"When is she going to get some hair?!!"

"When is she 'gonna' get some hair?!!". This question seems to be the topic on every strangers mind. At first, I thought I was just being hypersensitive. Ok, I probably am being sensitive, but seriously... four weeks in a row at the grocery store I have been asked that exact question. I could not make this up. I go weekly (usually the same day every week), and each week a different stranger has asked me about her hair. Even if my daughter didn't have Alopecia, I feel like saying "HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW?!!". I mean really, how can a parent predict exactly when their kid is going to have hair?? The first time it happened, I came home and was really upset. I had gotten used to people asking that over the course of her short life, but after getting the diagnosis of Alopecia, it just hit me differently. I didn't understand why it mattered. I mean seriously, why do strangers care if MY CHILD has hair or not? I guess it's a normal ice breaker, a way to acknowledge that they have noticed my child, but I have found it to be a ridiculous question. The next week when someone asked I responded with "I don't know". I didn't really know what else to say but it didn't ignite the anger in me that it had the week prior when it was so new, and thus saying more than "I don't know" didn't seem important. The third week the lady bagging my groceries took it a step further. I had decided that it was my job to educate and figured if it happened again, I'd be ready. Well, it happened, but this time the lady was so fixated on it that I could not even get the educated, text book speech that I had practiced in my head out of my mouth. She pulled out cell phone pictures of her two year old Granddaughter and talked about how she is "the same way" as my kid and how they call her Granddaughter "Baldy" (Original, huh?!). I let her talk and in my head I was screaming. Especially when she nicknamed my kid "Baldy" as well. If you're going to nickname my kid something, can you at least come up with something clever??!! I left the store and realized that I needed to get used to this. This was going to be our lives for a while, for years, maybe forever. I realized that I needed to start telling people about Alopecia because CLEARLY they have no clue. If you see a 16 month old baby that has no hair, no eyelashes and no eyebrows... it's probable that they could have a disease such as Alopecia. This week when I went and got the same question, I said "I don't know if she will get hair". The other lady standing there commented "Oh, I'm sure she will". This was my opportunity. I responded the best way I knew how... "She has Alopecia, so we do not know if or when she will get hair". The girl who asked me looked mortified and started apologizing profusely. I explained to her that I didn't know anything about the disease prior to my daughters diagnosis and then I explained what the disease was after she asked. I felt better this time that I was given the opportunity to educate someone and maybe prevent another person from being asked the SAME question over and over. I do not know if I am getting used to my daughters diagnosis, if time really does heal all, or if I am just getting used to the predictability of the people around me, but each day seems to be a little easier. The only advice I can offer from here though is STOP ASKING WHEN SOMEBODY'S KID IS GOING TO GET HAIR and also DO NOT ASSUME EVERY PERSON THAT HAS LOST THEIR HAIR HAS CANCER.