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Permalink Reply by Dominique Cleopatra on October 13, 2010 at 12:28am

The turning point is when you decide to make a change! There's no magic moment, but the one in which you choose to make a difference. Because—hair or not—you're worth it, baby!

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Permalink Reply by Dom on October 13, 2010 at 2:22pm

AU- always upset
AT- always tearful.............

Get this into your head early on. I have had AU for 5 years( and no regrowth in 5 years). Before i had AA four times and always it grew back within 15 months. The odds are stacked against you! I have read 00000000's of posts from AU people. The younger the onset the worse the odds 0.2% perhap, even if you have Alopecia many times, AU is the "real mccoy". Most people have it and it goes on for years and decades.

I read all this in 2004. Nothing has changed! When i went AU 2005. I knew at 44 years of age. My beautiful brown hair had gone ( and it was still brown and beautiful lol) I had to get out and show my face eek ( 2 weeks after i shaved the last dwindling bits). People looked and looked and had their own private opinions lol but i braved the worse and soon people were used to it. It took me many more months to get used to going out bald but im used to it now. What a waste if i had let myself hide? Better be frightened and shy and "faced the music" than ?????????

Of course i would like some eyebrows/lashes but i can go out and everything is fine.. You have to play your hand without the hair card. Thats our hand so be grateful (when you can)

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Permalink Reply by Petra on October 13, 2010 at 4:36pm

I'm not sure what my turning point was, but I was one of those people that let it depress me for years. Even after the depression went away I still let AU control my life. I think back now on all those wasted years.....but I know that I cannot change the past I can only change how I live now. It's still hard at time facing the world with only a bandana on or a scarf and the questioning looks on others faces, but I refuse to let that stop me from doing the things that I want. I now take a yoga and zumba class and I'm not afraid to meet others while riding my bike. Life is short, enjoy it, live it!

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Permalink Reply by Corina Tynsky on October 13, 2010 at 10:09pm

The turning point for me is when I had my daughter! I realized there is so much more in life than hair. The people who really matter are the ones that care about me now and have been with me through everything. I stopped wearing wigs and shaved my head. I found a new confidence and once I stuck myself out there, I found that there are more people out there than we think that actually care about us and have feelings. Good luck with everything!

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Permalink Reply by Tallgirl on October 13, 2010 at 10:47pm

I have been writing many blogs on this...see my AHA moment blog and all the stuff on relationships and love. I will "friend" you so you can read them...and all the responses I got to them. Feel free to comment even on old blogs.

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Permalink Reply by Sam Stone on October 25, 2010 at 11:28pm

Well, I have had AU since I was a little boy. I lost my awesome blond baby hair at 3 years old, it came back at age 13, this time a beautiful dark brown, and fell out again in the same year. It truly has shaped who I am today. I had a really hard time with it when I was younger, not so much from actual face to face bullying, but from the total absence of social skills, and loneliness. It was made a little more difficult because I also had bad asthma, glasses, and a chronic runny nose...haha.. I coped back then by immersing myself in every book that I could find. I read hundreds of books. I was the best speller in my school :) But, it got my imagination going, sparked my natural creativity, and started me out in my interest of science, literature, and music. My family was and still is super supportive of me, and make me feel almost normal, and in fact, a lot of the time I forget I am actually missing hair!

It really hit me hard a few years ago, when i was about 15, all through to the age 19 and it still bothers me a bit. Although I am a pretty smart guy, the hardest thing was to actually learn to talk to people, and overcome the extreme shyness that I had.

Anyways, my major turning point, was during my first year of University. I had joined a club, and saw a girl that I knew from church. Up until that moment, I never really considered actually going up to someone and make conversation. But then, I was fed up of being an introvert! I am natural people person after all...so I said "screw it, im going to go talk to her". We ended up having the same classes, studied together, and spent one of the best afternoons of my life just sitting outside the university coffee place and talking for four hours about life, family, and such. and becoming pretty much best friends. It was really nice to be able to open up to a person, and that experience has helped me break out of my shyness. haha, Now, I can talk to pretty much anyone, and make friends. unless, of course, I dont like them ;)

Of course, I still do relapse at times and sink into a funk of blues, but how can you not, when you are awesome in every way, and would be smoking hot, but you are just missing the final decoration of some keratins growing out of your head. (Yea, Im modest, I know, but I dont have hair...give me a break lol :)) but life goes on, you know? There are plenty worse things to be afflicted with than AU.

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