Rufus001 wrote an article in 2006 on Alopecia. Now I am telling my story. I am buddy177k.
It all started when I was six. My mom was brushing my hair and noticed a small circle of hair missing. So we went to the doctor he said it was Alopecia Areata, which is an auto immune disease. It doesn't hurt and does not kill you; it just makes your hair fall out, which is good I guess. A lot of people teased me about it but it doesn't bother me much any more. I don't care what they think but if they listen I will tell them about it and they usually stop.
It didn't get really bad until last year when a lot of my hair fell out. Not all my hair just a lot of it and it just keeps falling out. It's so noticeable now I can't hide it. I wore a wig for a while but it was so uncomfortable I stopped. Now I just let it fall out as it will, no wig or anything, but this isn't going real well either because a lot of people are scared of me because I look different than most people.
But I am ok with that because I know that there is nothing wrong with me except that I look different. I am not the only person with this disease; there are thousands of people with Alopecia. Some people get it really bad where all their hair falls out and it may never grow back or it could all grow back. There is no cure; there are treatments but they don't work for long.
I am ok with this because it has made me stronger as a person. I have learned that if someone looks different or acts different it is ok, you can still be friends with them anyway.
You can find out more about this if you look it up at National Alopecia Areata Foundation's website - http://www.naaf.org.
