I need advice and help!!!!!

Dear Chris,I wish I could really make you feel better. It sounds like you have been suffering over this. What I can say is that you are doing all that you can to improve the health of your hair. From what you have described, I do not think that you have done irreparable damage:) Most definitely not!Gradually, I think your concern over your hair will lessen. Time has a way of taking care of a lot. Plus, you will see improvements which will provide comfort. Take comfort in the fact that you have gone to a medical professional to check out your hair and that you have no balding in your family. A lot of people have bad experiences with those appliances, whether it's a straightening device or what my friend calls the blowtorch, a simple blowdryer. Usually, it's the repeated application like you describe which results in damage. Simply take your experience and say, "I will avoid this in the future."There are daily tips posted on this site and one of them I especially like. It states that a person should try to work with their hair type. Now, I know I'm biased because I have some wave to my hair, but, Chris, waves are beautiful just like stick-straight or ultra-curly hair is:)All the best,JadeHi,I'm a 19 yr.old male and I've been trying to grow> my hair long for yrs.now but it never works for me> becuase I have a natural wave in it.I have a part in> the middle and my hair comes down right now it's about> to my eyes and I've been trying to gorw it long from> that for a few yrs.now but everytime it gets to bout> my ears the wave kinda flips and curls it up,so one> day about 5 mts.ago I got fed up and got a heat> activated hair straightning iron and the first time I> used it it got my hair perfectly straight and I guess> you can say I got addicted to it,I used it everyday> for about 2 to 3 weeks sometimes twice a day maybe> more.> Well ever since then my hair has been breaking at the> tips and it seems like it had thinned alot,I'd say> it's thinned probably 10-maybe 20% of what it was at> this time last year.Well to say I'm a little worried> about this would be a gross understatement.I've become> totally obsessed with this probelm the past few mts.> and it is driving me nuts I've got so paranoid that> I'm losing my hair like every few min. I touch my head> to see if pieces fall out in my hand and usually> alomst everytime I do this at least 1 piece comes> out.Everytime I notice some hair falling out I get so> woried Ive never noticed this probelm before until> now.Yesterday I was combing my hair and about 9 pieces> fell out and I almost threw up.Ive never really> noticed this problem before and Ive totally convinced> myself Im going bald noone else thinks so..but Im so> worried that those pieces that are falling out wont> ever come back in.I have no history of baldness in my> family and I dont wear hats so all i can think is Ive> ruined my hair and even thoguth Ive been taking better> care of it the past 5 mts then I have my whole life I> think Im losing it.I went to the doctor yesterday and> he had tests on my thyroid and everythin came back> fine so its not that all I can think is im losing my> hair :-(> Before i pulled this stupid stunt with teh straightner> I had pretty thick and full hair and never noticed it> falling out have I totally screwed myself for the rest> of my life?> Any help of advice is greatly appreciated!> Thanks for reading!