International Alopecia Day 2022

Every year the first Saturday in August is proclaimed ‘International Alopecia Day’. Saturday 6th August 2022 is this year’s date for raising some awareness worldwide! 

The annual awareness day is the brainchild of a wonderful woman with alopecia, from San Diego (USA), named Mary Marshall.

Her idea is a simple one; people with alopecia from all over the world share a photo of themselves on the same day. A

Extract taken from alopecia.org.uk – please click the link for full details…

1. Try to take your photos ON International Alopecia Day, 6th August. This is meant to be a snapshot of people with alopecia around the world on ONE day. 

2. Please don’t send professional “studio” portraits or photos that you’ve posted on your Facebook page before IAD. Ideally, all photos for the IAD video should be taken on International Alopecia Day, and be natural and spontaneous-looking. 

3. You can be in a wig, bald, with patches or lots of hair, or in a hat or scarf. THIS IS ALL OF US, AS WE ARE! It’s your choice. 

4. You can include any friends and family who don’t have alopecia in your photo. 

5. If you have a group event, make sure that everyone in your IAD photo understands it will be in a public YouTube video and that they agree to that. 

6. It’s great if you make and hold a SIGN saying where you live – and, you can write the sign in your language. Posting in front of a local LANDMARK or scene adds to the international theme. 

7. If you make a sign that includes the name of the holiday, please make sure you use the official name: “International Alopecia Day”, and NOT “Alopecia Awareness Day” or other variants. We’re trying to raise awareness by having this annual event become newsworthy, so the name needs to be consistent. 

8. Send only ONE photo per person or family – your best and favourite. There are too many submissions to include more than one per person. But, if you’re having a group event and need more than one photo to show everyone, you can send more than one. Can’t decide which photo to send? You can make a collage in one image to include multiple photos. BUT, remember that your photo will look smaller in the finished video if they’re part of a collage. 

9. TO GUARANTEE THAT YOUR PHOTO IS IN THIS YEAR’S YOUTUBE IAD VIDEO, YOU MUST SEND IT TO: internationalalopeciaday@gmail.com. Many people like to share their IAD photos on Facebook alopecia groups, including the International Alopecia Day Group, but unless it’s ALSO emailed to the official email address, it won’t be included in the video. And, emailing the photos to me is how I can be sure I have your permission to put it in the video. Please don’t send me a photo by private message on Facebook, I might miss it. 

10. Please give your location in the email you send with the photo so that I can put it in the correct place in the video. I’m not grouping the photos by city – I just need your country and regional location. For example, if you’re in the UK, I need your county.