A few days ago I met up with Margaret, a fellow alopecian who lives in the same area as me. I am originally from Brunei, a small country on Borneo Island, South-East Asia. For those of you who don't know where that is, well it is near Singapore and Malaysia :) I have been diagnosed with Alopecia Universallis since I was 9 months old. My parents took me to see numerous specialists over the years but nothing could be done. However I did start to grow hair at the age of 4, patchy ones at first, but I still never had the privilege of having a full set of hair til now. Has it ever bothered me? Honestly, I can't remember it has. I never had hair really so I didn't know what I was missing. All I knew was that I had to learn to accept it and that was what I did from a very early age. Yes, I got bullied. Kids can be cruel when it comes to things which they do not understand but hey I couldn't care less. I was a very strong and confident kid and I never shed a tear, not even once when I got teased and bullied.

That was then. I was surprised that last year I was browsing through youtube for alopecians and lo and behold I came across alopecia world! I clicked on it and when I saw the photos of other women I started crying. I cried and cried for hours. Finally I have found people like me, finally I was not alone.

I moved to England a few months ago and I thought hey, why don't I try to look for other alopecians? I never met any alopecians in Brunei. My doctors told me there were cases of women having alopecia but in their case it was Alopecia Areata and all of them chose to hide it. I was the only person in Brunei who has had Alopecia Universallis from birth which in a way is pretty cool cos that makes me unique :)

So a few days ago I met Margaret. Wow! What an experience that was. It felt so good to meet someone like me! Margaret is such a beautiful, confident woman. I couldn't help but envy her. We had a good talk and after a few hours I decided I was gonna walk around in public without my scarf off. It was my own decision. I wanted to feel free. So I did it and I do not regret it! What a wonderful feeling that was!! How I wish I could find more alopecians and we all could go out for a night out and have a grand time! It was truly liberating. National Bald Out is coming soon and I can't wait! I am gonna try my best to attend (cos I might go back to Brunei to attend a course) and when I do I will hold my head up high and show people that I am proud to be who I am! Having AU has built my character and strength. For that I feel blessed to have AU.

Just think about this fellow alopecians: If everyone was the same the world would be so boring! We should be grateful that God picked us to be the interesting ones! =D