Hello everyone. I've been a member of this site for a while and enjoy reading other's posts but this is my first post. I first lost my hair in about 20 months ago from alopecia areata due to stress. I didn't shave what was left. I got a hair piece, then a wig, but within 7 months it grew back and since the hair I had was still long, I just got it chopped to chin length and it didn't look too bad. It was growing in nicely.

Then exactly 1 year ago (after enjoying being wig-free for a few months) I had to get some pre-cancerous cells removed and I had a bad reaction to the anesthetic, my body went into shock, and ALL my hair fell out over the course of 10 days. I was completely gutted.

Thankfully I hadn't binned my wig from before, and it didn't look too different from my real hair, so I was able to carry on as normal to the outside world but it was completely devestating.

It's now been 1 year of constantly wearing my wig, taking loads of vitamins every day, exercising, eating well, eating every few hours and taking iron supplements (found out I have very low iron, so when my body is run down or shocked it doesn't have enough iron reserves to see me through, which is probably a big factor in the hair loss). If I get flu, run down, injured or don't eat regularly or take multivitamins, I notice that it doesn't grow as much or falls out a bit. Anyway, now my head is now about 85% covered with hair. It's very short though (only about an inch and a half long).

I'm getting so sick of wearing the wig. I can't glue or tape it on as that pulls out my real hair below, but my real hair is too short to clip it in. I wear it with no glue or clips but I'm starting to notice it's getting more and more slippy. It's getting to winter here now and I can't take a hat off in public as I know that it will have moved, so I need to keep going to the loo all the time and checking it in the mirror. Windy days, putting my hood up, bannging my head against something... all those things cause it to move and slip.

I desperately want to get rid of the wig! But I am worried that my hair isn't quite there yet, and that people will notice a few patches and stare, or that it all falls out again. Also concerned that the switch from a shoulder length wig to very short hair will attract attention, and I can't bear colleagues etc. coming up to me and touching my hair, and discussing why I decided to get such a short hair cut.

I managed to go to Ikea the other day without anything on and felt quite nervous at first but after I got over the inital panic I felt so much better.

Anyone else made the switch from fake hair back to real hair? How did you find it?