The Naked Truth: Alopecia Awareness Month

Every month these days seem be "_____ (fill in the blank) Awareness Month" and September is no exception. We know that there are a few health issues and causes associated with the month of september alone (for example: childhood cancer awarness) but the one that I near and dear to us is Alopicia. One of the biggest challenges we faced from about age 11 until present day has been living with the auto immune disorder Alopecia Areata. Alopecia Areata causes different types of hair loss. Areata causes hair loss in round patches, Totalis causes loss of all scalp hair, and Universalis you lose all hair on the body. This hair loss is not contagious nor is it caused by poor hair habits. It’s actually the result of the body’s immune system attacking its own hair follicles suppressing or stopping hair growth. We have both heard and experienced so many misconceptions about this disorder over the years, all the way from bad jokes told by people who are completely ignorant to what it really is, to downright false information being circulated about Alopicia's causes and effects. Being in the beauty industry  surprisingly sometimes is even worse.... hearing jokes like "HAHAHA her doll baby (maniquinn) has Alopicia!" when she develops a bald spot, Stylists "diagnosing" clients, or worse, clients "diagnosing" themselves, without the guidance of a dermatologist. As we explained above there are different types and progressions of this disorder and each are complex and handled by their own complexities. For example there's something called "traction alopecia" where if too much tension is put on delicate parts of the scalp, the hair will begin to thin, or be pulled from the root. This however is not to be confused with Alopecia Areata, which causes round patches of hair loss due to the body attacking itself, confusing hair with a deadly virus that it needs to desperately fight off.   


After being diagnosed at a young age, we had to begin learning how to cope with loving ourselves and having healthy esteem, despite the fact that we were young girls who were losing their hair. For us the journey began with Blue. Mid year, 6th grade she developed her first "spot". Left temple, silver dollar size. I can remember feeling like an alien. What was wrong with me?? I felt like everyone could see it, stared at it, and laughed at it... What kind of "girl" is she? Junior high school brought with it, it's own set of challenges. We tried our best to feel normal, we helped each other cover our newly formed "spots" & celebrated each other's victories when we had times of hair growth. When high school approched the yearning for acceptance grew stronger, especially with all of the growing hair trends. We had some fool proof "cover" methods but experimented with some of the things all the other girls were doing. Sometimes they worked and sometimes they failed! The journey continues with Pink. She was rocking a new braided style, but it was one of the fails....she didn't realize that it was a fail....that is until she and Blue felt the burn of eyes, and heard the sting of snickering laughs from the group of basketball players seated behind them in a practice. They saw what seemed to be the joke of the day....They are missing hair!They are baldheaded girls! When in reality it was just two girls with a disease that they could not control, trying to feel like normal girls in a world that could never understand what they were truly going through, a world that screamed "real girls have hair!" Senior year the ultimate fashion event prom was approaching, and while most girls were planning their outfits and shoes....we were agonizing over how we would style our hair! How could we cover everything, AND still be beautiful...elegant....normal! We got creative, pulled it all together and had an awesome night. For the first time in a long time we felt beautiful! We made it through our school years and graduated together, supporting each other. Through the teasing, bullying, and never feeling normal or pretty enough, we have always been there for each other. Shielding and protecting each other from the stares and snickers, helping one another with tips and tricks to cover our bald spots and listening when we complained about the struggles of losing hair. 


These are challenges that we have more recently been able to overcome as women, although it still a work in progress. Through dating years and while our now husbands were "courting" us, we struggled with acceptance and feeling worthy of love. As we navigated the twists and turns of love lives, we found our safety in the wonderful men that we now call husband. Of course it was nerve racking thinking of how we would tell them about our disorder, (and even more traumatic) how we would "show" them. This was enough to make us both convince ourselves that somehow we didn't deserve them or that they couldn't possibly love us...US!  As we settled into years with the loves of our lives, we would get more and more comfortable with our "heads" as we call them, being exposed around our husbands. Although we did (and still) find ourselves filled with those same feelings of shame about our condition, reverting to an almost "shyness" around them, we try to move past it. "Women have hair, men don't", a nagging voice in the back of our heads that often hovers over simple moments we have with our spouses while our heads are exposed. Sometimes it's a struggle to be seen without a wig or headwrap, not only by our significant others, but even by our own children. It has become a day by day, moment by moment, experience by experience thing that we have to overcome. But we are starting to realize that we love ourselves, our husbands and children love us with or without hair, so we have it made! For me (Blue) As my husband rubs my head and tells me that I am beautiful, after I have shed the wig and makeup, And my 7 yr old son kisses my naked head and tells me I am the best mommy every time he sees me with out my coined blue tresses, I realize that THAT is what matters! Most importantly God loves us and created us just the way we are. We do our best to renew our mind through the word, constantly reminding ourselves of the words that our creator spoke over us before we were formed in our mothers womb.  

Our experiences with coming up with different styles and cover methods really drove me (Pink) to a passion for hair and beauty, eventually becoming a licensed cosmetologist 3 years ago while I (Blue) am following in her footsteps, finishing cosmetology school in January! Now at 30, we are so much more comfortable in our own skin, and can say with confidence that we love ourselves & each other JUST as God created us….. Bald &Beautiful! Lol. Don’t get it twisted though, you probably won’t see us walking around bald and free…. Anybody that knows us, knows we love our brightly colored wigs and extensions….. but you get the point. We are comfortable with who we are underneath it all!

-Blue & Pink