Hi, everyone. My name is Denise. I am new to this group and wanted to say hi. I have always had fine hair, but in my mid-20's I started noticing I could see more and more of my scalp each year as I worked my way toward my 30's. I had my first child when I was 27, and about a year after he was born I noticed that my hair had gotten REALLY thin. I had read it was normal to lose some hair after having a baby, and my hair did thicken up some when I was pregnant, but when it didn't seem to be coming back I knew I had a problem. I found a place that specialized in helping women with hair loss disguise their problem and went in for a consultation. Since this was 20 years ago I can't remember what all my options were at the time, but I do remember that I decided to go with the human hair topper option they offered that affixed semi-permanently to my head. It was extremely expensive, but the reason I wanted to go this route instead of trying a wig was because I was young, and I wanted to be able to go swimming, workout at the gym, and do other things without worrying about people knowing I was losing my hair.
There were two options available to affix the topper to my head.... an option that did not require cutting my own hair but rather involved threading a few strands of my hair these little holes all throughout the topper and then clamping them on, or one where they shaved about a half inch wide strip of hair around the perimeter of the top of my head down to about 1/8 inch and then gluing the topper to the super short hairs. I went with the first option since it seemed like much less of a commitment. It did feel a little uncomfortable after they finished installing it, but they said that I would get used to it. Um, yeah.. that didn't happen. After I went to bed that night my sensitive scalp was in HUGE pain from the individual little strands of hair being pulled all over the topper. It was terrible, and my husband had to cut the thing off in the middle of the night which felt like he was ripping the scalp off my head!
Not one to give up quite yet, I decided to go with the shave and glue option. This was much more comfortable. Unfortunately, though, I had to go in every 4 weeks or so to have them remove and re-glue the topper since my hair would grow and it would become loose. That got very expensive very quickly. About 3 months or so after I got the topper I was swimming in a friend's pool with our kids. Later that day when I went to try to comb through my hair (the hair topper hair) it was so tangled and matted from the pool that it had become a huge dreadlock! It was horrible! I had asked specifically if I could swim in a swimming pool with it and was told that it would be no problem since it was human hair. I went back to the place and showed them what had happened. They apologized profusely and said that I must have gotten a bad batch of hair. They cut it off, but of course they did not have anything to replace it with as they would have to order a new piece (which they offered to do for free). I decided that I really didn't want to do this anymore and declined.
Of course, now my hair was even more of a disaster as I had a strip around the perimeter of my head that had been shaved, the hair in the middle of the shaved perimeter was cut to about 1.5 inches long and the rest of my hair was long (below shoulder length). I cut my hair into a bob and wore a hat for a few days until I could figure out what to do. I even had to go to my grandma's funeral like this and ended up wearing a "dressy" hat to the occasion. At this point I did go to a wig shop to see if I could get a wig to wear while my hair grew out, but all I could afford after the expensive hair piece fiasco was a cheap one off the shelf that looked terrible on me and was super hot and itchy (I did purchase it, but had no one to guide me on how to wear it or even fix it up and so never actually wore it out in public). So, I went to a friend and had her give me a buzz cut and waited for my hair to grow back. I even had to be the maid of honor in my sister's wedding AND go to my 10-year class reunion with my hair buzzed off!
Needless to say, this whole thing turned me off of wigs and anything related to them for the next nearly 20 years.
Now, here I am, the mom of 4 kids ages 12-18, about to turn 47, and super tired of trying more and more unsuccessfully to disguise my thinning hair. I wear my hair up in headbands every single day, and my bathroom is constantly covered in a fine dusting of Toppik powder. I am tired of looking unprofessional at work (headbands can only take you so far when you are closer to 50 than you are to 40) and so I started researching the world of hair toppers and wigs. WOW am I surprised that this huge world has existed under my nose and I wasn't even aware!
In the last 2 weeks I have watched double digit HOURS of YouTube videos, browsed hundreds of hair toppers online, had 2 consultations with a salon that I discovered doesn’t really know what they are doing, read dozens of blog posts, and still haven't been able to pull the trigger on making a purchase. I am really nervous that I will end up looking and feeling like I am wearing a wig, but I am also excited that I may actually find a way to have hair again! I think what I really need to get myself over the hump is a chance to try on a few pieces before I commit to making a purchase. I’m going to look harder into a local salon that has a good stock of pieces that I can try and get advice about and am hoping that meeting others in the same boat I am on this and other community forums will also be a huge help.
There were two options available to affix the topper to my head.... an option that did not require cutting my own hair but rather involved threading a few strands of my hair these little holes all throughout the topper and then clamping them on, or one where they shaved about a half inch wide strip of hair around the perimeter of the top of my head down to about 1/8 inch and then gluing the topper to the super short hairs. I went with the first option since it seemed like much less of a commitment. It did feel a little uncomfortable after they finished installing it, but they said that I would get used to it. Um, yeah.. that didn't happen. After I went to bed that night my sensitive scalp was in HUGE pain from the individual little strands of hair being pulled all over the topper. It was terrible, and my husband had to cut the thing off in the middle of the night which felt like he was ripping the scalp off my head!
Not one to give up quite yet, I decided to go with the shave and glue option. This was much more comfortable. Unfortunately, though, I had to go in every 4 weeks or so to have them remove and re-glue the topper since my hair would grow and it would become loose. That got very expensive very quickly. About 3 months or so after I got the topper I was swimming in a friend's pool with our kids. Later that day when I went to try to comb through my hair (the hair topper hair) it was so tangled and matted from the pool that it had become a huge dreadlock! It was horrible! I had asked specifically if I could swim in a swimming pool with it and was told that it would be no problem since it was human hair. I went back to the place and showed them what had happened. They apologized profusely and said that I must have gotten a bad batch of hair. They cut it off, but of course they did not have anything to replace it with as they would have to order a new piece (which they offered to do for free). I decided that I really didn't want to do this anymore and declined.
Of course, now my hair was even more of a disaster as I had a strip around the perimeter of my head that had been shaved, the hair in the middle of the shaved perimeter was cut to about 1.5 inches long and the rest of my hair was long (below shoulder length). I cut my hair into a bob and wore a hat for a few days until I could figure out what to do. I even had to go to my grandma's funeral like this and ended up wearing a "dressy" hat to the occasion. At this point I did go to a wig shop to see if I could get a wig to wear while my hair grew out, but all I could afford after the expensive hair piece fiasco was a cheap one off the shelf that looked terrible on me and was super hot and itchy (I did purchase it, but had no one to guide me on how to wear it or even fix it up and so never actually wore it out in public). So, I went to a friend and had her give me a buzz cut and waited for my hair to grow back. I even had to be the maid of honor in my sister's wedding AND go to my 10-year class reunion with my hair buzzed off!
Needless to say, this whole thing turned me off of wigs and anything related to them for the next nearly 20 years.
Now, here I am, the mom of 4 kids ages 12-18, about to turn 47, and super tired of trying more and more unsuccessfully to disguise my thinning hair. I wear my hair up in headbands every single day, and my bathroom is constantly covered in a fine dusting of Toppik powder. I am tired of looking unprofessional at work (headbands can only take you so far when you are closer to 50 than you are to 40) and so I started researching the world of hair toppers and wigs. WOW am I surprised that this huge world has existed under my nose and I wasn't even aware!
In the last 2 weeks I have watched double digit HOURS of YouTube videos, browsed hundreds of hair toppers online, had 2 consultations with a salon that I discovered doesn’t really know what they are doing, read dozens of blog posts, and still haven't been able to pull the trigger on making a purchase. I am really nervous that I will end up looking and feeling like I am wearing a wig, but I am also excited that I may actually find a way to have hair again! I think what I really need to get myself over the hump is a chance to try on a few pieces before I commit to making a purchase. I’m going to look harder into a local salon that has a good stock of pieces that I can try and get advice about and am hoping that meeting others in the same boat I am on this and other community forums will also be a huge help.