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A baby was born, a little girl with lots of hair. It was something that would catch your attention immediately, beautiful thick brown hair. The little girl grew and so did her hair. Sometimes, when she would wake-up, the hair would be bigger than the girl herself. Together with her blue eyes, her brown hair was one of the first things somebody would notice about her, it was for a fact one of the seven beauty signs. In the booklets her friends would write in, a lot of them would always mention her stunning hair. It became a huge part of her identity and something that she absolutely adored.
Then, when the girl was 14, she got alopecia. A hair condition that makes your hair fall out; little did the girl know what was in store for her…
That girl? Yep that is me. I look back at old pictures of myself and I am absolutely flabbergasted how beautiful my hair was from the moment I was born. I definitely took it for granted when I had it. When I was 14, which is now 4 years ago, I lost my hair due to the hair condition alopecia. I honestly never thought it would come this far, I just assumed it would grow back. However, as you might have noticed, it did not.
It was a tough time. When my doctor first told me about my alopecia, I had him repeat it 3 times and write it down, as I just could not remember the name. It was something I had never heard of nor seen before. It was scary seeing your hair fall out in clumps. I tried treatments, but at the end I was afraid it would do me more harm than losing my hair would do to me. So, I decided to stop any treatments and to just wait and see where alopecia would bring me. It brought me to the point I shaved off my remaining hair at the end of 2016.
In the meantime, I had already told my classmates about my hair loss, but they kind of forgot about it. When I still had some hair on my head, I decided I did not want to it hide anymore and, so I went to school without covering my bald spots. People were shocked and they thought I was sick. However, after some time, they got used to it and so did I. I must say, it was the start of something great.
In 2018 I decided I wanted to share my story and help others with alopecia. When I first got it, I felt incredibly alone. I wanted others to feel like they are not alone in their hair loss journey. That is when AlopecianGirlboss was born. One of my best decisions ever made, as I met amazing people through my Instagram and blog! Being able to share my stories felt amazing, it still feels amazing. I am a proud baldie and I love to go out with and without my wigs. I am proud of my alopecia and I am also thankful for it, as it has made me the person I am today. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without it and to be quite honest, I don’t even want to know.
Before, I was incredibly insecure. Alopecia made me see that I am good as I am and that I do not have to be ashamed of anything. I am good as I am, and I do not need to change that. I started to embrace who I am as a person, rather than trying to be somebody I am not, just to fit in. I truly believe I changed for the better.
Please don’t feel ashamed about your hair loss, lots of people go through the same thing as you, even though you might not realise that yet. We are all here for you, one big community coming together to help you through the hard times.
And yes, there are hard times. Times where you look back and think why did it have to happen to me, times where you look back and hope that one day your hair will be back to its old self, or even a better version. Those hard times are tough. There are times I am afraid to go out bald, times I feel unsure about my wigs, times where I wish it was all just easier.
Having hair loss is, because of whatever reason, is not easy. People have a hard time understanding what you are going through and at the same time it is incredibly hard for those standing on the side lines, not knowing how to help you. Communication is the key here. They don’t know what to do either, so help them out a little as well. My parents were struggling, but as I made them clear what I was comfortable with and with I was not, it got more clearer to them every day.
Hair loss is a constant journey, one day you feel good about it and other days you don’t. It is hard for us man and woman, to feel comfortable enough to go outside. It is still a taboo; it is something we have to break through together. We can do this.
I noticed that, because I am so open about my hair loss, people on the “outside” feel more comfortable to talk to me about it. Everyone around me who knows about it, also looks at hair loss in a different way. For my friends, wigs are just normal day stuff. They don’t look up when I take off my hair. They think about the different causes of hair loss, because they now know which causes there are; they are educated.
Together, as a hair loss community working with the non-hair loss community, we can normalise hair loss. So that the 14-year-old me would not have felt alone when she first started her long hair loss journey.
If that 14-year-old girl could have looked in the future, to see where she stands now as an 18-year-old, she would have been proud. She would have known it was going to be okay in the end. It might take a while, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I now proudly stand here, together with the hair loss community, to say to you; you got this. The road may be long and hard, but we are here for you, every step of the way.
I love being bald, I love what alopecia created me to be and I am proud of how far I have gotten. I cannot wait to see what the future will bring for me and for you.
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