Thank you for the friend request Linda.

Hello and thank you. I've been living with traction alopecia for about 15 years and I guess I can say it started a few years after my daughter was born. In reading other peoples stories my alopecia started at the crown of my head. I wasn't completely balded on top but it was thinning. I never experienced patchy bald spots, but just have on the crown. At first it was easy to cover it up. You know, part it this way, or that way. But then it got worse, the spot grew to be 6 diameters and I would cover it up with braids or weaves and then I thought that's not making it any better. Mostly though I felt like a fraud, because noone saw me without my cover ups. No one saw the real me. Even the guy that I dated (for 7 years) never saw me without my coverups. He knew about it but it didn't matter to him. He loved me for me. I was still beautiful to him and I could have been bald for all he cared (may his soul rest in peace) and I knew that he meant it, but I didn't feel it. I didn't feel the confidence in myself that he had in me. You know you always hear that your hair is your glory, blah blah blah and that stuck with me. But I could remember him saying over and over again that I was beautiful and that he would take bald over weaves and braids anyday. He was from the ole school. lol :( Sorry, here I go getting all emotional. Anyway, shortly after he passed I realized that I had to truly face what was happening to me. I was losing my hair and nothing was going to change that except an act of god. So, I decided to cut it really really low and wore it like that for a while and then went back to wearing weaves. I was grieving and didn't care what people thought. After a couple of years, I decided that I didn't want to do the weave thing anymore. I just wanted to be me! I felt like I had this weight on my shoulder and in my heart and it was wearing me down. So, last year, a day after my 40th birthday my son and daughter accompanied me to a family member's barber shop and watched me get my cut hair off. I went for it just short of being shaved and I haven't looked back since. It took me a minute to really adjust to it, but after, you couldn't tell me nothin. lol. I knew who I was and I look me so much it hurts. Of course you get the occasional lookers who don't know if you're sick or going through something, but I do educated them when they ask.

Hi Linda, thanks for the friend invite and welcome to alopeciaworld!