Hi everyone,

I am new to this site as off yesterday but not new to alopecia unfortunately. I am a 24 years old male, currently living in the highlands of Scotland and I have had alopecia for roughly 6 years now. At first my alopecia started off as AA and then slowly developed over to AT where it currently still sits. I have had patches off slight regrowth but nothing major. Currently I have lost about 90% off my scalp hair, 50% off my eyelashes and my eyebrows are roughly 60%.

Well, where to start... these have honestly been the hardest couple off years that I have lived. This disease absolutely obliterated not both my confidence but also my life. I became a shell of my former self and hid myself from the world. At first, I went about my life kind of "owning" this disease and not letting it interfere with my life and kept a smile on my face. However, eventually as it progressed my smile faded away. The disease truly hit me when I was at the hairdresser and she told me there nothing more she could do for me except shaving it off. I agreed. Although I agreed.. both my heart and my mind were screaming inside. From then, I went about my life always wearing a hat and hiding away from social events and basically... just everything. I was at my lowest and had zero self confidence or even self worth. Although I was finding dealing with the disease now both physically and emotionally tough.. the thing I found toughest was that I had no-one to talk too. I had family and friends who have always been there for me but they always seemed to stay away from the topic of discussing my hair and I had no-one to relate too. This is where I struggled. Especially because I live in a rural area where the disease is both unknown and not to be mean but many off the locals are very one-minded and just not very nice in regards to it.

I have tried numerous treatments but nothing has successfully worked. However, not all is doom and gloom. Over-time, my mind frame eventually began to brighten up. This only occured this year around April. I was on a trip to Prague with my best friend and we went out for dinner for her birthday. Weeks before this event, I gave myself the task to go out for this meal without my hat and to get all dressed up. Something I would never dare to do back home. The time came.. AND i did it!! It was a funny feeling at first but to honest after a few beers.. I totally forgot about it and fully enjoyed the night. I don't know if anyone was staring and to be honest, I wasnt caring. From then, I continued this effect off giving myself little tasks to accomplish i.e; seeing friends and family without my hat, going out to certain placed without my hat and so on. This step by step task list has helped me tremendously. My social life has been slowly coming back and all my friends have commented on how I am becoming my former self again and totally coming out off my shell in the company off new people. I also like to have the way of life where I have something ahead off my to get my excited about. With this philosophy whenever I am feeling down or low.. I have something ahead off me to look forward too and get excited about. Currently at the moment that sits at a gig at the Edinburgh Fringe with my friends in 2 weeks and then after that I am going to Glasgow to see Florence and the Machine. No lies to you all however, I have noway overcome this and to be honest I don't know if i ever will 100%. Low days are still an occurrence for me when things add up. Music always helps.

The next step for me is hopefully my love life. I am beginning to feel very lonely in that aspect as it has been at a stand still for 6 years now. My confidence was too low to even think about that and I had the train off thought that no girl would ever look at me and I wasn't good enough for anyone. My friends tell me to just get out there and girl's won't care if I show my true personality. For me however, it doesn't seem to register like that in my mind. I am hopeful though I will overcome this in the next few months. My best friend April has been not only my saviour but also my rock through this whole period. She has helped me in more ways than she could ever know and I will be eternally grateful to her. Oh, my family are also rocking to :).

Well, I don't want to carry on too much in my very first post as by the looks off things already it looks like I might have to get a publisher to endorse this before I send it. I only just came across this site and was astonded by the support network that I had no idea about. Really, I just wanted to tell everyone a little bit about my story. Thank you all very much for reading all off this and if you didn't make it to the end... you smell.

I would love to connect with many other on here and share experiences, advise and also develop strong support branches. If you feel like you want to get in touch and just "chat".. don't be shy just hit me up and add me as a friend.

Stay classy.

Steve.