This photo is of me wearing my "new hair". An awesome piece of new technology from an awesome man name Greg T Kirk who has teamed up with Clinic Del Mondo on the Gold Coast (QLD) to bring it to Australia. Essentially it's a thin membrane of some plastic substance, threaded with human hair, and glued to the scalp - lasting some 4-6 weeks. While Greg has worked with the technology for a few years in the States, it is completely new here.

My original Look

My new look

I first heard of Greg a little over six weeks ago. I received a phone call from my good friend Angela Jackman. As president of the Queensland Alopecia Areata Support Association, Greg had contacted her urgently looking for a model to demonstrate the technology on Australian current affairs show wanted who wanted to do a story on it. Having explained it to me briefly (as described above) I headed to his clinic for an initial consult before filming the next day.

Once there Greg explained the technology, the work his been doing in the states and limitations or lack there of with the technology, emphasizing the fact that I’d be able to run, swim and exercise with it. While he explained this, his gorgeous wife Rad, who has had previous experience with alopecia, got me excited about all the things I could do with it - curl it, straighten it, pull it back into a pony tail for sport etc. The fact that I would actually have hair for four weeks began to sink in. Having never had hair in my life (Alopecia from 9 months old) - this was truly an experience I never thought I would have.

Throughout the next day, the film crew interviewed my twin sister and I about our experiences of my alopecia and how I thought it would change my life and that of others.

It was easy enough for me to imagine other people, people who had lost their hair only recently and the way in which this would give it back to them. And people who always wore wigs and felt limited by them – the freedom this would give them. For myself however, I had never had hair, and for the most part accepted my alopecia and myself. Whilst in the interview I talked about that feeling of expectation and excitement, privately there was also concern - what if I came to rely on this new technology, forgetting my acceptance of myself, or worse, no longer actually accepting myself.

They also interviewed Greg about his technology before starting the procedure which involves preparing the scalp, placing the hair, and then the finishing touches. Preparing the scalp is a very simple and quick process of cleaning the scalp with rubbing alcohol and then applying a thin layer of their special adhesive, which is also applied to the technology, taking 15 minutes or so to cure, before applying the technology to the scalp.

After it had cured, Greg and Mark (a man of many talents who is involved in the technical side of Clinic Del Mondo, but is also an expert hairdresser) brought in the head of hair that would be mine for the next 4 weeks. Before hand they had spent a lot of time measuring my head, trimming back and cutting the hairline to the right shape, a talent I can't even fathom, but that they got almost 100% correct even before they looked at my twin sister's hairline for guidance.

Placing the technology involved positioning it at the front inside out and then pulling it back over the rest of the scalp. Whilst not much fun having a full head of hair over your face (especially for the first time), they quickly got it in to place and that was that. No pain, no discomfort, even when they lifted a little off the scalp to momentarily adjust its position - felt a bit weird, but definitely not painful.

Now was the fun bit, as Mark tried to convince me. My first ever 'wash, cut and dry'. Whilst having hair in and of itself was overwhelming - this was just.... insane. I couldn't see myself, everything was a new feeling - I can't say it was unpleasant. To those who have had hair and enjoy this experience, I've been told this feels almost exactly the same as usual.

After the wash, and a bit of colour (the hair can be coloured just like normal hair - in this circumstance it was just a toner to add more life to the blonde), Mark proceeded to cut and blow dry it into a very glamorous style, another interesting and new experience.

So - as soon as Mark and Greg were happy with the results (since they are both perfectionists - which is brilliant for this particular situation) - the TV Crew finally filmed my sister seeing it. Her reaction was incredible. She loved it. We both didn't know what to say. The whole day had been an intense experience, and for me, was only the start of a whole month of new experiences.

Whilst that day was exhausting with the camera crew and everything, the next four weeks were a huge learning curve, challenging experience and enlightening. I'm still sorting out my thoughts about the four weeks of having hair (and will probably write another blog post about further experiences with the technology) - but I can say now that I enjoyed having hair, and am going back for my second piece (after a bit of a break) in two days.

The highlights were actually swimming with it, learning to wash and condition hair (without getting it all completely tangled) and teaching myself to curl it with a hair straightener for New Years Eve, after just 5 minutes of tutelage from my sister and only a single male friend for moral support. Whilst that was trying, it turned out great :)
The next big test for it will be snowboarding in two weeks time :)

The technology itself held up as promised for the full four weeks. Like with all hair, it needed care and attention, but overall wasn’t hard to manage – even for someone with no experience. Greg and his team's guidance on how to look after it, and the general support they offered (especially considering I'd never had to look after hair at all before) was incredible.

The TV Special hasn't aired yet, but I will post again when it does.

Photos from the day:

Greg explaining things	Templating my new hairline
First hair wash ever!	The finished product