Wigs, Toppers, Shedding & Medications – Your Questions Answered

by Y on December 2, 2012

A reader of the site, Stella, had sent me an email with a bunch of questions that I made into what ended up being yet another rather long video, it’s about 11 minutes long, so grab a snack and pull up a chair 🙂

This video answers the following questions:

1. How did you know or decide between topper and a wig. Did you not chose topper because of the clip and the damage and discomfort to the hair?

2. I have tremendous amount of itching and burning. Did you or do you experience that? If so how is that with wearing hair?

3. I know that you have recently stopped taking spironolactone and birth control pill. How did it go?

4. Does wearing the hair cause more shedding?

5. Before cutting your bio hair really short how did you deal with it when wearing hair. would you leave it down or put it in a loose ponytail.

6. I feel that with taking this leap to wear hair is a finality to that hope. Once I start wearing there will be no way for me to go back. Did you have that feeling too?

Got your snack? Here’s the video:

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Stella December 2, 2012 at 2:24 pm

Thank you so much for taking the time and answering all my questions. You really are a sweetheart and an inspiration to me. I look forward to watching your videos and all your updates. Please keep them coming. I am a step closer to calling Follea. Thanks for all that you do.

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Barbara December 2, 2012 at 3:10 pm

Excellent video. Especially loved your tip about what to do with picking your first wig. That’s exactly what I do. I leave my hair down and it blends in pretty well with the wig hair. What are the density of your wigs? The one I have is a stock wig which is low to medium and it is pretty much perfect density for me. I ordered custom wigs which ended up being such a headache. She ordered medium to heavy density and the color was off. It has been colored to match better but I still like the color of my stock wig much better. I now have to go back and get it cut again as it’s way too thick. How did your stylist cut your wigs? Were they layered or straight across? She’s cutting mine straight and I am not liking it as it’s too thick and bulky at the ends. Thanks for making the videos they really help me. Doctors used to tell me that the pain wasn’t real and act like extreme shedding was just in my head and basically laughed at me at my last appointment. Not doing doctors anymore for hair. I still take Finasteride (it will be a year in Feb.) I am not shedding a ton right now but come spring and summer I will know better as that’s my heavy shed time. Thanks for your strength as it does rub off and I definately am stronger because of you.

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Mycurlyhair December 2, 2012 at 6:02 pm

Love your hair pulled back like that! Do you call the hairs you have on the sides “baby hairs?” They blend so well but I never had them! lol

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Ciella December 2, 2012 at 6:22 pm

Thanks for the GREAT video:) Yup…made it all the way to the end…and it was well worth watching:) xx

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Lina December 2, 2012 at 7:57 pm

That video blew by! Are you kidding me, I watch all your videos – love em!
Thank you for sharing again. I was on the train today and a whole bunch of people were lined up in the aisle, anxious to get off, I was seated and they were all around me, staring at the top of my head! I bet you can imagine what was going through my head? Thank goodness I had my wig on, I would of instantly gone beat red and 1000 degrees of sweat!
I should probably back that up, I bet I wouldn’t even of gone on that train if I didn’t wear hair. So, thanks, again.

Xo
Thanks for getting me out and about.
Xo

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Gls December 3, 2012 at 10:48 pm

Thanks for another great video! This website has helped me more than you can imagine. You are beautiful, intelligent, insightful, and brave. You are taking control of this issue for yourself and not letting it pull your life down anymore than it has in the past. I really enjoy hearing you talk about how much you enjoy your bought hair. Many people just buy wigs for fun and to enhance their hair. Why can’t we start to think of it in that way- as something we don’t have to do but as something that makes us feel better and helps us to get back to the business of living our lives without it consuming us. We can look at our hair we have in our closet ( that’s where I keep mine) and think of it like a new favorite sweater or pair of boots that we love and are going to wear because we like it and it makes us feel good. For myself, I find wearing hair liberating but it does take some time to get used to. Sometimes it helps me to just get really angry and say that I’m tired of thinking about it and I ‘m just going to wear it and the hell with what anyone might think. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and realize I have spent way to much time consumed with my hair issues when I could have been enjoying life. Some of us have spent decades being emotionally drained from dealing with hair loss. It really takes a toll over time and it has to stop.
We worry mostly because we are afraid of what people might think. Most people- men and women both are more concerned with themselves and aren’t even noticing what our hair or lack of it looks like. What’s so ironic for me is that my husband has the thickest curliest hair I have ever seen! It is so thick and curly that it hardly even gets wet in the rain! The water can’t penetrate through the undercoat! He says he wishes he could give me some of his hair. He also tells me to to just shave mine off- he could care less. So there are really are some great men and women out there that love us for who we are. Don’t worry about that. In the meantime, we have each other here. Love you guys.

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admin December 4, 2012 at 6:28 am

Thank you for all the wonderful comments and kind words!

@Stella – You’re very welcome 🙂

@Barbara – I don’t know the specifics of density, my Follea wigs are a bit less density than my other wigs and for how they feel on, I wanna say it’s a lighter density on the Lifestyle and a little bit more volume on the Aero. For the cutting of my wig, the stylist had added face framing layers and lightened up the wig a little throughout by just sort of trimming/razoring the edges, I’m not sure the specifics but it lightened up how it laid around the face and just gave it a more natural better overall movement. I’m sorry to hear the custom wig ended up giving you a headache, I hope they salon get help make it better for you.

@Mycurlyhair – Yes it’s baby hairs!! like a TON of them. I used to have a lower hairline and even more of those suckers that the edges almost connected my eyebrows, seriously. When I would wax my eyebrows they would also wax some of those hairs off to create a little distance and open up the face a bit 🙂 They do blend, but they can be restrictive in some ways with how I wear my wigs, was less of an issue when my hairline was longer (before it was incorrectly chopped off) and I could pull out long pieces of my front hairline and sit the wig behind it, but it’s still okay.

@Ciella – Glad you made it to the end, I hope you guys at least at a snack and a drink during the video LOL

@Lina – You are so sweet…. blew by? very sweet LOL – I’m am so happy that your wig has got you out and about on a train and back into the swing of life. When I realize now what wearing hair has really done for me, I just wish I did it YEARS ago, even when I had way more hair and could get away without it, I still felt self conscious and the hair would have just helped me to feel more like me. Women often think they have to wait till their hair is “at that point” where they need the hair, and to me, if your life is on hold because of your hair, then perhaps that “point” is now.

@Gls – Your husband sounds amazing. The key to wearing hair successfully is acceptance and perception — how we view this whole thing. I love my girls… LOVE THEM. I picked their names out of a russian baby naming book for christ’s sake LOL. They are a part of my life, they allow me to HAVE a life. Wearing hair isn’t perfect, after all at the end of the day, I remove my hair. But I’ve reached a place that, it’s OK. It’s okay to wear hair when I need, take it off when I don’t and have it just be OKAY. I

I put on my shoes in the morning and I put on my hair. Same thing. I need my shoes to leave the house, and I need my hair. I wanna relax in the evening, I take off my shoes… I take off my hair 🙂 Everyone accepts the need to place things on our feet, it is after all necessity. My wigs are my necessity. See same thing, ha.

If you resent your wigs – you will loathe wearing them, if you love them, they will love you back, and you start to appreciate all the beauty and freedom they offer. You are right they do take time to get used to, it’s something new and different and there is an adjustment period for sure.

You are correct, we do have to stop worrying what people will think. You know, the bottom line is that for “most” people, if you are accepting of what you do, wearing hair.. whatever. They will be too.
Not everyone, but most. I told my eyebrow girl yesterday I was wearing a wig, and I’ll make a post about that soon. But she had gotten wax in “MY” hair and was like, “Oh, I got a bit of wax in your long hair” and she was working to get it out, and I said “It’s not my hair” and it went on from there. LIBERATING, thats all I can say. I don’t do this all the time, but it was just so freeing to come out with it. Long story short, this was the 4th time she did my eyebrows and she was shocked, she had NO idea I was wearing a wig. Love it.

Live now, live for today, tomorrow is never promised to any of us.

Hugs and Love to All!

XOXO

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Mira December 5, 2012 at 1:31 am

Hi!

After being sent a phot of myself taken in bright sunshine (eek!) I plunged into a deep depression and returned to this site after many years! I had forgotten what a great resource it is and a source of comfort for all of us on this hair loss journey. I am getting close to the point of wearing hair (looked into it in September and was told that I’d have to cut all my hair off first). Even though I have awful, thinning hair, it is still soft and shiny and MINE and I can’t bear to cut it off. How stupid is that. I want to watch your video and the ones before but somehow cannot (maybe it’s because I am accessing from Asia?). If you have time, do please post a written blog responding to all the questions. You and the other ladies here are an inspiration and have helped me to feel better and get on with my day today!!!!

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Mira December 5, 2012 at 1:52 am

Just found my first post on this site which was from Sep 2007! I can’t believe that 5 years have gone by and I have not yet done anything about my hair loss! I did decide some years ago, that I would let my Androgenetic Alopecia take its course ( I have been losing hair for almost 20 years now, since my late teens), mainly because I wanted to try for a baby and didn’t want to take any meds. During this time I have been blessed with a beautiful daughter though sometimes I feel sad that I have probably passed on my AA to her just as I inherited mine from my mum. It makes me want to devote my life to finding a cure for women’s hair loss! Am really happy to find this site again and am looking forward to reading up on everyone’s comments and recommendations. Congrats on building such a vibrant and supportive community in the last 5 years!!!!!!!!

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