Katelyn Kelley
10/12/11
Alopecia
Alopecia is an auto immune system disease that there isn’t a lot of information about. The only symptom is losing your hair. Example the hair on your head or even all the hair on your body falls out. There is no known cause. And there isn’t much that you can do about it once you have it. You can go and get injections into your head were you are losing hair. But there is a chance that your hair will not respond to it and you keep losing it. Alopecia areola is where you have a couple spots but you still have most of your hair. Alopecia Totalis is where you have lost all or almost all of your hair. Because alopecia is not a well known disease, not many people understand what people with alopecia are going though.
Living with Alopecia is probably one of the most frustrating things you can have. One reason it is frustrating is because not a lot of people know about it, so it is often mistaken as cancer. And Alopecia is nothing like cancer. It’s also frustrating because there are no answers. You are always searching for answers, but there isn’t any and why nothing can be done for you. Also because it’s not a well known thing people like to talk about you. Example they will tell others what you are going though from where they see it or they will be like she wears a wig I wonder why. When they run their mouth about what you are going though by the time it gets back to you it is almost a completely different situation.
People mistake it as cancer because so few people have alopecia it isn’t well known. The people living with alopecia are not very open about it. They don’t want to be judged who for they are so they hide it. And we as a society like to jump to conclusion we don’t like to ask questions in fear of being rude. But sometimes our conclusions are wrong and cause more pain than asking questions. We also don’t know about it very well because there aren’t many answers. Our brains make better sense of it when we think of something like cancer that has a cause and solution.
Living with Alopecia is a day to day struggle because the people you though would always be there for you don’t look at you the same because they can’t make sense of it. I can’t make sense of it either, but I have to live without answers every day. Wondering why I have it and what has caused it and can I pass it on. When I wake up I put on my wig and head to school. When I am working on the farm I can be who I really am. I don’t wear my wig on the family farm because my grandfather doesn’t judge and neither do the cows. I love my friends but even though they try to be there I still don’t like to go any were without my wig. I have see how people turn their backs on me because of something I can’t control so now I tell people that I have alopecia before I get attached so I don’t get hurt. Living with alopecia is kind of cool in the sense I can change my hair style every day. But it’s also hard not to have you own hair to work with. I guess the struggles have made me who I am today and I can’t really complain about that. Wearing a wig is nothing like real hair you can only brush it once a day and you should get a new one every three months. They are really expensive. Therefore this is an expensive disease. Some insurance company’s won’t cover a wig unless you have complete loss of hair.