Hey guys,

I'm a 27 year old (well my 27th birthday is next week)

I have Alopecia Areata, I had my first couple bald spots in early 2009. I remember I asked my mother to french braid my hair for a boho look. And she noticed it, at first I brushed it off and told her maybe all the straightening and blow drying I did, must have done that. (I'm of mixed heritage with curly hair so I often straighten my hair for a different look).

2 months later, I started seeing more patches and there were getting bigger so I made an appointment with my GP. My GP said oh looks like an iron deficiency, he gave me iron supplement and sent me on my way.

I drank that nasty stuff every day, sometimes twice, hoping my hair would grow back (I'm also a vegetarian, so I thought my diet finally caught up to me). Luckily my hair was curly and very thick and no one ever noticed.

I felt the burning sensation and then a massive bald patch in the middle of my scalp, the size of an orange. I combed my hair all over and called my GP again. He made an appointment with a dermatologist who identified the AA and gave me a shampoo and tropical treatment to put on the patches. This helped and my hair grew back but however, still, whenever my patches grow, new ones emerge.

I haven't told anyone outside my mother and brother. My then fiancé now husband I kind of just mentioned it casually (I was so embarrassed, he loved my hair).

I just never felt comfortable or secure enough to tell people that I have this weird disease that makes me lose my hair. I'm almost just come to terms with the idea that there is no cure and I fully expect my hair to fall off every couple months or so.

Every now and then I cry and wallow in self-pity, the whole "why me" routine, but that probably only makes it worse.

No one can give me an answer why this happens to me. Some blame stress, some say its probably in your family somewhere. Some say it's just an autoimmune disease, saying it's like asthma or hay fever. I just don't know.

Maybe, I haven't gotten the right treatments. But anyways this is my story.