Natalia's Story Living with Alopecia Areata

In February 2016, Natalia was hospitalized for pneumonia. In April of 2016, her daycare teacher noticed that Natalia was aggressively scratching her hair and pulling out her hair in the process. It was then that her mom noticed the first patch of hair loss on her scalp. She initially took her to see a General Practitioner who diagnosed her with Alopecia Areata. At that time, we received topical ointments to treat the patchy areas. However, the hair continued to fall out. By August 2017, Natalia had no hair on her body anywhere. She was only two. The initial diagnosis hit like a ton of bricks. It was heartbreaking. It started with a little bit of hair loss and her family could not emotionally find a way to just cut it off. They kept hoping that if they left the hair that had not fallen out that somehow it would grow back.
In September of 2017, Natalia had a ruptured appendix and was in the intensive care unit of University Hospital for 9 days. The research physicians were intrigued with Natalia and performed multiple tests on her while she was in the hospital. It was then that she was diagnosed with Alopecia Universalis with no foreseeable cure. Her family opted out of any medications at the time because of how young she was and began to accept that this was the fate she was dealt with.
Initially, the journey from initial hair loss to no hair at all was a constant anguish. Her family attempted to always cover her head with beanies and hats, but Natalia wanted nothing to do with hats or beanies. She was so young that she did not know at first what was going on. Once she lost all her hair, she would stare at herself in the mirror very frequently. Her family and friends encouraged her and constantly told her she was beautiful.
She would get a lot of stares. As Natalia grew older, she would stare back. Her mother recalls once when Natalia was 4 years old, she went up to a little girl and told her, “It will grow back.” Her family was worried about school, but her friends took it in stride. Natalia began to embrace the beauty within her and let her personality shine through.
She had yearly visits to the dermatologist, and her family kept up with the latest trends and updates with regard to alopecia universalis. However, Natalia was still too young for any of the treatments. Her family decided that as Natalia became older, they would allow her to make the decision about her diagnosis and treatment.
In September 2019, Natalia’s grandfather was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, and his diagnosis was terminal. There is a recorded video of Natalia and her grandfather where he kisses her forehead and tells her that he is blessing her. He passed away in April 2020, and Natalia began to grow back patches of hair in October 2020.
In August 2024, Natalia has almost completely regrown a full head of hair and has very little patches of hair loss that have yet to grow in. She is a happy kid just like the rest of her peers, and though she was young, her journey through hair loss made her stronger and more confident in herself. Natalia and her family are thankful she lost her hair when she did because it allowed her to grow with the diagnosis and accept it as a part of her.