I am actually going for a consultation for Reprieve hair on Monday. I have also been to 2 other consultations for hair replacements. I am sooooo lost right now. I am currently using provillus (5% minoxidyl) and Toppik. I am not too thrilled with shaving my head for bonded toppers, but I am done with not having hair. Any advice for me??? Does anyone know if you have to be shaved for the Reprieve system - just curious since I haven’t had my consultation yet.~Alicia

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Hi Alicia,

Unfortunately I have so little information about wearing hair because I haven’t thoroughly researched it for myself yet. I am glad you are taking the initiative to have consultations and educating yourself so that you can possibly wear hair in the future. I know Julie has worn Reprieve Hair (here are her pictures) and absolutely loved it. She probably could answer your questions best about that system. I am going to email her to let her know this question is on the blog. But based on the little information I have read about the system I don’t think you have to shave your head for it. How did your two other consultations go? I am interested in learning about the different processes myself since that my be an option in the near future.

If anyone has experience with wearing hair, bonded toppers etc, please let us know your thoughts. Alicia, please keep us updated with how your consult goes with Reprieve and what you learn.

~Y

So a few weeks back I purchased two wigs (synthetic) on ebay. A week after that I purchased another one (supposedly human hair). I was hesitant to make online purchases of wigs for obvious reasons. One, I didn’t have the ability to see the quality of hair or thickness of the cap, and Two, I wasn’t able to try the hair on first. But I went ahead anyways with eyes wide open, knowing that I may end up getting a bag or rocks in the mail… or worst nothing, or worse what I got in the mail… Horrible wigs. I should mention the wigs are quite photogenic and take a much better picture than they actually look like in person. I couldn’t help myself, I had to throw it on my dog and take a picture. He looks much better in it than I did.

My first set of wigs arrived promptly and I anxiously ran out the door to pick up the package like a little girl on Christmas morning…tearing at the box to get to the inside. I open it and was shocked at what stared back at me, it looked like rubber hair. I have no idea what the wigs were treated with, perhaps a preservative or maybe it was the dye used, but I was horribly allergic to it and instantly started sneezing, the watery eyes followed suit. There I was, standing with rubber hair on my head, a cap so thick it felt like 3 baseball caps and an allergy attack. What a disappointment! I would have preferred the bag of rocks. My fiance was very sweet and didn’t make any initial reaction to my rubber hair cap, he was just silent. As soon as I screamed in horror after seeing my reflection in the mirror he was quick to jump in and casually mention that they weren’t very good quality. Not being good quality is an understatement. My childhood cabbage patch doll had better hair.

The next wig (human hair.. yeah right) arrived the following week. At least I wasn’t allergic to it, but still poorly made, so now I have 3 wigs that cannot be worn and will never see the light of day. Thank goodness for that. I am not discouraged though, it was a big step for me to order them and to try at least start thinking about wigs as a possibility. After this experience, I definitely think wigs are something that have to be seen and tried on in person. Very important. There are several large wig retailers in my area so perhaps I’ll get up the courage to visit one soon. I’ll keep you guys updated.

Wow, I’m so happy I just found this site…I’m 20 years old, have had been genetic hair loss for four years now. About 2 years ago I had a biopsy done and my derm told me it was probably genetic, he put me on Rogaine, Spiro and Yasmin. I was on those meds for about a year… and they did absolutely nothing. Last year in the fall my hair loss was getting really bad and I was getting so desperate for something, so I spent over $1000 on getting Invisible Hair extensions. I was assured by so many people that they would be safe, and definitely the perfect solution. The extensions were great! I loved having so much hair and planned on having the extensions put back in. Well when I got them removed for the first time I was SO devastated, more than half of my already thin hair was gone.

Its been since January now since I’ve had them out and I feel like I’ve hit the bottom. I’m in college and can’t concentrate on anything. I’m always way too focused on everyone else’s hair and I feel like I’ll never feel normal again…I haven’t been able to wear my hair down since I got the extensions taken out. My poor hair is
still falling out like crazy… it’s so thin I can’t even wear it in a ponytail, I feel like I will be bald soon.

I’m so scared, nobody seems to understand. My best friend and my family just tells me to cope with it like its no big deal. I feel like I have no where to turn. That’s why I was so glad I found this forum…I really sometimes feel like I’m the only one experiencing this and it’s comforting to hear everyone’s story. I’m not sure what to do with myself, I hate going out, even going to school because I just feel so ashamed…I don’t even know where to start looking for a wig around here (I’m from Portland, OR). And I feel like seeing another doctor would also be pointless. Anyways, Thanks a lot for listening to my story.

~Veronica

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Dear Veronica,

Thank you for writing and sharing your story, I’m so sorry you are having to go through this. It probably is of mild comfort, but know you definitely are not alone and there are A LOT of women who start to lose their hair at young age. Who knew? I definitely didn’t until I started going through it. Here comes my usual disclaimer I provide on every question I respond to. I am not a doctor and cannot provide medical advice or treatment, this is just my opinion. Ok…

After reading your story I have so many questions. Did your dermatologist put you on Rogaine, Spiro and Yasmin all at the same time? You said you are 20 and have been experiencing hair loss for 4 years, so you started losing your hair at 16 and saw your doctor at 18. Did he provide any explanation as to what might have trigged your hair loss at such a young age? You stated that after a year the medications did nothing, but you didn’t say whether or not you stayed on them or took yourself off. I’m curious because if you took yourself off after a year and the following year noticed a rapid decline in your hair, then perhaps the drugs were doing more than you thought. Sometimes all the drugs can do is slow the hair loss process down and help you maintain the hair you have,. Not all women experience a phenomenal regrowth after treatment. Even after I started treatment, I never regained the hair I had and was pretty convinced the treatments weren’t working so I eventually took myself off of aldactone around 2003… I think. The dates get fuzzy. Anyways, my hair loss increased dramatically. That could have just been from getting off the drug and it may have re-stablized eventually, but that scared me enough to get back on. Not only did I get back on aldactone, but when I got back on, I had my dose increased from 100mg to 200mg a day.

If you would have asked me then about my hair, I would have complained about the hair I once had and that it was so thin and continuing to fall out. But looking back it was doing fairly well after the 200mg increase. [click to continue...]

Accept yourself, let it go and laugh. You’re not “suffering” from baldness. You’re suffering from sadness brought on by your attitude towards being bald.

I first exhibited Alopecia Areata in 1984 at age 10. My hair all grew back by age 14. At age 26 it all fell out again. May 2006 all my body hair fell out and that is where I stand today. (Pretty convenient on my legs and bikini line).

The biggest challenge that I’ve had since first losing my hair is learning to like myself despite my baldness. I still struggle with that sometimes. But learning to laugh at your baldness and allowing others to laugh at it
makes it so much easier to deal with.

If you are bald with no life threatening conditions, count your blessings. Yes, it sucks that I have to draw on eyebrows daily and that my head sweats when I wear a wig, but thank GOD I’m healthy.

So much of your hair loss is driven by your attitude. Choose happiness and choose peace. And don’t worry about hair - you get to sleep in 10 min. more because you don’t have to blow dry or curl it!

- The Bald and The Beautiful

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Dear The Bald and The Beautiful,

Thank you for writing and sharing your incredibly positive attitude with everyone. Everyday I work on accepting myself because I know with that, I will be able to take back control of my uncontrollable hair loss. It’s very hard, but I’m better than I was before. It’s so important to hear positive stories like yours. What you have achieved is so invaluable, you seem to have reached a place that so many of us strive for… self acceptance.

~Y

After years of driving myself crazy, using all sorts of products, including polysorbate 80, on my hair, I got a wig. The woman was wonderful, she put me at my ease and came in with styles and wigs that she felt would work. I kept with my natural hair color, very dark brown. It was 1987 and I was 49. Some of my hair showed at the sides of my face and under the back of the wig. That added to the natural look. About five years later, I was fully coloring my hair, my problem was on top, and decided to try a wiglet. I had a beautician cut my hair to fit and she showed me how to use it. Wiglets are lighter than wigs and you feel better because more of your hair is uncovered. The color of my dye and the color of their dye matched perfectly.

Now I am 69 and almost a year ago decided to stop coloring, even tho I knew getting a match would be difficult. After several mistakes, one too dark, one too light, to be put away for the future, I have found something that is fairly close. When I went for a haircut today, the girl did not know I had a wiglet on until I began taking it off. She was nice enough to cut my wiglet to match my haircut. [click to continue...]

I am noticing a lot of new traffic coming in from different places and I wanted to welcome all the new reader’s to The Women’s Hair Loss Project and to write a little about our community. I started this blog to basically start journaling my life with hair loss. I write my daily thoughts as they come to me with all my quirks and sadness too. I write about my past regrets in treating my hair loss, the daily dealings of living with hair loss and some more lighthearted things such as my quest for the perfect hair thickening shampoo and my silly idea for a bumper sticker that says “Be Nice To Me, I’m going Bald!’

This is my life with hair loss.

I really would like to touch the lives of more women to let them know they are not alone. I’ve come to realize that a lot of women suffering with hair loss experience much of the same feelings as I do. Everything I thought was just me being crazy turned out to be more normal than I had imagined. For women I think that once you become a hair loss sufferer, no matter what steps you take to treat it or improve it, you are always still missing a little something, a little part of yourself. When women have the chance to read other women’s stories it can be healing, I know it is for me. You can read my hair loss story here.

Already we have a lot of great supportive women who share their stories and their lives.

Read Julie’s Story and see her pictures and read her wonderful put together wig buying tips.

Read Taylor’s Touching Story. She has endured so much at only 17, yet she is so strong and I admire her greatly.

Also Read Amy’s Story and Mira’s Story along with her story on how her husband (then boyfriend) reacted when he found out she had hair loss, along with another comment she left about an inspirational hair loss story

Finding all the Posts

There is so much to read on this site and it seems that some of the articles can be difficult to find, [click to continue...]

June 14th 2004. I bet I know what you’re thinking. “That’s when her hair started falling out” Right? Nope. That’s when I had my ability to walk taken away from me. It was a normal day, and I was training for a big national competition in Australia with my horse. I had been riding for 10 years before that day, and falling off was just another thing. No big deal. I had heard that you had a 2% chance of something going horribly wrong if you fell off a horse, and I’d never come away with anything more then a couple of bruises and some sore muscles until that day. I was now a paraplegic. Being faced with the fact that I would never walk again. Ever. That I would be completely dependant on a wheelchair for the rest of my life and have to learn all over again to do simple tasks like looking after myself. It was hard. Very hard. But not the hardest thing I’ve experienced.

Just before my 16th birthday, my hair began to fall out. Very slowly at first, just a few more stands then normal. But in the next week it became more and more noticeable. There would be hair on my pillow, in my sheets, stuck on my clothes, on the lounge, in the shower, absolutely everywhere. Handfuls of hair would painlessly and effortlessly come out just running my fingers through my hair. I used to sit on the bottom of the shower in shock, as I watched my hair run loose with the stream of water and watch the water rise as the hair covered the drain. I was petrified of brushing my hair. I wanted to keep the small amount of hair that I had left. I felt so ugly, so alone, like such a freak. I was a girl! A YOUNG girl. And here I was holding my hair in my hands crying and hoping to God that this was just a horrible, nasty dream.

But it wasn’t. It was real, and after a while I decided it had to go. I was sick of the torment of showers and having to brush knots out of my hair and end up brushing out hundreds of strands, having it cover the entire house and having no control over it. So I decided to shave my remaining hair off to raise money for the Leukemia Foundation of Australia. [click to continue...]

Insurance companies don’t cover the cost of wigs, also known as hair prosthesis, when hair loss is caused by anything other than chemotherapy. And even then, not all insurance companies cover the cost of the hair prosthesis for chemotherapy related hair loss. Lisa Fayed, the cancer guide from about.com writes “If your insurance company does cover the cost of wig, you may need your doctor to write a letter or prescription that includes information as to why you need the wig, noting that it is not for cosmetic purposes, but for your emotional well-being. Request that your doctor prescribe a “hair prosthesis or cranial hair prosthesis”, not just a “wig”. Insurance companies are very particular of wording, and most will not cover a “wig”, but will cover a “hair prosthesis”, even though they are the same thing.

Well the “emotional well being” reason is still applicable for whatever the reason the person is suffering with hair loss. My insurance company covers the cost of orthotics, those little plastic like shoe inserts that are custom ordered from the podiatrist. The cost of the orthotics at my podiatrist, $500. That would provide for a decent hair prosthesis for a hair loss suffer. I suffer much more from my hair loss than I ever did from my unbalanced feet alignment. My foot ailment never caused me any “emotional well being” distress, just a little discomfort and pain, but yet that is covered under my insurance plan. They also cover “psychological treatment” which many women end up needing due to the devastating effect hair loss has on a woman’s self image. The insurance companies should realize that they are being penny wise and dollar foolish. They are probably spending millions on psychological treatment sought by people suffering with hair loss, when if fact that number could be cut down dramatically if they simply offered coverage of the hair prosthesis.

Something to think about.

I was watching TV last night when a commercial came on, it looked like your typical hair shampoo commercial you always see, but it most certainly had a surprise ending. Check it out.