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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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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To wig or not to wig, that is the question… and a very personal one indeed. I arrived early for my shrink wrap appointment and thought I’d make a little video on a question I get asked quite a bit. Watching the video back, I think it’s a little babbley, but here it is anyways 🙂

Happy Thursday to All!

XOXO

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Hello Everyone!

Just wanted to wish everyone a beautiful and fabulous Holiday, filled with all the awesome yumminess that life has to offer. Hug your family, your friends, your canine and feline babies, your wigs (ha) and appreciate the joy of the day. If you need a little more joy, well then fill your glass up a little higher, that should do the trick! 😉

Hugs and Love, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Y

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What’s better than an awesome wig? An awesome wig with a color touch up! Wigs fade, the color lightens or whatever… I don’t know the technical mumbo jumbo other than the color changes over time. I got Natalia (my Follea Lifestyle 5030) in May 2012, and she had lightened up to the point where her color just wasn’t working as well for me, so it was quite clear she needed some color-love. I took her to see Vicka at Follea and explained to her how naughty Natalia was, and how her color just wasn’t right for me anymore.  I didn’t want her to be a totally different color, I just wanted to get her as close to the original color as possible. Vicka suggested that would best be accomplished with low lighting the entire wig, and it indeed proved to be a great suggestion because Natalia is looking slamming hot! I am sooooo happy with how the color came out.

It’s really just a subtle difference, but it makes a huge difference in how it blends with my bio hair and looks against my skin color. I feel like I have a brand new wig again, it’s awesome! After seeing how supa fabulous Natalia came out I’ve decided to take Anya back to Follea, so Vicka can work her color magic on her as well. I’ll be looking forward to her updated freshened up 2013 color 🙂

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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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It’s been almost a month since I went to Sarasota, Florida to have my 8th PRP treatment with Dr. Greco. I used my last PRP treatment to aid in reducing any potential shedding that would occur as I got of the 200mg of Aldactone that I had taken, seemingly forever, and I feel it was successful in doing what I had hoped (thank god). I really didn’t notice any accelerated hair loss from getting off that pill, so I’m happier than a pig in you know what!

This most recent PRP treatment I had in July will be used to help me in much the same way to get off the birth control pill. My feelings about all that were shared in this post here.

Many women contact me with questions about this treatment, so I thought I’d bring along my camera to this visit and have Dr. Greco explain the process while he does the treatment on me. Of course upon watching the video back I realized I trampled on Dr. Greco (more than once) with my own thoughts as he was speaking, interjecting my questions or some other superfluous noun or verb here and there, but hey, I just had my head stuck with a needle a zillion times, give me a break LOL! I think I have a tendency in general to rush my thoughts out because I fear I’ll forget what I wanted to say before it gets said, I’ll work on that 😉 [click to continue…]

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Guest Blog By: Lauren

Bumble and Bumble Hair PowderIt took me a long time to realize that my hair wasn’t just thin, but it was thinning–almost six years until I made the connection. Unlike many women with hair loss, I don’t shed; my hair just becomes so miniaturized that it eventually doesn’t return. It’s been a slow and agonizing journey, but it’s allowed me to try out a bunch of different hair products in an attempt to disguise my loss. I’ve posted about my current obsession, Bumble & Bumble Hair Powder, on my hair loss blog, and several women have wondered exactly what my method is with this product to get that great “after” shot (since my “before” shot is, well, not-so-wonderful). So, here’s my method. Maybe it will work for you, too. Here’s me, prior to application.

Before Application

This product is basically hair spray paint–it certainly doesn’t sound glamorous, but it works. What the Hair Powder does is conceal any area on your scalp that’s sparse, as well as coat your hair near the roots so that it looks thicker. It can be tricky to figure out how much to spray the first few times, because you basically need to master a “half-spritz” so you don’t wind up with product overload. Most sins can be forgiven if you do what I do and take a small bit of hair right up against your part line and basically make a new part with it. This hair will shield your actual part from the product and lay OVER your final result so that it looks natural.

Spray the Bumble and Bumble Hair Powder in short spritzes down your “new” part line (or wherever you want to cover); I usually hold it about six inches away from where I am spraying. It’s kind of hard to tell in this pic since the product sprays diffusely and my hair loss is obviously just as diffuse. It might look a little scary and obvious, but that’s what the hair you’ve saved to use as a cover is for. I’ve sprayed right over my part and onto both that little section of hair that I’ve saved (which is shielding my actual part), and the hair right on the other side of the part. I do use my other hand to block my forehead, but I rarely get any of the product there. [click to continue…]

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Getting Off The Birth Control Pill After 13 Years - My  Biggest and Hardest Hair Loss DecisionI’m sitting awake in my hotel room in Florida. My mind flooded with thoughts and my fiancé snoring soundly beside me. I had no chance of sleep I tell ya… no chance.

As usual, Florida time means PRP time. I did have my 8th PRP therapy treatment with Dr. Joseph Greco yesterday afternoon. At first glance all seems the same, snoring fiancé, PRP, Florida, hangover…. but it’s not. About a month or so ago I made a very hard personal decision for myself, and  just to bring you up to emotional speed on this one, just starting to type the word “decision” started the tears rolling down face, because it’s a decision wrought with so many emotions and so much pain.

My hair loss started in 1999 (I was 21 years old) after the cessation of the pill Loestrin FE, dumb luck struck and that one act caused the following years of misery, sadness and self loathing as I tried to cope with losing my hair. I was so incredibly alone when this happened, I was desperate, beyond desperate and I was willing to try and do anything I could to just get the shedding to stop and hopefully get my hair to grow back, so I made a choice I have regretted ever since. At the suggestion of a physician I got back on the birth control pill. While the pill can be the cause of hair loss, doctors also use it to try and stabilize the hormones to treat it. I didn’t want to, I was so scared, but I did. Many times I’ve wished I was stronger and just said no. No to the doctor and no to myself. I knew what the pill did to me the first time, why get back on something I would forever be a slave to? Good question. Answer: Desperation and lack of foresight.

Getting back on the pill essentially meant never being able to get off it. The amount of shedding that occurred when I got off the pill the first time was INSANE, I’m talking about waking up to fist fulls of hair on my pillow. I had a ton of hair back then and while no one wants to loose their hair, looking back I had hair to spare. I have none to spare today I can assure you. Knowing this, I started to feel very trapped on the pill, how could I ever get off again? I was stuck on a medication I had so much animosity towards and worse my hair continued to decline so I had no way of knowing if it ever helped in the first place, and since we all know we just love to poke ourselves in the eye with our torture sticks, I’d constantly remind myself that I never really allowed my body the chance to heal on its own, to stabilize it’s own hormones without the use of any medication. Maybe in a few years time all would have resumed to normal, or maybe not, but I’ll never know. [click to continue…]

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I received this email, and requested permission to share it here, with all of you. Much thanks to “A” for writing me this incredibly amazing email and allowing me to share her story. I had gotten home one night and made a quick check of my email and saw this in my box, I felt moved, excited, touched and inspired all over again. Thank you! 

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I want to thank you for your wonderfully honest, heartfelt, and supportive web site. I found the womenshairlossproject site one day on the internet and my life hasn’t been the same since. I have been struggling since my late 20s with thinning hair due to androgenic alopecia and I am 49 now. I so wanted it to be a medical issue that I could then take a pill and be cured but that was not to be. I took aldactone for a while and it stopped the shedding but I hated taking pills so I went off those after a year. I found a shampoo for thinning hair that controls the shedding for me and I have used it for several years (Nisim is the brand). However, the diffuse thinning continues and it’s worse on the top of my head. I have been wearing baseball caps everywhere for over 15 years now, even at work, it’s my signature look.

I have been living (and I use the term living loosely) a subdued life, shunning social activities and just not being able to enjoy the outdoors. Being naturally shy anyway, my hair condition has made me hyper sensitive and even more uncomfortable being with other people for fear of being found out, stared at, or laughed at. You don’t realize how insidious the negative inner dialog becomes until you see yourself 20 years along in your hair loss and how much you’ve retreated from life. You also can’t help becoming more cynical of people thinking they have nothing better to do than find weaknesses in you to possibly exploit.

I have grown especially weary over the last year of wearing hats, of spending an hour fixing my hair moving one hair this way and another that way hoping for a better outcome, of feeling less worthy and less than in everything. I traversed the web to find solutions and support and I found it with you and your web site. I found hope and realized I wasn’t as alone as I felt. I began to believe that my life could be different. I began to believe that I didn’t have to hide anymore and that there are solutions. It took many months for me to finally decide to DO something. I originally shied away from wigs because I believed it’s harder to hide wearing a blonde wig and I didn’t want anyone to know I was wearing a wig. [click to continue…]

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