Alopecia refers to hair loss that occurs as a result of a persons immune system mistakenly attacking hair follicles, causing hair to fall out. Therese Hansson from Malmo, Sweden, discovered that she had the condition aged just 14 and was understandably a little freaked out.

Having learned the cause of her hair loss, she struggled to come to terms with it. Being a teenager at the time, a time already fraught with insecurities about appearance and wanting to fit in, this is a pretty normal reaction. “At first only my family knew about it until after a while I told my closest friends. I kept it a big secret and I was super sensitive if anyone asked me something about my hair. I was very good at hiding it,” she told Bored Panda.

Eventually though, with the support and encouragement of her best friends, she began to embrace her bald head and let her beauty shine through. “The first time in the streets was amazing,” she told us. “I felt relieved and proud of myself. I actually didn’t do it alone. I was with a friend who also had her first time going out bald. We met at a community that is like Facebook for people with alopecia called alopecia world. We chatted and decided to meet in a town where we knew no one and do it together.”

The decision to drop the wig (although she still wears them from time to time) has been liberating personally as well as professionally. She has become a model alongside her job as a nurse, and as you can see in the pictures below she looks absolutely stunning. “I realized bald is beautiful and could be a new thing for me to stop hiding,” she told Bored Panda. “I guess I realized it when a friend opened my eyes to a blogger who had her head shaved. She’s now my friend. I also got inspired by Amber Rose who is super beautiful with her shaved head.”

Hoping to use her experience to encourage others with the condition to free themselves from shame and to just be themselves, Therese says: “Don’t hide. It will only make you feel worse. You will feel so relieved if you can just be yourself. Anyone that cant’t accept it is not someone you need in your life anyway.”

Great positive advice! We at Bored Panda think Therese looks amazing and her new-found confidence in herself after embracing her alopecia only adds to her attractiveness. Grattis, Therese!

More info: Instagram

This is Therese Hansson from Malmo, Sweden

She has Alopecia, an immune condition that causes hair loss

Finding out about the condition aged just 14, she struggled to come to terms with it at first

“I kept it a big secret and I was super sensitive if anyone asked me something about my hair. I was very good at hiding it,” she told Bored Panda

Eventually though, with the support and encouragement of her best friends, she began to embrace her bald head and let her beauty shine through

“I realized bald is beautiful and could be a new thing for me to stop hiding”

“The first time in the streets was amazing. I felt relieved and proud of myself”

The decision to drop the wig has been liberating personally, as well as professionally

Now 26, Theresa is a model and she hopes to encourage others with alopecia to have the confidence to be themselves

“Don’t hide. It will only make you feel worse. You will feel so relieved if you can just be yourself”

“Anyone that can’t accept it is not someone you need in your life anyway.”

Like us, the internet thinks she looks just beautiful

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