This is not the first time my hair has caused me trouble. That happened with my best friend, Libby Wyatt. She was just my age and lived down the street from me. I remember we had matching red shoes...little Mary Janes with a t-strap and 3 petal cut-uts at the toe. I still have a pair of that type of shoe...now they have high heels and are more maroon than red, but everytime they come back into fashion I buy a pair! I don't know where she is today...or if she's still buying those shoes as well.

Anyway, we were two tow-head cuties, and we decided to cut bangs. So we found a pair of good scissors (both of our moms were sewers who made the kids' clothes). We each took the front piece of our hair and wacked it off. Unclear on the concept, we cut it at the hair line. So in a way, my first alopecia spot was self-induced!

Needless to say, though we thought we were stunning, our mothers were horrified. They didn't get mad at us, just gave us that OMG look and waited for it to grow.

That was when I was three.

The second time was when I was in Kindergarten and my older sister, Mary, decided to "trim" my hair. Well, you know how it goes. She got it a little shorter on this side, so she took a little off the other. Oops! Looks like that was too much, so now some off this first side again. When she was done, I had a little pix. (That's half of a pixie cut. The other half was on the kitchen floor.) I distinctly remember it because a few days later I was a lion tamer in our class play, and everyone thought I was a boy.

If I could make it through those "hair don'ts" at a tender age, I know I can face alopecia today!

It's a good life.