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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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Sophie Hafner – Master Wig Stylist – Podcast Ep #2

by Y on February 9, 2020

PromoArtIf you don’t know who the beautiful Sophie Hafner is, then you probably don’t follow me on Instagram or Facebook, because she’s in a lot of those pictures. Not only is this amazing person the only person I have entrusted with my wig wearing life ( new wig selection, color, cut, style) for the last 5 years, but she’s also become a best friend of mine.

Sophie shares my vision and passion for helping women with hair loss, and has always risen to the occasion when I’ve asked her to assist me in carrying out a concept/project to de-stigmitize women’s hair loss and show women how good wigs can really look. Including the concept we have done twice, which is hair twinning, and I mean with a person not wearing a wig (her).

This detailed project required her to actually, not only color my wigs pink, but hers as well! [View Sneak Pink Post] We later revisited it this concept with her transforming one of my wigs into a red head, to match hers. The “Whose Wearing a Wig?” Images were so amazing, that at times people guessed she was the one in a wig. Proof positive you can look and feel as amazing as everyone else while wearing hair. The hair artistry required to do this is something that I’m still blown away by.

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In part 1 of this 2 part episode, we discuss the consultation process as well as the technical aspects of wigs, including:

Part One

-Wigs vs. Toppers
-Adjusting to Wearing Hair by Learning To Treat It Like Your Own Hair
-Lace Front vs Closed Front (How to Choose)
-The Follea Gripper – What Type of Hair Loss Is Best Suited For This Wig?
-Sizing of Wigs
-Handtied vs. Wefted (open wefts/ closed wefts)
-French Top/ Natural Skin Top vs Lace Top
-Coloring Your Wigs
-Styling, How To Achieve Volume and Bounce in Your Wigs [click to continue…]





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Purple Extensions In My Wig? Yes Please! :)

by Y on February 23, 2016

I reflect back on my hair loss journey, and if you asked the 21 year old scared girl beginning to loose her hair in 1999, if she could ever imagine life with and after hair loss, she (me) would have said, “NO” and then cried uncontrollably… as I always used to do… daily. Impossible to process, and yet here I am. I’ll be 38 years old in 2 months and this affliction stole over a decade of my life. I am not making use of hyperbole when I say that. My 20’s came and went, and all I had were memories of devastation and a complete feeling of being helpless, powerless and destined to exist in a state of forever suffering. Paralyzing.

I’ve written a tremendous amount on my blog about my hair loss, finding my acceptance… removing the shackles of hair loss and taking back my life.  This change came for me in 2012 when I started wearing hair and realizing, that while not perfect in the respect that it’s not growing out of my head… it was perfect enough. I could go out and portray myself to the world, as I wanted to be seen (the way I looked before my  hair loss) and feel good about myself again. It was a process, it took time. I cut my hair super short (buzzed in back, long in front) so I didn’t have to see my hair fall out anymore and I could have a cute edgy hair cut that I could wear, one where people would think I just was just so bold to wear a style like that, not knowing I do it out absolute necessity. Since my hair loss began when I was so young I never really got the opportunity to do anything fun with my hair… cuts, colors and styles etc., was not an option. I was just praying it stopped falling out. [click to continue…]





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Hair We Go Again! Yes, I Just Said That

by Y on August 1, 2015

Where does one begin, you know, when you haven’t written for a year or so. I don’t want this post to be too all over the place, so I’ll sweep away the missed year, and bring the majority of the focus to just this year, 2015. Rather than talk about the hum drum, and the ins and outs of my life beyond hair (and the last year adrift) I’ll hone it in to what we are all here for… or I’ll try at least. 🙂  This post will bounce around a bit, just a forewarning.

January 2015 Hair Update

Hair update as of January of this year, I’d say my bio hair, with the continued PRP treatments, the cessation of my birth control pill in 2013 and Aldactone even before that, along with the short haircut I maintain (buzzed in the back, long in the front), that my emotional and actual hair place I was in, was at it’s all time best. I felt good about my situation, balancing wearing wigs, and also feeling quite comfortable in the short hair I’ve worn for quite sometime now. I tell people freely and openly that I am wearing a wig, if they previously saw me in my short hair and then see me in long hair and also the reverse. If they see me in a wig, and then see me in short hair, I let them know the other hair is in a box at home. Hair-wise everything was working in my life.

February – PRP Party 

In February of this year, I had my 13th PRP session with Dr. Joseph Greco, but it was a bit different, I went with two very close friends whom I met through WHLP, and we made it a group girls trip PRP party. It was an amazing experience, and I did take video of the PRP being done on my girlfriends, which I do plan on posting (hopefully sooner rather than later). It was interesting for me to actually see the process being done, because my vantage point has always been quite limited before, considering I was in the chair having it done.

PRP Party :)

PRP Party 🙂

 

Blood Sisters ;)

Blood Sisters 😉

 

It’s somewhat important to take note, that I stated “hair-wise” everything was working. Oddly that was the only thing seemingly working. My experience with one psychiatrist, the one formerly mentioned in other posts, thew my life off the rails, and it all came crashing this year. The early part of this year was emotionally devastating and draining on a personal level, and while I don’t want to delve too deep, it is important to note this, for what comes next. [click to continue…]





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PRP – Is It My Miracle?

by BW on October 28, 2014

**This post is from a fellow WHLP Member, “BW.” **

As many of you may know from the last blog I posted, I had been experiencing a Hell Shed. This was far beyond my usual seasonal nerve-wracking and it sucks but it’s manageable thing. This was my body went through a major physiological change (quitting smoking was my trigger this time) and here comes the Hair Dump. I went from having my pretty awesomely normal (short) hair in early June to quitting smoking on June 16 to start a crazy messed up put me back in my little black hidey hole ka-boom see ya hair thing by about a week later and I just couldn’t get it to stop. Like holy cow. Hair explosion for months and no end in sight. Sigh….. And yeah, I wear a wig most of the time anyway, but I don’t go to the gym in my wig. I really wasn’t planning on wearing a wig for my half marathon in November and honestly, it had gotten so bad that not only was I getting seriously depressed about it. I was also using Toppik at my front hairline just to be able to blend with my wig AND I had lost enough hair that my wigs weren’t even fitting well anymore. Oh my.

Yes, ladies, I had the Ultimate What You Don’t Want to Happen When You Are Wearing a Wig Experience. My wigs had gotten loose since I had lost SO much hair and I guess I hadn’t thought too much about it because once you get used to wearing hair, you just are way more relaxed about (maybe too relaxed in my case) and when I was shaking my thang all over the dance floor on a beautiful Saturday night in August, my hair fell off. Like on the dance floor. Like under someone’s feet. Yeah. WAKE UP CALL! I had lost so much hair that my wigs weren’t even fitting anymore. Remember that hidey hole I was talking about? Step right in.

I really started feeling stuck. I had begin hitting the Toppik bottle again (hard) while wearing my wigs and also while just going to the gym and stuff, and man, that stuff is truly amazing but I even needed it in the front for blending in my now strapped as tight as possible wigs. That just seems no bueno – now I need Toppik to even wear my wigs? Big sigh….. And as all hair wearers know, you gotta always have a back up plan. Or a forward thought. And I couldn’t find one. Where am I gonna go from here? What if I couldn’t make my current situation work anymore? [click to continue…]





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PRP Therapy, Getting Off The Birth Control, and Anxiety Updates

by Y on January 26, 2014

I’ve been meaning to update everyone on a few things, and here it finally is. I made a video which I will place at the end of this post. I’m a bit scatter brained in my video because I just had a crazy morning which threw me for a loop, so any rambling and/or incoherentness will need to be attributed to that 🙂 The video is long, so I’ll update in a post too:

Getting Ready For PRP

I know many women are wondering if I still believe in PRP therapy or feel it is working for me, the answer is, yes. I continue to go to Florida to see Dr. Joseph Greco every 4-6 months because it’s something I think is a positive thing for my hair, I feel it’s safe and while there is some discomfort in the actual treatment, the benefits for me are worth it. It currently is the only thing I do for my hair and much to my relief I’ve finally rid myself from all the pills I was taking for my hair, which I never really felt great taking nor really knew if they were actually working to do anything helpful anyways. I’ve heard from some women that felt PRP did nothing for them, and others that felt it was awesome, it’s all so very individual. I’m going to continue doing it for quite sometime because other than having to take time for travel and for the bit of discomfort during the treatment, there are no downsides for me.

 

This was the final pill I took, ha.

Getting Off The Birth Control Pill Update

Last July I got off the little devil pill that I felt ruled and destroyed much of my life. I made quite a long post on this, which you can read here, and I feared what the aftermath of getting off this pill would do to my hair and body in general. I didn’t experience any major shed, but I’m attributing much of that to keeping up with the PRP. I don’t know if that’s actually the reason I didn’t have a major shed, but I feel it was a strong contributing factor.

The adverse effects I experienced in getting off the pill were pretty mild I think compared to what I thought would happen. I thought I’d implode or something, I felt the sky was going to fall and the bottom would drop out from under me, but alas it didn’t. Instead I had some insomnia, facial breakouts and bad cramps during my period. I could be missing a couple things, but nothing that is sticking out glaringly in my mind which tells you it wasn’t all that big a deal, it was a bigger emotional/mental deal than anything. My periods started up normally too, and regularly, which I was surprised about, I thought they would be erratic or not come for months or stick around for months at a time, but it was normal pretty much from the time I got off the pill, which was a very pleasant surprise. So everything is going well with the cessation of the pill.

Zoloft

Breakfast of champions? LOL and a supportive text from a dear friend of mine 🙂

Anxiety Update

I made an anxiety sharezie in Sept, letting everyone in on my oh-so more complicated than hair life pertaining to my dealings with social, generalized, phone anxiety and OCD oopsies. Anxiety has ruled my world for quite sometime. Second fiddle only to my hair loss, but once I figured out out to put my hair loss in check in my life, it became enemy # 1. I know several people had commented and emailed me on the topic of that post, and were surprised that I dealt with this because that doesn’t come across in my videos, and it wouldn’t. I don’t really have anxiety talking to myself LOL, that’s pretty much what making a video is to me, talking to myself and I do that all time anyways 😉 It’s a solitary event. ha. [click to continue…]





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Getting My Hair Ready In The Morning – Quick Wig Dry Video

by Y on January 21, 2014

Everyone has their own way of tending to their wigs, how they wash and dry etc. I’ve done wig washing videos before and for the most part I typically wash my girls the night before they are going to be worn and they will just get the upside down air dry treatment, and by “treatment” I mean pinned to two styrofoam heads upside down LOL. The exception is made with my Follea Aero-2 wig (Mila) which I will always dry right side up because she has more natural volume on the top and drying her upside down just leaves me wanting to sing “9 to 5” the following morning with my ooh la la Dolly hair. Not that there is anything wrong with that if that is your style, but it just doesn’t work for me and quite frankly, it scares my fiancé 🙂

Mila is my one wig I do tend to my quick dry the most with. I wash her, blow out the cap, pop her on my head for some extra dry time and then I’m out the door in a flash. Super quick, super easy, nothing fancy here.

Happy Tuesday!

XOXO





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Full Y Disclosure – My Life Is Far More Complicated Than My Hair: Rosacea, Anxiety, OCD – Oh My!

by Y on September 25, 2013

I’d like to start this post by saying while this post isn’t ultimately about my hair loss, I still blame it to the nth degree because, well lets face it… it’s hair loss so it’s easy to blame, it sucks and it changes us in ways we are sometimes unaware of and it certainly can leave you with a bunch of loose pieces even once you finally think you got that puzzle put together. Someone contact Rubik’s, my cube is missing some squares!

Recently, I’ve received some emails inquiring where I’ve been, and here I am to give you that update. It’s not sexy, it’s not glamorous, but it is my life. Well there is a sexy component to the update, but that will be for another post and involves a swishy new Follea wig that I’ve named Natasha. She’s shorter (like Natalia) she’s sassy and she’s proudly joined my F-Lineup of European hair beauties, but Natasha will be for another day (though she is the girl in the pic with me).

Searching for the missing squares….

I contemplated whether or not I should write this blog, but I find that often sharing is beneficial, for me and for anyone else who reads it and who can potentially relate, whether it’s hair loss or something else. This post will be the “something else,” and it will be strongly geared toward my life dealings at the moment, and how living with hair loss impacted me in ways beyond which I could really grasp when I was so focused in the moment on the actual “loss,” as in watching my hair fall out and feeling helpless and powerless to it all. Again, hair loss isn’t all to blame, but it exacerbated an already existing condition.

Last May 2012, I did the best thing ever for myself…. I leap into wig wearing landia and never looked back. After living with hair loss since 1999, I said “FU” and got me some hair. Yay me. There is post after post and a lot of videos I’ve done on this, and how it has changed my life for the better, so you must imagine that confetti fell from the sky and life was a box of chocolates right? Well there was a box of chocolates and some cake (on many occasions) and I ate them all, but I digress. Life improved for me in so many ways (too many to count) but I was still saddled with something that has haunted me for years… Social anxiety, generalized anxiety and phone anxiety, and that last one is a real hum dinger. Most people that know me, know that I’m more of a “Don’t call me and I won’t call you” type girl. Like for real. Don’t call me (ever) I won’t answer. Text… Yes. Email… Yes. Phone… Goodbye, and I will seriously need to reevaluate our friendship if you thought that was the best mode of communication for me 🙂 I primarily do mail order for clothing, and if I do go to the mall you can expect I’ll be the first one there when it opens (less people) and grab whatever I need in 10 minutes flat. [click to continue…]





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To Bang or Not To Bang, That Is The Question

by Y on May 1, 2013

I’m talking hair here, people!

Warning: I’ve had too much caffeine and a ton of thoughts are floating around in my head, so this may get a little disjointed. In fact this warning shall apply to all my posts, but depending on the time of day you may need swap out the word caffeine for wine, k? Good.

Onwards…

I want to talk about bangs. Yummy bangs, sexy bangs, that ooh la la Zoey Deschanel perfect full bang. That yippie skippy, I get to hide my wig line bang… yes that bang.

Before we get into bangs, lets discuss my current state of hair shall we? Ode to my crap hair… die. Oh wait, you already are, but I digress.

Seriously though, my hair is currently shedding a bit more hair than “my” normal and I feel like this might be a result of me being long overdue for my PRP session. I do those about every 6 months with Dr. Joseph Greco in Florida (I live in Los Angeles) and I do feel that it has helped to keep my shed down, but alas I’m a couple months past due and my hair is raining in my sink, my floor, my shirt, my dog.. well you get the picture. What’s a girl to do? You might be thinking: Umm, get the treatment again? Yes, that DOES seem like the most logical answer and likely what I will do, but this is all so much more complicated than just that. Isn’t it always?

Ultimately I want to be free from pills and any hair loss treatment, free from anything tethering me to having to save the hair that so clearly wants to move on from me. This is the place I so desperately want to get to after 14 years of hair loss. I was successful in getting off my 200mg of Aldactone last year and it’s an amazing feeling to have at least that be done and over with.

I wear a wig full time, I never leave the house without my wig or a hat, so why all the fuss about my hair, why not shave it, ditch the treatments and have a martini? Well, I will be having that martini, but about the other stuff, it’s all a bit of a pickle. I use my hairline on all my wigs, all of them. Every single one of them, even my lacefront. If I shaved my head, I would have to bang all my wigs? And by that I mean put bangs in all my wigs. While some women are successful in wearing wigs (even non lacefronts) without their own hairline, that isn’t how I feel most comfortable. It’s different for everyone. For me, I’d have to either wear bangs (side swept or full)  or be using a tiny bit of my own bio hairline as I do now.  I think part of that is because sections of my hairline are on the lower side, even after having receded over the years. When I bring the wigs to the exact frontal part of my hairline, I look like I should be sitting in the zoo having a banana with the rest of my simian friends. Not my best look I can assure you! [click to continue…]





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