My Alopecia Story – Jamie Duncan

I’m delighted to share with everyone here that I was selected for a music education sponsorship through AAAF’s 2022 sponsorship program, and I couldn’t be more excited about the incredible opportunity.  I am so grateful to AAAF and this community for supporting me on my alopecia journey and wanted to share more about my past, present and personal ambitions for the future – look out for 4th brother!

I think my alopecia story actually started when I was much younger than when I was first diagnosed with Alopecia Areata, which didn’t happen until the age of 27.  At an earlier time in my life, it was never noticeable to me, or anyone else as I recall, as I was an especially cool 90’s pre-teen with a fashionably long-ish middle parting haircut at the time – yo!  When I did have hair on my head, I had thick hair, like my Mum’s I always said, but I do remember a moment one day as a kid, just kind of playing with my hair, and noticing that, as I did, it was coming out in my hands.  I remember thinking, “that’s weird, let me do that again and see if more comes out”, and it did, so I promptly stopped, thinking I might just lose it all if I didn’t!  I didn’t even tell my parents, brothers or friends about it, it was just something that happened and then I completely forgot about it.

That earlier experience did return however, at 27 as I mentioned earlier, and at a time that was easy for me to associate to memory, as my wife Laura and I were excitedly expecting our first child, our daughter Carmen.  After noticing the classic signs of Alopecia Areata, small, Scottish 50 pence piece sized patches, I took myself off to the GP and was duly diagnosed with AA.  It was very much a “do you have any stress going on in your life at present?”, line of investigation, something I think I could always answer yes to, but I was, am, a relatively laid-back individual, and wouldn’t have suggested anything significant as a known source of concern.  Anyway, I was given a treatment of steroid lotion to massage into my scalp and sent on my merry way to see if it helped.

Whether it was the lotion or the excitement of being a new father for the first time I did experience regrowth.  Great, I thought!  Until…  yeah, Laura pregnant again, our beautiful son Donnie this time, and all the signs of progressive AA hair loss all over again.  I personally put it down to coincidence, but whatever it was, this time it wasn’t showing any signs of recovery, not over weeks, months or even years, and I decided that I just had to live with it.  That was probably the first time that having AA was on my mind, and where I was conscious of its effect on my appearance, even though it was no more than about 10% to 15% of my hair back then.  Every trip to the barbers involved an explanation and a lot of people had an opinion on it.  Looking back, I’m actually amazed at how few people actually understood the condition.

Fast forward to a new life in Australia for us all, and at 40 things really took a turn.  I really depended on the AAAF community, as I was losing hair FAST, and EVERYWHERE.  My AA progressed to Universalis and I honestly didn’t know what to do or how to deal with it.  It was emotionally draining, I remember that.  I was anxious and fearful about the state of my general health at that time.  I was waking up with piles of hair on my pillow, showering and handfuls of hair coming out in my hands.  I was open to trying anything and spent months in treatment for steroid injections in my scalp, as that was a priority for me if anything could be done.  I remember experiencing minor benefits in one area, only to be losing hair in another, it was very difficult.  I was never a hairy man, but eyebrows, eye lashes, face, under arms, arms, legs all lost hair and you can’t prepare for that happening or the emotional and psychological impact of that.

I braved the shave.  I took myself to the barbers the first time I decided to do it.  The guys there were great!  We started on a gauge 4, then a 3, a 2, 1 and even zero.  I still wasn’t satisfied and said, “can you just use a razor?”  I got the cleanest shave I’d ever had in my life – and it felt amazing, different, but amazing!  I quickly realised this was something I’d need to master at home and have been shaving daily ever since – you see I still have little patches of facial and head hair.

It was tough, but with the love and support of family, friends and great communities like AAAF, I was able to get through it, and I now spend every opportunity I’m presented with helping less aware people understand alopecia better.  Keeping my mind on family, health, happiness, work and fun is a great distraction from alopecia and that’s where the sponsorship comes in.  I’m an aspiring creative, with a love of house music and I write, produce and DJ for fun in my spare time.  With the support of AAAF’s Sponsorship Program, I was able to sign up to a program of courses at Point Blank Music School in London, where I take classes online, collaborate with classmates from around the world and have had the most amazing time learning today’s technology for producing music.

Remember 4^th brother?  Taking the course has given me the confidence to progress my music goals, and this year I kicked a life goal with AAAF’s support, releasing my first piece of music publicly and dedicated to AAAF “4^th brother – feels good (aaaf demo mix)” on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon Music and others and I hope to release more in the future too.  It’s been amazing to have the support to help develop my skills, build my confidence and share my music and I couldn’t have done it without this support, so THANK YOU AAAF, you do amazing work in support of so many and I really, really appreciate it.
Jamie / 4^th brother

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