Teenagers in high school, myself included, spend their time sweating the little things in life. However, my best friend Christa Candela worried about bigger things during those days. She was purchasing her first wig and making sure it looked just right to deal with the last stage of a hair loss condition; she was busy struggling with Alopecia, and being the bald girl in school.
The glare she gave me into the stands the same night she bought her first wig as she cheered at our high school football game is one that is reluctant to fade from my memory. She was defeated, scared and embarrassed. “The first thing that crossed my mind when I put on the wig was, “How am I going to pull this off in front of people that know me? How am I going to act like this is normal?” Christa Candela said.
She was nine years old when it began. She reached this low point in 2010, nine years after she was first diagnosed with Alopecia Areata. She spent her elementary, middle and high school days feeling different, went through endless visits to dermatologist offices where they would inject shots in her head for hair re-growth and watched her mother get diagnosed with the same disease just years after her.
“I’ll never forget staring into the bathroom mirror while holding a major clump of my hair that had just fell out in elementary school. I was in the third grade,” Christa Candela said. “I used to just tell myself that I looked like an alien.”
She would drive with her mother to North Jersey quite often during those days for dermatologist visits. On these dreadful car rides, she would write in her diary about what she was feeling, a diary that she continues to write in today: 12 years later.
Her fear of getting shots in her head is a fear that she will never forget, and one she hoped to never endure again. Her diary entry on May 10, 2002 read: “We’re on the way to the dermatologist up north in Old Bridge. It’s a bumpy ride. My appointment is at 12:30. I have a bald spot where I am losing hair. It’s called Alopecia. I took cortisone shots to my head.”
“There are different stages of this autoimmune disease,” said Bay Dermatology Nurse Practitioner, Deborah Pontoriero. According to MedlinePlus, the National Institutes of Health’s website, “An autoimmune disorder occurs when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys healthy body tissue by mistake.” In Christa’s case, the body was attacking the hair follicles.
Pontoriero continued to explain the different types. “To name a few, there is Areata, when you have tiny patches of hair loss anywhere on the body, Universalis, where you lose all of the hair on your body and head and Totalis, which is when you lose all of your hair on your scalp. Christa first had Areata, then it unfortunately progressed to Universalis.”
“The way we treat Alopecia Areata is complicated. We begin with a high strength topical steroid cream that the patient must use for six weeks. If there is no results as far as hair re-growth, then every six weeks we will inject the patient with cortisone shots into their bald spots,” Pontoriero said. “This treatment helped Christa when she was nine, but now that she is completely bald, the cortisone shots would be too much to treat her.”
Christa’s elementary school days were a struggle that would eventually come to an end once all of her hair grew back for some time. It wasn’t until high school, though, when her Alopecia came back stronger than ever.
It was the summer before freshman year of high school when Christa and I were swimming in the ocean at the Jersey Shore. As her own best friend, I was even unaware of her disease- she had told no one outside her family. I vividly remember her coming up from the water, which was when I noticed bald spots all over her head. I gasped. I had no idea what it was, until I later learned that it was a fight she’s been battling since her days in Mrs. Young’s third grade class.
Christa Candela said, “I remember thinking to myself that summer before freshman year started, “I just wish my hair would fully grow back. I’m trying to be positive, but if it doesn’t grow in again I will have to get shots in my head like I did when I was nine.” I really didn’t want to do that.”
Stress is one of the leading causes of this disease. “She was starting high school, so the stress of that certainly affected the re-growth. There are other contributing factors, too. Even though we can’t find the gene, there is certainly a genetic tie,” Pontoriero said.
Christa’s mother, Deanne Candela was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata in 2003, shortly after Christa’s same diagnosis. It wasn’t until 2007 when it became Alopecia Universalis, meaning complete hair loss. This was around the same time that Christa’s hair was starting to grow back. “My emotions were maxed because I was dealing with Christa. See, at that point I was married with a family and a career, which was a big factor. I only worried about my children at that time,” Deanne Candela said. “I was not crawling up in a ball being depressed about my condition. If I acted like that, it would have made Christa upset and nervous too. I just kept telling her that you can have Alopecia, but Alopecia can’t have you,” she said.
During Christa’s freshman year, she continued the emotional roller coaster she went through when she was nine, but this time with her mother even closer by her side. “Everyone could tell me they understood how I felt all they wanted, but my mother was the only one who actually understood. She was going through the same exact thing as me. It was nice having someone in my house that knew exactly how I felt,” Christa Candela said. “I remember sitting with my mom when she finally lost all of her hair and eyebrows. I still had some of my hair at that point and my eyebrows. I just kept thinking that I would never get to that point. It was crazy. It was real.”
Christa unfortunately had a flare-up during the first week of our senior year in high school that caused her to reach Alopecia Universalis. A journal entry of hers from 2010 stated: “I ended up losing all my hair and now my eyebrows. I got a wig. It’s the exact color as my old hair with highlights. It sucks not feeling normal, having to worry about my hair all the time. I can’t go swimming or wear my hair up. I hope it comes back for senior prom.”
I still watch Christa and Deanne battle with Alopecia today. Christa is completely bald, and still wears her wig. As she is in pharmacy school, she is not optimistic that her hair will grow back during this high-stress time. “I chose pharmacy school because I want to learn about medicines that help people overcome diseases like mine,” Christa Candela said.
Deanne currently has a lot of hair on her head, but since her re-growth came back without pigment, she must dye her hair every two weeks to make it brown. “You have to understand how rare it is for a mother and daughter to have this disease,” Deanne Candela said. “We both gave our blood samples at Columbia University Medical Center to help with research,” she said. “We also joined the NAAF, which is the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.”
“My psychologist gave me a piece of paper with a famous quote that made a lasting impact on my life. I still have it today,” Christa Candela said. It was an Eleanor Roosevelt quote that stated, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” “That’s when I finally realized that no one can bring me down unless I let them,” she said. “I would give this quote to any young girl going though a hair loss situation like me. I would tell them that they are beautiful, with or without hair.”
Slowly, over time, Christa grew to accept that she was bald. The way I felt when I saw Christa walk into our senior prom that year was unreal: beautiful dress, a flawless face of makeup, handsome date from the football team and most importantly, her wig was transformed into a beautiful side ponytail. It was like overnight she went from being the girl who hid behind her wig, to the girl with bravery and confidence, owning what made her unique. It seemed as though she finally accepted the cards she was dealt. In a shaky voice her mother said to me, “I kept telling Christa this: you have your friends and family. People still love your personality. Losing your hair only makes your personality shine more.”