My hair kept coming out and, as prescribed by our family doctor, my mom began applying cortisone cream, wrapping my head in Saran Wrap, and topping it off with a shower cap. (The idea was to get the head to sweat which would cause the blood to rush to the surface of my scalp and help stimulate the skin and allow the cortisone to do its work.) There would be some success, but it would be short-lived. By the time I was nine, the patches were growing worse and so was my parents' alarm. I can still remember the attempt to put the cortisone directly into the problem areas by inserting it into the scalp with a long, thin needle. I was given six injections - three on each side of my scalp. I remember being held down and screaming with each of the six injections. I also remember running upstairs to my bedroom when I got home and hiding my head under my covers and sobbing uncontrollably.
To this day I still get occasional phantom pains in the same place as the injections. But there was some success, and fine dark hair began to grow in the injection spots. But soon it too fell out. So, at the tender age of nine when I could no longer hide my thinning hair under a hat, we went to buy my first wig.