Michelle Thompson's Alopecia Journey…in her own words

I looked for help online as I knew absolutely nothing about wigs, other than seeing them in a Halloween costume store. But this wasn’t a journey of finding a costume, this was a real-life challenge to create normalcy for myself. It was truly a whole new world that I was not able to navigate alone. There were terms I never heard of before like wefted, monofilament, permatease . . seriously? I am already overwhelmed with my recent diagnosis of Alopecia at age 50! This was 3 years ago. I am now 53 and I feel like I’m 33. I have so much gratitude for finding Wigs.com as I was all alone dealing with being forced to begin a new journey knowing I now have a prescription from a Dermatologist for a cranial prosthesis. 

Before I learned about Wigs.com, I was lost. I found a specialized hair salon for women like me and made an appointment for a consultation. I had to begin somewhere. The consultation was free, and I learned so much, like how to measure my head for sizing, how to care for a wig, and how expensive they can be. My first wig was a custom, European human hair wig and I truly love it, but the cost is not sustainable for my budget. I also didn’t want to ruin my human hair wig as I love to do activities outdoors. I was so desperate to find other wig options as I was devastated that I just dropped a several thousand dollars on a wig. This is when I really dove into the Wigs.com website. They have so many videos that I found on wig education. The sizing guidance on Wigs.com is exactly what I had just learned from the salon consultation therefore Wigs.com immediately earned my trust. Trust is so important because I was literally the most vulnerable I have ever been in my life. Now I feel like I’m in wig college, as I was taking so many notes and really captivated my interest in learning about wigs from this amazing website. This shocking journey I was forced to begin was starting to be fun! It became so fun that it helped me embrace my alopecia as the website became a safe space for me to escape to.

My bio hair was getting worse as my ponytail was literally the diameter of a dime. So, one day I felt so empowered by my vulnerabilities, almost like I was wearing a superhero cape, and I put on a pair of camouflage jeans, went to my hairdresser and told her “I’m ready to be GI Jane.” I was ready to get a crew cut as I couldn’t stand my long, thin, stringy hair. I was ready and it was important for me to share that experience with someone. I was scared out of my mind but was mentally ready to cross over. I learned I have a cute head and look good with an army style haircut.

 It was literally the most empowered and sexiest moment I’ve ever had in my 50 years of life. From this moment on, I felt brave and invincible and knew I could look any way I wanted on the outside because I learned who I was on the inside. I found that love for myself I had once lost.  

I am so grateful for the journey I was forced to embark as I learned to love myself for me. I learned that we all have challenges and the more we share our vulnerabilities with others, the more we help to empower and inspire those around us in parallel with ourselves. I no longer have a dark shadow over me where I hid from the embarrassment of wearing wigs or having alopecia. The reason the shadow went away was because on Independence Day 2022, I came out of the closet and admitted to all of my friends, family and colleagues that I have alopecia. After I posted, I cried because it was such an emotional jump for me toward freedom. I will never forget this day of taking that leap of faith that people will truly see me for who I am in my heart, not hair.

I have made hundreds of new friends since the beginning of my journey. My choice in life is to help others who struggle, hoping my story will help them by sharing my story of overcoming obesity, depression, and losing my bio hair. Sometimes we just need to reset our mind and take baby steps in moving forward each day in a positive direction. It’s a personal choice to find what will make you feel alive. I feel like a whole person again like when I was an innocent child before growing up in a world of corruption, toxicity, and judgment. I learned how to be proud of my alopecia and my accomplishments by accepting my own flaws. 

My saving grace was the pandemic. During this time, I was to work remotely indefinitely like my colleagues. This gave me time to find myself, my NEW self. Going through a new journey of wearing, caring, and styling a wig was so new to me and super scary. I bought human hair wigs and synthetic wigs. It's expensive I won't lie but it totally gave me my life back. I was no longer embarrassed to go in public and broke out of my bubble. In fact, I climbed a 14k foot trail on my hiking journey last year because I felt so amazing.

So now I finally feel sexy again. I lost all my weight (63 lbs), and learned how to maintain my new weight with food freedom. Not having much bio hair is quite a transition in life. My senior year in high school I was nominated to be prom queen. I didn't win and that's okay because this became my new goal through this Wig Journey, to feel like a prom queen and I do! I am winning this battle inside of myself to hide who I am to the world. I am still working on my self-esteem, but I have really come a long way and am so proud of myself. I am still the same person with or without a wig.