My Alopecia Story – by Eva

I was only 8 years old when my hair started to fall.  My beautiful long brown hair was soon covering the bathroom floor.  I refused to brush it or wash it in the hope that it would stay on my head.

It was only a month before most of it was gone, and I was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata.  A course of steroids had it growing back, but once the steroids stopped, I lost all my hair including eyebrows and eyelashes.  I tried wearing a wig, but that didn’t last long.  It made me hot and uncomfortable.  It took a couple of years, but I eventually built resilience and wore nothing on my head.  It was difficult at first, but once I explained to everyone at school what Alopecia was everybody accepted it, and accepted me.

My Alopecia Journey – Abbey’s Story

July 2019

I was diagnosed with Alopecia when I was only 3 years old. It started as little spots on my head and then throughout the years, it has spread to my body.  It wasn’t new to our family as my brother had been diagnosed with alopecia 3 years before me. He was totally bald.

Young Kids and Alopecia Areata

Alopecia Areata can occur at any age. Did you know that it most often first presents during childhood?

Alopecia Areata is a complex condition. A lot of resources about it are very medical and difficult to understand. For very young kids and families supporting them, this can be a challenge. We’ve collected some of our best resources for helping young kids to understand alopecia. These resources can be helpful if a child has alopecia themselves, or if they have family or friends living with the condition.

Oscar’s Alopecia Story

Hi, my name is Oscar and I am 13 years old. I’m the eldest and I have a brother and sister. I have Alopecia Universalis. I developed this when I was nearly 8 years old. Before that I had thick, curly auburn hair. I had never lost any patches of hair before. I noticed a patch of skin on my scalp on the weekend and then it just all fell out! In one week I had no hair left on my head. I was in year 2 so I don’t remember a lot about it. I do remember that I was dancing in a concert, so we went to the hairdresser and got the patches that were left shaved into a Mohawk, which was cool and everyone at school loved it. But that fell out pretty quickly too. Then my eyebrows and eyelashes went too, after a few more weeks. It has not grown back, but occasionally it has tried to, sprouting some bits, sometimes I have eyelashes but mostly not.

Alopecia At School

Heading back to school is an exciting time. Whether you’re headed into a new year or a new school, it’s a time of a lot of change. For young people with Alopecia Areata, school can have some extra challenges and considerations, but there is a lot of support available. Here are some of our top tips for managing Alopecia Areata at school. For more ideas, we recommend checking out our School Pack or Teen Alopecia Support Group.

Handling Questions – Alopecia Tips for Kids

Have you ever been asked a question about your alopecia? How did it make you feel?

Sometimes questions can be okay. Other times, it can be annoying or upsetting, and you may not want to answer.

Why do people ask questions about your hair?

Lots of people have Alopecia Areata. Yet some people don’t know much about this condition. Some people may have never even heard of it. People might ask about your hair because they don’t understand and are curious.

Sometimes, people think that the hair loss is caused by something else. They might ask specific questions, like “Do you have cancer?”. In this case, people might be asking because they feel worried about or concern for you.

Alopecia Tips – Handling Comments (For Kids)

People making comments about your hair can be difficult. Sometimes, people can say unkind things by accident. They might not mean to hurt your feelings, but they don’t know any better. Sometimes, people can be deliberately mean, rude, or unkind.

So if someone says something about your alopecia, how can you handle it?

My Alopecia Story By Sophia

Hi, my name is Sophia. I am 12 years old and I have Alopecia. I have had Alopecia Areata since I was 8. So for 4 years now. Alopecia has affected my life a lot, with everything I do I always see people everywhere with beautiful hair and it reminds how much I want that, to show off my beautiful hair but unfortunately I don’t have that. I never realized how lucky I was to have hair before it all fell out. But now I have realized that I have a gift something that only about 1% of the world’s populations has. I’m part of that 1% and I am now proud!

My Alopecia Journey – Sarah’s Story

April 2019

Hi. My name is Sarah. I am 6 years old. Last year, when I started school, my Mum and Dad noticed a small patch of hair missing on the top of my head. I thought maybe I had knocked it on the Monkey Bars because I play on the Monkey Bars at school all the time. A couple of months later, another patch appeared near the first one so we went to the doctors to get them checked out. That’s when I was sent to see a dermatologist and I was told I had Alopecia Areata.

My Alopecia Story – Siarrah

My name is Siarrah; I’m 13 years old, 14 next week. I am a proud recipient of the AAAF sponsorship program and I would like to share my Alopecia story.

My rollercoaster started when I was 2 years of age. Obviously, I was too young to understand the journey I was about to take but I was lucky to have a family who held my hand and travelled my journey with me.

I was living in Bargara Qld at the age of 2 all my hair disappeared. The next 12 months was a journey on its own trying to work out why my hair fell out. Once I was diagnosed with Alopecia the awareness and acceptance journey started. Mum contacted the local paper who published an article on “Alopecia Awareness” and this was the start of my acceptance towards my condition. My story was always about being Bald and Beautiful, I was well known not only for my hair loss but my beautiful smile. At the age of 6 we moved to Yeppoon, mum organised a Crazy Hat Day at my new school to create Alopecia awareness, this also helped being accepted in a new school.