Pleased to discover this fine forum. My male partner began having mild alopecia last fall at the age of 55, starting off with a bare patch on his chin. This spread to make a larger area, then we noticed a few bare patches on the back and sides of his head. He has quite dark, short hair and I have noticed that some small bald areas have been slowly growing back though now grey or very light hair. His regular visit to get his hair trimmed became uncomfortable as he was very conscious of others around and the stylist (who had not heard of the condition before..) taking some time to even out and shorten his hair while trying to ensure that the bare areas were covered with the longer surrounding hair.
In a past life I was a qualified hairdresser and so I decided to purchase scissors and clippers and now 'maintain' my partners 'bouffant' to save him those dreaded hairdressers visits. I use make up pencils to cover/ disguise the bare patches and carefully trim the hair around then use gel to finish off. Lately we have used some hair colouring to blend in the returning grey areas and are investigating ways to more permanently colour the bare areas. The results have been very good so far and as my partner spends time in college classrooms, the results are good enough to avoid comments or glances from his students.
I was thinking, as a self employed person, if there was a need, I could possibly offer my expertise to others in the Toronto area who have this condition. I have no idea if other specialized hairdressers are out there already offering this service and I intend to do some research. In fact I started already and found this forum...what do others out there think?
Many Thanks!