I am baffled when I see FOFs who are beautifully dressed, down to the smallest detail, and perfectly made up and coiffed, but their hair is woefully thin. Thin, as in, their scalps are showing. What makes a woman, who obviously spends time and money on her appearance, look past her thinning hair? Do her husband, kids and best friends ever hint that they can see her scalp? And why doesn’t her hairdresser point it out? He’ll color and cut her hair, collect his fee, tell her she looks “mah-velous, darling” and send her on her merry way. Is he afraid to mention the thinness for fear he’ll offend her?
Perhaps I’m being shallow, but I think thinning hair looks worse than a shaved head on a woman, especially when the balding spot is close to the front of her head. When I noticed the hint of scalp peeking through my retreating tresses, about two years ago, I couldn’t get to LeMetric fast enough. I had seen its no-nonsense ads for its “hair systems” for years. It was time to act.
Fast forward to today. I have been wearing a LeMetric “piece” since then (see my photo on the header of this blog) and consider it as much my own hair as the thinning hair it covers. Made of real, quality hair, it’s actually stitched to my real hair and I wash and style it just as I would my true tresses (such as they are.) But the best thing of all is that I hardly have “bad-hair days” anymore. My LeMetric piece doesn’t frizz, so even when it rains, it looks pretty good. Frankly, I don’t care if the whole world knows I’m wearing a hairpiece (or had liposuction to reduce my jowls.) My hair looks good, which makes my face look better since the hair frames the face. Put an unattractive frame on a great photo and the photo doesn’t look quite as lovely.
Elline Surianello, founder of LeMetric hair salon
FOF Elline Surianello, the founder of LeMetric, has become a dear friend. We are forever working together on ways to communicate to other FOFs how a full head of hair will change their looks completely. And I mean completely. There isn’t a single woman who doesn’t look fantastic with a fuller head of hair.
Of course, not every one of us loses her hair to the same degree. Some FOFs might need just a little extra hair at the crown or in the back. Others might need more coverage at the front hairline. Others might just want to add volume and height throughout.
Collectively, women spend billions of dollars on color, cuts, shampoos, conditioners, and a gazillion other treatments that straighten, curl, shine, add volume, bounce and lift to our hair every single year. When we asked FOFans on Facebook how much they spend annually on their hair, many said between $1,000 and $2,000.
Considering all the attention—and money—we give to our hair, I propose everyone take the following steps:
1. Answer this question: Do you want your hair to look the best it can?
2. If the answer to question 1 is yes, take a critical look at your hair in the mirror and honestly answer these questions:
A. Does your hair look sparse, especially in the front?
B. Can you clearly see parts of your scalp peeking through?
C. Are you finding more hair in the sink or shower after you wash it?
D. Are you finding more hair in your brush after you brush it?
E. When you run your fingers through your hair, does it feel like you don’t have much volume?
3. If you’ve answered yes to A or B, and yes to C, D or E, chances are you could use a hairpiece.
If you’re still with me at this point, take a look at this short video and listen to what my friend Elline has to say about hair loss. I don’t know anyone who knows more about hair than she does. Elline creates pieces for every need, and she’s designed small pieces that can be strategically clipped into the hair in seconds and are priced extremely well.