I am now about 10+ months into my life with AA. I've gone through the spectrum of emotions since finding my first "spot," but really feel like I've come to a point where I don't cry, panic, freak out with every new change. Although the landscape of my head is ever-changing, I'm finding it a little bit easier to accept. Not to say I don't have bad days-- and a few mini freak out days now and then-- but they are just no longer "horrible" days as they were in the beginning. I've learned a lot through this process and thought you might enjoy some of the things that I think I have learned from this experience. Here are my Top Ten Lists to-date:

The Top 10 Things I HATE about AA:

1. Finding my hair everywhere but on my head.
2. Only being able to wear my hair in one strategically engineered hairstyle.
3. WIND!
4. The fact that AA decided to choose my head and not my legs and underarms where I DON'T want hair.
5. Not being able to pluck the gray hairs, because they are hairs and I need them all.
6. Finding more of my hair in the vacuum cleaner than the hair from my two shedding dogs.
7. People saying "I have a friend that had Alopeica and it all came back fine."
8. Not getting to "treat" myself to a day at the hair salon, because it's no longer fun and relaxing.
9. The lumps and divets in my head from all the shots.
10. Not being able to have any control over this thing!!!!

The top 10 things I "love" about AA:

1. Realizing my hair isn't really as important as I thought it was...most of the time.
2. Not having to spend as much time styling my hair.
3. Baseball hats.
4. My husband no longer complains when he finds my hair all over the bathroom.
5. Realizing that I am blessed to have a husband that always says that I would look totally sexy completely bald.
6. Deciding to be open with everyone I know about this condition and educating them on it.
7. Having people really understand when I say I'm having a bad hair day.
8. Realizing I can't be in control of everything.
9. Realizing that there are people going through things that are 1000 times worse than losing hair.
10. Finding websites like this that have so many strong and inspiring people with which to be able to share this unique journey.