u/Slhallford

Effective immediately, all posts must disclose a wig's origins.

If it was self purchased or gifted/sponsored, please choose the appropriate flair for your post.

Had a bit of a play day today with an ancient Raquel Welch Downtime and a Belle Tress Americana.

It was very interesting watching the difference between the old school RW synthetic fibers versus the Belle Tress heat friendly ones.

I used the conical curling wand and the original factory i.d. Settings on both initially.

The RW took the curls and smoothed the fibers out in one step. I had the entire wig redone in record time.

The Dyson really struggled with the BT fibers.

Even on the hottest setting, and with very small sections it was extremely difficult to get the fibers to wrap enough to create anything more than a gentle wave.

In the future I will stick with my trusty curling irons with the BT fibers. Fighting with them and the Dyson took twice as long for a style that was half as dense and a third of the length.

Are you overwhelmed by your collection?

Do you have duplicates or ones you secretly loathe but might be gorgeous on someone else?

r/wigs is declaring July Wig Organization month.

We will have several weeks of encouragement and accountability activities including:

Week One: Wig Inventory

Week Two: Wig evaluation and storage

Week Three: How and where to sell your extra wigs (r/wigs4sale, our sister subreddit and others)

Week Four: Wrap Up

To join: Add yourself to the weekly Megathread and reply to your post when you’ve completed that week’s activities.

The first weekly thread will be posted tonight, 7/1.

I am absolutely over the moon to have the expanders out! I’m glad they did the job they needed to do but man were those boulders irritating.

The surgery itself went smoothly and my surgeon was able to combine it with a revision and some minimal liposuction to eliminate the weird icky feeling side boob leftovers from the double mastectomy in December.

Obviously it’s too early to tell what the final result will be but from the general outlines in the compression bra, it looks like she nailed the gravity defying Vegas boobs I wanted.

She had built an internal framework during the mastectomy surgery that is supposed to ensure no bras necessary once I’m out of the initial compression and healing phase.

The implants themselves are 775 ccs and my expanders had been filled to 800 ccs to make sure she had plenty of room to work. This is a little less than half the size I was naturally before the DMX.

They feel light and surprisingly soft and natural up at the top. We went with the smooth silicone gel implants to minimize the chance of potential rippling. It should be interesting to see how that pans out after healing.

The pain from the surgery has been really well managed with a combination of long and short acting opiates and based on how I’m feeling I don’t think I’ll need them for more than a few weeks. I have adrenal insufficiency and this was the area we struggled with figuring out with the DMX to keep me out of adrenal crisis.

At this point I’m really happy with my choices.

I’d be happy to answer any questions if that would be helpful.

For real.

I just had a pelvic ultrasound come back with a suspicious 3cm septated ovarian cyst.

Appointment with my gyn tomorrow to talk about it but everything I have read Mayo and Cleveland clinic wise is bad.

I can’t believe this.

I’m supposed to get my implant exchange surgery on 6/25 and I was so excited to have these damn expanders out and be done with surgery and now this bullshit.

OMG. UNIVERSE I AM DONE.

It’s been SUCH a rocky road and today I had my final fill and got my surgery date for my implants.

I’m so excited to be done with these ?!?$?)(?!! expanders.

Oh the freedom that is coming 6/25!!!

Thursday night I developed a significant fever and my left side with expander looked red and tight and shiny. Not super painful but not comfortable at all.

Messaged the plastics team who rushed me into take a look on Friday morning.

They did not like the look of it at all and hustled me downstairs to the ER and admitted me to the hospital for IV antibiotics with the diagnosis of cellulitis with a possible blood infection and possible infection in the expander.

Spent the weekend in waiting the culture results and more IV antibiotics around the clock with the threat of surgery to remove both expanders and failing my only opportunity for reconstruction because of my other medical issues.

There was much sobbing and raging at the unfairness of it and grieving on my part.

I was two fills away from scheduling my exchange surgery for the implants. Devastated didn’t begin to touch the depths of my despair.

The drs switched antibiotics several times as I wasn’t responding enough to try to salvage this last reconstruction chance. The hope and despair cycle started anew each morning as I was reevaluated.

This morning I turned a corner. The cultures all came back clear and there was enough improvement for the green light to eschew surgery and salvage the reconstruction.

FINALLY A BREAK!!!!

I am so relieved that tomorrow I’ll be able to go home on oral antibiotics and hopefully finish out the full process in a few weeks.

The light at the end of the tunnel is not in fact a train, thank goodness.