Living For Today

by Y on July 12, 2013

I sat down tonight, poured myself a glass of wine and remembered all the Friday nights (and Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights as well) I spent suffering in loneliness, fear, despair and bottomless depression. Whenever I could avoid the world I would, I made excuses for not making it to various functions and sought refuge on my couch, often times eating and drinking myself in a puffy sobbing, bloated mess. I felt sorry for myself ALL the time, and I simply could not process the future. What future? My hair was leaving at seemingly warp speed at times, and how could I ever live being a balding girl. How? My heart would sink at the mere mention of my fiancé talking about being able to wear a “hair addition.” What? That’s fake, that’s not real, that’s not me, never never never, not in a million years I would profess to him and then I’d leave the room (or cry) in frustration that he couldn’t really understand what I was going through. Not really anyways. I couldn’t compute and process any of this, so I sat paralyzed and living in a self imposed prison, bound by the shackles of hair loss.

I look back upon this, and I am quite saddened that I let my ENTIRE 20’s, and some of my 30’s pass by, as I sat still in the paralyzed fear of sadness, uncertainty and self loathing. This is time I will never get back. It was for all intents and purposes, very much like a prison sentence. Mind you, much of this time  I still had plenty of hair whilst it was falling out,  I still had hair that I could go out in and no one really would be clued into my hair loss issues, but that was of very small comfort. I hated myself for causing my hair loss. Yes I believed I did it to myself, after all I was the one that took the pill (Loestrin FE), that was my choice, had I not taken it in the first place all of this suffering may never have happened, so on top of everything else I had to deal with emotionally, I added blame to the mix — you know, just to spice things up in the self torture arena. [click to continue…]

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Working Out In My Wig At The Gym, Making Mila (Follea Aero-2) Sweat

by Y on July 10, 2013

Took Mila (my Follea Aero-2 Wig) to my circuit training class for the second time. We both survived, and I brought the camera along to share with you how she looks when she has been worked out!  A little over a week ago I made my first attempt at wearing Mila to the gym, I posted about it on Facebook, and I was a bundle of nerves wondering how she would hold up, if she would slide, how it would feel etc etc etc., the list goes on. I made it through that workout just fine, but decided to fine tune Mila’s look for optimal heart pounding endorphin raising, serious cardio blasting circuit training.

For today’s workout , I pinned the front bang area hairs to the side because they got sweaty plastered on my head last time.. not great. Also, last time I left my hair down for way too long, perhaps I was just enjoying being one of those gals at the gym on the treadmill with her hair down and swishing all around, or perhaps I knew that the ponytail isn’t Mila’s best look in my view, maybe it was a little of both. Either way, once my neck started sweating the hair got a little stuck together in the neck area, and Mila just wasn’t looking as cute as when she walked in… poor girl. Eventually I put her in a looped ponytail but it was too late, the sweatiness had taken over.  This time, from the start of the workout, I put her in the looped low ponytail and it was just sooooo much better and I felt so much more confident wearing her to the gym today. I think as with anything else, the more you do it the more confident you will get with it.

So ladies I’m happy to report, that with the assistance of the WiGrip, that Mila can pretty much do anything, including sit-ups, pushups, treadmill, squats against the wall… and oh, so much more.  

Happy video watching 🙂

P.s. I make a comment at the end, that it was a long video — and really this video isn’t that much longer than my others, but I had a whole separate six minute first part I recorded this morning before I left the house, I decided it would make the video too long so I cut it out.

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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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A Visit To The Brow King (Damone Roberts) In My Queen (Follea Lifestyle Wig)

by Y on June 14, 2013

Howdy Everyone!

It’s get your eyebrows waxed Friday, at least for me anyways, those little brows of mine where getting crazy so me and Anya (Follea Lifestyle wig) wandered our way to the brow king in Beverly Hills to get those babies fixed up. This was my second brow waxing with Damone at Damone Roberts, and he did yet another fabulous job on giving me some sleek brows to go with my supa sleek hair 🙂

While brow talk is fun, I know you gals care less about the particulars of the brow wax, and more about how it is wearing a wig in a situation where someone is that close to your face, am I right or what?  For me,  it’s totally fine and I’m pretty comfortable with it at this point. I have sort of gotten into the habit of spilling the beans whenever someone is going to be in that close of a proximity to my face (waxing, facials) but there have been times I’ve gotten waxed and never said a word, and I’m almost positive the person waxing had no idea, I sort of just take it on a case by case comfort level basis. I think the only thing to be mindful of, and this goes for the dentist chair too, is that if the eyebrow waxer is very close to your hair and pressing against it with their leg as you lay back, you need to be VERY careful when you sit up. There have been a few times I felt like I almost left my wiggie behind on the chair as the leg of the person had trapped “my” hair, LOL. Can you imagine? That’s the stuff wig nightmares are made of, so there are small things like that to watch out for.

This video update also discusses my hair cuts plans and provides a closer look at Anya’s hair color almost a year after I originally got her. Upon watching the video back, I realize it’s not really a true color representation, she appears lighter in person than she does in the car, but it’s a pretty color just the same.

Happy Brow Friday!

XOXO

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Wearing My Wig In a Ponytail

by Y on May 22, 2013

Ladies, meet my ponytail! Well not really “my” ponytail, but Mila’s ponytail. There was some dialogue yesterday on the WHLP facebook page about ponytails and wigs, so I decided to get Mila into a hair tie and snap some pics.

Most any wig can probably be tossed into a low ponytail. I can make a ponytail on any of my wigs (see Mila’s pic below), but there are companies that sell special wigs called “pony wigs” that are specifically designed with the ponytail/updo in mind that will allow for a higher ponytail than a standard wig can probably accommodate. Those wigs have the bottom wefts sewn upwards to make it easy to clip or pull up in the back. I don’t own a pony wig.  There was a time I was seriously considering getting one for the gym, but then I decided to just look yucky while working out and wear a beanie cap or buff. It’s much more comfortable for me to smother my hair under a hat, than to wear a wig at the gym.  I have made peace with looking bizarre a few hours a week whilst trying to keep myself from falling off a treadmill.

Mila’s pony isn’t perfect, but I definitely feel good enough in it, to wear it out like this. The back of my head was shaved about a month ago, and it’s grown in a little, so I’m not currently working with any usable bio hair to integrate back there at the nape.  If you look close at  the picture to the top left you can see a tiny bit of the shaved hair growing in there, which means I’m going to pull out the clippers and zap it.

Prior to cutting my hair off I was able to make a more perfect pony simply by yanking out a portion of the nape hair and pulling that up with the wig hair into the ponytail, which makes it look rather flawless in my opinion. The back here is ALL wig, but the front does have some of my own bio hair pulled out.

I suppose I could also have nape baby hairs cut into the wig, but at the time I cut this wig I didn’t even think of that, plus my own bio hair was long enough back then to pull out of the bottom and integrate in the back so it wasn’t really necessary.

My wiggies are never completely perfect, but they are pretty darn awesome. I just aim to make them look as natural as I can and just like with regular bio hair, some days my wigs will look better than others depending on whatever… if it was freshly washed, or if I spent more time with it, and some days I settle for the “rolled out of bed and fell on my face” head of hair. I don’t expect it to be perfect and I forgive and embrace the limitations and imperfections that supplemental hair does have. That’s how I make it work for me 🙂

Happy Wigalicious Ponytail Wednesday!

XOXO

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It’s Friday… Smile, There’s a Wig On The Table

by Y on May 3, 2013

Hey Beautiful Ladies!

It’s Friday, and I really just wanted to leave you with this image… literally.

 

The other night I was watching my usual Lifetime Movie (love those), and I got an overall glance of what was occurring on my coffee table at the very moment. My fiancé is cutting slices of cheese and placing them on crackers, I’m grabbing for strawberries, and next to it all sits Mila and her WiGrip, LOL! This is a very normal thing in my house. Remember, Where’s Waldo? Well my wigs are often very much like that in my home, and can be found on tables, counters, couches, the pool table and next to the sink, among other places.

Last night my fiancé walks into the room and says, “I thought you might like this, I found the cat sleeping on it” as he’s holding up Natalia! Oops! I had it on the couch next to me and forgot it there I guess. It happens.

Well, Happy Friday! Eat something fun, drink something happy and try to remember where you leave your hair.

XOXO

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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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Mila’s ( Follea Aero-2 ) Makeover! Video & Pics

by Y on April 18, 2013

Closeup of Mila’s New Color

Hi Everyone!

It’s been QUITE awhile since I’ve made a video, been supa dupa busy these past few months, but things are now settling down and I wanted to do a video (embedded at the end of this post) about my darling Mila’s little makeover aka dye job! I’m fairly new to wig wearing, and as of May of this year, I will have been wearing wigs for  one year, so I’m sort of learning along the way about new things, such as the color of the hair lightening up over time.

If you didn’t know, Mila is my Follea Aero-2 wig, born in the color 5030, which is a light brown/blonde color, a perfect match to my bio hair. Over time her color started lightening up and it got to a point where I didn’t think it blended well with my own hair anymore. If I didn’t use my hair it wouldn’t have been as big of an issue, but I do use my own hair with all my wigs, and I definitely need a color that blends.

Enter… Hair Color

I decided to take my misbehaving girl to Vicka at Follea in Beverly Hills, and show her how naughty she’s been 😉 I explained to Vicka that I wanted the color to match my bio hair as much as possible, obviously within reason, we are talking about hair color here, not hair cloning! I’m fairly flexible in the color of my wig, as long as it’s a good blend and goes well with my skin tone, if it’s too dark I look like I should be holding out a bag and saying “Trick or Treat!” [click to continue…]

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Kristin Chenoweth and The Hosts of “The Talk” Discuss Wearing Hair and Pop Out Their Clip-Ins!

by Y on March 30, 2013

This video was shared in by a member in the network. I just watched it and seriously almost pee’d myself watching this! Actress Kristin Chenoweth and the hosts of “The Talk” discuss wearing hair and starting popping our their clips-ins. As the saying goes, the best was saved for last.  Use the potty first, them come back and watch this clip ! 🙂

Happy Easter Weekend!

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Another Wig Wearing Sharing Experience!

by Y on March 20, 2013

I posted this on the WHLP Facebook page a little while ago, and thought I’d cross post it here for everyone!

So today I had a personal organizer come out to potentially assist in getting my house more together. One of the areas I need assistance is the master bath and master closet. Decided to just leave my wigs where they were, sitting pretty front and center.

We walked into the bathroom and I pointed to them and said, “Don’t let them scare you, they don’t bite” 😉 She said “You wear wigs?” and I let her know I do, and that I was wearing one right now. She was quite shocked (in a good way) she said she would never in a million years have known. Then she asked me why I wear them, and I told her the truth. I’m getting better at telling my wig wearing reason in brief and with literally zero emotion. Just matter of fact. Which is a good thing. I’ve cried enough tears to fill up an olympic sized swimming pool during the last 14 years, and I feel very fortunate that I’ve reached a place of acceptance and that I no longer allow my hair loss to rule my life. It’s a part of my life still, I know it’s there, I know it’s happening, but I no longer give it any power to control me.

I’ve made peace with my reality and I feel good about being able to not try to hide it when I don’t want to, like today with my wigs lying around the bathroom, and I don’t mind telling people I’m wearing hair and the reasons for it. I don’t run down the street screaming “It’s a wig” though that’s a funny thought, but I’m fine spilling the beans at a bar, if someone complimented “MY” hair.

I’ll be 35 years old next month, and while it did take 14 years for me to reach this place, I thank god everyday that I did.

Happy Wednesday!

XOXO

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