'I feel like me again': My experience with a cutting-edge alopecia treatment

After several months, my hair started to grow back, wispy on the crown with downy tufts of salt and pepper popping up here and there. In six months, I had almost a full head of hair.

Mary Cate Smith: 'In six months, I had almost a full head of hair.' Picture: Miki Barlok

I can't stop touching my hair. It’s a furious, frenetic kind of twirling that I do when my wig is off. The novelty of having hair has not worn off yet and I want to run my fingers through its coarse tresses as much as I possibly can because tomorrow, it might be gone.

On April 30, I had my hair cut. It was the first time in over five years that anyone had touched my hair because, during that time, I was completely bald.