Abstract

Dalila is twenty-one when the first hairless patch appears on her scalp. At that moment she does not know it yet, but those are her first signs of her illness: alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that causes sudden loss, total or partial, of hair and body hair.

Fortunately, the situation is resolved quickly, as the disease manifests itself in a very mild form. Eleven years pass and Dalila is just over thirty when alopecia areata returns, this time more aggressive than ever. For Dalila it’s the beginning of a new life, different from the previous one. It symbolises the first step in a difficult journey of discovery and acceptance of herself and her pathology.

This journey leads her to write the small volume entitled “Camminando a Testa Scalza” in which she gives voice to the traumatic experience, the conflicting feelings, the fears and intimate desires of all those who, like her, are affected by this pathology .