I started losing my hair when I was three years old. Being so young, I don’t think I realised it was happening at first. What started as a few bald patches that my Mum was able to cover up with clever hairstyles and headbands, grew gradually over the next couple of years, until it became too obvious to try to hide at all, and I started wearing hats.
Experiencing hair loss as a child was extremely difficult. I remember wishing that I could be like all the other girls in my class, with their long silky hair. I think I became self aware at a very young age because of this. I was afraid to speak to anyone I didn’t already know, over the fear that they would ask me about my hair, or worse, make fun of me for it.
Just before moving to secondary school, I started wearing wigs. This was a life changing moment in my hair loss journey, because it meant that I could finally look like everyone else. I think this might have been the first time I ever saw myself as beautiful. Wearing wigs meant that I could now avoid uncomfortable conversations so much more easily, as the wigs were so realistic that most people had no idea I was even wearing them - even some of my closest friends(!). But in reality, I still felt like I was carrying around this big secret...
It wasn’t until my early 20’s that I found the confidence to start talking about my alopecia more openly. I think that reaching adulthood, I started to realise that my alopecia wasn’t as big of a deal to the people around me as I thought it was. Nobody else actually seemed to care at all, and having friends that not only accepted me, but actually loved me for my uniqueness, empowered me to see myself in a new way and to truly accept myself for the first time.
Over the last few years, I’ve grown to become so much more confident and comfortable with who I am, as someone with alopecia. I’ve started modeling - a world where my uniqueness has been genuinely appreciated - and I think this has massively helped me to see the value in being so unique. Wigs have become a fun accessory in my life and a form of self-expression, rather than something I feel I need to hide behind. I no longer worry about people finding out about my hair loss, and I’m usually the one to bring it up in conversation!
Although the journey to this point was by no means an easy one, I am grateful for the things it has taught me, and the beautiful world it has led me to create. I’ve met so many inspiring, beautiful women with hair loss over the last few years. I’ve learnt to value the content of people’s character and what lies beneath the surface. I’ve developed real empathy for anyone that has ever been made to feel ‘other’. I’m now at a place that I don’t think I ever thought I would actually get to, and this is something that I feel really, truly proud of.