kept monitoring my hair, stopped tying it up so tight, and the bald patch has mostly grown back, although the hair on the entire left side is much thinner than the right.
I saw a different GP last month and mentioned it, showed her the pics from January, and she said it did look like alopecia areata, and that the previous GP had taken "round patch" too literally. She said I wouldn't suddenly get an entire bald patch from traction alopecia like that. At this point, I decided to see a private dermatologist. The hair has grown back quite a lot now, but when I showed her a pic, she immediately diagnosed alopecia areata and told me I have it in my genes and it could reoccur in the future. I'm so stressed out now as I was really hoping it was just a one-off that was now sorted. On top of that, I really don't think it's even sorted...when I wear my hair up, there's still a very visible lack of hair/an obvious line where the bald spot was...could I have really messed up by not properly sorting this in the first place? Will the hair there always be thin and gappy now? I feel so miserable that I let myself be reassured by a GP who didn't really know what she was talking about and that I didn't just pay the money and see a dermatologist in the first place!
Has anyone else had these issues? Is it worth seeing someone else for a second opinion, and if so, is there anyone you would recommend? I'm based in London.