When Caoilfhinn Ní Choiligh stepped on to the Rose of Tralee stage on Monday night and opened up about living with alopecia for the past ten years, she won the hearts of the nation.
Oozing confidence and charisma, the 25-year-old Westmeath Rose showcased several of her wigs before removing her current favourite, a dark brown one, to round off the rest of her interview with show co-host Kathryn Thomas with her bald head on show.
In that moment of vulnerability, Caoilfhinn’s message was clear – embrace your imperfections.
But the Mullingar woman, who was crowned the overall winner the following night, admits she didn’t always feel this way. It’s taken a decade to get here.
Westmeath Rose Caoilfhinn Ní Choiligh on stage with Kathryn Thomas in the run up to her victory in the competition. Picture: Domnick Walsh
‘I grew up watching the festival and always admired the girls who took part, they were role models essentially,’ the new Rose Of Tralee tells the Irish Mail.
‘I’d think, maybe I could go for that, but then I took a real knock to my confidence when I started losing my hair.
‘A couple of other things happened, and I just didn’t feel like I was good enough.
‘It’s something that happens to a lot of women, especially Irish women.
‘We just can’t take a compliment, and we find it very hard to put ourselves out into the open and receive flowers or talk about what makes us great. I think we’re allergic to it.
‘That’s what this festival is so good at. It highlights all the different achievements and accomplishments that women have and how we can all be so different but still amazing.’
Caoilfhinn, who was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition alopecia areata when she was 15, was aware of a recent shift in her confidence and self-belief.
Things were going well in her life – she had bought a new home, was loving her job in fashion retail and was studying to be a wig maker – so when she spotted an ad for this year’s Rose of Tralee, she applied to take part.
Caoilfhinn shows Kathryn some of her wigs on stage. Picture: Domnick Walsh
Naturally, she wanted to share her alopecia journey but admits she was slightly concerned it might define her and that she would become known as ‘The Rose with the wigs’.
There’s so much more to her, she points out – she loves theatre, sport, activism, meeting new people – but her hair loss is a significant part of her story and something that has helped shape her, so she decided to make it her focus.
‘My confidence had started to come back, and I’d been saying yes to things, so for me, the timing was right,’ Caoilfhinn says.
‘Doing the Rose Of Tralee was exposure therapy of the highest degree and a great way to put myself out there and give myself a bit of credit for all the things I have achieved and that have helped make me this new person that I am now.
‘If I can help someone else along the way, well, isn’t that great?’
Caoilfhinn and Kathryn share a joke during their chat. Picture: Domnick Walsh
Caoilfhinn recalls the hardest part of her hair loss journey as being right at the start, when it was falling out in clumps and impossible to predict or control.
She threw herself into other activities as a distraction, finding solace in the arts and sport.
She played camogie, performed in local theatre and worked on youth initiatives with Comhairle Na nÓg and the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Eventually it got to the stage where she couldn’t hide her hair loss any more, so at the age of 18, she began to wear wigs.
‘There’s no cure for this auto- immune condition,’ she explains. ‘There are treatments and each one is slightly different with no guarantee that it will work for you.
‘Alopecia is hit and miss. It has a mind of its own.
‘I never went down the route of following up on treatment because they’re really expensive and I couldn’t have gone through it not working, putting so much money and hope into something and maybe my hair falling out a year or two later. It wasn’t for me, so I just started wearing wigs.’
In those early years, Caoilfhinn refused to dwell on her hair loss. It was happening, there was nothing she could do about it and she didn’t want sympathy or pity.
Caoilfhinn celebrates her victory with the other Roses. Picture: Domnick Walsh
As a teenager, she was still figuring things out and says that although it was undoubtedly tough, particularly when faced with social media’s obsession with perfection, she believes she was ‘quite lucky’ to develop alopecia when she did and not at a different age.
‘There’s no good time to lose your hair,’ she says. ‘As much as people always say, “You were so young, it must have been so difficult”, I don’t think I would have wanted to lose it in my 30s or 20s or when I was even younger than 15.
‘I think it affects everyone the same, whatever the stage you’re at and, to be honest, I’m actually quite lucky I lost it when I was young.
‘Had I been older, I think it might have affected me more because I would’ve been used to having my hair for so long that it would have been such a part of my identity, and I would have felt very lost. I’ve heard that from so many women.
‘I was at that stage that I was still figuring out my identity, so kind of played into it then.
‘Now I fully embrace it. I don’t think that would be the case if it had started in my 20s.’
Of course, there were times her hair loss affected daily life.
When she could no longer tie her hair up in a ponytail to play camogie, it became impractical, so she gave up the sport and turned her attention to the theatre instead.
In the world of amateur dramatics, Caoilfhinn could wear wigs without anyone asking questions.
As time went on and her confidence improved, this no longer mattered to her and in a recent play in Mullingar Arts Centre, she took off her wig, an act that was later to be repeated on the Rose Of Tralee stage.
Youth activism also took up much of her time. At college, Caoilfhinn studied politics with a view to going into that arena as a career.
However, a brief stint working for a politician put paid to that plan.
‘I realised it wasn’t for me,’ she laughs. ‘I’m too empathetic and far too emotional for politics, but maybe I’ll eventually work my way round to doing something now. Who knows?’
Her involvement with Comhairle Na nÓg and the Irish Second- Level Students’ Union saw her speak at the Dáil one morning, before rushing home to Mullingar to perform in a play in front of former President Michael D Higgins that evening.
Like she says, she liked to keep herself busy back then.
Caoilfhinn says she wants to use her reign to advocate for alopecia and autoimmune sufferers. Picture: Domnick Walsh
Post-Covid, Caoilfhinn moved on from her youth activism and started advocating for alopecia and autoimmune sufferers instead, setting up the Hair Loss Haven with her friend Saoirse.
The Haven provides support and information to those who are experiencing any kind of hair loss, be it from alopecia, cancer or for another reason.
‘I talk about it on my own social media, that’s where my activism is at right now,’ she says.
‘I love being vocal about stuff that maybe other people are too shy to talk about. You don’t hear much about autoimmune conditions or alopecia, so that’s what I’m focusing on.’
Caoilfhinn has around ten different wigs, some of which she displayed from a trolley on the Rose of Tralee stage.
Explaining to host Kathryn that having a variety meant she could change her hair whenever she wanted, she showed how she could be blonde one day and brunette the next.
In everyday life, she tends to stick with one wig for a while rather than swapping it out regularly because she wants people to recognise her.
Today’s wigs are realistic and of a high quality, but they are expensive too.
When she qualifies as a wig maker, she plans to concentrate on the repairs and alterations of wigs and has used a few of her own wigs in a practice run for her studies.
‘There are so many positives to wearing wigs,’ Caoilfhinn says. ‘I’m trying to let people know that they are a great option instead of trying to fix something that really doesn’t need to be fixed.
‘For anyone going through hair loss, that’s what I was trying to say. You need to accept it, embrace it, don’t let it define you and don’t be discouraged.
‘Embrace the imperfections because when you do that, you start to care less about it. You become unbothered and it allows you to move on to bigger and better things.’
She jokes that like television’s Moira Rose, she has a wall in her new home for her wigs.
Caoilfhinn joked that like Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek, she has a wall in her new home for her wigs. Picture: Domnick Walsh
But unlike the Schitt’s Creek wig-wearing, larger-than-life character, portrayed by the late Catherine O’Hara, she hasn’t quite got round to giving them names.
‘Moira’s wig wall is something I envy,’ she laughs. ‘I have a wig wall in the new house and am modelling it off hers, but I don’t have any names for them. I don’t treat them like they have an identity.
‘Maybe when I have a collection as good as hers, I’ll get to the stage of swapping them in and out all the time. I know some women who do.
‘When it comes to my favourites, I go in and out of having one, but at the moment, I’m loving the dark wig. It’s been my favourite for a while.’
Speaking after the response to her Monday night appearance and her subsequent triumph, Caoilfhinn said she was delighted with the ‘overwhelming’ positivity and the support she had received.
While she is thrilled that she has been able to use the Rose of Tralee platform to raise awareness about alopecia, she also wants people to know that she is multifaceted and not merely the ‘Rose with the wigs’, proud as she is of that moniker.
She is also hugely proud of the fact that she has become one of those role models she used to look up to and admire as a child and says it is a role she intends to take seriously over the course of the year.
As the new Rose Of Tralee, she intends to keep advocating for those living with alopecia and autoimmune conditions, and showing young women and girls that differences are to be celebrated and that perfection is not reality.
As the second-ever Westmeath Rose to be crowned Rose of Tralee, Caoilfhinn says she’s ‘grateful and proud’ to have represented her county so positively.
She sums up the whole festival experience as ‘absolutely amazing’ and credits the 31 other Roses for helping to make it special and memorable.
Caoilfhinn’s prize package includes a world travel prize valued at €25,000. Picture: Domnick Walsh
The supervisor in Vila in Mullingar will now embark on a year of travel and engagements representing the festival in Ireland and abroad.
Her prize package includes a world travel prize valued at €25,000, use of a Kia EV3 for a year and free accommodation at the four-star Meadowlands Hotel whenever she returns to Tralee during her reign.
She says she’s still pinching herself that she walked away with the title and hasn’t quite come back down to earth again yet.
She’s looking forward to taking up her Rose of Tralee duties and spreading the important message of being oneself unapologetically and authentically.
‘I want to let people know that you can be a Rose no matter what your imperfections,’ says Caoilfhinn.
‘There is such power in showcasing what makes us different and to me, wearing wigs is my normal and something I embrace. We should never be afraid to show who we are.’
