Growing up, my hair was always very long. By the ninth grade, it fell to my waist and I still distinctly remember how it feels to get your hair stuck in those horrible desks attached to plastic chairs that looked like they came from the turn of the century and were always cracked in at least three different places. Every person who had long hair in school, high school particularly, will undoubtedly have residual anxiety from getting their hair stuck in the back of those terrible chairs. It was at this time that I decided I was done with my hair. We had a long run, and while it was beautiful it was also the source of a lot of frustration. Have you ever tried to wash, condition, and brush hair that was so long you had to take care of it in sections? Not fun.

After asking my grandmother if she would take me with her to the woman who did her hair so I could get most of mine cut off, my dad did some research online and let me know about a charity that could use the hair I no longer wanted. I donated about 14 inches at that time, and since then, I have donated between 10 and 12 inches of my hair to that charity twice more.

I love donating my hair to a charity that uses it for good, and since that time in the ninth grade when I donated it for the first time, I have been introduced to other charities and organizations that use human hair to make wigs and hair pieces for a variety of clientele.

I have viewed my hair as a nuisance on quite a few occasions, and I have also taken it for granted. While growing my hair out over the course of two years is really no big deal to me, having hair at all is a gift that not everyone can enjoy.

As a child, my younger sister’s hair wouldn’t grow and she wore long scarves on her head for a few years. Looking back on it now, I can see just how much hair, or a lack of hair, can directly affect someone’s self-confidence, even at such a young age.

Human hair wigs are used by a variety of people for a multitude of different reasons. Here are just a few of the reasons why people seek out human hair wigs and the benefits they provide:

• Natural hair loss, Alopecia, Trichotillomania: As people get older, many experience hair thinning over time, a receding hairline, and gradual baldness, specifically at the crown of their head and frontal scalp. This is referred to as female pattern baldness. Alopecia is a condition in which all of someone’s body hair falls out permanently. Trichotillomania is a psychological disorder seen most often in children that compels people to pull out their own hair, most aggressively during times of stress. In all of these conditions, human hair wigs can help people to feel more like themselves if their hair loss is gradual and due to age, more confident, and to feel beautiful, as hair does impact one’s self-confidence.
• When you just need a change. I can’t tell you how many times I have looked in the mirror when getting ready for the day and just sighed, completely bored with the reflection looking back at me. I have wanted to dye my hair hundreds of times–literally hundreds of times. If I did dye my hair every time I got the urge to, it would have probably turned to straw or fallen out by now. Wigs can help you get that change you crave without putting a plethora of chemicals into it, completely damaging it, or making a mistake you have to look at everyday until it’s safe to dye it back or fix it.
• Cancer patients and survivors. Going back to the self-confidence factor, wigs can make a world of difference to people of all ages who have undergone chemotherapy and lost their hair as a result of their treatment.

Human hair wigs can help a variety of people in all sorts of situations, from undergoing medical treatments, compulsions as a result of a mental health condition, as well as the regular old aging process most of us have gone or will go through at some point in our lives. Wigs help us to express ourselves in the same way that fashion does; and just like everyone expresses themselves differently, there are countless styles and colors of wigs out there that will compliment just about everyone.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Advent Hair. Incentive was provided to me, and opinions are my own.

Photo by zakonslike/Flickr