Hi,
So my name is Darcy and I have had Alopecia Universalis for almost 6 years now. I work for the BlueBuild Group and they have very kindly agreed to have our Christmas Jumper Day in support of Alopecia UK this year.

Alopecia UK are a small charity who provide support to all of us with the condition, putting on various days out and meet ups for us so we can meet, share our stories and support each other and raise awareness. You can visit their website www.alopecia.org.uk and see all the wonderful research and support they provide.

It all started 3 months after the passing of my father. I noticed my first patch on Valentines Day 2019 and by the first week in June when I was due to be bridesmaid for my friends wedding, I didn’t even have so much as an eyelash and had to go for my first wig in order to get through the day. As you can imagine going from having lovely long thick blonde hair to nothing within 12 weeks at the age of 41 was not easy! My 2 children Morgan and Kai, and my close family and friends have been my biggest support through all of this and I really could not have gotten through without them and also the wonderful support of the Alopecia UK charity and their facebook groups, where we can all chat, tell our stories and support one another through our journeys which are all different, from patchy Alopecia Areata to like me full all over Alopecia Universalis.

Its amazing the role that hair actually plays in life.

Having no body hair means I don’t have any ‘natural insulation’ so I do feel the cold a bit more and a little quicker than some, no nose hairs and eyelashes also mean no ‘natural defenses’ against colds, flu’s, hayfever and any other bugs or even pollution that I may come into contact with. This makes it very easy for me to contract all these things and generally feel like I have a year – round cold! Even having no eyebrows means when I am in the gym there is nothing to stop any sweat going into my eyes. I had my eyebrows microbladed and I wear false eyelashes every day to look ‘normal’ as much as possible.

Losing my hair was a very difficult time for me, mentally as well as physically. Going through stages of wearing wigs, that were itchy and very hot especially in summer, then scarves, however they aren’t the best if you are like me a glasses wearer, as they need to be quite tight and wearing glasses with no ears to hook them on to isn’t the easiest thing to do!! Lol .So now I have just given up on the whole lot and decided to embrace my baldness. I had my head tattooed last year with flowers to represent myself and my 2 children and a butterfly with the body of the butterfly being the Alopecia UK blue ribbon.

I do get mistaken for having cancer and I am frequently asked what treatment I am on and how it is going and how brave I am to go out without a wig, however I embrace the questions as that gives me the opportunity to explain my condition and raise awareness for Alopecia.

I would be really really appreciative of any donations anyone would like to make through the fundraiser page attached for Alopecia UK as I am so thankful that my work have agreed to support this amazing charity this year and help me raise some awareness for my weird little condition.

Thank you , Darcy 😊

Darcy Simpson