Hair Care

What It's Really Like to Lose Your Hair in Your 20s

When she went completely bald at 26, it was other people's reactions that she struggled with the most

by Laura Zinger, as told to Emily Woodruff, Andrea Jordan | 2 COMMENTS

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Bald at 26 I wasn't concerned when the same bald patch started showing up. I figured I could just rub some steroid cream on it like I did when I was younger, and it would go away. But this time, instead of disappearing, it got bigger. And then I got a second one, and then they started appearing all over my head. It got to the point where I couldn't cover them up any more. In just six months, I went from having a full head of healthy hair to being completely bald.

When you suddenly start going bald in your mid-20s, it's terrifying. Not only did I have no control over losing my hair, I thought I was seriously ill. The doctor told me I wasn't sick -- my alopecia had just changed from areata to totalis, meaning my bald spots now covered my entire head. As far as I know, it's pretty rare for a person to change from one type of alopecia to another. Since my grandfather lived more than half of his life without hair, I thought that I would be bald for the rest of my life.

Photo by Michelle Kaffko, courtesy Laura Zinger

SEE NEXT PAGE: Embracing Baldness

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