Stressed about her wedding, this bride lost 90% of her hair

“The dream of marriage can become a real nightmare”, vented the American photographer Michelle Wilson-Stimson, from the city of Stamford, in an interview with The Sun portal, last Tuesday (10). The phrase, which at first may seem a little tragic, illustrates very well the situation she has experienced in recent years: due to the anxiety and stress surrounding the preparations for her wedding, which took place in 2015, Michelle, two weeks after the party, was diagnosed with alopecia – a disease whose main consequence is the total or partial loss of hair in specific areas of the body.

She only became aware of her condition when, one fine day, she woke up startled by noticing the absurd amount of tufts of hair on her pillow. Already the next morning, when combing her hair, she noticed even more strands in her brush. Five months later, the condition worsened and Michelle had already lost about 90% of her hair.

“I was horrified. It was supposed to be a beautiful and very special day, but I got so excited that now I’m bald. People have no idea how stressful planning a wedding can be,” she vented. She also says that, at first, she was very excited about the organization of the ceremony, but that this turned into an accumulation of situations that caused even more tension:

“This was my second marriage, and after hearing a few jokes from friends and family about being so-called ‘second time lucky,’ I felt like I couldn’t count on anyone to help me. I was afraid of being labeled a ‘crazy bride’, so I took over the entire organization of the event, spending sleepless nights surrounded by documents and spreadsheets”, she said.

Other uncomfortable moments – before and during the celebration – also ended up further aggravating Michelle’s anxiety. Starting with wedding dress, which she opted to buy online and was due to be delivered only after the day of the party. In addition, the venue for the party had to be changed, the music for her grand entrance stopped playing while she was still on her way to the altar and, to top it all off, some guests were unable to attend the event, while others began to go albeit much sooner than anticipated.

In the end, the wedding went off without further ado – Michelle’s dress arrived on time, including. But the consequences of the high load of stress were already starting to show in her body. After several appointments trying to understand what had really made her bald, she was diagnosed with alopecia:

“The doctor asked me if I had been in any stressful situations recently, and I almost burst out laughing when I told him about the wedding. That’s when he told me that alopecia was a consequence of that. I was heartbroken and, to make matters worse, the doctors couldn’t tell me if my hair would grow back,” he said.

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To this day, even after risking some hormone treatments, Michelle’s hair growth hasn’t gone back to what it was before. However, she confesses that she still has hope that her hair will grow back, but now she sees things a little differently:

“I’m finally learning to be happy and accept myself as I am, even without hair”, she concludes.