A model left bald by alopecia who was so mortified she even wore her wig in the shower has embraced her look - and says she's now "thankful" she lost her hair. Christie Valdiserri, 29, first noticed a small bald patch at the back of her head in 2016, three weeks after graduating from university.
At the time, no other hair fell out - leading Christie to believe sun exposure caused the “tiny” bald spot. A year later, after moving to become a dance teacher, her hair started falling out in chunks, and “very rapidly.”
Despite intense treatment, Christie eventually lost all of her hair. But she finally accepted her new look and went to a casting call for Sports Illustrated - and modelled with a bald head in a bikini for the first time.
The issue, in July 2020, was the first time the magazine featured a cover star without hair, she said. It was "one of the first times I felt I could be authentically myself" and said now she realises her condition means she stands out. Christie, a dance teacher and model said: “It was such a traumatic experience. I’d lost all my hair, I had no job and I wasn’t the blonde, popular, college sorority girl anymore.
“I’m naturally a really energetic, positive person. But alopecia just sucked the soul out of me. I didn’t want to date, I didn’t want to audition for any modelling or dance roles. I just bought a blonde wig, glued it on and decided to coast through life, avoiding as many questions as possible.”
Despite wearing a wig full-time, Christie says her mental health was at an all-time low. I’d cry myself to sleep every night," she said.
"If anyone made any sort of comment about my hair - even something like, ‘are you a natural blonde?’ - I’d just break down. I think it’s because I didn’t feel authentically myself. I kept my wig on for everything - even exercise, showering and yoga. I missed my hair so much.
“I was stuck in a really dark hole.”
In 2018, Christie moved to pursue a modelling career. She saw an open casting call for Sports Illustrated, advertised in the magazine.
By this time, her hair had started to grow back in patches, and she was taking daily vitamins which she believed would stimulate hair growth. Towards the end of 2018, however, her hair began falling out again in clumps - and she withdrew her application.
In May 2019, she gained enough confidence to attend the next open casting call for Sports Illustrated. The selected person would get to model in a beach-style photoshoot for the Swimsuit 2020 issue. “A part of me was destroyed after my hair fell out again," she said.
“But a bigger part of me just wanted to go for it. I didn’t want to hide anymore. I thought, ‘I’m doing it. I’m putting my bikini on and I’ll be hairless and I’m doing it.' "I shaved every last bit of hair off. I was going to be bald and beautiful."
Christie did the magazine shoot in February 2020, and found the experience “amazing”. The issue was later released in September of the same year. The hair loss was still so fresh and raw when we did it," she said.
"It was one of the first times I felt I could be authentically myself. It was amazing - I felt so powerful and beautiful. I never, in a million years, thought I’d be shaving my head before a shoot. I’d never felt more worthy of praise and love. This was my strength.
“I turned something really horrible into something incredibly powerful.”
When Covid hit, Christie found herself out of modelling work and virtually teaching dance to kids with alopecia, ranging from three to 13 years old. "I was feeling really alone, stuck at home," she said.
"I wasn’t dressing up to go out or putting on any makeup - at the time I’d started to get recognised for my Sports Illustrated cover, and I wasn’t feeling glamorous. I needed something to uplift me.”
Christie got the idea for her online community, the Baldtourage, while teaching children with alopecia. “So much of my identity was in my hair while I was in college," she said. "My friends and I used to call ourselves the ‘Blondetourage’.
“I decided to reclaim the name and start my group, the Baldtourage, for anyone living with alopecia to come and be their true selves.”
The online community now has over 2,000 members, and after the pandemic, Christie started running in-person events. “We have wine nights for the adults - and we’ve organised runways in community halls for our kids to walk down and feel empowered," she said.
Christie believes she wouldn’t be “living her best life” if not for alopecia and added: "In the entertainment industry - everyone’s seeking to stand out and I’ve actually been given that opportunity. I’m going out and being cast for a lot of diverse looks - I’m inclusive, I’m edgy, I’m different.
“The blonde girl I was at Penn State would never have been picked for these roles. I’m still her inside, but the world perceives me a little differently now. And that’s okay.”
