My Lame Super Power

I have a super power. Not a cool power like flying or turning invisibl, it’s more of a lame power like the ones in Mur Lafferty’s book “playing for Keeps”.  What is my super power? I can change my hair style in an instant! Change the hair color, lengthen it by inches, anything I want to do. What…? You’re not buying that line? OK, OK, read on.

Almost 20 years ago my hair started falling out. I was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata, spots on my head started going bald. Eventually almost all the hair on my head fell out, Alopeicia Totalis, and then all the hair on my body, Alopecia Universalis. One dime sized spot on my head kept growing so I was technically still considered to be at the “areata” stage but effectivly I went through totalis and universalis.

After a few years my hair started coming back. Why? No one knows, it just started growing back in as slowly as it fell out a few years before. There is no cure for alopecia, there are treatments but they were never very effective for me. I had given up on the treatments when it finally came back in.

After about 15 years of having my own hair it has started to fall out again. About a year ago I noticed a small spot in the back of my head. Now it has grown to a size that can’t be hidden anymore. The bad new is, I have to wear a wig. The good new is, I get to wear a wig:-) Let’s face it, My own hair at it’s best growth was never all that good looking. It was always quite thin and had no body.

The first picture, in green, is my own hair. The second is one of my new looks.

Back when I had alopecia the first time I made a conscious choice not to keep it a secret. After all, people who already know me are going to know it’s a wig when the volume of hair triples over night. People who meet me for the first time while I’m wearing it will figure it out soon enough. No matter how good the wig is, it will eventually show. One wrong wind blast and my secret would be out.

So both then and now I have made the choice to wear different wigs each day. So far I only have two, the darn things are quite expensive, but I will collect more. Wearing a short blond wig one day and a long red one the next makes it very clear to people around me that I am not trying to keep it a secret and that I am open to being asked about it. Writing a blog post like this also helps with that.

Reality check here. Most of the women shopping for wigs are having to do it because they are in the fight of their lives and losing their hair to cancer treatments. Alopecia has one symptom, hair loss. I am not sick, my condition is strictly cosmetic and I am not fighting for my life. I have absolutely no excuse to feel sorry for myself! Occasionally I start feeling down and have to kick my self in the ass with that reality check.