Charlie's New Angel

Taking pictures with him and talking about their shared disease, alopecia, which prevents the body from growing hair in patches or altogether, Capistran left the Toyota Center seeing himself in a new light – exactly the mission Villanueva undertakes in the 15 to 20 NBA cities each year where he participates in similar meetings.

“This is a big deal to him,” Joseph’s father, Joe, said as Charlie V signed autographs for the family and shared with them his own alopecia experience. “He likes basketball a lot and to meet someone who plays in the NBA who’s gone through what he’s gone through, that’s a big deal.”

The question Charlie V gets asked most often along the way is, “What do you say when somebody asks what happens?”

“I tell them to say, ‘I was just born with it.’ Keep it simple and don’t get into the facts if it makes you uncomfortable.”

Joseph started losing his hair in patches when he was 7, his father said, and the toughest thing – as Villanueva hears all the time – was the chiding he took in school.

“Kids can be mean,” Joe said. “He wore a hat to cover his head and that was a big issue. Until I shaved my head and just told him that hair’s not that big a deal, then he started being a little more comfortable going without a hat.”

Villanueva can relate to that. He started losing his hair at 10, and he says it took him six years to come to grips with it. Overcoming the hit to his self-confidence and becoming a widely recognized NBA player, Villanueva now wants to let kids know they, too, can become whatever they want – with or without a head of hair.

“They see me, I’m playing in front of 16 or 20,000 fans every night,” he said. “And they think, ‘If he can play in front of all these people, why can’t I do anything I set my mind to doing.’ Maybe it gives them a little more confidence, maybe they feel they don’t have to hide. It can give them a sense of being free. That’s the message I try to preach: give them hope.”

He’s learned that not only does it change the kids’ outlook on life, but it lifts the spirits of the parents, too, to see their children respond and grow.

“The feedback is tremendous,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons I keep doing it. It brings joy to my life to see kids being happy and excited and to see their parents – they love it.”

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