Hair replacement options?

I am a woman who has pulled the hair from my scalp for 5 years. It has gotten a bit worse again lately, and I have very little hair on the very top of my head, and a bald patch on the side of my head. The obvious bald spots and needing to go back to wearing some kind of cover on my head have really caught me in a vicious cycle of pulling more. I really am looking to get something done with my hair, I know this won't cure my problem, but I need to do something. I don't even know where to begin! I feel like my options are a wig (which I think of as hot and falling off), dermal lens/thin skin, or extensions. I feel like dermal lens is too expensive to have done, and getting a thin skin myself would be too difficult to do, I see people shave their heads to make it easy to do at home?! I really just want extensions, but giving where my loss is at, I'm not sure they can do extensions without seeing the attachments? Obviously going into a hair salon is like walking thru molten lava, and I'm not even sure what things to ask for to know if they can do!! I need suggestions!