Mannequin Amber Jean Rowan Created the Alopecia Neighborhood She By no means Had

When Amber Jean Rowan was recognized with alopecia, an autoimmune illness wherein the physique assaults its personal hair follicles and causes hair loss, 13 years in the past, she developed an comprehensible thirst for information on the topic. She went to medical professionals concerning potential remedies, after all, however regardless of a thriving web, the extra nuanced info she sought — the neighborhood, the first-hand experiences, the trustworthy first-person views — simply weren’t there.

“All we may discover have been a couple of dire medical info websites — that was about it,” she tells Attract. “I by no means bought an opportunity to fulfill or join with some other Alopecians. My head was stuffed with questions, and I might have liked to have been capable of discuss to another person who had been by means of all of it earlier than.”

Out of a way of isolation and a scarcity of illustration got here an superior concept: Hair Free, Rowan’s web-based neighborhood and weblog for others trying to find alopecia solutions. And never simply solutions to questions you may anticipate, like “Will my hair develop again?” or “The place do I purchase a wig?” Very like when Rowan was youthful, lots of the Hair Free neighborhood desires recommendation on alopecia and relationships — if, when, and the way ought to somebody with alopecia inform their accomplice about it.

“This was one of many trickiest points for me,” Rowan tells Attract. “It is troublesome to inform somebody that the you they see shouldn’t be truly the actual you, significantly while you’re simply beginning a relationship. Exposing your naked head to somebody for the primary time leaves you feeling completely weak, uncooked, and essentially the most bare you’ve got ever felt. You actually should belief and really feel snug with that particular person.”

Rowan’s Hair Free neighborhood trusts her with magnificence questions, too, and it is no shock: the mannequin is an absolute wiz at making a pure forehead look with just a bit powder and a thin make-up brush — one thing she’s been perfecting over the course of a decade. (It’s very secure to make use of make-up on pores and skin that has expertise alopecia hair loss, in response to New York Metropolis-based board-certified dermatologist Shari Marchbein.) Rowan even prefers it over microblading, the semipermanent tattooing choice that creates realistic-looking hair strokes.