A few people have asked me about my 17 year hair loss.
I was shiny headed bald, nothing, nada, zip.
The loss wasn't so tough on me as I was home trying to raise to babies that were 12 months and 12 days apart in age. I didn't have time to have friends, or go out. I was about 26 years old.
I bought cheap wigs for when going out in public was a necessity and they looked like wigs. This is so unlike today with wigs being mainstream with chemotherapy, etc - shit, even going bald is more mainstream now than it was in 1982.
The person it was hard on was my husband and I can't say I could blame him. What man wants to make love to Kojak? I think you get my drift.
As my kids got older and public appearances were happening more frequently, the need to wear a wig was a bigger deal and it was hot and scratchy, I was miserable. Around the house I went bald and I felt free and felt like me.
I had tests run and even had my head highlighted in a medical journal as the medical community tried to find the cause and therefore a solution.
Nothing came, no reasoning whatsoever, only conjecture, NO HAIR!
I went through probably 2 wigs a year at 60-70 a pop (which was really expensive all those years ago).
The 1990's came around and my kids were in their teens and very self conscious of their wig wearing mother (I felt for them, this was a condition I had no other choice but to accept but for them and my husband it was another story all together).
In the fall of 1996 I started seeing fuzz grow and it would fall out and then actual hair started growing but it was patchy. I continued to wear a wig. I then started back to work after having been a stay at home mom for 18 years and that job was at an outpatient mental health facility. The therapists there were very understanding of my feelings about being bald, about wearing a wig and they encouraged me to cut the hair that was growing and start going without a wig. I did that and my hair started growing and I'd cut it and it would grow more and was filling in and before long, there was more hair than bald spots.
Today all my hair is back in, it's different, the hair is thin and grey yet requires cutting every 3 weeks. I color my hair the best I can but it's all grey and grey resists color. I don't want to make it too brittle so I space out the coloring.
The important part is that my hair is all I lost during those 17 years. My husband stayed, my kids loved me, and I became whole again.
The medical community never did find out what the problem was but if it ever happens again I know I'll survive.
A few people have asked me about my 17 year hair loss.
I was shiny headed bald, nothing, nada, zip.
The loss wasn't so tough on me as I was home trying to raise to babies that were 12 months and 12 days apart in age. I didn't have time to have friends, or go out. I was about 26 years old.
I bought cheap wigs for when going out in public was a necessity and they looked like wigs. This is so unlike today with wigs being mainstream with chemotherapy, etc - shit, even going bald is more mainstream now than it was in 1982.
The person it was hard on was my husband and I can't say I could blame him. What man wants to make love to Kojak? I think you get my drift.
As my kids got older and public appearances were happening more frequently, the need to wear a wig was a bigger deal and it was hot and scratchy, I was miserable. Around the house I went bald and I felt free and felt like me.
I had tests run and even had my head highlighted in a medical journal as the medical community tried to find the cause and therefore a solution.
Nothing came, no reasoning whatsoever, only conjecture, NO HAIR!
I went through probably 2 wigs a year at 60-70 a pop (which was really expensive all those years ago).
The 1990's came around and my kids were in their teens and very self conscious of their wig wearing mother (I felt for them, this was a condition I had no other choice but to accept but for them and my husband it was another story all together).
In the fall of 1996 I started seeing fuzz grow and it would fall out and then actual hair started growing but it was patchy. I continued to wear a wig. I then started back to work after having been a stay at home mom for 18 years and that job was at an outpatient mental health facility. The therapists there were very understanding of my feelings about being bald, about wearing a wig and they encouraged me to cut the hair that was growing and start going without a wig. I did that and my hair started growing and I'd cut it and it would grow more and was filling in and before long, there was more hair than bald spots.
Today all my hair is back in, it's different, the hair is thin and grey yet requires cutting every 3 weeks. I color my hair the best I can but it's all grey and grey resists color. I don't want to make it too brittle so I space out the coloring.
The important part is that my hair is all I lost during those 17 years. My husband stayed, my kids loved me, and I became whole again.
The medical community never did find out what the problem was but if it ever happens again I know I'll survive.