Living with Thinning Hair: AKA "Fighting the Good Fight"

I remember the first time I felt self-conscious about the thinness of my hair. It was back in my Miss Louisiana beauty pageant competition days, when I was up against girls with naturally luscious, full locks. My mother eventually invested more than $600 in a set of Great Lengths extensions to give me more volume—but even that did not mask the thinness on my actual scalp.

Thick ponytail full of extensions— but still thin at the scalp part-line

Growing up as a young girl, it was hard not to compare that my older sister had a very large amount of hair. Her ponytail thickness was about three times the size of mine!

I was probably wondering why I was born a bald-headed baby

When I became a news anchor in my hometown NBC affiliate at KTVE, I felt even more pressure to look my best. My mother, who commiserated with me about having thin hair, would call me after I finished a morning show to say, “Your scalp is shining through on camera. Put some makeup on your head.” So I figured out that using an eyeshadow brush to apply MAC “carbon” black eyeshadow on my hair part-line was a simple, effective method to hide the thinness.

I figured highlights would make my hair look thicker, so I tried that in the anchoring days

Eventually, I became a client of a laser center in West Monroe, Louisiana, where a hugely magnifying scalp camera proved that I DID sprout baby hairs when I used men’s Rogaine foam plus sat under a special laser-for-your-scalp chair for 30 minutes three times a week. I was thrilled, especially since my mother had paid $1,000 for the therapy! My mom was the one who had urged me to go, because she was tired of seeing me struggle with washing and drying my clip-in hair extensions for when I anchored.

You can see where the hair extensions didn't blend with my natural hair on my wedding day

It was there at the laser center that I also began to use Toppik, which covers your scalp with keratin hair fibers. I still use that product to this day to mask the thin spots, and I also will use Joan Rivers’ hair makeup, as well. Toppik is quicker to apply, but more expensive. I also learned to take Biotin supplements, and I still have them as part of my daily vitamins dose. I even bought my own mini hair laser, but I have not been that great about keeping up using it regularly.

I would have kept it all up after the success of sprouting new hair at the laser center, but—I got married and moved away! With the stress of starting a new job in a new city with a new marriage, I let my hair regimen fall by the wayside. So for years now, I have been struggling with this thin hair issue—and I’m ready to tackle it, literally by the roots, as I begin a new regimen using new Women’s ROGAINE Foam with 5% minoxidl. I already love the product and have been religiously applying it to my scalp every day. :)

A typical hair day—after a thorough styling routine, including four different hair products, blow drying with four different round brushes, and finally teasing for volume

PROS of the new Women's ROGAINE FOAM with 5% minoxidl:

--Easy to use! 

--Does not show up in your hair so you can literally put it on your head and walk out the door -- this is my FAVORITE THING about this product

--Does not drip, like the previous women's product did because it was so watery

--You only have to apply it once per day! With the old formula, you had to apply it twice per day

CONS:

--Takes a bit of time to work, you can't just magically sprout hair overnight -- you ain't a Chia Pet!

--A dermatologist told me that once you start using the product, if you want to maintain your results you can never stop using it... but I don't know about you, I want to have hair forever! ;) 

Disclosure: I'm working with The List TV Show South Florida as they follow along with my journey using this product-- hopefully it works!