Push for Bald Barbie has a local advocate

At age 29, Jennifer Thalhamer is a bit old for playing with dolls. But the Lakeland resident hopes that someday she will have the chance to buy a Barbie doll that has no hair.

Thalhamer became an early supporter of a Facebook campaign asking Mattel to create a "Beautiful and Bald Barbie." She keeps an image of the doll's prototype on her cellphone.

"I think if that doll had been there five years ago, I probably would have coped better because I was ashamed of myself," Thalhamer said. "I would be so excited if I saw that on the shelf."

Thalhamer used to have long, blond hair resembling the locks on a typical Barbie doll. In November 2007, though, she noticed a quarter-size bare patch above her left ear. A dermatologist soon diagnosed her with alopecia, a condition she had never heard of.

Alopecia, an autoimmune skin disorder that causes hair loss, affects about 5 million Americans, according to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. Prominent people with alopecia include film director Mike Nichols, pro basketball player Charlie Villanueva and ShopNBC host Allison Waggoner.

In the more than four years since her diagnosis, Thalhamer has evolved from cringing when someone knocks at the door to becoming a public advocate for girls and women with hair loss caused by alopecia or other diseases. She recently became the Florida liaison for The Scarf Project, an organization that provides scarves to people battling cancer and other diseases that involve hair loss.

And she was one of the first to "like" the Facebook page devoted to the Beautiful and Bald Barbie campaign, which was created in December and now has more than 140,000 supporters. The Facebook page was created by two friends, Rebecca Sypin of California and Jane Bingham of New Jersey, according to news reports.

Sypin's daughter has leukemia, and Bingham has lymphoma. Chemotherapy, a treatment for cancer, often results in hair loss. The women have said creation of a bald Barbie would comfort girls and women who have lost their hair because of cancer treatment and other conditions.

The Mattel Corp. issued a statement in January suggesting it would consider the proposal but made no promises.

Thalhamer's 9-year-old daughter, Hailey, has the kind of flowing blond hair her mother used to take for granted. Hailey said she would be happy to see a Beautiful and Bald Barbie. "I like it because everyone says it looks like Mama, and it kind of does," Hailey said.

Thalhamer said her sudden hair loss in 2007 threatened her feminine identity. "I got really depressed," she said. "From a woman's standpoint, that was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through."

On New Year's Eve 2007, Thalhamer sat in her bathroom with her husband, Richard, and her best friend and sobbed as they shaved her head.

More than four years later, Thalhamer is able to find humor in her baldness. Her job as a sales merchandiser for a candy company puts her in public view at local stores, and she recently went to work wearing a gray knit cap that left the hairless sides and back of her head exposed.

As Thalhamer stocked candies at a local Walmart on a recent morning, a shopper asked her, "What is your condition?"

Thalhamer replied that her husband had put Nair in her shampoo bottle. That seemed easier and faster than interrupting her work to give the stranger a factual explanation.

"I think it's hilarious," Thalhamer said. "Trying to say it with a straight face is so hard."