Photo// Abby Andrew
[dropcap]G[/dropcap]rowing up, everyone has their own struggles. For me, it was Alopecia. When I was born I didn’t have hair, which is completely normal for tons of babies. By the time I was two and a half years old, I still did not have a single hair on my head. That’s when I knew it wasn’t normal. At four years old I was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata. It can’t be cured but it can be treated. It affects my stress levels, immune system, and sometimes thyroid. This type of Alopecia is the type where when I lose my hair, it can grow back. I am so grateful I have this type because if I had the other one, my hair wouldn’t grow back (or it would be extremely difficult).
As a kid, I would have patches of hair missing but it was always in places I could hide or cover it up with hair, headbands, clips, etc. It was always manageable, so I didn’t complain that much. One day I saw a picture taken of me with my older sister and her friends, quickly I noticed a huge bald spot on the crown of my head. It was absolutely humiliating. I was only around five or six years old. I thought to myself that it can only get worse from there. Throughout elementary school, I was good enough to get away with using a headband, until I entered Middle School. During the beginning of the year, I had to leave school due to having Lice. My mom did treatments on me every day and eventually, it triggered my Alopecia again. I noticed a thumbprint-sized bald spot spreading onto the back of my head, which hadn’t happened in almost two years.
By the time I was in the eighth grade, almost into high school, something that I thought would never happen, happened. I started to lose ALL of my hair.
I thought maybe because my hair was so long, dead, and damaged due to me straightened it every day, that it was just reacting to that. So I chopped ten inches of my hair and stopped putting heat on it. It just got worse. It was coming out in clumps. I thought to myself “Okay… it’s because mom and dad just split up, you’re going through puberty, high school is coming up, yeah, you’re just stressed! Stopped being stressed!” I was THAT much in denial. Eventually, I started to look like Angelica’s doll Cynthia from the Rugrats. You know the one. I was losing my head hair, eyelashes, eyebrows, even my arm and leg hair stopped growing and fell off.
I missed two months of school, occasionally I would visit to grab my homework while wearing a beanie to cover my 95% bald head. When it all fell out, I got my first wig. It was short, blonde, and made out of real hair (so I could feel more like myself as possible). But it wasn’t cheap, almost $3,000. The wig only lasted for a good 2 years, I felt so bad for my parents because of the money that they had to use just for me. I hated it so much, I hated myself. I wouldn’t look in the mirror without my wig on for months, I even wore my wig to sleep because I didn’t want to know the feeling of being bald. I would wear a shower cap so I didn’t have to feel the water hit my hairless head. Like I said, I was THAT much in denial.
Every day was a mental struggle, I developed insomnia, depression, anxiety, you name it! I had it! I was on so much medicine. Eventually, I stopped taking them due to them only making me worse. My freshman year I left halfway through the year to do school from home due to bullying. I was being told I have animal hair, people even threatened to rip my wig off in public. Why? because I don’t have hair? I went back and stayed my full Sophomore year, then did cyber school my Junior and Senior. I’ve been through almost five wigs, all from an Organization called Wigs for Kids (except the first wig) who I am SO grateful for. People donated their hair and money just so I can feel normal. Without me paying a dime. I get so emotional just thinking about it. Since around 2015 my hair has started to grow back and up until July 2016, I had a full head of hair that went past my shoulders. Now I am losing my hair again. Not completely, but I have about 3 huge bald spots that keep expanding. It is such a bummer. But already knowing what it feels like, next time I can be prepared. I wanted to share this so people now that they’re not alone and that over 200,000 Alopecia cases are opened per year in the US. More and more being young kids.
If you want to help out, head over to Wigs for Kids.
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