\nOver six million people in the United States have the condition. It may affect people of any age, sex, race or ethnic group, according to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. Ms. Pressley\u2019s announcement is an unusual public acknowledgment, as many people work hard to hide hair loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn the video, published on The Root, Ms. Pressley described a personal journey, from feeling like herself in signature Senegalese twists to the moment last year that she realized she had alopecia.
\n\u201cIn the fall, when I was getting my hair retwisted, is the first time that I was made aware that I had some patches,\u201d Ms. Pressley said. \u201cFrom there it accelerated very quickly.\u201d
\nMs. Pressley said that she began to wake up to \u201csinkfuls of hair,\u201d and that she tried wrapping her hair and wearing a bonnet, measures some black women take to protect their hair while asleep. But the efforts failed.
\n\u201cI did not want the morning to come where I will remove this bonnet and my wrap, and be met with more hair in the sink and an image in the mirror of a person who increasingly felt like a stranger to me,\u201d Ms. Pressley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the day last month when Ms. Pressley was to cast a vote to impeach President Trump, she realized she was completely bald. She wore a wig on the House floor because she felt she had to be present regardless of her hair loss, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI felt naked, exposed, vulnerable,\u201d Ms. Pressley said. She also felt that she was participating in cultural betrayal, she said, because of all the young girls who looked up to her as a congresswoman who wore braids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI felt like I owed those little girls an explanation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toward the end of the video, the representative removes her wig and reveals a smooth scalp. After the video was released, her colleagues rallied in support on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCould you imagine losing all your hair on the eve of an enormously public day? And then turning that intensely intimate ordeal to make space for others? Ayanna, you are a living blessing,\u201d Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProud to count her as a friend, glad so many in the next generation have her as a role model,\u201d former Senator John Kerry wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am making peace with having alopecia,\u201d Ms. Pressley said in the video. \u201cI\u2019m making progress every day.\u201d But it is a lifelong condition, said Dr. Melissa Piliang, a dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic: \u201cOnce you have it, you have it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt can go into remission, so people may have patches once and never again,\u201d she added. \u201cBut it\u2019s an autoimmune disorder. It\u2019s not like an infection that is treated and goes away, and you never have it again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first sign usually is a small bald patch on the scalp. After that, hair loss may occur very abruptly over the course of several weeks, or may progress more gradually, over several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The course is extremely unpredictable: Hair may grow back only to fall out again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though people who have alopecia are generally healthy, the loss of hair may lead to anxiety, depression and reduced self-esteem. Youngsters with alopecia often experience bullying and ostracism in school. Many people first suspect that people with alopecia have cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are studies about how much this impacts quality of life, not just for the patients but for their family members,\u201d Dr. Piliang said. \u201cThere are health problems you can have that no one really knows about it, but this is very visible. People are curious and ask questions, and you have to do a lot of explaining.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople spend a lot of time trying to cover it up, and that adds to feelings of shame, even though it\u2019s not their fault,\u201d she said. \u201cThe congresswoman was quite open about her feelings. I applaud her.\u201d New drugs called JAK inhibitors have been shown effective for many people with alopecia, but no randomized trials have been done, and the patient\u2019s hair often falls out again once the medication is stopped, Dr. Piliang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Margaret Staib, 52, who owns a landscaping company in Greenlawn, N.Y., leads support groups for people with alopecia, which she developed 15 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is \u201ca mental and emotional disease, not a physical disease,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what caused it, how it happened or how to cure it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou look in the mirror and have to get to know your new self,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ayanna Pressley Opens Up About Living With Alopecia and Hair Loss The congresswoman from Massachusetts said that she was making peace with the condition in a video released on Thursday. By Sandra E. Garcia and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[17,14,19,18,15,16],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-alopecia","tag-ayanna-pressley-opens-up-about-living-with-alopecia-and-hair-loss","tag-balding","tag-hair","tag-hair-loss","tag-living-with-alopecia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/5e20ebd81a888.image_.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024\")
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\nThough alopecia occurs at all ages, it is often first diagnosed during childhood or adolescence. About half of children and teenagers with alopecia will see their hair regrow within a year, even without treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/https___cdn.cnn_.com_cnnnext_dam_assets_200116135349-rep-ayanna-pressley-lead-image.jpg?resize=1024%2C576\")
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\nSeveral medical treatments may be prescribed for patients with alopecia, including corticosteroids that help regrow hair by suppressing the immune system. But no medication has been approved specifically for alopecia, and the treatment options have been fairly limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n