First and foremost thank you to everyone who read and commented on my horrible horrible wig experience the other day. I am both pleased and proud to say that

1) with the help of a truly wonderful friend and some great sales people in other stores I was able to figure out how to "fix" my lace wig and remove almost all of the darn glue & tape that was stuck on it. I also have found a wig place in town that I think might be able to help me with different adhesive options or some sort of inner cap thing. I have to set up an appt and see what the options are.

2) Since I am a bit frightened about using glue or tape again and going off to work, I decided screw it and I wore my old wig (nothing at all wrong with it) to work today (more info below)

While I was running around town yesterday in a mad panic about how I was going to make this change of hair thing work at work today, I came across a very funky and fun option...clip in extensions of various colors. You may recall that my eventual personal goal is to feel comfortable enough to go out in public and to work etc wtih different hair everyday or every few days. These extensions sort of allow for that. The lady at a wonderful store I found in my hometown suggested I try them, and she clipped them into my hair somewhat without asking. My friend screamed with excitement and I looked on in amazement and uncertainty. The extensions are fire engine RED (my favorite color by the way). My friend decided she was buying them for me and insisted that I must wear them. I of course obliged because after they weren't hurting me in any way and they were kinda cool.

I wore those fire engine red extenstions in my wig today to work (will attach a photo for your viewing pleasure soon) and took a bit more of a "take me as I am" attitude. It was exhilirating eventhough I am still far from where I plan to be in my personal alopecia journey...baby steps are the way for me.

When a few people asked about "oh wow you changed your hair again? or what happened?" I simply said "yeah it was a wig and I learned that I'm allergic to the adhesive sooo (shrug)" and I stopped talking. They were left thinking "hmmm well she does have wild red highlights (not realizing they're clip in extensions) so she must have done that wig thing for fun." Only one person actually asked me "why were you wearing a wig" (a doctor of all people, weird huh). I would have explained it to her, but there were too many people around that I did not know. Instead I just said "for fun" and left it at that. Mind your own business people, it's just hair!

I figure that the extensions worked as a bit of a distraction from the obviousness that I fully changed my hair from the last time they all saw me. Most importantly, it worked!

I did tell a few more people about my alopecia and I was pleasantly pleased to hear them say things like "no way, you're hair is a wig!" or "omg that is a great wig and the color looks awesome and and and". I am not surprised, but as I've said before, those really horrible experiences I had at the beginning stuck with me and I always wonder if I'll experience that kind of stupid ignorance and disregard for personal difference again. I can't help it. I'm working on it, but that experience seems to be permanently at the back of my mind whenever I think of telling anyone. I neglect to remind myself that that witch of a girl was 15 at the time and trying to act cool in front of other people in class when she outted and humiliated me in front of everyone.

Anyways, back on track here....all in all today went much better than I'd expected. I had numerous compliments on the wild red in my hair from patients, doctors and other staff through out the hospital. I even had some elderly patients look at me funny as if they were wondering how I'd done that to my hair. Either way, if someone asked I'd tell them it's clip in extensions but if they didn't ask, I didn't tell them I just accepted the compliment and kept on walking.

I really appreciate the support and feedback everyone provided. It's so nice to have a venue to share this frustration and positive experience with people who truly understand what I'm dealing with and why/how it can be so important to me.