Miss USA Contestant with Alopecia Ditches Her Wig in Stand Out Moment from Pageant Preliminary Round

Mary Sickler, the current Miss Nevada USA titleholder, is embracing all aspects of her beauty as she vies for the Miss USA crown.

On Wednesday, Oct. 22, the contestant — who has alopecia universalis — surprised the crowd when she ditched her wig during the pageant preliminaries, which were held in Reno, Nev.

Sickler wore a bejeweled head covering instead, and walked next to Mona Lesa Brackett (Miss New Hampshire) who competed in a hijab. Miss Nevada paired her silver bejeweled head covering with a matching glimmering silver gown that featured ornate beading and a train.

A winner will be crowned after the Miss USA final round on Friday, Oct. 24.

Sickler, 22, was diagnosed with alopecia in early December 2024, when she first started losing hair in patches. Her doctors initially assumed she was showing symptoms of alopecia areata, or partial balding, but her balding continued.

“I remember coming home, and I looked in the mirror and I had never felt uglier,” she told PEOPLE this past September. “My hair was all in patches, my eyelashes were completely gone, I had no eyebrows, and I honestly couldn’t recognize myself anymore.”

Sickler said she felt that her entire brand was taken away by alopecia. She’d been competing in pageants since the age of 10, and her modeling career was taking off dramatically before the diagnosis; her last shoot was for a Louis Vuitton campaign.

Instead of disclosing her condition to her employer and circles of friends, Sickler pulled back from modeling with little explanation, thinking that the absence of her hair would certainly result in the loss of her contract.

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“At that time, I thought, ‘Well, how can a model have no hair? How can anyone view her as beautiful without it?'” says Sickler. However, with zero professional activity to show for several months, her contract was indeed revoked. She kept her alopecia a secret from her inner circles of many family and friends, too. 

However, even after losing self-confidence and her modeling career, Sickler decided she was ready to try the world of pageantry again, even though her coach urged her to wait before re-entering a competition.

She placed as the first runner-up at Miss Texas USA in May 2025, but since the Miss USA organization allows contestants to compete in two state pageants per year, Sickler decided to go out for Miss Nevada USA 2025 in July.

Despite her drive and will to qualify for the national pageant, she still wasn’t ready to speak on her alopecia, but her hesitation wasn’t rooted in fear. “I knew if I talked about it in the interview room, I would cry, and that wasn’t the message that I wanted to send,” she told PEOPLE. “I wanted to send that I was strong, so I decided not to tell anyone.”

She ended up winning the Nevada pageant, qualifying her to represent the state at Miss USA this year. About one month before the national pageant, she decided to reveal her alopecia to the world in a series of social media videos.

The demonstration of her confidence and bravery gave Sickler a new sense of purpose: she’s now the first woman with a public alopecia diagnosis to become Miss Nevada USA and to compete at Miss USA.

“I lost all my hair, and I definitely didn’t think that I would be walking on the Miss USA stage without any hair, but I am,” the model said. “It took me a long time to finally be able to see myself as beautiful, and I think that’s the first step. I think if you see yourself as beautiful and you own it, then other people will too.”