When I was asked if I would be willing to contribute to Cheltenham Ave I was very excited, but when I sat at my computer to write I became overwhelmed. It’s true that I had written about my alopecia experiences before - on social media, to my friends and family. But now I was confronted with purposeful sharing of my hairless life. For someone who has been living with Alopecia for over 10 years, it seemed like it wasn’t an issue of not having enough to talk about, but instead too much.

This is a simultaneously visible and invisible disease.

If you think about it I guess it makes sense. This is a simultaneously visible and invisible disease. It’s as obvious as we wish to make it. I had been silent about my alopecia for so long, since it came and went erratically, that when I finally took the plunge and shaved my head for the world to see, I suddenly had to get very good at answering the question “What’s wrong with you?” diplomatically. 

So, here I am. My name is Rory and I have Alopecia Areata. I am many things - an artist, writer, sister, aunt, best friend, partner, cat mom, book lover, and massive nerd. My alopecia doesn’t define me, though it does impact my life, for better or worse. I’m looking forward to writing here, and hope that it acts as a form of therapy on this patchy journey (eeeyyyy bald jokes), but most of all, that whoever is reading this gains something in return.