How A Small Wig Business Sponsored A Huge Fashion Show For Alopecia!
Imagine a room packed with hundreds of people supporting women and girls strutting down a runway, snatching wigs off their heads and showing the world that they are confident, beautiful and also happen to have Alopecia.
That was the absolute magic of the Baldtourage 2026 Fashion show presented by Beauty Beyond Barriers. An entire weekend crafted from the mind of Christie Valdiserri, who founded The Baldtourage in 2020 for women and girls to find a community of people just like them and redefine bald as bold.
At Silk or Lace, we are very tuned in to our online hair loss community and we've been following Christie for years. After seeing how special the 2025 Baldtourage fashion show was, we kept it on our radar to apply to be a wig sponsor in 2026. By March of 2026, we thought, why not just take a leap and cold email Christie - the worst she can do is say no - however, that "no" never came. That cold email turned into almost 5 months of planning, meetings, connection and lots of wig prep that all culminated into our dream event!
Learn more about Christie and her journey through our interview with her below!
You built an entire movement around embracing baldness, but you still wear hair. How do you respond to people who call that a contradiction?
"I believe wholeheartedly that we are beautiful, worthy, and enough without a wig and with nothing on our head. But sometimes, I'm just a girl and I like to accessorize my look sometimes!
Losing your hair is a whole identity change, and some days you just want to look differently.
Whether that is drawing on eyebrows, having glitter eyebrows, wearing a wig, or not wearing a wig — it's okay to express yourself in a different way."
You've walked the runway bald and now you're creating that same moment for other women. What happens when they take that walk?
"When I walked for Sports Illustrated, it was probably the most liberating and freeing moment of my life. I'll never forget how I felt walking that walk in front of thousands of people. I was so nervous, and in a blonde wig — and then I took that wig off and felt so proud of myself and the growth.
I just crave and really try to offer that same moment and that feeling to other people. You literally transform, because you feel so shy, shameful, nervous, and feel a lot of negative things at first... but then you take that wig off, and you just feel so empowered and strong, like you can take on the world.
I love that I get to offer this feeling to so many other women and girls!
If you could give people 3 things to do to help support those around them going through hair loss, what would they be?
- 1.Follow her lead. If she wants to wear a wig, if she wants to wear a head wrap, if she wants to wear her patches out — we are supporting whatever she's doing!
- 2.Listen. Just listen. Sometimes you just want to talk about this hair loss experience with no options or comments, you just want someone to listen.
- 3.Be sensitive, especially in the early stages, about what you talk about with your hair around the person that's experiencing alopecia.
What do people think of when they see a bald woman?
"As a bald woman, I think when people see me they think, 'Oh wow, what a beautiful bad ass confident person!'
I hope that is the narrative that is what's going on when people see all bald women, and that is what I'm driving home.
We are all worthy, beautiful, and perfect just the way we are!