She's navigating her alopecia diagnosis on a public platform and inspiring others suffering from hair loss.

Mary Sickler 2025 Miss Nevada USA is our guest this week on the Nevada Week In person.

Support for Nevada Week in person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and other supporters.

Welcome to Nevada Week in person I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

Mary Sickler is a model and advocate for sexual assault survivors, and now represents Nevada for the miss USA competition.

But as she competed for her crown behind the scenes, she was coming to terms with losing her hair due to alopecia areata in an auto immune condition.

Mary Sickler learned to redefine beauty for herself and then for the country as she walked the miss USA stage without a wig for a part of the competition.

We spoke with Mary about this and more when she visited Vegas PBS in December.

All right, well, let's start with can we go back to about this same time last year?

And what were you going through this time last year?

I actually found a small little bald patch about this big about the size of a quarter.

And honestly, I remember thinking nothing of it.

I was a professional model and I was like, oh, someone probably just pulled my hair too tight on set.

And then another one appeared and I remember going to the doctor and they diagnosed me with alopecia areata.

And over the next few months, it started getting worse and worse, and I began to lose my eyelashes and my eyebrows.

And I was eventually diagnosed with alopecia universalis, which meant that I was going to lose my hair everywhere.

And I remember leaving that office completely devastated.

I looked in the mirror and honestly, I didn't even recognize who I was.

I had about 70% of my hair gone.

My lashes were about 30% there and no eyebrows.

And I was like, who is this woman?

And I'm just so proud to be able to look back on that moment now and realize that I was the same girl I always was, no matter how much hair was on my head.

And now I actually am able to speak about it.

And it's just wonderful how much time can really heal.

How long of a time period was that when you were first noticing the hair loss to when you got the diagnosis in under six months, I lost 100% of my hair.

Wow, that's so quick.

It was so quick.

And especially as women, I think we put a lot of our identity into our hair and our lashes and I think that was a big switch to be able for me to realize that I could look in the mirror with a wig on or without a wig on, and I was still beautiful.

Very much so.

And so is this typical that it comes on quickly and it moves rapidly.

It's really different for everyone and it happens at different points of people's lives.

I think what people don't really understand is that this is more than just a cosmetic issue.

Alopecia is an autoimmune disorder.

And the way that I like to describe it is that the autoimmune cells are attacking your hair follicles.

And so you don't know what hair follicles are going to attack or when they're going to attack.

But something triggers your genes.

And eventually if you have all five genes, then you can lose your hair.

And this can happen to anyone.

It can happen to anyone.

And out of nowhere, as was in your case.

No.

What treatment exists and why would people confuse it with a cosmetic issue solely?

There are a bunch of treatments.

I mean, I have tried them all.

There's steroid shots, PRP, there's medication, and luckily some treatments work for people and some treatments don't.

I am actually on a brand new treatment, which I'm really excited to try and see if it works, but I think what people don't really understand is the emotional effects that hair really has.

I think it's written off as just, oh well, you just have alopecia.

You could have some other worse autoimmune disorder.

You're fine.

But I don't think people realize how hard it really is on a person until you start losing those chunks of hair.

Yeah.

I saw pictures of you on Instagram taking part in the walk for alopecia.

And you are with little girls who have the same autoimmune disease.

What are they telling you when they meet you.

What are they saying.

Oh my goodness.

That was one of the most life changing events for me.

It was the first event that I ever attended without a wig on, and I remember being so scared.

I got up on stage and I had to hold back tears because I was just so scared of speaking in front of them.

And then after the walk, they came up to me and I could just see their eyes light up, and then I could realize that they were able to see me as a beauty queen in this glamorous person without any hair.

And I think what was really big was I've met children with all different types of hair loss, children going through chemo, children who have alopecia, and they all meet me with the same me.

too.

If you can do it, I can do it.

When I watched some of your interviews when you were crowned Miss Nevada ahead of this interview, you had not revealed at that time that you had the autoimmune disease.

And I just wondered, when I'm watching it thinking, what's going through her head?

What were you even thinking about?

Or what?

I was not ready to tell anyone.

Quite honestly, less than ten people outside of my family knew that I had alopecia, and I hid it from everyone because I was scared.

I didn't want people to think I was sick.

I didn't want people to think of me less than.

I didn't want people to think of me, that I finally won.

I've been competing since I was ten just because I had no hair, and I wanted to show people that you can win with hair or without hair.

But once I was crowned Miss Nevada, I felt this calling to finally open up.

I was really scared to tell people, but I'm a woman of faith, and I thought that God was choosing me during this time for something greater.

I've always believed in giving back to your community and having a servant heart, and this was my opportunity to do it.

And it was actually a mass that you saw on TV.

Will you tell that story?

So I watch mass whenever I'm traveling.

I watch Father Dave shout out Father Dave!

I love him during one of his homilies.

For some reason he was talking about hair loss and he said, it's not your fault.

And I remember I called my mom and I was sobbing like a lunatic because for some reason I thought there was something I did, something I said there was some reason that I was losing all of my hair in this random point when I was only 21 years old, but I realized that God gives his strongest soldiers his greatest battles, and I feel like I've gone through a lot in my life.

I'm a person who's been I've been sexually assaulted.

I've lost all my hair.

But through it all, I've tried to use my battles and my struggles for something better and something good.

That was your platform.

Still.

Is your platform correct?

What kind of work do you do in that area for sexual assault prevention?

And and awareness?

One of my favorite things that I've done is I've actually been able to work with local women's shelters and help educate police officers about the importance of asking more compassionate questions.

First, when I walked into the police station, the first question I got was, well, what were you wearing?

And I remember being like, why are you asking me this?

You could have asked me, can I?

How can I help you?

Are you okay?

And that's what I want to make sure that I'm educating our wonderful police officers on, because this is such a hard topic for women to even be able to go into the police station.

And I just want to show women that, you know, we're survivors.

We don't have to be victims.

We can use our voices.

so you win, Miss Nevada.

And you watched that mass with Father Dave was it?

And how many days before you're competing for for miss USA?

Do you decide?

I am going to show myself without a wig.

It was about four weeks before miss USA that I finally announced it.

I actually filmed my video reveal, you can say before Miss Nevada, and I was never ready to share it.

And I was never ready to actually push that post button.

And I remember finally being like, this is it.

I, I felt so confident.

And that was something that was really important for me.

Was I wanted to make sure that no matter what mean comments I got, no matter what people said, that I was still going to feel beautiful with or without my hair.

And that's what I really want to tell women, is that it doesn't matter how much hair you have on your head, that should not be your defining moment.

And I wanted to make sure that people knew before I was Miss Nevada that I was more than just alopecia.

I think people can put us inside of a little box.

Oh, she's only for alopecia.

Oh, she's only a sexual assault.

Women's rights advocate.

But I think we're so multifaceted as women, and that's what makes us so special.

And that's what I really wanted to highlight.

What was the response?

Like, what do you remember the me too?

I had so many DMs saying, I showed this to my daughter, who has alopecia and she instantly started crying.

I saw women texting me, well, I've never told anyone this, but I've been wearing a wig for the past five years.

I've never left the house without it, and I had men messaging me too.

I think everyone has gone through something where they've looked in the mirror and they don't feel beautiful, and I think everyone has gone through a challenge that they think that they can't overcome.

And that's what I really wanted.

My message and my mission to be.

Yes, alopecia is important to me, but everyone goes through trials and my whole motto is to turn your pain into some sort of a purpose.

And that's really what I hope I've done.

When I said how many days before the competition, what I was referring to was a story that your mom is here.

She is off camera taking pictures of you.

But you had also said that she made the what did you call it, a cap?

I called it a headpiece, but cap also worked okay for miss USA.

And she had to do that in two days time.

Yes.

So leading up to the competition, I had always planned on wearing a gown with a headpiece that was made, and unfortunately, the headpiece never came in.

So a week before I said, okay, it's fine, I'm not supposed to wear it.

And I just felt this calling to be able to be competing at miss USA and having alopecia and being the first woman with alopecia competing, that I wanted to do something special.

So during my national costume, I was a Vegas showgirl and I did not wear a wig.

And I was met with so many comments and I just felt so proud of myself.

So I decided during the preliminary gown competition that I wouldn't be wearing a wig.

So I remember calling my mom and I said, so is there a michael's close by?

Okay, do you have any extra stones?

And she and one of my good friends actually made the entire piece, and it was all individual pieces that had to be glued to my head, which took 20 minutes.

Hence why I was not able to do it during finals.

So that was my only opportunity.

And I remember coming off stage and I was just that was the proudest moment of my entire life.

The modeling contracts, do they continue to come?

I am starting to get back into modeling.

I was signed in New York and unfortunately lost my contract, but I'm getting back up there and really, I think what was really big was getting my confidence back.

To be able to get back in front of those casting agents without wearing a wig or with wearing a wig.

And how do you decide when to wear a wig and when not to when you're out in public?

Yeah, I think that what's really important is that we realize that some days people feel most beautiful with a wig, or some days people feel most beautiful without a wig.

And these are conversations that I've had with women who have suffered from all forms of hair losses.

Some days all you want to do is speak, quote unquote, normal and put on a wig in a supermarket.

And some days you want to embrace it.

And this is all really new for me.

But I think the biggest thing for me is being able to become like a different identity, a different person.

And that's something that's been really fun and one of the best parts of having all the pieces.

I'm able to be blond, brunet, have a bob, have long hair, and it allows me to just express my creativity in a way that honestly, I'd never dreamed of doing before this.

Yeah, last question.

What do you plan to do for the rest of your reign as Miss Nevada USA?

Well, obviously my road to miss USA is over, but I really just want to continue pouring back into my community.

I think the crowd in the sash are really just obstacles to be able to give back to your community and that's what I want to do.

I want to continue partnering.

I am an advocate with the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, and I just recently partnered with the Children with Hair Loss Organization, and I want to continue to keep partnering with these types of organizations and advocating for women's rights, because this is only one year, but this is my whole life.

I want to make sure that I'm always service oriented and giving back to my community.

Mary Sickler Miss Nevada USA, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

Thank you for having me.

Oh!