Wigged Out Women: Reclaiming confidence after hair loss

SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - For most women, getting ready in the morning involves doing something with your hair to feel pretty. That’s why hair loss can be a very painful and embarrassing experience.

One salon in Greenville County is matching wigs to women to give them that sense of normalcy back during a hard time.

Wigged Out Women in Simpsonville, owned by Shannon Glasow, is a private, by appointment-only medical hair loss wig salon that wants to help others reclaim their confidence after hair loss.

Glasow is familiar to hair loss having developed Alopecia Areata at just 19 years old. For more than 20 years, it was a condition she managed treating the occasional bald spot until it grew back.

At age 37, Glasow said she developed another spot and ended up losing all of her hair. She lost her eyebrows, eyelashes, all of the hair on her body.

“I became very depressed,” said the owner. “I did not leave my house for over a year. It was difficult.”

Looking for confidence, she went and got a wig-- the experience didn’t make things better.

“There were no instructions on how to take care of it and it was creating sores on my head,” Glasow reflected.

The natural red head walked out the store as a blonde. Even with the wig, people still asked what had happened to her hair.

“Before Wigged Out Women there is no way I could have ever talked about [my hair loss] publicly,” the owner explained.

Then she found Wigged Out Women, eventually taking over the business herself.

“99.8% of my wigs are customized... so were either thinning them or were doing some bangs,” Glasow added. “We are custom-coloring many of them.”

The salon also helping women like Mercedes Brownlee who has Alopecia.

“In tenth grade, I lost almost all of my hair.... that was really difficult,” Brownlee said. “Being at that age and being in high school and having to explain why you don’t have hair or where your hair is going.”

The two women sharing stories, each now a part of the other’s journey. The experience providing more than just a physical relief, but also emotional healing.

“I tried on my first wig and I fell in love and so I feel just as confident with this wig on as I do without it,” Brownlee said.

“It just has helped me, walking people through it has helped me greatly because of my clients I don’t feel alone,” Glasow said.

The salon offers free consultations, discounts and can work with any budget to get the result someone is after. Synthetic pieces start around $400 and human hair just over $1,600.

Glasgow mentioned insurance can sometimes help cover part of the cost as well.

For more information on Wigged Out Women, click here.

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