Earlier this year, Salt Lake City-based mom Daniella Vinanti Wride was startled to discover that her happy and seemingly healthy 7-year-old daughter Ginessa was losing her hair. Though she would eventually be diagnosed with alopecia—an autoimmune skin disease that results in all-over hair loss—the 7-year-old did not let it ruin her school’s celebration of “Crazy Hair Day.”
Vinanti Wride first realized her daughter’s hair was falling out one night as she was brushing her long locks. “On Jan. 1 she took a shower and I helped her brush her hair,” Vinanti Wride explained to Buzzfeed. “It was half way down her back. I found a quarter-sized bald patch on the back of her head, and the area around her temples looked like it was thinning as well.” She booked an appointment to see the dermatologist, but within only a couple of weeks, her hair was completely gone.
As if accepting her daughter’s recent diagnosis was not hard enough, Vinanti Wride’s anxieties intensified when she learned that Ginessa’s school would soon celebrate “Crazy Hair Day,” a festive event in which “kids get to do funny, funky, crazy, and silly things with their hair.” Last year, Ginessa excitedly sported a unicorn-inspired hair style, and Vinanti Wride wondered how she would cope with her new situation.
But then she had a brilliant—and bedazzling—idea. She would adorn her daughter’s head with shimmering stickers.
“I came across some scrapbooking stickers in Walmart,” she says. “They were jewel-toned and extremely sparkly which fit her personality perfectly.” Ginessa came up with the designs (a flower, a heart, and an owl), and her mother patiently applied each shimmering gem to her head. With a scalp covered in glittering jewels, Ginessa waltzed into school with an inspiring amount of confidence, proving that even alopecia can’t dull her sparkle!
This is Ginessa, a 7-year-old who has been diagnosed with alopecia.
She loves Crazy Hair Day at her school. Last year, she showed off a unicorn-inspired ‘do!
This year, however, she had to get a bit more creative.
…And did so with flying colors!
h/t: [Buzzfeed News]