Third graders shave their heads to support friend with alopecia

A young boy who lost his hair to alopecia late last year had spent months hiding from the world until his classmates took a radical step to help him feel like one of them again.

Luke Nelson, 8, lives in Oklahoma and noticed something was wrong last Autumn when a patch of his eyebrow seemed to disappear overnight.

Nervous about the development he went to mum Susan, who spent the following months watching helplessly as her son’s condition progressed.

“Within a matter of eight weeks it moved to the side of his head. By Christmas time he had completely lost all of his hair,” Susan, 40, told People.

Alopecia is a condition that causes suffers to lose hair across their bodies, with the amount and location of hair loss varying from case to case.

Some only lose patches, while others see all of their body hair fall out, but people with alopecia are generally healthy otherwise.

The transition was incredibly difficult for young Luke, who “immediately put a hat on and he kind of hid behind [it].”

Sam, 7, and 11-year-old Rhett Nelson, Luke’s brothers, were totally on board when it came to helping Luke adjust to his alopecia.

“Sam said, ‘Well, if Luke’s not gonna have hair, I’m not gonna have hair either. He immediately shaved his head,” Susan explained.

Sam’s brave decision kicked off a trend, and before long Rhett and the boys’ father had also gone under the clippers in solidarity with Luke, the four rocking their bald heads as a family.

And while family can always be relied on to accept changes like the ones Luke was going through, other kids don’t always understand and Luke was worried about heading back to school with his bare head.

But Luke didn’t have to worry.

“By the time we got back to school after winter break all of Luke’s buddies really wanted to do something to show their support,” Susan said.

14 of his classmates at Oklahoma Christian School insisted that they wanted to help Luke in whatever way they could, and make sure Luke felt happy and confident in class, so they hatched a plan.

On 19 January the group of boys came together with Luke and their families at a local barber and each of them had their heads shaved in a sign of solidarity with Luke.

“Once [Luke] found out that all of his buddies wanted to surround him like a band of brothers and shave their heads as well he just embraced it,” Susan said.

The event turned into a “hair-shaving celebration” with snacks, laughter and plenty of encouragement for Luke.

“As soon as the haircuts started Luke ripped off his hat and he has walked around with this confidence and this swagger.”

“It made me feel very good,” Luke said, “I feel more confident. I can just be myself.”

At the moment it is unknown what causes alopecia, and there is no one cure or successful treatment for the condition, meaning that Luke may live with the condition for the rest of his life.

But having so much support at such a young age will hopefully keep him happy and confident as he gets used to it.

“I think it’s important to share my story to help all those other kids that feel different,” he said.

“He can look at it as a gift or he can look at it as an obstacle,” Susan said.

“He’s chosen to look at it as a gift and to overcome it and, hair, if he has it or not, that’s not going to define who this kid is.”