Lina

Body Heal Thyself – Lina and PRP

by Lina on March 2, 2015

Lina PRP - Dr. Joseph Greco Longtime WHLP member, Lina, shares her experience having PRP with Dr. Joseph Greco in Sarasota, Florida.

I thought I was at a place of “acceptance”, or as I like to rephrase it, “realization” as I’m not sure if I will ever completely accept my hair loss. I’m a full-time wig wearer. I threw out all my snake oil and promise pills, my 25+ years dealing with hair loss and the ups and down down downs it brings has exhaustipated me.

I’m at a point where I am done with pills and chemicals, Lord knows what kind of lethal cocktail I was ingesting with everything I was putting into my body. Well after reading about PRP on-site I decided this is the one thing I have not tried and decided to look into it further. The premise of using what is in our own body to help heal is very appealing to me, not to mention the NO side effects. I decided I needed to try this treatment. I do realize that with anything else, probably the sooner one seeks treatment the better. That being said a lot of loss and damage has been realized to my hair and scalp as my condition has been going on for years. As much as I am looking for a miracle, I need to have realistic expectations about what PRP can do for me.

For any of you who are curious I decided I would take you along my PRP journey, visit by visit (I will explain why I already decided I would have more than one treatment). I will post pictures along the way – I feel it is my “duty” to put aside my embarrassment and help my sister’s here who have suffered like I have.

Please note: I will be as brief as possible, I am not a doctor, I will probably screw up on terms but I just want to give you a gist of the whole experience.

Treatment #1 – February 17, 2015.  Performed by Dr. Joseph Greco in Sarasota Florida.

All this gorgeous hair is my wig... I de-wigged once in my consult with Dr. Greco.

All this hair is my wig… I de-wigged once in my consult with Dr. Greco.

I met Dr. Greco and his staff. They were so pleasant, reassuring and very professional – I was instantly at ease, although nervous. I went into a medical room where blood was drawn from me, so 5 minutes. Then my blood was taken to the lab where they put it in a centrifuge (I believe that means spin the crap out of it?) This takes like 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile, Dr. Greco took me into his office and we discussed my hair loss history and he walked me through the amazing world of PRP.

He showed me research, before and after photos, explained the separation of blood and its components and explained matrixes – not only in treating hair loss but for joint injuries and even burn injuries. To say I was fascinated is a complete understatement – I never knew science was so amazing, nor how healing what is in our body can be, I could of listened to him for hours.

What I took away from this was it could not hurt in the least to have the goodness and proteins of my blood injected into my scalp. Dr. Greco asked me what my objectives were, you girls have seen my shaved head photos, I don’t think it is very realistic to expect I’m going to grow me some Rapunzel hair (darn). I said, I would like to keep what I have and hopefully have the texture improve and perhaps have some fill-in so that I could maintain a very short hair cut under my wig and not have to shave. He told me he thought my goals were very realistic. [click to continue…]

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My “Re-Birthday” at Follea – Lina’s Journey

by Lina on August 7, 2014

Hi girls. I was planning on making my first trip to Follea in the fall but I had an incredible opportunity to go last week – so, hello, I went! Our lovely admin is piecing together a video on my visit so that I can share that with you (stay tuned). I’m going to post a few more blogs on my visit to LA and how it has helped me with my acceptance and growth but I want to share my Follea visit because it is about, well, hair (mostly anyway, haha).

Without going through my l-e-n-g-t-h-y journey to finally get to the hair wearing phase (cuz, you’d be missing at least a week of work!) I’m going to go straight into why I travelled almost 4,000 km to go to Follea.

I am two years into wearing hair and I would say one year in completely being used to my new normal, normal being wearing wigs full-time. I have been through a number of pieces that, looking back, were great to start but as I grew in my journey, I felt my hair-wearing needs changed. I would have to say to finally get to the stage of accepting that my hair was leaving me and that I needed to re-gain my life, was a very long, painful, sad, arduous journey. Phase 2 of the journey was getting used to wearing hair, any hair – it was just as difficult in its own right but thankfully not near as long. I know that lots of women here on the WHLP have echoed the same sentiments but I cannot stress it enough, cut yourselves a break ladies, hair loss sucks and she’s a tough one to plow through.

Fast forward, so I am at the hair wearing stage and what has happened in two years? Well, I went from toppers, to shaving my head, wigs, letting the hair grow in (cuz, somehow it was going to re-grow in thicker and much better, pfff) to shaving, to regrowing to finally shaving and keeping it shaved as I feel, in my case, I’m not fooling anyone and I look “healthier” in a shaved head. So, accepting my shaved head I began to think why not try a gripper and get rid of the wigrip? I never would have heard of Follea if it wasn’t for WHLP and let’s face it, Y rocks some killer locks, so I began to investigate. The more I stalked the Follea web-site and watched pretty much all their gripper videos – I decided, well if this is my fate (to wear hair), let’s see if I can get THE hair and THE comfort to take me through life. [click to continue…]

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So Three Wig Wearers Walk Into a Wig Shop… Lina’s Update

by Lina on July 5, 2013

Women's Hair Loss SupportLina sent me this post to share with you. If you haven’t followed Lina’s journey you can read her other posts here. 

So three wig wearers walk into a wig shop…

Just an update as my one year anniversary approaches of wearing hair full-time (sorry this is a little long).
I have posted a few blogs on this site and have found a wealth of encouragement, inspiration, and compassion on this site – a real sisterhood. After “suffering” and I know you know when I say “suffering” with HL for 25 years; the gamut of emotions: self-loathing, anxiety, depression, hiding from life, feeling like the future is hopeless, feeling somehow less and unworthy, scared, a ball of negativity, my old self gone and the list goes on.

Well, timing would have it a whole lot of “life” was added to my load last year and the final monumental shed happened – I call it the point of no return, time to deal. Luckily, Y – our fearless leader, was completely entrenched in her wig search and shared everything: highs, lows, amazing hair videos, even how to wash them. I couldn’t help but let her energy sweep me up in a vortex of possibility. So long story short Aug. 17, 2012 I shaved my head and forced myself to wear my “just in case” wig that had been in my closet for two years. I won’t go into details as I blogged about my shave and hair wearing beginning or I will keep you girls here for days 🙂

Slowly starting to accept this as Lina 2.0, I started feeling less chest tightening, accepting the occasional outings that would have me in public – gasp, the thought! Even my reflection (while wearing hair) in the mirror – still difficult to make the non-hair wearing eye contact. Guess what? I started laughing again, a little at first – what strange noise is this? My sense of humor started to creep in, people were commenting on a very positive change in my spirit and low and behold they wanted to start hanging out with me again – besides my hair loss I was most afraid of was losing myself. [click to continue…]

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Lina’s Custom Wig Experience

by Lina on September 24, 2012

Lina has sent me this post to share with all of you about her custom wig purchasing experience. Lina’s other posts: “After All Life Sentence in Canada Is Only 25 Years” and “Newbie Wig Washer.” 

My hair loss journey has me committed to wearing a wig at this point. I decided that I need to have more than one wig, I can’t even imagine the panic I would endure if anything happened to my one and only – so this past Saturday I had an appointment to order a custom piece and wanted to share my experience with you.

I went back to the place I’ve always gone, they provided me with the wig I have now and the two postiches (toppers) that I own. My wig is a lovely human hair wig but it is processed and I wanted to inquire about a virgin human hair wig since Y raves about hers and we all know how lovely and realistic hers are! Two of my biggest dilemmas were: 1) showing Michael and his staff at Continental Hair my shaved head and 2: the cost. I decided that as far as the cost, I need a second wig for my peace of mind, so I would put the wig on my credit card.

So Friday night before my apt. I washed Eva (that’s what I named her), I waxed my upper lip and eyebrows – yeah, I get the irony. You think I was going on a date, but nonetheless Eva and I had to look our best. Eva was drying on her head in the bathroom when my mom called saying her and my dad were coming over for a few minutes – shit! Wig is wet and how would I cover my head – I didn’t want dad to see. I was just about to put on a buff and then decided – what the heck, let me test drive showing my head , so they come over. Dad starts smiling and then says: “you look like a boy” (what a weiner – that’s dad), then he said: “no, you look healthy and good”, then he hugged me and said he loved me. Quick visit over and I was still standing – yay.

So I go to bed and it went something like: toss, turn, toss, turn, up to pee, time check, back to bed, toss, turn… I even had a dream and I saw Michael, I was bald and saying something like, duh, ummh… You guessed it, zero sleep. I finally get my tired self out of bed in the morning and head to Toronto, half way there I was coming up with excuses on why I was going to call and cancel my apt. so I could turn around and come home. I told myself to calm down and do this, for me. [click to continue…]

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They Say It Takes 30 Days To Break a Habit…

by Lina on September 14, 2012

Lina’s Update: 

Hello to my wonderful sisters. I thought I would update you on my hair wearing process. Today marks exactly 5 weeks since I first shaved my head and have worn my wig “full-time”. The few posts that I have made I noticed a lot of struggles out there and I wanted to let you know that I have not abandoned you, on the contrary, you are all on my mind.

So, quick recap: I shaved my head because after 25 years of battling hair loss, I had a “melt down” this summer (hair loss plus a lot of life stuff), I was 3 months after major surgery and boom – a bout of TE set in – well, no hair to lose any more and out came the clippers (I was drinking wine at the time, hmmm). Well didn’t cry when I did it and haven’t yet shed a “hair tear”. Well, that night I was brave, next morning I looked in the mirror and went, hmm – is that what I really look like 🙂

Well, no going back right? I had to wear my “just in case” wig. Maybe God knew I would chicken out and get frustrated and not wear the wig after a day or two and that’s why he gave me the strength to shave my head – this way I had to commit to wearing hair. I will tell you the honest truth in my experience – I was frustrated with the wig, it takes getting used to: used to feeling like you have hair, seeing you with hair, accepting the fact you wear hair (that’s the toughest). So, first few days, wanted to rip it off, couldn’t look in the mirror because it didn’t look like me. How funny is that? I haven’t looked like me in a number of years – hair or expression. I avoided mirrors for the first few days. I finally washed the wig – much better, positioned her properly on my head (made a big difference), got the wigrip that Y suggested (life saver). [click to continue…]

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Newbie Wig Washer – Lina Shares Her Experience With Washing Her Wig For The 1st Time

by Lina on September 2, 2012

Lina has sent me this post to share with all of you about her first time washing her wig. If you don’t remember, Lina is the lovely gal who posted the story “After All Life Sentence in Canada Is Only 25 Years.” 

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Hello ladies, I recently transitioned into wearing a wig. I should of worn my topper a lot earlier so I could of got some real use out of it but fear kept me from it and alas the hair loss sped up and I am now 12 days into wearing a wig. Besides the fear of wearing a wig, I really thought I couldn’t possibly wash it on my own – that would of meant driving 2hrs there and 2hrs back every 2-3 weeks, cost of gas, time and $50-$100 for the wash and set – how could I do that?

Well, last night I decided to wash my wig myself. I used Admin’s videos as a guide – I bought the pins she suggested (way better than the t-pins) and even the shampoo and conditioner, I even shook the hair and hung it upside down. After the conditioner application, I combed it through and left it for 15 minutes before I rinsed it.

My wig heads are short (I am going to invest in the longer ones) so I had to prop them up with black bean cans (that’s all I had). I had the wig mostly hanging over the bathroom vanity and didn’t realize that my bangs were touching the vanity until this morning – they dried like the episode in “Something Like Mary” (no joke). I panicked and was getting my call in sick excuse ready when I said, “calm down Lina, wet the bangs an comb them down” – duh. Well, not really my fault, I haven’t done my hair in ages – letting it air dry and hang in crispy wisps doesn’t take much styling!
Ok, bangs wet, shook the hair, combed her and voila! My wig is a human hair wig but it is processed, when I got it it was not custom made and the salon added highlights to get the hair closer to my color – I put it on without ever washing it and to be honest it irritated the back of my neck but I thought oh well at least I have hair touching the back of my neck. They also flat ironed it – they seem to do that alot at the salon, I don’t know if it’s because everyone likes that but for me I always had some wave to my hair and never dared flat iron it – no way was I going to tug on my strands. Let me say, she air dried with wave, much closer to my own hair and she smells wonderful and is so soft and sits lovely on the back of my neck – this is the first time I have felt she isnt’ a wig!!! [click to continue…]

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After All Life Sentence In Canada Is Only 25 years – Lina’s Hair Loss Story

by Lina on August 3, 2012

I received this wonderful post from Lina a couple days ago and she has given me permission to share it with all of you!

Here is Lina’s Story:

This is new to me but I have been inspired lately by our group of wonderful women to share.

I am 43 years old and have been dealing with hair loss since I was 18 – yep – 25 long years! I have been through the gammut of emotions that I read from others: sobbing, depression, begging, praying, anxiety. I have gone through the habits: showering and brushing my hair in the dark, wiping hair out of places that I won’t mention, counting all the hairs I’ve lost, sitting on the vanity and inspecting my scalp for hair growth, I don’t notice people – I just stare at their heads!

What has all of this gotten me? I watched my 20’s and 30’s go down the drain with my hair. I’ve loathed myself for what seems like forever. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on products that, big surprise, didn’t do a thing but make me poorer. I bought a topper two years ago and wore it twice – I hated it and it was cut wrong, so, I bought another and I have had it since Christmas. I also have a wig in my closet, just “in case”.  So after needing to be in a place where people understand – I’ve been back on this site for a few weeks now and have become so inspired by our “Rock Star Leader” that guess what? I pulled out that second topper and have been wearing it now for 3 days in a row! I’m not going to lie, it’s different. Can you explain to me how all I wanted for 25 years is more hair and now when I look in the mirror and see myself with more hair – it’s “weird”. I know! [click to continue…]

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