Four years ago today I took back my life by shaving my head smooth. In my first photos on my page, you can see what my hair looked like the night before, and what I looked like right after shaving.

Four years. I wish I knew on January 30, 2008 what I know now:

1. I am still me.

2. It's okay to be bald in public - people don't run away screaming at the sight of a bald woman.

3. I can still feel beautiful and feminine without any hair.

4. Life will go on and…

A Mouse Model of Clonal CD8+ T Lymphocyte-Mediated Alopecia Areata Progressing to Alopecia Universalis

Rajshekhar Alli*, Phuong Nguyen*, Kelli Boyd*,†, John P. Sundberg‡ and Terrence L. Geiger*

+ Author Affiliations

*Department of Pathology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105;

†Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232; and

‡The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME 04609

Address correspondence and reprint requests…

I am 20 years old and have had alopecia areata since I was 4 years old. It never really affected me all that much until about 6 months ago, when the spots became harder and harder to cover with my existing hair, and more and more hair was falling out. I am currently almost bald, I have a few synthetic wigs but they are so itchy I would rather wear a hat. In less than a week I am shaving off what is left of my hair and getting a real hair wig. I know that I barely have any hair left but the…

For the last 9 months I've been living in denial that my alopecia may be getting worse, progressing from Areata to totalis or universal (These are the 3 my Dr and many dermatologists have told me my case could progress to)

Maybe I should restart. I've been away because my lovely son has become mobile (crawling and assisted crawling) and most of my day is chasing him around, making sure cupboards are locked and what not. It's a wild ride! For those who have read my posts before and…

“Please Don’t”

Just for now,

Please don’t tell me that “its just hair” because it is much more than that.

Please don’t tell me that “hopefully it will grow back” because that doesn’t matter right now.

Please don’t tell me I look pretty without, because I do not believe you.

Please don’t tell me that “you thought you noticed something different about me”, because I'm already self-conscience enough.

Please don’t tell me you knew I was wearing hair that’s not my…

Here's a link to an interview with the newly-bald actress(for a play about a cancer patient, of course):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iJDLOwFIV4

I've been told before that I look younger as a bald woman. This confirms that possibility to me. I think she looks WAY younger.

She looks so "normal" to me....too bad she doesn't to most people. We just need more of us bald ladies OUT there.

TODAY I presented my senior project on Alopecia. It went so great :D I'm so happy of how well I did. I thought it would be a disaster. BUT it was AMAZING :D No more stressing out on this project anymore. Thanks to those who helped me out too :) Oh man I just wanna celebrate I never thought I could do something like this in my entire life. I feel like a whole new person. haha
That's all, hope you all are having a great day :D

Here's mine. What's yours?

Okay. I have had to finally admit to myself, my mirror, my family, my friends and any loved ones that I am an alopecian. Now, it is known. It was always in my genes, waiting to be triggered. It doesn't matter if it is one small spot or over my whole body; it IS THERE, and I will always have these genes. So, until/unless a remedy is found in my lifetime, I am free to do what an alopecian needs to do, including:

AVOID wind, swimming and some activities…

There are people lives that I believe I have touched because I was not afraid to show my “scars”.

Below is a song that the words ring so true to me and I wanted to share the lyrics with you.

Don’t Hide the Scars

(Michael Puryear/Cheryl Rogers/Jeff Silvey)

From CD: Sisters–The Story Goes On -1995

Vocals: Beverly Crawford/Cindy Morgan

I wept alone

Suffered on my own

I didn’t think that anyone would understand

Until…

I've never really wore a wig in public, always have gone to school without one. Normally the blogs and discussions on here are to help people go without one but I find myself scared to actually wear one! I think it will be weird to go to school one day without a wig and the next, BOOM, i have hair LOL. I don't know how to tell my family I'm considering wigs now either since they are very materialistic and will be TOO happy that i want to and make me not want to wear them again. I just don't…

Hey guys,

Sooo,, I have had alopecia ever since 2007. AT first it was just a spot ( which i named oscar) which went away. Then I started getting more spots, and then my left eyelashes went and then my right eyebrow disappeared ( i know thanks for the symmetry ... NOT).. Well my last 6 months in college which was February 2011- July 2011 I lost 60% of my hair. AND I know it was not bc of stress, bc on Feb 13 I met my first love, and we had 6 amazing months, moments i never thought…

For Anyone else who want's to know,
Yes, I'm bald so what! Hair does not make a person , if you have not noticed a personality does. Yeah , I wear a wig does that make me any better of a person no, So anyone else who want's to know just read this i have kidney and liver problems that's why it fell out && anyone who want's to tease me for it i'll pray for you and almost died in June i'd rather have no hair then be dead with beautiful hair (:
Bald is Beautiful ♥

My name is Brittany Peterson, I am nineteen years old and I have Alopecia Universalis. As I sit in my dorm room floor, I struggle to find the words to talk to you about my disease because it is such an emotional, and frustrating matter for me. No piece of paper will accurately capture or express to you what I've been through, but for every other child that has to deal with this disease, I will try and make this paper as good as I can, and speak for all the voices that can't find the words to…

The holidays just won't stop! For me tonight is the final party for the year. Thank goodness.

And I am in a quandary. It's over my wigs. Is anyone on here surprised? I am sure I am the ONLY person to ponder their wig dilemma on Alopecia World. ha ha. Right.

Here's the deal. No one at work has seen me in my wigs yet. My hair is still passable enough to get away with it when I go to work. But let's face it, there is nothing by way of styling that I can do with it. It's too thin…

So as you most can already tell last year was not very good for me. I feel like I've lost everything but to be honest I just figured out what was good for me and what wasn't. I'm going through a divorce my husband was very abusive and always told me being bald was my fault and I started to believe him. I started putting my self down and became very depressed because his last words to me were "you are bald and ugly and no one will ever want you in there life" Why was I so stupid to believe…

I was on AOL when i saw that Mattel had made a special barbie for a little girl who i believe had cancer and now there is a petition to get it mass produced for the public. How awesome is that?! The article also brings up other hairloss issues like alopecia. Hopefully it will be made and will get others to realize that Bald can and is beautiful and help little girls to cope and gain self esteem. If someone knows how to get the link it would be great. YAY!

One of my friends on AW posted in his blog the question all of us ask at some point, and even many points, why me?

When I asked myself why me, I recalled years ago reading a book called On Death & Dying. This was a landmark book because of it's detailed analysis of the stages we all go through when experiencing grief. Unfortunately what most of us don't realize is that grief isn't just about death. Here are list of a few experiences that can cause grief:

loss of a…

The first thing that crosses my mind when I think about alopecia, the ones that it effects, is how strong we are. Maybe we all got it as a blessing in disguise to strengthen our character and our person as a whole. Yes there are unbearable days when you just want to curl up in a ball in bed and not face the world anymore, but we simply can't. Anytime any person, oblivious to the fact that emotionally some are weak, ask innocent questions without knowing, but it makes us stronger. We are the…

i don't wanna be offensive but i just think it's a pathetic and stupid to ask why me because simply if u r an atheist u will understand it's just a luck "genes" and if u believe in god u'll find that maybe god choose u to this challenge and if it wasn't u and someone else got this problem will ask the same :D why me , why u , why them it doesn't make sense . there's people suffering from dangerous diseases like cancer etc ... so you've to be strong and ask the right questions wt can really…

I'm compiling a list of innovative ways to keep my bald head warm in winter....any ideas? I won't except burying your head in the sand...Add to it!

* Train your cat to sleep around your head instead of at the foot of the bed.

* Consume enough spicy food that it will literally burn your head off.

* Handstands on down comforters

* Stand in a crowded mall and advertise free head rubs to win cash. Touching plus warmth...can't be all that bad?

* Walk into the…