female only Those of you that experienced hair loss: How did you deal with it?

[Daydra 345]

I'm not really after an answer about how did you deal with it emotionally, I totally accept temporary hair loss/thinning as something I may have to address. It will either happen or it won't and according to my reading, there really isn't anything I can do to prevent it. I don't really care that much about the fact that some of it might fall out. I know it will grow back.

What I would like to know is how did you deal with it from a style perspective? Did you change your hairstyle? Did you cut your hair short? Start wearing hats? Scarves? If you used accessories like hats or scarves, what kind of style did you adopt? How does one wear a scarf? Is it going to be a pain in the arse? I'm so style challenged, you would think I was a dude, so I really have no idea what to do if I need to come up with something inventive. As a matter of fact, until I started letting my hair grow out, I was frequently called "sir"(one of the reasons I started letting it grow again, even though now I have to dry the damn stuff every morning), which was becoming extremely annoying. I once even had someone do a double take and then decide I was a dude. I swear, I'm really not that mannish! I was even wearing a women's jacket that day! :-) My style is pretty much all REI, all the time, and frequently men's hiking pants and shirts because they just fit better. I guess it doesn't really help that I have a job where I need to wear weather appropriate clothes and safety toe boots to work everyday, although I have to admit I prefer it to having to wear dresses or suits all the time...

[mrsplusamericajacksonville 21]

weave wigs.. quick-.weave...wigs..........sew in.weave............girl its time to experiment.............

[Indigo1991 1,612]

I have left the style but bought Toppick to fill in the thin bits - total lifesaver. It's keratin (hair) fibres that u puff into the roots of ur hair and it looks like u have a full head again. Stays put in wind and rain. Sure there are other companies doing similar but this has worked for me. Know my hair is thinner but no one else can see it now....has taken the stress out of the situation and lets me forget about my Hair loss. Just beginning to slow down after 2 months :-)

[Veruca Salt 31]

I was so worried about my hair falling out I had nightmares. I would sit up in bed and all my hair would still be on the pillow. Thank god it is not that bad. I have a little thining but nothing you can notice. I am luck to have thick hair and when a few stains fall out I can hide it well. I see some people have posted some extreme post back to you but I have never heard of anyone being so bad off they needed wigs or anything like that. Good luck to you and don't worry you will be fine.

[Bridget312001 70]

I cut my hair back to just above my shoulders and had lots of layers added. The hair that didn't fall out became super dry and brittle, so a good majority of it off helped keep it somewhat healthy looking. At almost seven months out my Hair loss is slowing down and I am sprouting new hair, so I can attest it will come back! :-)

[Sassygirl06 962]

I didn't have a lot, but I was a slow loser, and had a lot to begin with. I did cut my hair very short, and I got highlights with lowlights as well to add depth, and the appearance of more volume. Good luck!

[Bufflehead 6,358]

I've had very badly thinning hair (so thin you can see big stretches of scalp through the thin hair on top of my head) for a long time before surgery, just due to bad genetics. Here is how I have dealt with it:

--short hair cut with layers in a side part -- this style helps a lot.

--use fill-in fibers such as Toppik or Nanogen (these work great!).

Now I am seeing more and more loss since surgery. I have an appointment to get a topper cut-in (kind of like a partial wig) next month. I had it custom made to match my natural hair. Hopefully it will look as good as I expect it to and not be too much of a pain to take care of.

here is a link to before & after photos of someone with a topper:

http://forum.womenshairlossproject.com/showthread.php?t=3756

she actually had hers made the same place I am getting mine.

[Leederz 49]

In hindsight of course my health is above my hair but at 6 months post op and chunks of hair everywhere clogging up my drain and crying in the shower it was horrible. Thank god I had somewhat thick curly hair so it wasn't much noticeable to others. My advice would be try n get ur Protein and Water so important but also difficult in the beginning. Take all ur supplements plus Biotin. Keep ur style low maintenance. Try not to manipulate ur hair as much.

Now that I'm 18 months post op with a 3 month old my hair did grow back but I'm seeing the shedding again probably from pregnancy. I'm doing more "pre-pooing" which is basically a hot oil treatment before you was ur hair. I use organic unrefined coconut oil for that. It makes ur hair more shiny so u will not have to use as much product. Then I also deep condition and leave some leave-in conditioner in my hair. I try to do styles that last more than a day to avoid excess washing. Also keeping hair trimmed so remaining hair is healthy is also key.

My routine will probably change now that I'm going back to hitting the gym but I will always try n keep those basic keys in mind.

Water water water.

[baniwala 40]

I have had terrible hair loss, and it can sometimes be difficult to style, however, I have found wearing my hair down is easiest. Most of my loss is visible on the sides, so for me pulling it up isn't as easy to hide. I also sometimes wear head scarves, but don't have any pictures.

I took a close up of the sides and a picture of it down. Not as visible as you would think losing this much hair!

Sent from my iPhone using VST

[BethinPA 305]

I have had terrible hair loss' date=' and it can sometimes be difficult to style, however, I have found wearing my hair down is easiest. Most of my loss is visible on the sides, so for me pulling it up isn't as easy to hide. I also sometimes wear head scarves, but don't have any pictures.

I took a close up of the sides and a picture of it down. Not as visible as you would think losing this much hair!

Sent from my iPhone using VST[/quote']

High and low lights, some layering to give my hair a little more movement, and a shine treatment. I am in the small-short-chunks of hair growing back in phase, and I'm not quite sure the best way to handle that style wise yet.

[Daydra 345]

Thanks everyone for your replies. You've given me some good ideas for when/if I have to deal with it. I'm pretty fortunate with my hair. It's fine, but very very dense with lots of growth and it's always been very healthy and a bit on the oily side. Hopefully that will be a bit of insurance against anything too tragic. :-) I googled some pictures of headscarves, and I gotta say, I really don't think I'm going to be into that much fuss... Hats it will be, if necessary :-)

Best of luck to all of you dealing with it!

[NurseGrace 509]

yeah, my hair thinned a bit, so I bleached it blonde and ran with it. the bleaching process fries it just a touch so I still have the same volume I always had, no one notices but me... but it's coming back now.