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Comment by Ohio on June 30, 2010 at 11:10pm

Samantha, thank you for your words of advice, appreciate it. We have had fun over the years "painting and drawing" on his head. I have pics of him when he was about 4 yrs old with a face painted on the back of his head and he wore his shirt backwards. I like your comment to the younger kids about not eatting your veggies...I will suggest that to him. Thanks so much!

Comment by Samantha White on June 28, 2010 at 8:13pm

Cindy.... I think a good way for your son to have a bit more self esteem is to have him and the other kids have fun with the idea of him having alopecia. For example, when I was in my teen years, I still do this to this day, I would have the other kids of my grade and the younger grades paint things on my head when holidays came up. I also would answer any questions that they had for me about my hair. I don't know if this is bad or not but when the kids in grades 4 - kindergarden would ask me why I didn't have any hair I would tell them I didn't eat my veggies when I was thier age. lol anyway I do not know if your son will like this idea or not but it helped me and I hope it helps your son too. Please tell him that I say hi and that he is an awesome person no matter what others have to say otherwise.

Comment by Ohio on June 28, 2010 at 6:45pm

Samantha....good for you!! My son is 11 yrs old and it so hard to make him understand that it is what is inside that matters. I can only hope and pray that he handles his situation as well as you have. I know as he gets older (teen yrs) he will go thru some difficult times so we are trying to help him build his self esteem now by keeping him activily involved in sports, music and scouts. He has several friends that he has since pre school and they know him as he is and have accepted it....it is when he becomes interested in girls that I am concerned he may have issues, if he does not keep his self esteeem posititve of who he is as a person. I wish the best of luck and thanks for your post, it really helps me to help him by hearing how others deal with living with alopecia.

Comment by Samantha White on June 28, 2010 at 1:36am

I have had alopecia since I was 18 months old I am now 20 years old and I have no hair anywhere on my body. I have only tried wearing a wig once in my life and I have to say it was the worst three days of my life. I tried wearing the wig when I was in Jr. High about 7th grade or so and it was bad. I had people making fun of me and all other types of things. Plus the darn thing was really hot, itchy, heavy, and scared some of the other kids. Because I at the time only had hair on one side of my head and it wasn't a lot of hair to begin with. I even had to take the wig off in class because I got to hot and almost passed out. So then I decided that I would never wear a wig again. And I havn't to me wearing a wig was like wearing a mask. I felt that I was never showing who I truly am and the great person I am. I kept thinking that if I wasn't confortable enough to show people who I truly am how can they accept me for me. So I don't wear a wig even though people tell me I would look so much prettier if I did. I am beautiful the way I look and I will never hide that ever again.

Comment by jessica on January 2, 2010 at 10:21pm

To all members of "Children Born With Alopecia". I don't know about you but having been born with Alopecia has definately been difficult. Do you all agree? Especially in childhood, kids can be so hurtful. I often wonder if things would have been easier if I had never worn a wig. Not like I can relive the past to find out. It sure has made a difference going without a wig. I actually feel free. I don't think I have ever felt this way before. Thank you Alopecia World.
Jessica

Comment by jessica on April 17, 2009 at 8:58pm

Hi, my name is Jessica. I am 34 years old and I was born with Alopecia as well as my 35 year old brother. I have been wondering how many people out there have had this since birth. My brother has never had hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, or hair on arms and legs. I however do have eyebrows, eyelashes, hair on arms and legs. Imagine that, the one place it would be nice not to have hair is the legs.