feb 7 2014 151 quicklist 1category living with alopeciatitle defining her beautyurl text we are a culture obsessed with hair from the big and small screens to the pages of fashion magazines it seems no womans look is complete without a perfectlycoifed do and that poses a serious hurdle for aspiring actress georgia van cuylenburg van cuylenburg is bald like 5 million others in the us van cuylenburg suffers from alopecia areata the disease results in sudden and often unpredictable hair loss on the scalp and often across the rest of the body it is cyclical in nature and has no known cause or cure for the effervescent van cuylenburg it is particularly ironic because she used to be hair model she told abc news elizabeth vargas my hair defined my beauty in that it was my calling card media 15089546caption userelated 11307269 quicklist 2category living with alopeciatitle a devastating setbackurl text van cuylenburg grew up in melbourne australia where from a young age she was an overachiever who strove for nothing short of perfection i was in choir madrigals school plays the musicals the debating team the school band the jazz band van cuylenburg said i played saxophone and gave oboe a go joined the swim team she was also known as the girl with the beautiful hair i had this thick amazing hair with natural blonde highlights she said despite her achievements and that hair van cuylenburg was consumed with insecurity she fought a serious battle with anorexia her weight plummeted to 75 lbs looking in the mirror was not exactly my favorite thing to do she said van cuylenburg received treatment for the eating disorder and made a full recovery at the age of 18 she moved to los angeles to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an actress and found success before long she was appearing in advertisements got a part in a childrens show and was doing voiceovers for a major videogame and then came a devastating setback one morning in the shower van cuylenburg ran her hands through her hair and began to feel it fall out in clumps she watched as her calling card circled the drain media 15089456caption userelated quicklist 3category living with alopeciatitle searching for a cureurl text although life went on as usual she attended an audition that very afternoon georgia would struggle to come to grips with her new reality she and her then boyfriend began filming her journey and capturing her most vulnerable moments it would later become a documentary and an ode to her experience called baby let your hair hang down while van cuylenburg did her best to face the world with a smile she felt forced to hide her alopecia under a wig despite her efforts to accept her disease she was desperate to get her hair back and searched for a cure van cuylenburg went through aggressive acupuncture which involved banging a hammer with seven needles on it