BALD AS A BEAN: THE EXPERIENCE OF SUDDEN HAIR LOSS
In a society that equates youth, health and even sexual attractiveness with luxurious manes of hair, a woman who suddenly goes bald faces a nightmare of emotions: grief, loss, horror, humiliation and fear. In Bald As A Bean, a woman diagnosed with alopecia areata universalis (total hair loss over the entire body) learns to cope with her baldness and is eventually able to share her story with calm vision and touches of humor.

For anyone whose life is touched with this issue through a loved one’s experience, this book offers insight and creative ways to offer support. For anyone who has just wondered what her head looks like under all that hair, this book provides some insight.

Excerpts from Bald As A Bean ...
From A Very Bad Hair Day:
There is one true thing that could be said about my hair: it was thick. It could also be said that it was fine and straight, that it had no body, that it refused to hold curl and that it was the color of the mouse you find dead in the trap in the morning. But at least it was thick. Then came alopecia.

From Why?:
Eight out of ten people who hear about my condition want to know why it’s happening. Then they demand to know what can be done about it. Finally, they want to know if and when my hair will grow back. Their reactions to my explanations—”no one know and no, nothing, and I don’t know when or even if it will grow back—are met with fishy, suspicious stares. The unspoken message I’m getting is that clearly I haven’t tried hard enough.

From The Tao of Baldness:
Somewhere between the horror of pulling out that first soapy wad of wet hair off my head and the moment I could stare calmly at the image reflected in my mirror, I have begun to accept what is happening to me. Acceptance is a process though. It involves a refusal to mourn the lost hair as well as the refusal to yearn for whatever hair I might someday have. Acceptance is simply looking at my naked skull right in the moment and without judgement.

Links for the Hairless:
National Alopecia Areata Foundation
NIAMS
American Academy of Dermatology
American Hair Loss Council

ABIGAIL'S UNICORN
The Boys’ and Girls’ Club Pet Show is coming fast, and Abigail finds herself without a suitable pet. It’s true that the family has a unicorn, but Abigail longs for a normal pet—a puppy or a kitten—to enter in the show. But at the last minute, the unicorn has to stand in as Abigail’s entry. This is what happens when you take a unicorn to a pet show.