How I Stopped Hiding My Alopecia—And Started Showing Up as Myself

Since she moved to New York last year, Armonmony Wilson prospered as a creator and model of content, proudly displaying her baldness.

But the native of Texas, who had had alopecia since the age of 3, had not even considered giving up a wig two years ago. Here is what changed – and what she wanted to know earlier.

Talk to us as long as you decided to go first without a wig.

Wilson: In 2023, when I was 23 or 24 years old, I decided to try to pass my wig. I worked on this elevator ground to sell autosoin newspapers that I designed. My goal was to allow other women to kiss their insecurity, and I just fell crying in front of the mirror. I realized: How can I tell other women to feel free in itself if I can’t even open my windows without wig or hood?

So I set a little goal. I said to myself: Just walk from your car to your door without the wig. It is a two -minute walk in a parking lot. I sat in my car for 10 minutes before I could even open the door. But when I finally entered inside, I took the deepest inspiration. I felt so much relief.

After that, being bald around foreigners did not scare me. It was actually my friends and my partner at the time that I felt that I had to prepare. It is not that I needed their validation; I just knew that seeing myself bald would be a bit of a oozing for them. No one knew I had alopecia!

You mentioned that when you were in a long -term relationship, your partner did not even know your alopecia. How was it?

Wilson: It was frightening. I had worn the same type of wig for eight or nine years. When I started going out with someone, he made me a relaxed compliment about my hair, and I panicked –What if he discovers that it is not mine? So I changed my look to make more obvious than I wore wigs, even if I never said why.

We were together for three years, and along the way, I just supposed that he knew. I thought he had noticed that I had no hair when my wig slipped or something. But I never said explicitly to him.

I thought I was protecting my peace by not talking about it. I would like to realize that almost no one knew that I had alopecia, and when they did it, nobody cared as much as I thought.

You tried a lot of treatments to preserve your hair when I was a child. Is there anything you want you to do differently?

Wilson: I want my mother to be more open to holistic options. These days, I do not take medication unless it is absolutely necessary. Since my diagnosis, my uncle has always said that I should focus on nutrition. And now I see what he meant. When I do juice or exercise in a coherent way, I get more hair growth, even if they are only patches.

My childhood alopecia treatment began with steroid injections and pills. After putting the textured hair, he lightened a lot. And then an acid treatment essentially removed everything. I would like us to start more naturally.

You started wearing wigs in eighth year. With hindsight, especially since someone who no longer carries them, would you have made the same decision?

Wilson: It was easy to start wearing wigs because I was losing my hair because I was dancing at the time, so I was already wearing wigs for performance. I started with that. I went to wear a long -term wig after all my hair fell in the first year.

I always went back and forth on the days of my wigs. Should I kiss my baldness earlier? I think that if I had become without a wig in high school, I would probably have been intimidated. The children around me would not have understood. I think my life would have been more difficult.

I would have liked to perfect the art of pose and make wigs. I did not know then how difficult it would be for me, as a black woman, to relate to others when I did not have this shared hair experience. I only know how to make wigs without glue.

What do you want to know about how foreigners see you?

Wilson: I always understand that. I just moved from Texas to New York, and people look at me in the metro. Is it because I am bald? Because they think I have the weird? Because I seem beautiful? I don’t know.

My friends are super protective now. If someone looks at me on the side, he’s ready to jump. But I learn to be more comfortable with the unknown.

The people I am most comfortable are generally children! They are so brutally honest. They will ask, “Why are you bald?” Do you have cancer? ” When I was ready to stop wearing wigs, I was afraid of showing my younger cousins. When I finally did it, they surprised me.

One of them said, “I love it. I love it.” Another said, “Why would you do that?” I would do it Never Cut my hair! And the little ones just looked at.

What is your trusted trip for someone else who sails on alopecia?

Wilson: To be more confident, you must agree to be uncomfortable and go out in something that is unusual, whether unusual for you or for everyone. You never know unless you are trying. Putting my own limits is the way I strengthened my own confidence. If works, cool. If not, I try something else.