do most ra patients wear wigs for the rest of their life?

Hi - This is a long time after you asked the question - but you don't explain why you are asking, and maybe you already have your answer?  As far as I know, most RA patients do not wear wigs, that is, I only know a few face-to-face, and I didn't see wigs.  But I understand hair loss can come with Methotrexate - is that what you are taking or contemplating?

I can't take MTX, so the issue has not come up for me personally. But I have not noticed any wigs in the rheumatology waiting room, offhand.

I lost a TON of hair when I first started taking the Methotrexate. But, I added a serious B Complex vitamin to the 5 mg of Folic Acid every day, and the hair loss stopped pretty quickly. Vitamen E can also help, if you aren't getting enough in your diet, and most of us don't. All the hair I lost is now growing back in - that's the really good thing. All of us loose about 100 hairs a day - that's normal. But more than that means you aren't getting enough of something in your system, and a good B Complex is a reasonable place to start. Hang in there!

FOLIC ACID  FOLIC ACID  FOLIC ACID!!!   Every rheumatologist I've ever worked with prescribes folic acid with mtx because hair loss is one of the side effects of mtx. If you are not on mtx then see your MD for other reasons because its not the RA causing it.