Friday, August 22, 2014
Alopecia, Hair Loss and Hair Replacements: My Story (part one)
So…this happened recently. And since I realize I’ve not gone much
into my hair journey I will stop a moment and tell the long (boring) story.
The official start of this story is in 1998. But I think it
starts a little earlier. I’ll explain why in a moment.
I had this FABULOUS auburn hair weave. Now on me an auburn
weave is just asking for cultural confusion. I lived in Montgomery County at
the time and even the large Latino population thought I was Latina from time to
time (while my mom’s family name is Fernandez we mostly came by that name by
way of imperialism).
Anyhoo, as I was removing the weave, I noticed a dime sized
chunk of hair missing toward the crown of my head. I didn’t think much of it. I
thought maybe I’d pulled some hair from my head in removing the weave. I
carried on.
But it progressively got worse. And I progressively denied
it. I’m not sure how to explain how I did that except that I did. My past has
given me the ability to make very existent things non-existent. It’s a survival
mechanisms that helps in some ways and hurts in others.Over the next 10 years or so I began a male pattern hair loss which means a circle at the top of my head was becoming bald. Amazingly I did not seek medical advice for this for more than a decade! I am generally distrustful of doctors and medical institutions (ironic since I placed myself in a situation where I have to interact through my weight loss surgery). That is to say that when I am sick my first inclination is NOT to call a doctor. I usually try to push through it.
But eventually I did go to the doctor and the doctor told me…approximately nothing. They ran no tests, they gave me no explanation (other than the diagnosis of alopecia areata which, in my estimation, translates to “you are losing your hair and we’re not 100% sure why.”). The dermatologist did tell me that the hair follicles in the area of my scalp where I’d already lost hair were dead. And so the hair would not grow back. Lovely.
SIDEBAR: Remember where I said I think this dates back earlier? I had an experience but I can't prove it had anything to do with my ultimate hair loss. In my junior year of high school I went to get a perm at a beauty school. The student technician put the perm solution in my hair...then promptly disappeared for about 45 minutes! Most black folks know that stuff is not supposed to stay in that long. After about 20 my head was on fire and I begged someone, anyone, to wash it out. That was met with claims that I must have a sensitive head. My mom arrived 45 minutes in when I was trying to "man up" and demanded someone do something. They did and my hair did not fall out then, but I did have recurring sores on my scalp for quite some time. Then the hair started to come out. Thankfully the sores (which bled often for years) disappeared once the hair started falling out. Although we signed a disclaimer saying we know my hair was being done by students and releasing them of most liability, a court later found the school grossly negligent and I got a small settlement that helped me pay for my first year of college. Back to our regular story...
Now the same part of me that allowed me to stick my head in the
sand for many years also prevented me from really grieving my hair too much. I’m
fairly resilient that way. So I wouldn’t have hair that grew out of my head.
Instead of being sad about that I set off to figure out how I could have hair. And thus began my long
career of wearing hair pieces.
Those of you who met me within the last 10 years or so have
seen me in hairpieces. They are always ponytails of some sort. I dabbled in
wigs but found I didn’t like too much hair around my face. It wasn’t too much
of a bother to wear these hair pieces. They are cheap (most of the ones you’ve
seen range from $10-15), accessible (true fact: there are four beauty supply
stores in walking distance of my house) and they allowed me versatility. I’ve
never been one to commit to looking one particular way.
So if I was happy with the hairpieces, what led me to get
that thing of beauty you see in the photo above?
Well, several things. First, as I lost more and more hair,
hair pieces became more and more uncomfortable. The stress of the weight of
them was a lot for the tiny bit of hair I had to pull back to support them.
Plus it was getting harder to conceal my scalp. Lastly, most ponytail hair
pieces are fastened with little combs. This isn’t problematic if you have hair
between those combs and your scalp. I did not. Imagine little metal spikes
digging into your scalp all day. Not fun!So this year I finally decided to get a hair replacement.
I have a lot to say about the process – what makes a good
candidate, the cost, the actual logistics of getting one. I’m trying to
motivate myself to blog more so I’m going to save this for tomorrow, when I
hope to pick up where I left off.
Labels: alopecia, hair loss, hair replacements
# posted by Bariatric Foodie @ 9:37 AM 
