Alopecia World
www.alopeciaworld.com
National Bald Out!
You've heard of the "Great American Smoke Out" - the day when everyone is encouraged to stop smoking for just one day?
What if, for ONE day, all the bald women in this country (or whatever country you live in) came out in public with nothing on their heads? Imagine the effect! People wouldn't be able to assume that every bald woman they see has cancer. Bald women would become non-remarkable very quickly, just as bald men have. Women like me and other members of AW, who already go out in public bald, would instantly stop feeling so alone.
I'm thinking of making a YouTube video and setting a date for sometime during the summer (when it's warm everywhere). If I picked a date - say a Saturday in July - and put up a YouTube video now urging all bald women to join in on a National Bald Out THAT day, would any of you who don't currently go out in public bald do it for that one day?
Maybe we could get a news service "flash" out there and get TV and print media to pick up on the story! Anyone know how to do that?
I don't know what category to put this in...it's about society, and acceptance, and news, and promoting awareness...so, I'll just put it in Bald is Beautiful, and hope you all see it.
Please share this with other friends on AW and respond - YES OR NO...would you join in?
April 29
HERE WE GO! I just put the video on YouTube. You can find it under the title "Announcing the National Bald Out!", or at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXxBKwi-1lw
I hope you all like it! Thank you to everyone for their comments and suggestions as to the content, and special thanks to the lovely ladies who allowed me to use their photos at the end of the video. I think that adds a lot.
On the Bald Girls Do Lunch site, www.baldgirlsdolunch.org, there are some absolutely amazing T-shirts, buttons, banners...and loads of other fun items with two different National Bald Out logo designs, as well as a great one that says "Bald? So What!" I LOVE IT! Thanks so much, Thea! To view the items, click on "Logo Products", then click on "Bald Out July 19". Remember - 100% of proceeds fund the BGDL nonprofit's national outreach to women with alopecia areata, so your purchase of a National Bald Out T-shirt (or other item) will directly benefit women with alopecia.
The next step is for everyone to join the newly-created Alopecia World group "National Bald Out". Until we get the Group up on the Home Page, you can go to this link to join:
www.alopeciaworld.net/group/nationalbaldout
A big Thank You to rj for all his help!
I'll be posting more soon on the National Bald Out group.
► Reply to This
What if, for ONE day, all the bald women in this country (or whatever country you live in) came out in public with nothing on their heads? Imagine the effect! People wouldn't be able to assume that every bald woman they see has cancer. Bald women would become non-remarkable very quickly, just as bald men have. Women like me and other members of AW, who already go out in public bald, would instantly stop feeling so alone.
I'm thinking of making a YouTube video and setting a date for sometime during the summer (when it's warm everywhere). If I picked a date - say a Saturday in July - and put up a YouTube video now urging all bald women to join in on a National Bald Out THAT day, would any of you who don't currently go out in public bald do it for that one day?
Maybe we could get a news service "flash" out there and get TV and print media to pick up on the story! Anyone know how to do that?
I don't know what category to put this in...it's about society, and acceptance, and news, and promoting awareness...so, I'll just put it in Bald is Beautiful, and hope you all see it.
Please share this with other friends on AW and respond - YES OR NO...would you join in?
April 29
HERE WE GO! I just put the video on YouTube. You can find it under the title "Announcing the National Bald Out!", or at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXxBKwi-1lw
I hope you all like it! Thank you to everyone for their comments and suggestions as to the content, and special thanks to the lovely ladies who allowed me to use their photos at the end of the video. I think that adds a lot.
On the Bald Girls Do Lunch site, www.baldgirlsdolunch.org, there are some absolutely amazing T-shirts, buttons, banners...and loads of other fun items with two different National Bald Out logo designs, as well as a great one that says "Bald? So What!" I LOVE IT! Thanks so much, Thea! To view the items, click on "Logo Products", then click on "Bald Out July 19". Remember - 100% of proceeds fund the BGDL nonprofit's national outreach to women with alopecia areata, so your purchase of a National Bald Out T-shirt (or other item) will directly benefit women with alopecia.
The next step is for everyone to join the newly-created Alopecia World group "National Bald Out". Until we get the Group up on the Home Page, you can go to this link to join:
www.alopeciaworld.net/group/nationalbaldout
A big Thank You to rj for all his help!
I'll be posting more soon on the National Bald Out group.
► Reply to This
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mary on
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Thanks, Thea! I think the idea of a primary event in San Diego is good - and not just because that's where I live. We have a number of Southern California AW members who might be able to join us here. Also, I have some local TV and print media contacts from the publicity I did for the recent Bald Girls Do Lunch event. July 19 is a good time.
This doesn't mean that there couldn't be simultaneous events in other cities around the country and even international. A number of you have responded with willingness to participate in your locality. We could definitely coordinate T-shirts and title for the Day. This will be about involving as many women with alopecia as possible (no matter the state of your hair loss), and about raising the consciousness of as much of the non-alopecian population as possible!
As for the title - let's toss some ideas out around. I think my initial Forum title ""National Bald Out" might be a little too straightforward....I also like "Who Needs Hair?"
The only other ideas I've come up with for a title are:
Ditch the Wig (Day)
Proud to be Bald
Bald is Beautiful Day
Your thoughts?
Mary
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Permalink Reply by Theresa on
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Is there a way we could submit photos for the national bald out day to be on youtube?
That would be fun.
Terry
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Hi Terry - what do you have in mind with photos and YouTube? Were you thinking of photos taken all over the country being put into a slide show that we could put on YouTube? I could do that if people sent me photos.
Mary
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Permalink Reply by Karen Froehner on
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You have photos from Alopecia World. Ask the members to submit their photos.
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YES! I was thinking exactly of that!! People think this is a disease that is unique to me when we get to talking...I'm very open about my disease. We have some time to organize this if you want to do it in September which is Alopecia Awareness month. I am not computer literate...I'm okay with it...I can't help make the youtube thing...but if you could...I bet a bunch of us on alopecia world would submit photos. And we should make national news about it...I felt so alone when I was a kid with no hair...I want other children to know it is okay...they're not alone...and I want s to know their okay too!
Terry (I'd like to be a part of making news about this on TV and papers if I can help that way.)
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Oh Yeah!!! You should get in touch with Thea from Bald Girls Do Lunch. She goes all over the country and does lucnheons for Alopecian women. We get together with and without the wigs whatever your comfort level maybe. She has to do publicity ads to let people know this is happening. She may have some contacts or people to point you towards.
I think maybe start with a few friends shooting a you tube video to info people that this is forming and asking for input. Would that work? I am as blind about this as you. If there is a will there is always a way!
K
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Permalink Reply by kastababy on
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"National Bald Out" is a much better name for the event -- we can create a Causes page for it on Facebook too. It just seems to me that all these other catchy names are just too "cutesy" for me -- but then again, I've always been a really straightforward person, and to me being straightforward has the maximum impact -- which, I presume, is what the whole purpose of this National Bald Out exercise is. Anything less than straightforward and in your face, and nobody will take it seriously.
Just my thoughts....
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Thank you to everyone for the enthusiastic response! I'm working on the video that I want to put on YouTube, and hope to have it completed shortly. It's going to be short (about 2 minutes) and to the point.
Several people made a suggestion I think is great: put photos of some bald women in the video. My idea is to put a slide show at the end of the video, maybe after saying something like: "Here are some of the proudly bald women you can join on July 19, 2009". This will be added encouragement to women who see the video who are wanting to try out the bald look, and might consider it on The National Bald Out.
There are beautiful photos on AW - but I will need to have the personal authorization of any women to use their photo, and I think I'll need them to email me the photo so I can have it on my computer and drop it into my video project. I've asked rj if he has any ideas how we might expedite this. Anyone who consents to the inclusion of their photo should be aware that YouTube makes photos viewable and useable by anyone out there.
In the meantime, please post back and say whether or not you'd like a photo of you included.
More news soon.
Mary
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Great to hear from you! I'd love to see you here in San Diego. Good idea about a live stream.
More soon,
Mary
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Permalink Reply by BaldGirlsDoLunch.org on
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Bald Girls Do Lunch has filed and created every July as International Women with Alopecia month.
When we hold our next San Diego dinner on July 16, 2009 it will be the first officially recorded event for Women with Alopecia month. I've been coordinating with Mary, hence July 19th as a good date for both of us to have a "bald day" during the first annual Women with Alopecia month.
One of the things that evolved in the growth of Bald Girls Do Lunch was the understanding that most ( not all) women benefit highly from meeting others first and figure out what feels right for their own bald acceptance. Our very first events were bald-only when we had a NY group that liked the camaraderie. But quickly we expanded the format. Women value many different modes of support and jumping out bald in public was only one tool in a great big toolbox.
Women get breast cancer ( though lung cancer kills more men and women every year) and men rarely get breast cancer. Breast cancer in women, is now the cancer that is the most frequently diagnosed due to advances in early detection....though no one knows for sure if every person would have gone on to have a malignancy. Cells can look "odd" but not turn into anything sometimes.
The bald day will help show that many bald women are healthy..but because of the ever increasingly early breast cancer diagnoses, it's understandable why the public perception is what it is and we have our work cut out for us!
Thea
baldgirlsdolunch.org
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Thea, it's so great that you've filed July as International Women with Alopecia Month! Thanks for all that you do.
My YouTube video will follow soon. Everyone, let me know if you'd like to email me a photo to include in the video.
We are healthy, we are strong, and we just need to do some consciousness-raising among the non-Alopecian public. Let's go!
Ladies, I just got back from an art reception here in San Diego. I was bald, wearing black and a nice necklace and big earrings. I smiled, handed out about 5 of my "alopecia awareness" business cards, got many compliments, and had a cute 4-year-old girl come up to me in a large group of people and ask me why I didn't have any hair. It was another great experience. On July 19, maybe many more women will try it for the first time.
Mary
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