Going bald is sometimes a choice, sometimes it’s not.
Either way, it’s beautiful.
According to the American Hair Loss Association, 40 percent of people dealing with hair loss identify as women.
On Darlenys: Aya Muse dress.
On Coral: Emilio Pucci jumpsuit.
On Lili: Ferragamo dress.
On Darlenys: Aya Muse dress. Dinosaur Designs bracelet. On Coral: Emilio Pucci jumpsuit. Misho earrings. On Lili: Ferragamo dress. Dinosaur Designs bracelet.
Darleyns Rosas first bald spot appeared when she was just 10 years old.
“Every night, my mom would untangle my hair, which was super curly.
And she found a quarter-size bald spot.
We didn’t think much of it.”
But the problem progressed quickly.
First, Rosa’s mom would style her hair with a side part to disguise the absent hair.
Wolford dress. Monot sleeves. Sylvia Toledano earrings.
Then, it became too much to hide.
Dermatologists blamed everything from a skin infection to a bad diet.
Eventually, one doctor landed on the diagnosis of alopecia areata.
But at such a young age, the side effects seemed too risky.
“I cried almost every day after school.
We can’t wear bandanas.'
It just felt like everyone was against me.”
I definitely had nights where I would cry myself to sleep saying, ‘I hate myself.
Why do I look like this?'"
Fendi skirt & top. Mounser earrings.
Years later, Rosa began wearing afull lace wiganchored with tape, but even then she was limited.
Windy days, roller coasters, beaches, swimming pools were all red flags.
“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute.
What am I doing?
Why am I trying to get myself into debt just to get another wig?
You are not a wig.
You are beautiful and amazing as you are.
These things don’t define you.'”
Rosa’s first test was wearing her bald head to work.
Kenzo jumpsuit. Castlecliff earring.
From there, the wig was slowly relegated to the back of the closet.
Is she sick?’
And the mom goes, ‘No, mamita.
Maybe she just decided to cut her hair.
Doesn’t mean she’s sick.
That’s just her style.’
On Coral: Prada cardigan, Dinosaur Designs earrings. On Darlenys: Prada cardigan, Dinosaur Designs earrings.
It’s just a bald person.'"
Fendi skirt & top.
Coral Johnson never felt comfortable in the coily hair they were born with.
Mounser & Hugo Kreit earrings.
“My hair wasnt the same as other mixed kid’s hair,” they tellAllure.
Right after they graduated high school a time of transition for any teenager they decided enough was enough.
But what was meant to be a start, ended up being a stasis.
Prada vest, skirt. Mounser & Hugo Kreit earrings.
“At first I thought I was going to look funny.
But, there was something about that first time.
“They immediately connected short, bald hair to ‘Oh, you’rereallygay now.
Oh, you’re rejecting your femininity, you’re rejecting your blackness.’
Which was hilarious because [in the past] they were telling me tostraighten my hair.”
In their Southern town, their shaved head was sending a message that was immediately misinterpreted.
“I don’t know why baldness translates into [being] bad,” Johnson says.
“Like, oh you have your head shaved.
You must be a troublemaker.”
But if these judgments were meant to chip away at Johnson’s confidence, they did not succeed.
“When you take away something that means so much to so many people, they’re fearful.
A lot of people hide behind their hair.”
So when you see Johnson’s “Mr. Clean” cut and tattoos, you might see a rebel.
And isn’t that a touch mutinous, in the best way?
It wasn’t something I wanted to do,” Washington says.
“And then once I went bald, people were like, ‘That’s going to be your signature.
That’s your look.'”
Prior to her diagnosis, Washington was already changing up her hair because her life was changing.
It started with cutting offher locs, which she called her “security blanket.”
“My locs reminded me too much of my past life, my male life,” she explains.
But before I could, it figured it out for me.
Because Washington was in a place of self-discovery already, going bald felt like too much at first.
“Being bald was stripping me even more, and it represented exactly where I was at.
I felt very naked at the time.”
On Coral: Prada cardigan, Dinosaur Designs earrings.
On Darlenys: Prada cardigan, Dinosaur Designs earrings.
It was also a question of femininity.
Her family insisted the addition of hair would make her average.
“The issue was that I always tried to blend in.
The wigs don’t look bad.
They just strip away my natural beauty,” she shares.
“I say, ‘You’re perfect and everybody else is perfect.’
I had to realize that there were no mistakes.
I put myself on the same pedestal as I put everyone else on.
They all make me.”
Mounser & Hugo Kreit earrings.
Prada vest, skirt.
Mounser & Hugo Kreit earrings.
