In my Part 1 "Celebrating the 10th Year of Hairlessness" blog, I briefly talked about my alopecia and also re-tell and re-explain what Alopecia Areata is. However in the blog posting, I would like to talk more about my journey with Alopecia Areata (AA), not my entire life journey but more or less the summary direct to my alopecia journey.
As again I have AA since young but it remained only small patches of hair loss which could be "hide" by keeping longer hair. However, AA takes a turn to its most severe form "Alopecia Universalis" or AU on November 2001 when I was a month away from my 17th Birthday. So at my 17th birthday, my hair loss no longer happened only to the scalp as it progress to other parts of the body, from legs to arms, to eyebrows...etc. and the last to go was my eye lashes.
Now at 27, I am still having AU but there are a few strands of hair scattered here and there, so technically speaking, I am not 100% hairless...hahaha.
2001/2002 at 17. Being an alopecian (a person with alopecia) at the end of my high school years was tough, many of my friends were lost and do not know what to say. While I remained in a state of shock waking up every morning seeing clumps of hair on the pillow, losings clumps during shower and seeing the progressive baldness in the mirror, I stayed determine to complete my high school examination. While I displayed a strong personality at school about my ever "growing bald spots", I have not only invited stares and talks, nicknames like "baldy, baldness, monk" also surfaced. At the age of 17, one is not only concern about his/her studies, arguing with parents but also discovering the wonders of the "birds and bees", obviously the exploration of the wonders of the "birds and bees" has to be stopped abruptly at the dawn of AU (and it was really automatic). There were happenings at school and school assemblies (when I started wearing a baseball cap to cover my baldness) that remains "dark histories" in my life that I myself would not want to revisit at this point.
After I graduated high school and while waiting for a place in college, I just kept my feelings, disappointments and bitterness while I find comfort and strength in poetries, computer games and of course my pet dog, I could walk my dog for hours in the dark before going home.
Also at that point, my journey in faith has begun to take "root", it has been all "growing on the surface" when I first accepted Christ at the age of 11 or 12. "Almost" daily personal Bible reading and prayer has also started to happen, but guess what? Eventhough I want my hair back, I hardly pray for hair and I do not really know why I did not. Other areas of life had taken a turn for the worst, and so my journey with alopecia universalis began with God and my pets (animals). You'll be suprised that I trained my dog to wait till I say grace to thank God for the dog food!...hahaha.
I no longer spend time with my usual highschool friends, I don't go out without a baseball cap, my social life completely broken down until I gained entry into university to study a pre-veterinary science course which I "had to" social with my classmates. Except for occasional thoughts and covering my baldness (with a few patches of long hair here and there) with a baseball cap in class, or in the public, I turn "numb" towards my alopecia and "enjoyed" my time in university (which the environment has been less hostile to me compared to my final months in highschool)....until October 2003.
wait for my third blog posting...:) on what happened in October 2003 that changed my life forever...
Have a good day everyone
God bless us alll
Joshua
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