Eleven-year-old Rockton girl leads charge to help others facing hair loss

By Marianne Mueller
REPORTER

MARIANNE MUELLER PHOTOS The Journal
Gracie Williams stands with an enlarged check depicting the total of $2,585.

Gracie Williams is an 11-yearold who loves dance, her friends, and her family. She will be starting school at Stephen Mack Middle School in the fall.

In November of 2016 she was diagnosed with Alopecia areata which is a medical condition where the hair falls out in round patches. Hair can fall out of the scalp as well as other areas of the body. Alopecia areata can cause different types of hair loss.

The previously mentioned Alopecia areata is one type. Alopecia totallis is where all hair on the scalp is lost and Alopecia universalis which is total hair loss of all hair on the body. It is said that not everyone loses all of the hair on the scalp or body; this only happens to five percent of people.

Hair often grows back but may fall out again. Sometimes this hair loss lasts for many years. Alopecia is not contagious and is not due to nerves. It occurs when the immune system attacks the hair follicles (structures that contain the roots of the hair) which cause hair loss. This autoimmune disease most often occurs in otherwise healthy people. Currently there is no cure, but some treatments have been used on patients.

Read the full story in the July 5th edition of The Post-Journal