Alopecia: How to start Nanna's hair loss

Home picture: Photographer: Sara Skytte

Nanna tells her story with Alopecia and how it started. Watch the video above or read the story below.

My name is Nanna and I have alopecia. Some may know a little of the story, others don't know the story at all. But I think it's the few who know about my whole story.

I have tried over the past four years, talking openly about it to both family and friends, TV, social media, but it has only been parts of the story. I feel there is a need to tell the whole story if you want to understand the context and see all sides of the process. Here comes my story.

I was 13 years old and I sat in a cottage and was braided on the couch by my friend. She noticed a place upside down, a small bar spot where some hair was missing. My friend and I have always silly a lot and made fun of the things we could have fun with. So I really just remember we laughed a little at it.

But in a relatively short time, a few months only, this spot grew so bigger. It was probably the size of a five -crown. And I wondered a little bit about what it was. I wasn't afraid at this time because the stain was after all no bigger than it was. And I clearly remember showing this stain to my parents, and they might be such a little sour, half -irritated because they think I've done it on purpose. But I told me it wasn't me, nor do I think they thought so much more about it.

And the stain that had just been the size of a five -crown, it multiplied and turned into several spots. It was only when more spots came that we started to think that something was wrong. It all happened in half a year, so it went fast.

My hair disappeared, but where?

But the strange thing was that there was nowhere that this hair disappeared. I didn't understand it because when I woke up, there wasn't a lot of hair on the pillow, and I couldn't just pull it out either. Where it was most visible was when I was in the bath. There you could see that there was a little more hair than usual that fell off.

So my mom decided to get me to the dermatologist, and here I got such a test on my back where I got brushed acetone on. Yes, Acetone! And it was to find out if my skin could withstand it. It could do that, so I got this acetone lubricated on the spots I had. The dermatologist said there was a 30-40% chance that this would work and I would be able to get my hair back via the brush with the acetone.

And I don't really think the dermatologist was 100% sure it was alopecia, but it was their best bet. The brush did not work for me and we went in and googled on the internet, hoping to find an explanation of hair tablet. And I could see that the others on the Internet, which also had alopecia, had some spots that looked like mine.

I also saw pictures with people who were completely bald and who both lacked the eyebrows and the eyelashes, and it scared me because think if it became me! The Internet also said it would help to eat gluten -free. So I tried it for two months, but it didn't help either. It only went one way and it was down.

Humor and positivity have been a great help

I myself think that both my family and my friends have handled all my hair loss course really, really well. Both humor and positivity have been a huge part of me, and have been a great help in this connection. Because quite early in my course, I called my spot Ole. It was a way for me to see the stain as a friend, instead of some stranger and something dangerous. But it is clear that it is not fun to have a spot like Ole. And not at all as a teenager!

So there has been bumps on the road. And I remember that the worst time was the uncertainty at all. About not knowing where it would all go. Neither the doctor nor the internet could say anything. At least they were not 100% safe. Not knowing if you might be bald in a little while, if you might lose your eyebrows and eyelashes, it was a really unpleasant feeling.

Corona was a nice break

I see myself as a very social, positive and happy person who loves his classmates and his football girlfriends. But in 2020, when my hair chose to spread and turn into stains, there I felt for the first time really insecure about myself! In fact, I was really happy when the Corona pandemic announced her arrival because it allowed me to sit at home in front of the screen, and with a tiny little picture down in the corner, I could show myself from the front and not from behind where you would actually be able to see all these spots.

So I could actually hide behind the screen. The class that I loved to meet up every single morning suddenly became a huge challenge for me when we started to meet the classes again physically. Yes, actually just having to play football, playing the sport I loved, it suddenly became a challenge for me. Because then you had to show up on the football field, and I didn't want to show my spots to anyone, because there was no one to know that I had them.

It wasn't normal for a girl at all, and not at all at that age. I just thought that the most normal thing was to lose your hair when you got up a little over the years, but I was just Nanna in 8th grade who just wanted to keep her hair. But thanks to my very creative family, I knew we should probably find a solution.

Mother's creative headband

My mom bought 3-4 headbands and then she drove a walk in glitter where she found some very cheap hair extensions, and then she sewed them to the wide headbands she had ordered home. And vupti, then I suddenly had a headband with some hair that I could hide my spots with. It also just made people wondered a little about why from one day to the other I suddenly went with some huge wide headbands that I wasn't used to. And I really just think that with a smile I said it was because I wanted to change my style. But that wasn't why, and there wasn't really much to smile about either.

For football training, I was afraid that someone would pull me in my hair, because then it would fall off. On social media, I was also afraid that someone would discover it if I didn't hide well enough. And in the summer I remember that I wouldn't bathe either. I don't think it was particularly fun because I didn't want to take off my bully hat, but I think it was too silly to bathe with the bully hat on.

And when I was a football coach at a football camp, I remember any of the kids asking if I had cancer. And I also remember there was one of the kids who told me I had a big forehead. But there was nothing hurt because they were just kids and are very curious.

In fact, I think I was really good at answering people to what it was if they asked. So to say that it was patchy baldness or alopecia. And give them right that yes, I had a big pan.

The great reveal

I had gradually reached a point where I was tired of hiding it. It would be far less time -consuming if my followers on social media knew I had alopecia because I didn't have to hide it.

In connection with some recordings to DR Ultra, which my mother had found through Facebook, a small film team came home to me. They were in the process of making a small series of different young people, who may have stood out a little more than the average amount of other young people. This was my chance to finally reveal to everyone that I had alopecia. The film team asked if they should not film, that I revealed it and posted it on social media.

Usually I don't care what others think about me. But at the time when I was going to upload the video, I was terrifying that I would get hat comments. But I did and I uploaded the video.

It exploded! It exploded completely, but in a positive way. The video was viewed by over 50,000. Both people I knew and people I didn't know. People I knew from the television they commented on my video.

I was so relieved, but I was also very overwhelmed because many of the messages I got were from people who had alopecia themselves. I was sure I was pallet alone in the world who had alopecia, but just a whole new community opened up and I found that through my video I had helped a lot of other people.

I said yes to joining Go'morgen Denmark. I did this because Kim, who is the nephew of Puk Elgård, gave a tip to Puk and tagged her in the comment. It then made Puk could watch the video where I revealed that I had alopecia. And later, I also chose to say yes to throwing the hair at the Zulu Awards stage 2021.

I found that every time I opened up and talked loudly about it, I felt less alone because there were many more out there. Who also opened up and told them they also had alopecia. But the coolest thing was that the more times I mentioned loudly to myself and to others, all these positive things about the disease, the more I believed it myself. Being open and talking about it also makes it as normal to talk about, like all sorts of other things.

Because the things you repeatedly do or say it becomes more normal than the things you keep to yourself. I got better at seeing the benefits, and gradually I challenged myself by e.g. to go out with the garbage without hair. Next time I might go up to Netto and eventually I could throw my hair in high school for a single day.

Getting wig was one of the greatest days of my life

In fact, I think it was easiest throughout the process when I lost all my hair. Because it made me have no annoying tufts sitting that was in the way. It just made me be completely bald and then I could get a wig that looked like my own hair.

And it's one of the biggest days of my life when I got a wig. Because it was as if I started to recognize that Nanna from before I found out I had alopecia. But my first wig is a whole story for itself, so it comes in another video.

My hair has come again

Now I've got a lot of hair back. I don't know why I don't know how. But I'm glad of course, but I'm still really missing a lot. And it annoys me! It really annoys me that I can't just get the last hair. Because now some of it has come, so why can't the rest just come? But then my hair can eventually cover most of it, and then I also have to remember that it's just hair.

And that doesn't change who I am. I'm still Nanna who can play football. And that can make fun of things. And which can be part of a community. And that can still have the values ​​I have now. And I believe that this whole course has made me even stronger. So when I face other difficult things, I might be able to deal with it better than what I could before.

Thank you for listening to my story. Finally, write to me or to Toftild if you are in a similar situation, or know someone who does.

Or you just want to share your thoughts. See you!

You find Nanna's Instagram profile straight here Or by searching @Freestyle_lindDD.