I hate Crazy Hair Day. Can I just say that? Every school
year we sail along smoothly and then sometime in October, Crazy Hair Day rocks
the boat. For most kids Crazy Hair Day is a fun day. They turn their locks into
masterpieces – spikes, colors, decorations, gel-engineered creations that look
painful. My older two children were full participants, dreaming up hairdo’s
that could only be perfected in their imaginations and crushed when their mother
couldn’t fulfill their dreams with her curling iron and hair spray. Still, the
day was one of laughs and squeals and smiles.
Crazy Hair Day seemed completely harmless until I had a kid
with no hair. My youngest child has Alopecia Areata, an autoimmune disorder
that causes his white blood cells to attack his hair follicles. At age 4 he
became completely bald and has been ever since. He doesn’t remember having hair
so early elementary years he was relatively unaffected. It was just the way he
was. Some kids have big noses or green eyes; Ian has no hair.
