If true connection is FREE...if happiness has no price...who can you really say never fails to make you smile without the possible COSTS? Maybe the one who makes you smile with a MUTUAL feeling is more worth the wait than the numbers of dates with no true connection. Hair or no hair, it can be too frustrating and take up too much mental stress if you are trying to convince someone who does not feel the same about you to stick around for a romance, be it at age 16 or 66. Let it grow…

When a local, low-cost basement hairdresser on my street noticed the quarter-sized bald spot, I was about 10. I pulled my long hair back over the spot, so no one ever knew in 5th grade.

When alopecia reared up again my sophomore year in high school, I got a fall (half wig), and again pulled hair from the forehead back over the matching wig, and secured my hair onto the fall with a large barrette. Large bobby pins held my fall onto my real hair, twisted underneath. No one knew. I did…

So...if control over your hair (are you God?) is your beef, and control is your thing, then find control another way: via the arts, weight loss, make-over, new wardrobe, rearranged furnishings, painted walls, mastery of a garden/career/family/trip/business/education, menu, spiritual path, etc. There are SOOOOOOOOOO many choices in the world and aspects of self possible. I decided to lose 55 pounds. 45 more to go...…

Three years ago today, I finally got my head AND sideburns shaved off, just to see what it was like. Very free-ing, kind of exotic, funny. What the heck, eh? I spent parts of that summer with nothing on my head for road trips or at home, and am grateful for the understanding friend who helped me go through that first process. Even though I still wear wigs to work and a funky cloth hat at other places, I intend to go wigless at my alopecia support group meeting today…

New: OMG, can I find a hairstyle that is in fashion to hide this? Will anyone notice? I HAVE to have a wig that is the same color, texture and style as my old hair and looks like it is growing out of my head. I can't let a boy find out or touch my head! Arrrrrrgh...what about eyebrows, intimacy, wedding, children, wind, convertibles, sports, hanging upside down from trees and monkey-bars, sleepovers, swimming, coworkers, gossips, mean girls, overprotective worried relatives, gawkers, rude…

Small mirror in a case for the purse or backpack

Sharpener for eyebrow pencils and liner pencils

Eyebrow pencil and/or brow powder (get demo at fine cosmetics counter)

Eye liner

Wig salon appointment to try on styles, see colors indoors and in sunlight with hand-mirror, find wig with ear-tabs that work with glasses

Hat store trip to try on styles (bring favorite outfit and coat to match)

Make-up appointment at mall or home party to see how to enhance…

Autoimmune Research Breakthrough

The National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF) applauds the National

Institutes of Health's (NIH) announcement that NIH

scientists and their colleagues have discovered that a gene called

BACH2 could likely play a significant part in the development of

autoimmune diseases. In a study of mice, researchers at the

National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of

Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases…

Look through this article and see if any deficiencies fit YOU. Anemia, low iron and low protein are especially of concern.

Women's Health

Daily Newsletter | April 25, 2013

Everyday Health

Today's Top Story

7 Things Your Hair Says About Your Health

Your hair can let you and your doctor know whether you have a nutritional deficiency, a thyroid problem, or more — if you know what to look for.

The next time you look in the mirror, look out for these hair…

How Close Are We to Solving the Puzzle? Review of the Alopecia Areata Research Workshop

-David Norris, M.D. University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Denver, CO…

Fill in the blank. Get creative. I'll post the ones most appropriate and fun for this site. Sometimes, ya just gotta laugh when you are tired of the tears.

Mine: ...the reverse of parasitic mistletoe clumps that attack bare winter trees.

When we can't see: glasses or contacts.

When we need a lift: bra.

When our teeth break or get strange: braces, caps, whitening, bridges.

When a heart fails: stent.

When arches drop: shoe inserts.

To cover nakedness: clothing.

To not be animals: toilets, deodorant, condoms, houses, sweet scents.

To improve color: make-up.

So...why stress over wearing anything new on a head? Seriously! You've already agreed to the inventions of humans, so why not one…

Alopecia Areata Research Summit November 29 & 30, 2012

From Basepairs to Bedside: Innovations in the Immunology & Clinical Science of Alopecia Areata

The purpose of this summit, sponsored by the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF), is to unite a variety of people within and outside the field of alopecia areata to develop research avenues in immunology and clinical science and to advise NAAF on spending its research dollars strategically in both areas. The National…

Interview: Tommy Lee Jones of 'Lincoln'

'Language is life's blood for actors ...'

By James Rocchi

As Thaddeus Stevens, Tommy Lee Jones' rich voice gets to boom out the principles of equality and also utter, with quiet conviction, of the human needs and feelings that make equality necessary. He's a scene-stealer, in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," but he's also portraying a figure of American history whose record of leadership, moral courage and eloquent verbal feuding should…

From an online article:

How to Have an Attractive Personality

By an eHow Contributor

Being attractive does not start with outer beauty as many people think. Approachable people often garner attention because of their attitude and demeanor, not their clothing or good looks. With an attractive personality, one can get positive attention from people regardless of physical attractiveness.

1. Exude confidence. By projecting a confident and self-assured…

Found this article online, and thought it might encourage men on this site!

Men With Shaved Heads Appear More Dominant, Study Finds

The Huffington Post | By Jessica Misener Posted: 10/01/2012 5:39 pm EDT Updated: 10/01/2012 6:20 pm EDT

A new study suggests that balding men should just go ahead and Bic it all off: society sees men with shaved heads being more "manly."

Alfred Mannes, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, published…

From the Hairloss Learning Center:

Even 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians were searching for a hair loss cure. One “cure” used around 1500 B.C. in Egypt called for reciting a magic spell to the sun god and then swallowing a mixture of onions, iron, red lead, honey and alabaster.

Around 1100 B.C. in ancient Egypt it was popular to rub the fats of various animals onto the scalp, including those of the lions, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, ibex, serpents and geese.

Another…

Early lessons in life have an impact. If you are surrounded by people, even in your own family, who put Hollywood standards of air-brushed, coiffed and "bought" physical beauty as the value of a person, then I guess you will be totally freaked out by alopecia. But if you learn a lesson early on in life, or repeatedly so it stays with you, that accidents, illness, war, or any other change can change the outside but maybe not the inner core of what makes you lovable to someone, then you will…

I read this to a class of third graders while substitute teaching yesterday. Being that the whole incident starts with a bad hair day, I thought I would pass on a review I saw online (below). The book is Simon's Hook, by Karen Gedig Burnett. If AW allows the promotion of a particular book to grown-up newbies, I'm sure a book for all kids would also be allowed...yes? Here's the description:

Simon's Hook; A Story About Teases and Put-downs (Paperback)

When Simon is teased by his…