Daymare

As I was fixing my hair this morning, I saw what looked like a bald spot on my head and my first thought was, "Please, God, not again!" I scrambled for a magnifying mirror to check it out and thankfully, it was nothing. When I was blow drying, I'd apparently focused the dryer on one spot and so my hair laid in such a way that it appeared to be a bald spot.

At that moment though, my heart stopped and I was instantly taken back almost 9 years when I had seen a bald spot on my head while getting ready for my Audiology class. The bald spot was about the size of a quarter and looked like it had been shaved clean. I was scared out of my mind and raced to the school to look up my symptoms on the Internet. The only thing that seemed to match was Alopecia Areata. The dermatologist confirmed it later that week and said I also had another stress related hair loss. For the next three months, my hair continued to fall out and when it finally stopped, I was almost completely bald.

It was more devastating than I could've imagined. While I never considered myself to be a vain person, I realized just how much of my femininity was wrapped up in my hair. I'm not one to wear lipstick all day/every day, but when this happened, I made sure I had full makeup on... daily. The cap pictured above, is what I wore everyday during that time. It has lots of colors to match different clothes and it had more coverage than any other cap I'd found. When my hair grew back, I considered burning it. My mom advised me not to, that it had been good to me and I'm glad that I've hung onto it.

I don't really think about it anymore. Occasionally, my head will itch more than usual (which is a symptom) or my eyes will do tricks on me (like this morning) and then I'll remember. But for the most part, I go about my daily grooming routine not thinking about it. I'll even complain about my hair, which is something I promised God I would never do if my hair grew back... funny how soon we (I) forget.