Search: lace front wigs

Why I Needed To Tape My Glueless Lace Front Wig

by Y on August 5, 2021

I’ve worn wigs for 9+ years, but in that time I’ve actually never used glue or tape. The majority of my wigs are closed front, meaning they have no lace. In 2019 I got this lace front wig in anticipation of my progressively eroding hairline no longer being able to sustain me through wearing my closed front wig wearing life. I do need tiny bits, very tiny – but still needed, of my hairline to make a closed front wig work and look natural. 

I didn’t actually start to wear this lace front wig until last year.  Side note: when I got the wig in 2019, it didn’t fully work for me because I did grow up with a lower forehead with temple points dipping towards the eyebrows, and even in quite progressed hair loss and thinning hair, they had still been there to some degree over the years making it harder (near impossible) for me to wear a lace front wig successfully, since you need to have that lace in FRONT of your hair line. On me, it was very hard to achieve this since I would need that wig placed way low on my forehead, which is incredibly unnatural, but I wanted the wig anyways, I wanted it as a security blanket.

Last year, I pulled it out to try it…and I’m not gonna lie, I had a meltdown. Why? Because NOW the lace front that didn’t work the year prior for the reasons stated above…. worked.  It was an in your face reminder of what had progressed in a year, or the 20 before that, but the measurement I was using was simply the year prior. In one year, my hairline, temples eroded to where now this wig could work. I sat on my floor crying. I actually made a video and sent it to Sophie, there is a clip of that moment in a video I previously posted on instagram. The part you see my tears, that was last year when I put this wig on for the first time since the year prior. This video below:

Hair loss is a journey, I hope everyone really keeps that in mind. I started wearing wigs close to a decade ago, I cut my hair off, I moved forward, but guess what, that’s not the end. It’s not like period, over and out, nail it ! Peace.  Of course not, least not for me. I have most definitely accepted my hair loss, but there can also be moments that smack me upside the head as that did. So I had a pity party for myself, party of one, for that day…. And the next day I decided this was a new phase of my journey, and well now I COULD wear lace fronts, so umm silver lining. Yea.

Follow me on Instagram: @whlpnetwork

Back to my wig…. So this wig has always had a lifting issue since day one, since 2019, but it definitely got progressed to the point of being unwearable with the lace curling and lifting and having a wave in it (as seen in video on mannequin) making it look unnatural – Less last year, much more this year. So that occurred with some wash and wear. In hindsight I should have sent it back immediately for repair, but that’s the past. 

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Hair Loss – Wigs – Reflections

by Y on September 14, 2018

reflectionsReflected. Reflect. Reflections.
Evolved. Evolve. Evolving.

Words. Just words.

My own hair loss situation, has evolved greatly over the years. Mostly, in how I dealt with it.

Adapted. Accepted. From cutting off most of my hair over time, to finding a short style to work to provide optimal hair wearing results for myself ( since I pull out pieces of my front hair line), to also accepting the progressive decline, but ultimately learning to live with my situation to where it no longer controlled me. That included being honest about my hair loss, and wig wearing with those around me.

I am 40, and started losing my hair at 21. My entire 20’s and some of my 30’s were lost to tears of hopelessness. It’s the whole reason I started the Women’s Hair Loss Project in 2007. It was the bottom of my bottom and there just wasn’t anyone out there online at the time for women, speaking about women’s hair loss, or at least no one I found that spoke to me and my situation, or at least could relate to (and definitely not in 1999 at the beginning of my hair loss) and I just felt alone, utterly alone. [click to continue…]





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Lucinda Ellery Hair Replacement – Beverly Hills

by Y on February 25, 2014

Have you ever witnessed the moment of change, the moment where you watched a person’s pain be washed away with the hope of the future? I have. Incredibly moving and felt to my core, as I related on every level possible, I understood every tear and felt the impact of what each drop held as it fell — silent suffering, a loss of self held within for years. Fear. Sadness. All of it. I know all of it. I saw hope follow tears, and a smile and excitement of a self renewed. I was incredibly honored to be a part of my friend’s journey to finding her hair loss solution, and watching her moment of renewal is something that will stay with me always.

Everyone knows I love my Follea hair babies. I’m good in my wig wearing world, I pass my wigs in the bathroom and give them a high five and a double snap for their super sassy swishtastic magic powers, but while wigs allowed me to take back my life and rock my world, wigs simply aren’t for everyone. No one thing is ever for everyone, in the hair world or otherwise. We all have to explore our options (the pros and cons) and find what works best for us in our life, and if you try something that doesn’t work, it just means that, THAT didn’t work — not necessarily that nothing will ever work.

Last Wednesday I went with my friend to Lucinda Ellery in Beverly Hills, she was having an Intralace hair replacement system done and I got to watch as she got her new hair. It was an all day process, I think approximately 8 hours. The final result looked quite amazing and my friend was actually in tears after it was completed. Happy tears, tears of relief, tears that were washing away her pain. I waited to hear from my friend today to get her thoughts almost a week in before jumping on telling everyone about this option, because I wanted to hear her honest opinion on what she thought of the piece. She’s adjusting to it incredibly well, and told me that she really feels this is life changing for her and that this will be her solution. [click to continue…]





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Follea Aero-2 Lace Front Wig – Video

by Y on July 22, 2012

Rubber ducky you’re the one…

Hi everyone! So this past Tuesday, I purchased the Aero-2 glueless lace front wig from Follea. My longer “Lifestyle” wig is on order, I’m not sure when it will be here and I was seriously chomping at the bit to be in possession of a long wig. I mean seriously, if I’m going to be wearing a wig full time, as I am now, I need to have OPTIONS and I can’t even remember when the last time was I really got to “enjoy” long hair.  Also, in addition I’ve been dying to get my hands on a glueless lace front. Everyone is always talking about lace fronts, I’m frequently asked about them and I wanted to see how I could get this type of a wig to work for myself. Lace front wigs are generally meant to go at or slightly in front of your hairline, it’s meant to replace your hairline with a very natural look. However, I have a wonky hairline, it’s kind of hard to explain it, but I really need to place the wigs slightly behind my hairline in order for them to blend and work perfectly. This is not the easiest task with a lace front, it took me 4 days to get it to work for me. I don’t attribute this to be a fault of the wig, rather more of a result of how I’m choosing to wear it, my head etc.

The Aero-2 lace front is a less expensive wig than my Natalia, as such there are some key differences. The back is a machine wefted closed cap. It has a lace top, lace front and a hand-tied top. Natalia is ALL hand-tied. Both are comfortable, but I think the hand-tied wig feels a tiny bit better. The hair is also European hair, but has been processed, so it isn’t virgin hair. And no, virgin hair doesn’t mean that the the girl who grew out the hair was a virgin (haha)  it means it has had no chemical processing, like hair coloring, perms etc. It is hair in it’s most natural and luscious state.  The hair quality of the Aero is still amazing though. Can you feel the difference if you put both wigs together and touch each? Yes, you can. One is uber yummy silky sweetness, and one is OMG WTF, this is insane, spank me crazy and call me Santa Claus, I think I’ve died and done to heaven. How’s that for painting a picture? Where this wig shines in my view, is that is lays pretty flat (in a good way)  on top of your head, and that makes it look extremely real and natural. That is a result of the lace top, with the lace there is less space between the hair of the wig and your head, less material (?) I don’t know what the technical way is to represent that in words.

A lace front has.. wait for it… lace. I found this to be a tricky situation for myself when I was working to put it behind my hairline because it is sitting on top of my hair and it seemed to lift the lace up from my scalp at the very front of the wig hairline in one spot, ever so microscopically. I also had suspicions that the WiGrip was creating an extra “lift” to the lace that wouldn’t be present if you didn’t use the WiGrip on this type of wig, but since I can only wear a wig with a WiGrip the point was a bit moot to try and  make it work without it. To me this “lift” I was seeing made that section of the wig noticeable.  If it was on direct scalp I would imagine this issue wouldn’t be present. This was an issue I was having when trying to style it with a parted hairline straight down, it wasn’t an issue to clip the hair up in the style you’ll see at the end of  the video below.  So on Wednesday I got frustrated with the lace wig and made her sit in the corner facing the wall on her styrofoam head. Bad girl!   Natalia was waiting for me, like the trusted bestie she is, I thew her on and went on with my day.

I returned to visit the Aero wig the next day, she looked at me and I looked at her and believe there was that wild west music from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly movie playing in my head, you know the dueling music…. “How is this going to go down little missy?”  Uh, not good. Same thing as the day prior. I felt that yet again I could see a tiny bit of the lace lifting as a result of it being on top of my hair behind my hairline and being used with the WiGrip. Also, to the girl who asked me if you can see the WiGrip though a lace wig, the answer is yes… it isn’t really bad, but you can see it though. I have no problem with how it looks,  it sort of looks like you got a bit of hair dye in that area of your scalp. As someone who used to religiously dye my hair red in college, I can attest to the fact that sometimes dye gets on your scalp and does give your scalp a bit of color, it’s not a big deal. But yes you CAN see it. [click to continue…]





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Synthroid & Hair Loss – Leah’s Story

by Y on June 23, 2008

Synthroid & Hair Loss - Leah's Hair Loss StoryFirst let me say, you are in my thoughts and prayers and I am so sorry you are feeling so sad about your recent shed. I really do understand and I know how much sorrow hair loss causes. I just wanted to share my experience regarding synthroid and tell you that you might consider synthroid as the cause of your hair loss. I have been experiencing hair loss now for about 5 years; it has been one of the hardest things that I have ever had to deal with. My hair loss started immediately after I began yasmin (yes, I know it’s supposed to be low androgenetic but for some reason it caused my hormones to go crazy). Immediately after taking it, I started loosing my hair, my back became overrun with cystic acne and I started growing excess hair on my back. Up to then, I had never experience any kind of acne or imbalance in my system. I got off the pill, but my hair loss never stopped, my scalp started burning and my hair steadily thinned. Of course I went to the Dermatologist who suggested Rogaine, my doctor said I could start spiro (I wasn’t there yet), I read Geoffrey Redmonds book “The Hormonally Vulnerable Women“. At the time, I was trying to get pregnant, but I decided I would try to go back on the pill when the time came. Fast forward a few years later, after stopping breastfeeding, my hair shed started up again. I decided to go on Yaz this time and I have to say, a week later my hair loss stopped and had been stable for 6 months.

During the years that my hair had started to thin, I promised myself when I saved up the money I would go see an Endocrinologist who might be able to give me insight on my hair loss. I made an appointment with a respected Endo in Dallas and I was excited that he might be able to at least tell me why I was loosing my hair, although I suspect AA since my hairs are not coming back. He ran $2,000 worth of bloodwork and found nothing significant. My thyroid was a slightly elevated at 2.8 and I was a little anemic – my androgens were fine, probably because of the Yaz I was taking. He gave me a prescription for synthroid and spiro. Several days after I started taking synthroid my hair started falling out, several months later, it started heavily coming out and I was right back where I was four years earlier, panicked and very depressed. I went back three months after starting the synthroid and he ran $500 worth of more test to make sure he didn’t have me on too high a dose of synthroid ( I was only taking 50mg). My thyroid came back 1.7, everything seemed to be great. [click to continue…]





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I Shaved My Head Due To Hair Loss | History, Thoughts & Reflections – Podcast

by Y on September 25, 2023

I shaved my head May 7, 2023, due to a second hair loss I got last year, an Inflammatory alopecia. I have had female pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia) for 24 years, since the age of 21.

Podcast Episode and YouTube Links Below

I began wearing wigs 11 years ago at the age of 34.

I never expected to get a second hair loss, I never thought I’d be forced to NEED to make this choice for survival, in order to be able to continue to live with hair loss without it stealing any more of my life from me. 

I don’t love this, I don’t love seeing myself with a shaved head, but it is better than the alternative, it is better than the creaturish loss that was more obvious before. In the months prior to shaving, I had reached a place I could no longer look at myself in the mirror, at all. 

Listen On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-womens-hair-loss-project/id1496551496?i=1000629123379

I made the decision to show my shaved head, after never showing my bio hair online for 16 years (the length of time I’ve been online talking about hair loss), I started my site in 2007. I did so because it was so difficult for me to do this, basically impossible… and the one thing that did help was seeing women that had done this FOR hair loss. For that reason, and that reason alone I made the difficult decision to show my head, knowing that I would get dismissive comments about my hair loss. I knew people would see follicles and judge, that’s how it goes. It doesn’t matter if 90% of your hair is gone, or that this destroyed your life for so long, or that you devoted 16 years of your life sharing about your journey, struggles and trumps with hair loss, and trying to help others, none of that matters, people judge.

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Life Update and a New Hair Loss – Diffuse Alopecia Areata (Incognita)

by Y on January 15, 2023

I know it has been so long since I have posted, and so much also has happened. I am still struggling to really go deeply into it all, but I have made some posts on Instagram and a YouTube video to discuss what I have been dealing with this past year.

Long story super short. My father passed away last year, and I recently was diagnosed with a NEW type of hair loss. This is of course in addition to the hair loss I have had for 24 years – female pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia). I now also have a variant of alopecia areata. I see it referenced as Diffuse Alopecia Areata and also Alopecia Areata Incognita, I’m truly not sure if they are the same, but they are seemingly used interchangeably online. I had no idea it was possible to have more than one type of hair loss. Well, it is.

My body went through so much last year… SO much. My health suffered tremendously, and I share in the video some snapshots of how my face was looking during this time. This full on assault to my immune system is what is to be believed to have very likely triggered this episode of alopecia areata. It does run in my family, both of my brothers experienced patches of alopecia areata on their beards (now resolved), and I have a cousin in Panama who had alopecia areata on her scalp. It was there, just waiting…

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Reminiscing the Loss – Hair Loss Takes What We Give

by Y on February 18, 2021

What If…. 

To avoid confusion, wigged up. All images are wigged. Except the obvious shaved one.

What if we accepted as truth, that this life isn’t a dress rehearsal, this is it, our one shot.

What if we realized our misfortunes, our angst… Is just that, our misfortunate and angst, but it does not define us, nor has to.

What if we accepted that we can actually live, despite not having every single thing we expected in our lives – like our hair. 

What if we could honor our feelings while simultaneously moving forward, without judgment of self.  What a concept. Abandoning judgment of self, and any real or perceived judgment from others – abandoning that too. 

If our happiness is relying on things we cannot control, we are surely in for a rough road. My suffering in hair loss came from just dealing in loss…. constantly, that and a loss of control, loss of self, and no matter what I did, an inability to get back “what should be.” 

Who’s to say what should be? Simply because I was born with hair doesn’t entitle me to have it forever. Everything on us is potentially on loan, including life.

If we focus on our loss we can lose gratitude for all that we do have, perpetuating a cycle of self-erosion. 

What if we focused more on some of what we have, what is good, rather than reminiscing the loss. 

If there was a sport for “Reminiscing The Loss” I would be a top contender, a front runner for sure. 

I am truly skilled in the art of living backwards.
Truly skilled.

Over analyzing what left me or what was taken, and to further detriment, thinking of it in those terms actually sets up the mind, and every facet of your constitution, to automatically be on the losing end, from the start.

That’s like starting towards the race of life, not a little behind where the line starts – but rather in a ditch.  It is our race, we race against ourselves, but who wants to start in a ditch?

What if we accepted, this was just life, not all great. Accept the past, live in the present, look towards the future. I know, it’s not always so easy, but what if.

What if I told you, you are stronger than you think.

2016 – The incredibly talented Sophie Hafner created this color for me for a photoshoot, and also dying her own hair pink for the shoot as an effort to help me to de-stigmatize wig wearing, showing what hair wearing CAN be.

What if we strive to not excel in the sport of reminiscing the loss, but work to build our now, and our tomorrow with the cards that are dealt, have been dealt and work with what is within our control. 

What if….

I have often been asked how I managed to accept and move past hair loss, and it’s worth noting, I don’t think I’ve necessary moved past it, more accurately stated, I learned to adapt and live with it.

No longer be a slave to it…Accept what I thought was impossible and change my preconceived notions that began with, “I could never…”

I could never wear wigs – I can
I could never live unless all my hair came back – I could
I could never be accepted with hair loss and wigs – I was and am.

Most importantly, I accept myself, which lends itself to the rest falling in place.

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My 23 Year Old Daughter Is About To Stop Loestrin BCP Due To Major Hair Loss

by Y on January 4, 2021

I received this email and am posting the question, and my response in case it can perhaps help other women confronted with the same situation .

Hi – I just came across The Women’s Hair Loss Project. We are desperate.  My daughter’s situation sounds similar to yours. She’s been on Loestrin for 4 years – since sophomore year in college. Her hair has started thinning, and lately, it’s accelerated to where her part is very wide, her hair is very thin, the top of her hair pretty bad.  All doctors said blood work fine, it’s female pattern hair loss, start rogaine 5%. She’s so desperate that she finally agreed to listen to me and go off the Loestrin but wants to start ortho tri cyclen (sp?) because doctor [Doctor name removed] said it’s a hair protectant. So she’s planning on starting that and the Rogaine at the same time. We are so scared. Something doesn’t feel right. I’m afraid for her to do both at the same time because if something goes wrong, we won’t know which. I think she should get off BCP pills completely. Just want to hear your opinion. Please.  Look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you!!! -S

21+ years after my hair loss began – wigged up. My story is long, but this is the relevant part. I hope it helps.

Dear S – 

I should state what I think is already known… but just in case, I’m not a doctor – My experience with hair loss is living with it for 21 years and going to great lengths to find an answer to this problem, treat it a number of ways, and along the way deal with the sufferings it brought, disappointments and regrets and having it be one long ass journey to trying to find myself again. 

It has been awhile since I have answered an email as post, but yours stood out to me and I wanted to provide my thoughts as you had asked for, and in the process put this as a post so that others may be able to potentially benefit from it as well. 

This is a tough situation, as I think many situations are when dealing with hair loss and any decision seems terrifying and also we get to a place of desperation where we can allow that to cloud what may be (or not) the right judgement we need for making the best decision for ourselves. 

One thing about hair loss is there is no one size fits all, although I think most doctors just treat it that way. It is very typical for a woman with hair loss to have all blood work come back as normal, frustrating, but super common. I think it’s the one time in our life we are praying something appears on that blood work panel that we can point to, treat and get this uncontrollable situation, under control again. It is disappointing to find out we are (on paper) seemingly normal.

Who knew normal could be a disappointment, it is. 

My thoughts on treatment are based largely on what I did, but also what I wish I would have done differently – and the knowledge that in sharing my story on my site, and what I wish I would have done years ago, I know some women read my story, took the road I wish I travelled, and it worked out for them. Not in massive numbers (that I am aware of ) but a couple I can think of, and that was enough for me to wonder if I really did screw myself over and realize there is legit validity in waiting before rushing to treatment. 

I think I sighed and did an eye roll simultaneously reading that birth control pills are still being offered up as a hair protectant. Again, I’m not a doctor, but in my desperation, I fell in this trap and regretted it – big time. 

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PRP / Exosomes – Podcast & Day 3 Update

by Y on May 23, 2020

PRP / Exosomes - Podcast &was Day 3 Update

On May 8th I posted a podcast (Episode 9) titled “My PRP Journey Update and The Power In Decision/ Action.” I also recorded video with it, which is just a video recording of the podcast, and I will post that below, along with the video I made this morning providing my Day 3 update since having my PRP & Exosome treatment here locally in Los Angeles. 

If you’ve heard the podcast, you can skip down to the second video, but if you haven’t, I do think it’s worth hearing to understand my whole thought process that went into deciding to do this, before taking the step to shave my head. This way, down the line if I ever reference 1,2,3 – we can all be on the same page as to what I am referring to as it pertains to the system I had put in place years ago for myself, that made living and accepting my hair loss situation completely manageable, doable, and removed it [hair loss] from controlling my life — dismantling the power it had formerly held over me, prior to my 1, 2, 3 system. Okay fine,  if you just want the punchline… here it is:

1) Wearing wigs (allowed me the ability to look and feel like myself again). Critical.

2) Cutting my hair into a massively short cut (quite often shorter than most men’s hair cut in the back), basically buzzed at back/nape and longer in front to integrate with my wigs. That action also happened same year as I started to wear wigs (2012). Cutting most of my hair off did two things. One, shorter hair tends to look thicker and two, it allowed me to not see the majority of the shedding. Seeing the shed (to me) is ONE of the most debilitating aspects of dealing with hair loss.  My hair is so freaking short, there are no tangles… which means the fallen hair is likely gonna slide out right in the shower without my knowledge. Usually. Total Win.

3 ) Lastly, and quite important for myself… PRP therapy (started doing this in Nov 2019). PRP therapy didn’t grow all my hair back, but it reduced the shedding, and slowed the progression of my hair loss. This was important to me. I do like to utilize some of my hairline with my wigs to enable them to look more natural and I also enjoyed keeping as much hair on my head as my body would allow. So 1,2,3. That’s the system I had in place. For a longer deep dive into my mind saga please listen to the podcast. 

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