What Its Really Like To Live With Alopecia

What is it really like to live with Alopecia? Let me paint you a picture….

As I walked alone at a sparse Onondaga Lake Park, with no one else on the trails, on a Friday mid-afternoon at the end of March, the dark silhouettes of barren trees caught my eye. They stood tall, bleak, strong, alone waiting for their cloak of leaves to grow again. I never notice trees this time of year because they are so plain. Now feeling like I look like one of them, a woman without her dark, thick brown hair, I notice them from a unique perspective.

My favorite time of year is the end of April when the tiniest buds appear on tree branches giving them a rich new aurora of color. Light, spring green, red, pink and yellow buds catch my eye.

As the leaves grown from spring to summer they get darker and richer in color fully dressing the black tree in a cloak of luscious green.

As summer turns to fall, the dark green leaves age by turning crimson, gold and orange, popping one last time with all their might giving the tree its most glorified look.

As the brilliance drops to the ground, the sterile limbs wait until fluffy white snowflakes adhere to them in a crystal sheen of icy blue shades. Its winter and the branches are covered once more.

Today I realized having total hair loss, due to alopecia, is similar to the very late winter of trees when nothing adorns them. Snow has melted and buds aren’t ready to be released yet. The trees can’t force the leaves to appear to cover up their naked appearance. They can only stand patient hoping they’ll arrive. Trees are similar to humans waiting for hair growth. We await small blossoms eventually growing and blooming back to full length glory.

As we also wait patiently for new hair, we aren’t less beautiful just like the trees aren’t less attractive because they are bare. They are striking in their own way although less noticeable by those who walk near them.

At their core, they are strong, sturdy, healthy living entities just less visible. It’s the same being a woman with alopecia, we are incredibly strong people, no different than when we had hair, just less noticeable and attractive by society’s standards.

We, like the trees, wait patiently for a revival of hair to grace our perfectly round heads, elongate the look of our eyes and center our face so we aren’t just one long forehead. Oh what I would give to have a bud, leaf, and even full head of snow white fluff on top of my head to make me blend in again.