Lots of kids like dolls that look like them.  One need only look at the great success of companies like American Girl to see that.  But kids who are dealing with hair loss find that there options are pretty limited.  One enterprising mom in Colorado  went out of her way to see that her daughter had a doll that she could relate to.  This excerpt was originally printed in The Gazette, in Colorado Springs:

A doll is being specially made for Maddie Werner -- one that will look a lot like the second-grader. It will have pale skin, a few freckles and will wear either jammies or a soccer uniform. And like Maddie, it won't have hair.

Maddie, 7, has lost her curly goldenbrown locks -- her "princess hair," as she called it. She's also lost her brows and lashes because of a condition called alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that attacks hair follicles.

The condition isn't contagious, isn't lifethreatening and isn't painful. Maddie is otherwise healthy. Still, her mother, Lisa Werner, worries about her.

"I think that girls or women have a lot of identity tied up in hair," Lisa Werner said.

Click here to read the rest of this really nice article.

Sometimes life isn't fair, and sometimes Life Isn't Fair.  The Mirror is reporting the heartbreaking story of Louise Gibson and her struggle with alopecia since she was nine.  And now she must watch as her own daughter copes with the same disease.  Starting at 18 months old, little Nikkita began to lose all of her hair as well.  So not right...right?  Well it seems the children will lead the way on this one, and Louis speaks in the article of how her daughter and her friends are handling her hairloss like champs.  She is also hoping to raise enough money to buy her little girl the wig that she dreams of.  It's a lovely story, and we thank the Mirror for telling it.

(As a little bit of postscript here, you can link here to a blogger who saw little Nikkita on British TV and their thoughts on her appearance.  We don't judge 'em folks, we just post 'em.  Post what you think.....)

Here is an excerpt from a recent story from "InsideToronto.com":

It was about a year ago this week that Helen Rose first noticed a little bald spot on her daughter's head while parting her hair down the middle.

Upon closer look, she realized that nine-year-old Victoria had extensive hair loss on the back of her head, too.

The patches of baldness were initially covered by her long, thick brown hair that grew from the top. But the remaining strands soon fell out as well.

An appointment with a doctor the next day at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where Rose works as an administrative assistant, confirmed what she had researched on the Internet.

Victoria was diagnosed with alopecia, an unpredictable autoimmune disease that results in hair loss on the scalp and elsewhere on the body.

"The way we explain it to kids is that the body is allergic to its hair," said Rose, whose goal is to educate as many people on her daughter's condition.

To read the rest of the article click here.

So here's the big question that has the alopecia blogs humming....  Mr. Everett has apparently told London's "Daily Telegraph" that he is now infertile due to medication he is taking to control his alopecia.  He has reportedly stated that if he were to stop taking the drug he would lose his hair, and given the choice between his hair and his sperm, he chooses his hair.  Now what medication could that be?  Some bloggers and forums are suggesting that he is really on anti-baldness (the male-pattern variety) medication and that he is merely calling it alopecia (which, of course, technically it is) to hide the fact that he has MPB.  There is also a great deal of dissing Rupert for choosing his hair over the chance to be fertile.  This seems a bit of an unnecessary slap to the man as he is nearing fifty and very openly gay.  Seems that he has already made his reproductive decisions. 

Joyce Sherman, a team member who lives in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, will be featured on an upcoming episode of "Miami Ink" on The Learning Channel.  She is apparently being featured on the program as she goes to the tattoo shop to get a tattoo of a butterfly inked onto the back of her head.  Sherman, who has had alopecia on and off since she was nine (and whose son also has the disorder), wanted to make a statement with her tattoo that she is proud of the woman she is and that she doesn't need wigs or scarves to be beautiful.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is leading a study that will create a national registry of aopecia patients and their family members.  The registry will allow researchers to determine the genetic components of alopecia, and hopefully lead to a better understanding of the disease with an eye toward an eventual cure.  It seems that they are having good results with signing up alopecians and their family members, but less luck in finding control subjects.  The AlopeciaCare.com site is currently stating that of the 500 control subjects needed, only 22 have been signed on so far.  Control subjects must not have alopecia, or be related to anyone who has it.  Which naturally excludes those most directly and even indirectly effected by the disorder.