Blonde Beauty Contestant With Alopecia Hopes To Win Miss America Crown

Hair loss. It can be a very sensitive topic for women. And when it comes to alopecia, it can ruin one's self-esteem, because the condition cannot be cured.

However, there is one, blonde beauty who is not afraid to live with alopecia, and that is Miss America contestant Kayla Martell from the state of Delaware. And she hopes to win the crown this evening.

Kayla Martell tells People magazine that she has alopecia areata. She has been losing her hair since she was 13. With the disease as her Miss America platform, the current Miss Delaware hopes to educate the world about it.

"I'm still getting used to long hair," says Kayla, who usually goes wig-free. "So we'll style it away from my face with big curls."

The way we understand it, alopecia comes in 2 forms:
1. Alopecia areata. In this type of hair loss, hair usually falls out, leaving behind totally round, smooth patches about the size of a coin or larger. This disease may affect children, women or men of any age. It can often be treated with injections of steroids.
2. Androgenic alopecia. This is the most common type of hair loss known as, "male- or female-pattern baldness". The hair usually starts to thin out first in the front of the scalp and then progresses to the back and top of the head. This type of hair loss also runs in families.

We applaud Miss Delaware's Kayla Martell for her courage and intelligence and her beautiful dream of taking home the crown. We think she's a special young woman with a lot of knowledge to share, and we believe she would make a super Miss America.

Good luck, this evening, Kayla Martell!