Lisa's Story | @lisa_loves_alternative_hair

I first started noticing my hair thinning in my early 30’s. It’s never been thick, but I had lots of hair and it was curly, so it did look like I had quite thick hair.  

My hair is a huge thing for me, as I suppose it is for most women, I just don’t feel right if my hair isn’t. I’m also a hairdresser and qualified beauty therapist, so I feel the pressure to look good and have good hair. 

The feeling of seeing other women’s lovely hair and seeing mine progressively worsening, having no idea what to do and where to go was horrible and made me very anxious.

For a number of years, I had hair extensions which did help with making it look thicker, but eventually the thinning was so badly that the extensions started to pull on my hair, as they were becoming too heavy for what I had naturally - eventually, I had to stop wearing them. 

I tried the usual expensive shampoos hoping for a miracle, to no avail. I then started to notice some bald spots appearing, mainly around the front of my hair. This got worse, at an alarming rate.

I tried scalp micro pigmentation and while it did blend the bald spots it obviously didn’t do anything to help disguise the thinning and texture of my hair , so that wasn’t a viable option for me.

 I was in denial for a long while and I just kind of made do, so moved my parting around and used root spray to disguise. As you can imagine, a gust of wind and I looked like I had a comb over.

As more years went by, it continued to get worse and I really started to get upset and thought I really needed do something, so I finally decided to try wigs. 

It took time to get right but I persevered and the confidence it gave me was life changing. There’s much to learn regarding what colours and styles are best for you, but wigs give you the freedom to try out a whole range of new colours and styles you’d never been able to before, so that to me is another bonus to wearing wigs. 

Around the time I began to wear wigs, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and lost about 5 stone in weight with a low carb diet.

I chose not to take any medication and wanted to do this with diet only. I have since reversed my diabetes.

I thought my diabetes could have made the hair loss worse but it wasn’t the case, I’ve never been told what my hair loss is - the GP wasn’t particularly helpful, they simply put Alopecia on my medical records! 

I found Peluka Salon which I couldn’t have been happier about as they are local to me - until then I was just buying wigs online and didn’t really understand what everything meant - cap construction, fibre types, maintenance, care, fit, I didn’t even know my head circumference, so was mainly wearing wigs that were oversized.

Francesca is lovely and she measured me and explained everything regarding hair types, cap constructions etc and also made me feel very comfortable. Since then I’ve been a regular customer with Peluka salon. 

This is when I started to really feel comfortable in wig wearing and enjoy wearing wigs, changing my hair to suit my outfits. I’ve developed a huge passion for wigs and also for helping other ladies to navigate their hair loss journey.

I am now completely open and if asked, I’m happy to say, ‘Yes I’m wearing a wig’ - which is a rare occurrence. Although I’m sure most people have worked this out,due to changing my hair daily!

It has opened many conversations with other women who have noticed changes in their hair. They feel comfortable opening up to me about it, I love being able to offer my advice and experience. 

It was around this time I also found the wonderful hair loss community on instagram which again has been amazing for me, as I’ve now meet lots of lovely ladies I can class as friends who understand what we deal with daily and speaking to them has helped me so much. Some of us have also met up and hope to meet more women soon.

I also found the confidence to shave what was left of my hair and that honestly felt amazing to do.  

I was wary at first what my husband would think, so I’d try and hide my shaved head when he was around, but one day he told me he’d already seen it and wasn’t fazed at all, often joking about having a different wife everyday!

At first I saw wearing wigs as a last resort, but now I see them as opening a whole new world of possibilities, embracing it and will never look back. 

I am so happy to be joining Peluka as an ambassador and continue helping other ladies with their hair loss journeys.