Bald?!

So, let's break the title of this blog down: bald, beauty, and brains. And we'll start with bald.

Yes, that's right, I said bald.

Graduation from Chico State in May '13!

 I am a 23 year old semi-adult female, who is bald. (I can't be considered a full fledged adult yet, I mean I still find myself watching the Disney channel by choice sometimes!) But, back to the bald: I began losing my hair when I was 10 years old. Yup, the tender age of 10, when everyone is just beginning to worry about their looks, to a condition called Alopecia Areata. Alopecia Areata is an auto-immune disease that attacks your hair follicles, resulting in bald patches all over your head. Basically, my body was so healthy it essentially got bored, with nothing to do, that it started seeing normal hair follicles as foreign enemies and caused them to fall out. There are two more forms of Alopecia- Alopecia Totalis, where you lose all the hair on your head, and Alopecia Universalis, where you lose all the hair on your body.

 I was the "girly-girl" twin, while Lauren was the "tom-boy." I always had hairstyles I wanted my mom to do, and I was always wearing dresses, but then I became the odd girl out who was losing her hair and I quickly turned into the odd girl out who lost all her hair. You read that right, all...of...my...hair...EVERYWHERE. My Alopecia Areata had jumped right to Alopecia Universalis. From then on,  I can't tell you how many times I was referred to as a boy. It got old really quick. It was before I really starting looking like a girl anyway, when I was the little fat kid, and hadn't developed any sort of girly shape, so I can't blame them, but at the time it was the worst thing ever. That's when I started doing everything I could to make sure I wasn't going to be called a "him" anymore. I was not going to be called a boy, everyone was going to know, upfront, that I was a girl. There would be no more of the "And what about him? What would he like?," or the "How old is he?" And that's when my love of clothes, big hoop earrings, and jewelry in general started, and to this date I literally only wear hoop earrings.

Lauren and I! (Notice the hoops?!)

 It has been close to 14 years now that I've had no hair. No head hair, no leg hair, no armpit hair, nothing. And there has been ups and downs, but really, I feel like I've had it easy. There is only one bullying experience I can remember, and it wasn't even that bad. I haven't had many days where I feel down about myself, and I think that's just because I feel like I just have to deal with it, also in general I don't have a lot of emotional moments. But the fact is, I can't change it; all the treatments I've tried have ultimately failed, so I honestly don't have much hope that my hair will ever be coming back. Also, my Nana had Alopecia Universalis too. She lost her hair when she was about 20 and never had a strand of hair on her head again. So, I feel like this is the hand I was dealt, and I might as well just move on.

 So, that's the bald part. Naturally, a bald girl would be interested in leveling the playing field when it comes to looks, so that's where the beauty section comes into play! Stay tuned!