Inclusive Care in Alopecia: Beyond Diagnosis
Transcript: The significance of a support system
Nikki Vontaya
All transcripts are created from interview footage and directly reflect the content of the interview at the time. The content is that of the speaker and is not adjusted by Medthority.
Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge. So, if it had not been for my family, I probably would've gone through it a lot more. Because what I talked about how the alopecia changed a lot about my personality type, I was like a very loud, hyper kid. And because I would get teased a lot, I kind of grew, I just went smaller and I wouldn't talk. And my family has really big personalities, so these would be the people that would stick up for me when I would get teased in school, and they would literally, my cousin would take bus rides to go and catch a girl who was talking about me. I had a wonderful support system who would do things that I wouldn't do myself. And also, my cousin, she played a huge role in my life of making sure that my wigs look natural.
So I would get my wigs from HairClub for men for free, because they would offer wigs for children with alopecia. And that was such a great blessing for me and my cousin, even though the wigs weren't the best, especially not the wig I have on today. But my cousin would do everything in her power to make the wig look natural. So she would braid it, she would do twisty, she would do all types of different styles. And I look back on those pictures and I'm like, that looks so wiggy. But back in the day, that made me so happy, because it was, "Okay, I don't have to wear my hair like this. It made me feel a lot better because I had somebody styling my hair in a way that, culturally we're familiar with braids, twisties, things like that.
This is something that I've had to let go of because of alopecia. And even when I would, my hair would grow back and it would still have spots. She would braid my hair and find creative ways to cover up the spots. she played such a huge role in making me feel comfortable with my hair and me learning to love the wigs that I would wear, even though they weren't the best looking. But I loved them because I still was able to style my hair. I still was able to feel pretty. And she did everything in her power to do that. And the doctors that I was surrounded by a lot of them were family doctors. I went to a lot of Black dermatologists, all of my dermatologists at a young age and older, they were all Black. And so that played a huge role for me as well. And understanding of my journey and the culture of significance and also having somebody that has that connection to me was important as well.
Developed by EPG Health. This content has been developed independently of the sponsor, Pfizer, which has had no editorial input into the content. EPG Health received funding from the sponsor to help provide healthcare professional members with access to the highest quality medical and scientific information, education and associated relevant content. This content is intended for healthcare professionals only.
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