Hello there. I'm in need of your time and attention to help me choosing (or not) to go the hair piece route, and I thank you in advance for your input.

First of all a little introduction about my hair story

(NOTE: PHOTOS BELOW)

I'm 27 years old and I always had thin hair. At 16, people were already mentioning my hair was very thin and it looked like I was going to be bald soon. As you might imagine, this is not very reassuring at such age, and since early my hair has been a big concern to me.

Since I played guitar in a rock band during my high school phase, I started using my hair long, which helped concealing the hair loss.

At 18 I started taking propecia, and I have been on 1,25mg/day since then. In the beginning my hair was thin, and the thinning has always slowly progressed. Propecia didn't make me regrow any hair, but it probably slowed down the loss. In my family, my uncle had premature MPB, as well as a 1st degree cousin.

As to my balding pattern, I actually find it is quite unusual. Even though it's thinner, I still have my full hair line, and temple points, but my hair is incredibly thin everywhere, specially on top and sides. You can easily see a lot of my scalp on my sides if I'm not using concealers. It looks like female pattern baldness, and I don't know if this is common in men, but I think not.

I graduated, and 2 years ago I started working on a very demanding and high responsability environment, and I decided it was time to cut my hair short. The thinning was now more evident, and I started using concealers, namely hairsoreal and specially dermmatch. Even though concealers were self-esteem life-savers, they are a pain in the *** to use. In the last year I noticed that thinning was progressing, and I have had to use more and more concealer. In the last year I have to wash my hair every morning, because my scalp is extremely oily, and then go through a 40-45 minute routine of drying, applying dermmatch, dry again, apply hairsoreal, apply styling cream and take the residue out of my nape, ears and sink. As you might imagine, this is extremely time consuming, and I just can't simply get up in the morning and go out to the street, because my hair will be oily, messy and thin. Add to that having to use black sheets in my bed to avoid coloring them with the brown dermmatch and also having to hide all this from my girlfriend, and you'll understand that this takes a lot of work and effort in my daily life.

As if that wasn't enough, dermmatch has that usual chalky and dusty look, looking very bad with some kinds of lightning. Because of this, in the last months I've also been using a powder concealer from Shabo along with dermmatch, since the Shabo concealer doesn't have the chalky look, and actually gives quite a healthy shine to the hair.

At present, using concealers I can have a full head of hair, with full hair line, no scalp visible, freestyle styling, and I bet no one thinks I'm going bald, and I bet some people might think that my hair looks weird if they look at it in bad lighting situations. Still... even though I don't have frontal recession, my hair has thinned considerably in the hair line, so I can say that right now my hair line with dermmatch looks a bit weird, but since people don't even know these products exist, they will not think I'm using "scalp paint".

You could think why I don't shave my hair... well, my skull is definitely not one that would look good with a hair shave, so that is not an option. Besides that I know how hair changes your look, and I've already made the decision many years ago that I want to have hair, no matter how.


After this long introduction, here comes the important part, regarding hair pieces. I never considered using one because I didn't know there were such amazing hair pieces being made in the present. I usually go to the hairlosstalk forum, and they are mostly "anti-wig" over there, so I never considered that option. That was until I saw the famous "Mr Burns" posts, where I saw someone my age, with a very simillar story to mine, with an amazing hair system that looked absolutely convincing. In the last weeks, I've been thinkings endlessly about this subject, and I currently need your guidance to help me.

At first I wanted to go with a topper, but I was extremely worried with the blending, because I would have to continue to use dermmatch or Shabo in my sides and back. I guess this makes the blend very difficult, and I'll still have to use this products everyday, as well as wash my hair everyday. I have a dream where I'll be able to live as a "normal person", not having to worry that much with my hair every morning, not having to spend almost an hour trying to fix my thinning, not making a mess out of my bathroom, not having to worry with so many other things.

After reading several information here, I have some questions to ask you:

1- Do you think I should go with a topper + concealers on side and back, or I should go for the full cap route?

2- My scalp and skin is extremely oily. I have to wash my hair every 24 hours, or it will look awful. I'm worried that this will cause me trouble with an hair piece. Do you think I can keep my hair piece for at least 5-7 days, even having an oily scalp?

3- Is it possible to try a topper/full cap without shaving my hair, and make sure it will look good, until I take the plunge for the shaving?

4- As to costs... I currently spend about 125dollars (perhaps more) every month in products for my hair... do you think the hair piece route will be cheaper or costlier? By how much?

5- As to my girlfriend... I never told her I use concealers. She respects my privacy a lot, and she never interrupts me when I'm in my bathroom. I don't honestly know if she knows I use them, but I try to believe she doesn't. Anyway, our relationship is strong, and I know that one day I'll have to tell her, but I would like to wait at least an year before I would do it. Do you think a well applied hair piece can be undetectable even for someone who is near your almost every day of the week? I'm not worried of her running her hands through my hair, because she fortunately never does it, I'm just worried if it will be noticeable.

6- How much time do you think I'll have to spend with the maintenance and adjustment of the hairpiece? How long does it take to clean it? How much time will I have to spend daily adjusting the hairline, etc?

7- Are hair systems detectable in bars/night clubs which have that purple light that makes white things glow?

8- About the cut... I think I don't have the courage to go to a salon and tell someone "hey, I'm wearing a hair piece, would you please cut it for me?". As such, do you think I could manage to get a decent haircut made by myself?



And that's all. Sorry for such a long post, but I'm sure you understand that this is a very important step, which should be taken with caution and reflection. I'm looking forward to hear your answers.


PHOTOS WITH CONCEALERS:















With very greasy hair (which can happen in 18-24 hours), showing scalp even with concealers




PHOTOS WITHOUT CONCEALERS: