Annina's Page

I live in Bologna...a city that maybe you have heard of....if you have read Grisham's book "The Broker" .The story is set there...

I have alopecia areata from may 2007...but already got alopecia androgenetic too.(one thing wasn't enough:)...for that reason I started keeping my hair really short from 2006...and that was my "fortune" because when A.A started...it wasn't shocking like loosing hair while you have it long.
Nonetheless it was a bit of a shock...finding your hair on the pillow,passing your hand through the hair....and finding it ...on your hand...I started getting informed through the internet...and found same things doctors later told me....I never took medication,because there is no certain cure and I didn't want to fill my body with a strong substance as "cortisonic".
And I don't want to to pay big money to famous doctors .Besides If you can get the same kind of cure through the National Health System...paying very little money for that.

I have been really lucky because I could go to work bald head without problems(I work in a bookshop, where we sell books in their original language)and the city were I live is quite open(minded).
But while I was on holiday(at a seaside in Italy) it was worse,everyone staring at me ....I was very annoyed...even if I pretended not to..I used to walk down the streets with a big smile ...because I didn't want people to think I was seriously ill.
Baldness in women is often associated with serious sicknesses like cancer...
For a while I thought to customize a T shirt with the following inscription:"Beware...if you stare at me for more than 5 second you'll loose it too" ahahahahhha
It was quite an idea ..but never done it at the end.
I have been lucky because lots of my friends and people I was seeing at the time thought it was just a style choice...but I had never made it a secret of the real reason.
In november I went to Costarica...and I didn'd have my shaving machine or razors with me...the women there are really "womenish"...and my style usually is quite tomboysh..so I could read a bit of "surprise " in the peoples' eyes over there.

I wanted to purchase a wig....partly because in winter I would have suffered the cold,partly because I thought it would have been nice to have a change in my look.
But I wasn't thinking to wear it every day..just sometimes....like..when you change your clothes...and your hairstyle or makeup.

In the meantime I had joined a mailing list for self help.(volpine=little foxes)..and "met" a bunch of really splendid people(we are almost 100 ..but here just a few signed up ...due to the lack of language confidence I think..it's a pity because they' re great souls to relate to)
I could met one of them at the time and she gave me precious advice about wigs...I really like her wig and she was so nice she let me wear it as a "test".

I decided to buy it from the same website she had bought it from(Acewigs)...but...I had an annoying experience 'cause the item wasn't available(and they told me that only 2 months later...after many e.mails requesting my purchase status).
But the worst is I never had the refund they owed me and they never answered to my e.mails.
I was really pissed off....but ..at least ..after a few months..my hair started to re-
grow.
Now I just have a bald spot behind...and I realised that...if I don't see it ..I don't care...like.."far from the eyes far from the heart "
Surely my experience is far too different from having Alopecia universalis.

And I have to confess a strange feeling I felt as soon as my hair was re-groing...I felt something like "guilty"....
Through the self help mailing list I had found really special people....and my changed condition made me thought I wasn't part of their world anymore....like...that I didn't have the "right" to join the " club" anymore....weird..isn't it?

They told me a really cute thing:"You have been a fox...you'll always be a fox...inside"

We call ourself "little foxes"..cause the word Alopecia comes from the ancient greek word for "fox".
Foxes change their fur in a way that resembles our heads...sort of... :))))
A huge hug to you all.
Annina