Trials drew two together
“She owns who she is and does not run from it.”
Adorned with either a headband or a hat, Alison Hiett is easily distinguished from her fellow Blackhawk cheerleaders.
One person in the audience is there just to see Alison. Trinity Baker also has Alopecia and sought out Alison.
“She came to the game. I kind of saw her and Mom was motioning to me from the sidelines so at halftime I walked around to her,” Alison said. “The first thing she did was hug me. We ended up talking about everything.”
Alison said both she and Trinity started losing their hair in 2015, although Trinity was younger.
“She just kept smiling and looking at me,” Alison said. “She came to another game. I met her mom. Her dad has it (alopecia).”
The daughter of Lee and Chasity Hiett, Alison was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata in 2015. It
Chasity Hiett, Alison’s mother
began with a bald spot.
“I would brush her hair and so much fell out,” Chasity recalled about the summer of 2015. “She lost everything — eyebrows, eyelashes. She looked like a cancer kid.”
Then, areas of hair grew back in and it was patchy.
“Her eyelashes came back… it made a world of difference,” Chasity said.
Alison remembers she and her parents tried various remedies including steroid injections.
Chasity said she was worried about people making fun of Alison for something she couldn’t control.
“Kids are mean just to be mean. It was hard not being able to protect her,” she said. “It was such a weird thing but we were so thankful it wasn’t cancer. It was kind of a hard thing.”
“It was harder for them than for me,” Alison smiled, looking at her parents. “I agree,” Lee said. “She’s really helped us get to a good place,” Chasity said. “She’s dealing with it and she’s thriving.”
Chasity said she remembers a boy from an opposing school making fun of her at a game where she was cheering but her cheer friends came to her defense.
“I think God gave her an amazing ability to rise above,” Chasity said.
“She has a great ability to tolerate,” Lee said.
“She owns who she is and doesn’t run from it,” Chasity said.
“Sometimes I’m not able to shut it down,” Alison said. “It happens, of course. But, it’s not usually about my hair. I get insecure about not being smart enough. I’m not an ordinary person to start with.”
Lee said he and Nicholas, his son, offered to shave their heads when Alison first had to shave hers because so much hair had fallen out.
“She said ‘no, because then I won’t be the special one,’” Lee recalled of Alison’s response.
“I say she’s an old soul. She just doesn’t have time for the silliness,” Chasity said.
Editor’s note: This article is the second in a three-part series which will be continued next week.