Alex Whitley climbs mountains while his girlfriend, Dana Crook, stays on level ground. Together they’ve created Ascent for Alopecia: a lively fund-raising event on July 12 in Indianapolis, Indiana at Blu Lounge, 240 S. Meridian St/5pm-midnight. Whitley’s adventure to Mt. Elbrus, Russia to raise awareness for alopecia areata starts July 15.

Bald Girls Do Lunch is proud to be selected as a recipient of proceeds from the Ascent for Alopecia campaign and delighted to announce:  Ascent funds are targeted for the first ever Bald Girls Do Lunch event in the state of Indiana to be held October 3, 2009.

To make a tax-deductible Ascent contribution to support Alex Whitely’s campaign and our 501c3 nonprofit,  please click here and select Ascent from the program menu.

“It was devastating being a confident homecoming queen at 17, shortly after finding a scared hairless girl staring back at me in the mirror”  - Dana Crook, 22

“Being with Dana has shed a light on the complications of this disorder. Hair has been made to be such an important part of life,” Alex Whitley, 24

Click here for photos and learn more about Alex, Dana and his two passions.

Our very best wishes to Alex for a fantastic climb on Mt. Elbrus. Thank you both for setting in motion not just awareness today, but the future of BGDL activities for the alopecian women of Indiana.
 

The Michael Jackson news cycle has bumped our segment off June 30th to a new date - not yet determined. Check back for updates.

Several options  to send in rsvp for the San Diego Summer dinner July 16th.

Complete invitation  posted at right in Up Coming List.

PayPal to account info@baldgirlsdolunch.org

Donate Now button at right

Checks to Bald Girls Do Lunch, P O Box 9122, Scarborough, NY 10510

We look forward to meeting you!

Thumbs up to the BelgraviaCentre.com  (UK) for  improving a headline before adding it to their blog.  Australia’s Sunshine Coast daily printed the dreadful “Distressing Truth about Alopecia” but it was thankfully re-titled by Belgravia into the far less dreadful “Bald Women Reveal What Life with Alopecia is Like” - an informative  interview with Pat and Ivonna living beautiful, sucessful lives with alopecia areata.

Our segment is re-scheduled to air June 30.  Be sure to bookmark our calendar and blog for updates.

Watch the Bald Girls Do Lunch video on WebMD filmed on location in  Pennsylvania.

Thea’s appearance on the Today Show filmed on location at a BGDL in Illinois is postponed from June 15 to a future date. It’s taped and ready to roll. The new date will be posted in our Calendar and  blog.

 Please join us in California and Florida whether living there or on vacation.

Reservations are now open for San Diego, CA ( July 16th) and Fort Lauderdale, FL (August 1).

See upcoming list at right for complete invitation details.

Questions? rsvp@baldgirlsdolunch.org or 800.578.5332

Would you like to be interviewed by your local media to raise awareness for women with alopecia prior to the event?  contact:  pr@baldgirlsdolunch.org

Don’t throw out that old wig. From Ralph Lauren comes this beautiful accessorizing idea for giving new life and the hottest fashion look.  If you’re like me, there are those first wiggy wigs now replaced; the hair-bare oldies;  the bad-hair-wig days when the style was cut in all wrong - the bangs way too short So grab onto this scarf trend and cover a multitude of wig sins in luscious colors any time of year.

The future dims further for treatments - another reason why BGDL is passionately helping women live beautifully and successfully today.

Dermatology Times reports on the study by Dr. Bruce Strober of the  New York University Medical Center’s Department of Dermatology who conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 12-week trial with alefacept (Amevive) in patients with chronic severe alopecia areata.

“According to Dr. Strober, trial results were resoundingly unsuccessful. There was no difference between the treated group and the placebo group, and there was a very low level response in both groups.” Click here to read more.

Space available for the first BGDL lunch in Austin, TX on 5/30.

Invitation at right.  RSVP using our Donate Now Button.

“I am so thankful I found out about BGDL. Alopecia Areata is a hard topic to discuss with others because they can’t relate and don’t understand. This is the most informative and healing organization I have found. THANK YOU for putting this out there!”…..Krissy Solano Beltz, Maryland

Enrich your life. Meet Thea Chassin and other women with alopecia at our first Florida events. Wear a wig or leave it home. Your choice and comfort matter most.

RSVP required. Click on invitations (pdf) in Upcoming Events at right for June 6 in Fort Lauderdale and June 7 in Fort Myers.

We look forward to meeting you!

BGDL caught the attention of the TODAY Show, the nation’s top-rated network morning show. Today’s national correspondent, Amy Robach, sat in for chat and lunch with us on location at Maggiano’s in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Our air date is  scheduled (though always subject to change) for the first hour on Monday, June 15, 2009.

Women need options. Lots of options -  wigs, hats, scarves and bald. You decide how you want to look.  Is test-driving  “bald in public”  been on your mind? Need a reason to give it a whirl?    Get your Bald Out apparel and let the compliments roll as women like you leave their wigs home for just one day, this year on July 19, 2009. Already sporting the bald look?  Wear your Bald Out shirt on July 19th and spread the word about women with alopecia.

Our logo products feature the new Bald Out collection with 3 different designs on hundreds of products for you and your friends. 100% of proceeds directly fund our programs and materials for women with alopecia areata.

Click here for the video.

Don’t miss  the new photos of our  recent Beauty Event with the Bobbi Brown Cosmetics make-up artists from Neiman Marcus at the Westchester in White Plains, New York.

A great big thank-you to the Bobbi Brown artists for making this event for alopecian style, beauty,  and camaraderie possible. Thank you for generously helping us bring alopecia awareness to the public in such a totally positive way!  - and donating an awesome grand raffle prize!

Special thanks to all our donors: PamOlderDesigns.com, Mapcapz.net, TequilaSunriseLarchmont.com, Espanatapas.com, Szentoils.com, Cocoachocolateshop.com,Fuller-hair.com,paulayoung.com, and HolbrookCottage.com

Genes Show Limited Value in Predicting Diseases which also means limited value in new treatments - and this is for common diseases.  So you can imagine how vastly remote genome research  is for a condition like alopecia areata.

Research for alopecia has not been able to accomplish very much that is useful for good treatments. That’s why BGDL depends on your donations of any size to help run programs like our beauty events and lunches that help women today.

Raptiva ( efalizumab) a treatment for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis was the drug to be tested by a Northwestern University clinical trial for use on patients with severe alopecia areata.

No more.

The trial has been cancelled. These warnings on Raptiva for ties to a rare brain infection , PML, (progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy) were issued by the FDA today.

Incredibly, a prominent alopecia organization website was still as of March 3, 2009  encouraging alopecia areata patients to sign up to be in this now aborted Raptiva clinical trial. It was funded by Genentech with no funding from the NIH.

You gotta ask: how does a clinical trial get that far that it gets approval to proceed with a drug like this on healthy people just wanting to grow hair?  What if it had recruited and someone with alopecia areata had become irreversibly ill?

Update April 8, 2009

Genentech announces the removal of  all Raptiva from the US market.

Click here for Reuters report in the New York Times

Click here for ESPN-AM 1000 radio interview with Thea Chassin.  The show “Beyond Sports” featured Thea for a full 45 minutes in the Chicago, Illinois media market ( 11/09/2008)

Do you like the way BGDL public awareness reaches more people than a local walk-run  among people who already know each other?  Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation of any size no matter how small.  Thank you for supporting us so we can do even more to educate the public and help women with Alopecia Areata feel normal, not strange.

“Hairless”…  Baldly Going Where Few Women Have Gone Before.

Click here to watch the movie “Hairless” ( 17 minutes).Winner of short film awards including Best Actress in the New York Short Film Festival (2004); winner of the Audience Award at the Cinerama Film Festival ( 2004) and Official Selection of the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival 2004.

Enjoy and send us your feedback!

From the Cochrane Skin Group, University of Nottingham ( UK)

Authors: Delamere FM,Sladden MM, Dobbins HM, Leonardi-Bee J.

“Authors’ Conclusions: Few treatments for alopecia areata have been well evaluated in randomised trials. We found no RCTs on the use of diphencyprone, dinitrochlorobenzene, intralesional corticosteroids or dithranol although they are commonly used for the treatment of alopecia areata.

Similarly, although topical steroids and minoxidil are widely prescribed and appear to be safe, there is no convincing evidence that they are beneficial in the long-term. Most trials have been reported poorly and are so small that any important clinical benefits are inconclusive. There is a desperate need for large well conducted studies that evaluate long-term effects of therapies on quality of life.”

Abstract of conclusions from  “Interventions for alopecia areata”, Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008 Apr 16;(2):CD004413