I wanted to order Grey Gardens from Blockbuster.com, but I wanted the HBO series, not the original documentary; oh well, by their mistake or mine, I ended up with the documentary. So, my 18YO daughter and I watched it.
I had read the Wiki article on Grey Gardens and the Beale’s (Edith and “Little Edie”), and thought they would be interesting (read: batshit insane) characters to study.
All through the documentary, Little Edie wears scarves, etc. to keep her entire head covered. Earlier photographs are shown of her without her head covered. In some scenes, she even appears to have almost no eyebrows, which may or may not be related to the head-covering.
So, why, in later years, her insistence on keeping covered up?
I tried to search for the answer myself, but I am old and my Google-fu is weak.
The alopecia is explicitly referred to in the HBO movie, though not by name. There are several scenes that mention an attack of it in her early teens (the link that Jaymosch gave says it began in her early 20s, though) and one major scene where she realizes that she’s losing her hair again and has a huge breakdown because of it.
