Hi everyone!
My name is Andrea and I am 24 years old. I was diagnosed with AA last November. I was lying on my boyfriends lap and we were watching T.V. as he was combing his fingers through my hair he found my first "patch" of missing hair. Because I used to be a hair stylist I am always constantly doing crazy things to my hair. I just chalked it up to maybe I brushed my hair to rough when I was taking out a knot. The patch wasn't that big, about the size of a quarter. I've always been the girl with "the hair". I had very very thick hair and I always wore it big and curly. I've dyed my hair from blonde to pink to red and every color in between. My whole life I've always had so much confidence and to be honest never really felt any insecurities. Well, needless to say that quarter turned into nine patches the first two are a little bit bigger than a golf ball on my back right side and four front (they go across almost like a headband) each about a quarter wide..and three small dime size ones on my back left side... Still I'm so blessed that I have so much hair I can still wear my hair down and in a side ponytail (both take a lot of patience and if I didn't already do hair I can imagine this might be hard to hide). I thought I was going to have AU but my dermatologist let me know that it is AA and on feb 8th I got my first series of steroid shots. I have pretty long blond hairs coming out of those spots now even though I'm a brunette. I was told that they will change once my hair starts to grow more. I'm not sure if that's true. My boyfriend has been super supportive during this time and I can't thank him enough... but one thing that I've been having trouble with is not feeling "sexy" anymore... I feel like if I'm in the sun someone might see through my strategically placed hair and might look at me funny. Or even worse that when I'm with my boyfriend that my bald spots will randomly show up (which has happened). I know this sounds silly but I was randomly browsing the web and i found a picture of helene atsuko.... She doesn't have Alopecia but this girl can ROCK the bald! before you look her up she does have risque pictures so I'm warning you... But she seems just lovely and for some strange reason when I saw her my brain kind of switched... I don't think I'll mind if I have to shave my head someday... I just need to have confidence in myself. Do any of you have someone you look up to that rocks the bald? I have another question, kind of off subject, but with my front patches I sometimes put a little mascara on them so that it wont just be popping out. Do you think this is a bad thing to do? I use mascara because it stays on sooo well