My personal experience with hair loss is my inspiration and motivation. It is the foundation for my goals and actions today and everyday. As a teenager, I developed alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss and has no known cause or cure. By age 21, I had lost all of my hair. At that time, I was working in a high-profile professional position and struggled to maintain my self-esteem in the face of societys expectations. At the time, there was little understanding of, and little compassion for, individuals experiencing hair loss or thinning because of alopecia areata or other medical causes (stress, chemotherapy, scars). The marketplace offered little solace; acceptable wig and hairpiece products were almost impossible to locate. In an effort to help herself and others, Knight founded an image institute in 1978.