When Patricia started going bald, she turned to wigs and hair clips, but nothing she tried left her feeling like herself. Then she discovered hair transplants.
Patricia's Story
"I was born with baby fine thin hair, that is just my genetic make-up."
I noticed it was getting thinner as I got older, but by the time I was in my late 40s, my hair line was receding quite a bit up through the corners and across the top. I chose to start wearing hair pieces at that point. I even had one where there was a piece of tape that was glued around my head, and the hair piece was sewn to that. I thought that is what I had to do.
"Losing my hair it was devastating."
I felt really, really terrible about it, that is why I started covering it up. When I covered it up, that feeling still did not go away because I was sensitive about wearing a wig or hair piece of any kind and realizing that people were quite aware that was what I was doing. I would not even go out of the house or to the mailbox to pick up the mail without putting it on. That is how sensitive I was about it. It was a major issue in my life. It made me feel like something was just not right, and it wasn't attractive. If I went swimming, I took the hair piece out in the house and put a swimming cap on my head. I am sure there were some people who noticed and some people who didn't, and I am sure that no one would have been bothered by me going out to my mail box with out a hairpiece on, but it was more what was going on in my head. It was that I was bothered by it.
"I had the hair transplant, and it was kind of like a day at a spa."
It really was a pleasant experience. Everyone was so friendly and pleasant and put me at ease. I was sedated, and a strip of hair was taken from the back of my head and I was sutured up. I woke up and had a lovely lunch and watched a movie while the hair was put in. Discomfort-wise, it is not an uncomfortable experience. You will feel some tightness in the back of the head where the incision is made to harvest the hair. I probably took two or three doses of Tylenol over the first few days. I had the procedure one day, and I was driving over to the office the next day to have them look at it. It didn't change my life or activities, other than I didn't do any heavy exercise for a week.
I hadn't really styled my own hair in 20 years.
The hair goes to sleep, so for three months it doesn't do anything and you don't really know it is there. Then it starts to grow so you can start seeing it coming out, and at six months you have enough that you can start doing things with it. But I didn't really know how to fix it. One of the women at [my surgeon] Dr. Lamb's office walked me over to a salon and had them talk with me and tell me what they could do. They happened to have an opening that afternoon, and they did my hair.
"I had been terrified of what the reaction would be when people saw me with my real hair for the first time."
I went to a rehearsal that evening, and I was a little late and everybody stopped singing when I walked in. The director said, "We just had to stop and look at your pretty hair." I had left the salon thinking, "I really like this," but I was fearful of what other reactions might be. The reaction from friends and family members has been so positive and nice.
I enjoy it everyday.
Going bald is something that women keep very quiet about. It is an embarrassment because you expect men to go bald but you don't expect women to go bald. Since having the hair transplant, I've started talking about it to women, and they are very glad to have someone who will open up and say, "I have this problem and this is what I did about it." You don't have to just live with it.
It has been so nice to go swimming or go outside and let the wind blow through my hair and it is ok. My husband loves it. He likes touching it; a wig was not a lot of fun to put your hands in. It has definitely given me greater confidence. It makes me feel much, much better about myself.
