This month we asked our customer Amanda to share her story with us.

Tell us a little about yourself

I am currently 28 years old and was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I went to the University of Alberta where I obtained my Bachelor of Education so I could become an elementary school teacher. Upon graduation, I moved to London, England where I taught and travelled around Europe. When I moved back to Edmonton in 2011, I went back to school to get my Diploma of Education and I also met the love of my life and my now fiancé. In 2014, we moved up north to Fort McMurray, Alberta so my fiancé could pursue his career as a fire fighter/EMT. I am currently teaching grade 3 up here and loving it! When I am not teaching, I am busy playing soccer, dancing, baking, colouring and planning for our wedding this summer!!

How long have you been wearing wigs and Jon Renau for?

I first started wearing wigs in September, 2011 after watching most of my hair fall out while working and travelling around Europe. I was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata in March, 2011 and thought my life was over. I tried to hide my hair loss as best as I could with scarves and bandanas, but it got to a point where there was nothing I could do to conceal my enormous bald spots and ever-changing hairline. When I moved back home in 2011, I knew that hiding under a wig was the best thing I could do to save myself and boost my self-esteem. I was, however not introduced to Jon Renau until April, 2013 when I began to feel more comfortable with wigs and expand my search past my cozy little home-town wig shop. Thank goodness I came across Jon Renau! Their wigs were a game changer for me! I remember how much I loved my first Jon Renau wig- Kristen in the colour 4. After many years of confidence building, I have finally gotten to the point where I am vocal about my hair loss. When I am not rockin’ my patchy/bald look though, Jon Renau is my go-to choice for wigs! I love switching it up between my dark human hair, Blake, to my wavy synthetic, Scarlett, to my heat defiant Drew that I modified with bangs!

What do you love about our brand?

I love so many things about Jon Renau! First and foremost, I love the people who work there and represent the brand. They are kind, compassionate, knowledgable and have amazing customer service. I also love how Jon Renau keeps up to date with the latest hairstyles and trends. They are constantly providing their customers with exciting hair choices and I am always so excited to see their new collections. I also love all the types of hair they offer. I own synthetic hair for when I want a quick, easy hair style, I own hair from their Heat Defiant collection for when I want to style it myself but don’t have the money to splurge on human hair, and I also own a human hair wig, for when I want to really boost my hair game. Finally, I love how realistic they look. Every time I wear a Jon Renau wig, people cannot believe me when I tell them it is not actually growing from my head, regardless of whether it is synthetic or human hair.

What advice would you give to a new wig wearer?

Don’t be afraid to have fun with it! The biggest thing that I have learned while dealing with Alopecia and while wearing wigs is that people who matter in your life truly do not care about your hair and what you look like. And if they have something negative to say about what you look like, then you need to get them out of your life. It took me a while to get there, but I have finally made it to the point where I don’t care about what people think anymore. The only thing that matters to me right now is that I am comfortable with the way I look and the person I am. I wasted too many years of my life concerned about what someone would think of me if I revealed my secret that I was wearing wigs. Those were years where I didn’t do sports, didn’t go swimming, didn’t dance, and panicked every time the doorbell rang and my wig wasn’t on my head. I am a much happier person with my secret out there and it has given me the ability to be someone different every day. How great is that?! I have so much fun every morning deciding what hair I want to wear for the day. It’s like being 5 years old again and playing dress up. The world needs to remove the stigma against women who wear wigs. I think that the fact that I have Alopecia and wear wigs is the coolest thing about me. I am going to be dealing with this for the rest of my life, so why not turn it into something positive and have fun with it?

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