Investing time in living with alopecia

Dear Mr Nosey,
Thanks for your comment on my "Here we go again" post.
I am not sure I can answer your questions, but I can give you some insights into the answers. Quite honestly and very bizarrely I know very little about this condition. I don't know how common it is, and I don't know the reason why it occurs either. This may sound odd to many people but the reason I don't know is that I don't really care.

This condition is about me and not about them, and for whatever reason when my doctors told me that there is no known cause or cure, I accepted that and moved on. Even writing this it seems strange and rather uneducated of me to behave this way, but my instinct told me not to waste time over analyzing the situation, but rather to invest time in living with it.

What I do remember very well from my visits to the Doctors and Dermatologists, is that the condition of alopecia is "medically benign" and this is a wonderful thing. This means that apart from the hair loss, there would no other medical or physical impact on my health. Multiple tests also proved this, thus in many ways I was happy enough for a seemingly clear bill of health!

Now that said I am aware of some facts and I am happy to share with you what I know. For example a surprisingly high 3-6% of women aged under 30 experience alopecia, however there are varying degrees of the condition. It ranges from complete body hairloss to patches of baldness on the head. Some times it is temporary and sometimes it is permanent.

There are many theories on what causes alopecia and of course lots of research, but to my knowledge nothing is conclusive. Often a significant life event is the trigger of this auto immune disease, however a lot of research suggests a genetic disposition is the biggest driver. In my case neither a shock nor known family history tie into the occurrence of my alopecia, thus honestly I don't know.

As to famous people, I will come back to that at a later time. There are many known celebrities with the condition around the world and their stories are fascinating, as said, more another time. Mr. Nosey, thank you for your questions, keep them coming, through them we all learn, me especially. Yours beautifully BBB.