Opening Up at Work About Alopecia: ‘I Feel the Most Free When I’m the Most Me’ — Health & Hiring
Key takeaways:
When Sarah Ribeiro began losing her hair from alopecia, she tried different hairstyles and scarves to hide it from her coworkers.
Then, she decided to stop hiding her baldness.
She says being open about her condition at work helped her find support and build connections.
Health & Hiring is a series that explores health in the workplace.
When Sarah Ribeiro received a diagnosis in September 2021 of alopecia — a condition causes people to lose patches of hair — she was not expecting to lose most of her hair within 6 months.
Sarah had always taken interest in her physical appearance, and her long, brown hair was a large part of that. From the length to the style, her hair was the ultimate form of self-expression.
But she was losing hair at a rapid pace, and it became a struggle. Especially when it came to self-perception and acceptance at work. At first, she hid her baldness. Then, she decided to let everyone see her true self.
“I feel the most free when I’m the most me,” Sarah wrote in an August 2022 LinkedIn post. It was a moving announcement of her alopecia diagnosis to her wider network. She partnered it with an updated profile picture of her new, bald look. And she relayed a small part of her journey. But she says the purpose of the post was to spotlight how much support she received from her coworkers.
Search and compare options
“My team has seen me at my lowest and still has my back when I’m struggling," she says. "Not every workplace is like that.”
Revealing her alopecia at work taught her about compassion
Sarah, a 30-year-old writer and marketer in New York City, says her experience makes her want to encourage other managers to lead with compassion. Posting about it on LinkedIn was one way for her to advocate for a more encouraging work environment.
“As a manager, I have learned to work hard to make sure everyone on my team is led with compassion and a little strength when they need it,” she wrote.
While she says her alopecia did not have any direct impact on her work performance, it did affect her on a social level. As her hair began to fall out, she says she started to feel a level of doubt she had never encountered.
She did not reveal her diagnosis to her coworkers immediately. But they began to notice her wearing her hair in new styles and adding headscarves to her wardrobe. Soon, they began asking her questions.
“I found myself feeling shame for covering it,” Sarah says.
She knew she was holding back from bringing her full self to work. So, she took the plunge and introduced her peers to this new version of herself.
What it means to bring your full self to work
Sarah knows how hard it is for people to be themselves at work. But her experience has helped her become an advocate for being honest and vulnerable in the workplace.
“I’m focused on bringing my full authentic self to work and encouraging others to do the same,” she says. “It’s part of my ethos, as a leader, as a coworker, as somebody who’s in any type of professional relationship. I want to be very true to myself and help people understand this genuine connection that we have as people. Not just as workers.”
Sarah, a social media manager with a master’s degree in management leadership, says she has experienced the best and worst of what a workplace can provide. That’s shaped her outlook on how office culture should be.
She says her philosophy is that you shouldn’t leave your “real self” at home when you go into work. But her alopecia progression made her realize she was not living up to her own reasoning.
“I want people to feel comfortable bringing themselves into work,” she says. “And I felt like I wasn't doing a good job of that, if I wasn’t bringing all myself in.”
How her vulnerability helped her team bond
Honesty became Sarah’s icebreaker with her colleagues. Once she opened up, she says her team was not only receptive, but supportive. They listened. They took her out to buy wigs and encouraged her.
“I showed up to work bald with a temporary tattoo on my head,” she says. “I got so many compliments throughout the day. People don't realize how much those small moments of support help.”
Sarah’s managers also accommodated her when she needed some extra support. She had to go to the dermatologist twice a week for shots to treat her alopecia. The appointments meant she had to miss the first hour and a half of the workday. And sometimes, she endured migraines after her treatments.
“We actually arranged it so that those would end up being my no-meeting days,” Sarah says. “I was able to focus on work and get what needed to get done without having to do all these exhausting interactions all day.”
Sarah says she’s lucky to have a supportive team she might not find in other workplaces.
“To come into work and get that extra level of support has meant so much to me,” she says. “It's provided a lot of loyalty to this company and to this job.”
Finding support in a community
Finding a community has been instrumental to her healing process.
“It is such an isolating disease,” she says. “Every single person experiences alopecia differently, on a personal and professional level. So having support at each level has made it so much easier for me to transition.”
She also found online support groups to be a great way to share information and resources.
“It is OK to feel scared and unsure,” she says. “Keep looking and keep learning. That’s the only way you’re going to get through it.”
Why trust our experts?
