Alternative Hair - The Long and the short of it.

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with short hair...

Probably because of my mother’s insistence on keeping my hair cut short when I was a child because my bio hair was quite fine, and flyaway and very straight; no doubt short hair was easier for her to manage – but how I yearned to have long hair. When the style of my hair came to be my own decision my favourites mostly varied from shoulder length to a sharp chin level bob with a full fringe – but over the years on occasion I’d opt for a short, pixie style (I prefer to forget my brief flirtation with perms in the 1980s!) But the downside of short hair for me was how long it took to grow again – and how boring I found the process of growing out layers.

And so another hidden blessing of losing my hair to alopecia, and one of the real joys in finding the solution to my hairloss in wigs, has been the ability to switch hairstyles, lengths and colours as the mood takes me. Wearing the ‘Link’ wig by Ellen Wille not only reminds me of the times when I instructed my hairdresser to “cut it all off” and the wonderful sense of freedom this would bring – it has the added benefit that once that novelty has worn off, or the weather turns a bit cooler, I can pop her back in her box for a few weeks, and revert to a longer style, such as ‘Drive’ also by Ellen Wille, or ‘Emilia’ or ‘Cameron petite’ by Jon Renau. Whilst none of these are what I’d term ‘proper’ long hair (‘Zara’ petite by Jon Renau, or ‘Miley’ petite by Ellen Wille fall into this category)  they all have a satisfying ‘swish’ effect when wearing them. I’m not entirely sure I personally could carry off a style that was longer than shoulder length, although I’m not saying never – but the longer the piece the greater the maintenance required, and I’m all for simplicity. But I have decided that I’m not going to allow my age to determine the hair I wear – there are plenty of women my age to be found in the Instagram hair loss community wearing long hair and looking fabulous, and their confidence to explore all styles has certainly helped me to build my own.

Emilia by Jon Renau

Cameron by Jon Renau