In July 2019, Christie Valdiserri participated in sports Illustrated Miami Swim Week and, after taking the podium, took off his wig in front of thousands of people and revealed his baldness.
“It was the ultimate liberating moment of my life,” Valdiserri said. “I thought, I’m regaining power. I what good looks mean to me, and I show it to the world. “
Valdiserri became Sports Illustrated’s first bald model, one of six selected to appear on its 2020 homepage.
After years of hesitation and dishonor since the diagnosis of alopecia in 2016, it was a stimulating time, the Mayo Clinic defines alopecia as hair loss that can be only of the scalp or the whole body, and can be transient or permanent. it can be hereditary and can occur due to hormonal changes, medical situations or in the general context of aging.
Valdiserri doesn’t have a circle of family members with this condition, so when her hair started falling out just a month after graduating from college, she called it stressful, but then her hair kept falling out — in pieces — while she slept, in the shower. and the day.
It’s alarming for the 21-year-old, who had recently moved to New York City to pursue a career as a dancer. After his diagnosis, he worked to prevent hair loss and covered it. He underwent steroid injections, which helped a little. , wore hairpieces and learned to separate his hair to cover the alopecia plates.
“It’s so frustrating, so provocative and so provocative,” Valdiserri said. “In the entertainment industry, especially as a dancer, you literally have 99% of what you look at, and I lose my gaze when I literally start my career. “
“When you lose your hair as a woman at any age, you’re embarrassed because global, good-looking criteria make you feel like you want to have hair to be beautiful. “
Valdiserri booked her dream task as a dancer on a cruise ship sent some time after her diagnosis and told her new employers about alopecia and the idea that they were okay with the scenario; he says they even showed up to buy him a wig.
But six weeks after it started, he fired brutally and gave no other explanation as to why he “stood out and attracted too much attention. “
“I was very excited when I was given this job. I’m so grateful because I’m living my dream,” she said. “I’m in the seventh heaven, and boom, they took it from me. I felt discriminated against and hit rock bottom temporarily. “
The day after her dismissal, Valdiserri sent home and lived with her parents in the Philadelphia domain for a few months, recovering from the traumatic delight that left her absolutely bald, depressed, humiliated and insecure for the rest of her life. for Valdiserri who grew up as a ballet dancer and who until this moment lived what she calls a “normal” and satisfied life.
Finally, Valdiserri concluded that the only road ahead is a new beginning; She sought to live somewhere where no one knew her story. He also sought to be in a city where he could continue to practice dance. And for some reason, Los Angeles, California, called him by name.
On August 22, 2017, she put on her blonde wig and moved to the country.
“I hid for a year under this blonde wig; I was very afraid,” Valdiserri said. “I would go to hot yoga where I was a hundred degrees in the room, and I would keep the wig because I was so afraid. “
“And then it got to the point where other people were making comments like, ‘Oh, is that a wig?Or”Oh, are you dressed in extensions?” Or” What is your herbal hair color?”And each and every time someone commented, I would collapse, and either I would go to the bathroom and hide and cry, or I would come to the house and close the door and cry. “
“It was like I couldn’t let people’s comments and interest and the things they tell me like that tell me. I can’t live like this anymore. “
So Valdiserri made a dance video where she took off her wig and explained her condition and posted it on social media, she also arranged an occasion for her friends where she took off her wig in front of them and finally got rid of the weight. of her secret, and in the months that followed, her hair began to grow again. At one point, she says, she even thought her alopecia days were her.
Then, out of nowhere, her hair fell back. But this time, it also had an effect on his eyebrows and hair. He spent 12 days in his room crying.
The emotional toll is even more vital this time around for Valdiserri, who said she waited for her hair to grow back to take pictures to introduce herself as a Sports Illustrated suit model.
“And then my hair fell out again, and I thought, what am I going to do?Let it continue to dictate my happiness, or will I regain my strength and make it beautiful?” he said.
Valdiserri to take photographs that she would send to Sports Illustrated -bald- without any expectation, she did not know that not only would she be selected to participate in her parade in Miami, but they would also use her photos in the magazine.
“It’s a moment that replaced my life,” he said.
She launched for the magazine in February 2020, then the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the world. Valdiserri began to give line dancing categories and saw that many bald women were signing up for their categories. they came in combination and made it their project to create this community.
Valdiserri created Baldtourage, a network with over 2000 women and women running to redefine baldness as ambitious and beautiful. The organization organizes monthly meetings, oenological evenings for adults and sessions. It is now even global with members living in the United States, Italy and England.
“My hope is that everyone who has lost their hair will feel beautiful and worthy, and that they will have the confidence and strength to embrace it and be ashamed of it,” she said. “Everyone deserves to feel self-sufficient and they are lovely. “
I’m a three-time Emmy-nominated journalist with a decade of media delight covering primary national stories like the Unite event of the charlottesville sequels.
I’m a three-time Emmy-nominated reporter with a decade of media delight covering national primary stories like the aftermath of Charlottesville’s “Unite the Right” rally and President Trump’s “travel ban” on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
I have become a journalist to speak on behalf of the voiceless, like my severely disabled sister. I have used my platform to speak delicately about issues affecting other people with disabilities and other vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
I won a Catalyst for Change award from ARC of Virginia for influencing my reporting and an Emmy nomination for an investigation that reveals forgetfulness and abuse in a serviced residence.
My purpose as a journalist is to leave the global in a wider world through spreading hope with my paintings while making sure the fact is told and the irregularity exposed.