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Transitioning from childhood to adulthood with alopecia
If you were diagnosed as a small child with alopecia, how did you cope with alopecia growing up in school, and how did you transition from childhood to adulthood with it? Was it easier living with alopecia as a child or is it easier living with alopecia as an adult? Please share your experiences and suggestions here!!!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hayley on
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Well.......i had it as a babe....i think my hair grew to a full head when i was about 5.....
i can't remember it! my mum can,and i think when it happened to me all these years later,she felt the pain as much as i did....
I do think that being in my 30's made a diff..if it had happened to me in my teens who knows how i would have coped.
BUT...if i have learnt one thing from having AU,it's that u never can tell how you are going to deal with things.until it happens!!!!!!x
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Permalink Reply by gerald on
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I know my wife who is bald with alopecia believes it is easier as an adult .
She is in her 30s and has developed alot of confidence over the years in her bald feminine beauty.
And she is a very beautiful and feminine lady.
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Permalink Reply by Char on
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Well as a child I only has alopecia areata but now I have universalis. So these past three years has been an eye opener. I never really thought I would lose it all but I did. This is the first time I have EVER posted a pic of me with out any hair. I finally had the confidence and since I am with people who know what I am going through I think it has giveing me the strength to do so. I'm sick of feeling like I should feel ashamed or something. Although, I am glad I still had hair in high school, I got picked on enough for being sensitive. Children can be very immature, but there are adults out there just as immature as children. Hair isn't everything and it definately does not make the person.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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I started loosing my hair at 15 and it was tough. Although I found ways to hide it through most of high school people always commented on my missing eyelashes and eyebrows. It was more of my issue than anything people actually did or said. I have dealt with lots of insecurity while dating but after meeting my husband I am way more secure with myself. I agree that it depends who you surround yourself with. I have very supportive people in my life.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa on
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I had a rough time in elementary and junior high school. However going to college and beyond has been the complete opposite experience. I like to say that when you're younger, you can really only be friends with the people in your school/classes. But once you get to college or out in the job world, you get to pick and choose which friends you want. And I picked great friends who could care less about my hair. Having a group of supportive friends and family makes it easier to accept who you are, I think. I don't care if someone doesn't like me or doesn't accept alopecia because I've got plenty of other friends! When you're younger, you sometimes don't have that option. So, in a nutshell, ADULTHOOD is definitely easier! I wish so badly I could go back in time and tell my younger self to get over it, be confident and everything is going to work out fine!
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Permalink Reply by Matt on
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"So, in a nutshell, ADULTHOOD is definitely easier! I wish so badly I could go back in time and tell my younger self to get over it, be confident and everything is going to work out fine!"
This is very true. I'd love to be able to go back in time and give myself a shake, tell myself to look up and really see the world (I was that guy that was always looking intently at his shoes, for some reason).
If you don't open your eyes, and your mind, and be responsive to what's really going on around you, your brain will be forced to fill in the details on its own. If your brain is like mine, it will err on the side of pessimism and imagine everyone staring, looking down, pitying, etc..
For me personally, as an adult, coming to terms with my alopecia has required that I build up the confidence to look up, make eye contact, see things with an open mind, and realize that everyone is the same. We all have our own personal universe in our head, and we all share the same doubts. I might be self-conscious about my lack of eyebrows, but the person I'm talking to is likely just as self-conscious about her, I dunno, bad acne, for example. And to extend the example, I probably don't even notice her acne!
This type of awareness has required that I cultivate a careful degree of apathy. Just enough to say "whatever, it's not that important", but not so much that I fall into the trap of nihilism. I don't think I could have pulled this off as a teenager.
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Permalink Reply by Alexandra on
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I have def found it easier to deal with this as an adult. I lost all my hair at age 12 and now I'm just a few months away from my 25th birthday and I can honestly say I am more confident now than I have ever been. Around the time I lost my hair, we had just moved to a new city and state and I was starting a brand new middle school and let me tell you those 4 years that we lived there were some of the most miserable years of my life. People can be very cruel especially in middle school and high school. I had no confidence in myself, was constantly teased, and even had to see a therapist on a regular basis for depression. Now I'm 24, graduated college, have a career and my own house. Even though I still have no hair, I've never been more confident in myself than I am now. I don't go out of my way to hide the fact that I have alopecia, I just don't say anything and go about my business because this condition does not define who I am as a person. I'm also at a point now where I can afford to invest in some awesome wigs and love the way they look on me and feel extremely confident going out. Now as an adult I also finally look in the mirror and see a beautiful woman with or without hair, not the ugly teenager I thought I once was
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Permalink Reply by Sarah McIntosh on
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I have had alopecia since I was a baby,having it as a kid wasn`t so bad when other kids said things to tease me I would just tell them what I had and explain to them and they would stop and move on.High school on the other hand was very hard.The girls were the worse.They would talk about me and make fun of me all of the time.Some of the guys were really cool about it.It just kind of sucked,cause even if they liked me they could never date me, because I was the bald girl.As a young adult i`m ok,i`m engaged,I have a beautiful 9 and a half month old son.what i`m working on right now is getting as comfortable as I can in my own skin so one day I can walk outside with no wig or head scarf on.
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Permalink Reply by Carol on
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I've had alopecia since I was 1 and I'll be 31 this summer. I don't think it has mattered so much about how old I was when I had the most difficulty. Yeah, school was probably the toughest, high school worse but I've found it is the people that surround you that really matter. I went to a few different high schools and found that I had a harder time at certain schools. Even now as an adult I've found that just moving to a new neighbourhood can change your social situation (let alone moving to a smaller city where people aren't as open minded). Dating was difficult, it was very hard to confess your dirty little secret and remain confident that your date would remain after the fact. Children often deal with their questions and curiosities differently than adults do and fortunately as we grow we learn about morals and ethics. Therefore, as far as I'm concerned, the problem still exsists, we have all learned to deal with it more maturely now.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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I think for me being a child with alopecia, while wasn't as bad as some kids have had it, was worse. There were a couple kids who didn't get it so would tease me but I also had some good friends that stood up for me. I was lucky enough to graduate with 20% of the same kids I went to kindergarten with so everyone was supportive. Plus, it was a small town. I remember one time on a volleyball trip all the girls wanted to do double french braids in their hair but I didn't want to 1) I didn't want anyone to braid my hair in fear on having to see a spot and 2) I didn't want my spots exposed. I think fitting in makes being a teenager all the harder especially when hair and make up are such a big deal. I think a lot of this contributed to my non-involvement during high school.
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Permalink Reply by Trina on
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Transitioning from a child was hard. i had my first experience around 8 and had maybe 2 patches and after injections everything went back to normal. I had my next occurance at 15 and lost all of my hair. It was was probably the worst year for me mentally and emotionally. i was going to a dr and getting injections in my hip and topical creams that did not work. I went to another doctor at George Washington who gave me prednisone and the hair returned though I was so puffy from the steroids. As the doses came down so did the hair. A year later it was gone and has not been back since. I have no brows, eyelashes and have AU. People were really mean and I had some friends that stayed true and we are still friends now. I was so emotionally drained to this day I am very picky of who deal with. The experience made me realize that people were vain. I learned they were no prettier then I was and that I was beautiful regardless of what they said. Still I asked so many times why me? My mom had one small spot and never another occurance. My two sisters no issues. I guess the oldest got to be the strongest.
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