{"id":645956,"date":"2026-08-19T19:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T19:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/645956\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T19:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T19:16:18","slug":"rose-of-tralee-winner-caoilfhinn-ni-choiligh-hopes-to-go-without-wig-more-often-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/645956\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose of Tralee winner Caoilfhinn N\u00ed Choiligh hopes to go without wig more often \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caoilfhinn N\u00ed Choiligh<\/a>, the Co Westmeath<\/a> woman who was crowned the 2026 International Rose of Tralee<\/a>, has said she hopes to make more public appearances without her wig in future.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old shared her experience of alopecia during Monday\u2019s TV broadcast of the competition and talked on stage about a selection of wigs before removing the one she was wearing to show her hair loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has seen me, but there are so many like me who, to be honest, I take inspiration from,\u201d she said on Wednesday, the morning after winning the contest. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many women who don\u2019t wear a wig at all and fully embrace it and I am learning to do that. I hope to do that more in the future. The exposure therapy on Monday night definitely helped with that.\u201d <\/p>\n

N\u00ed Choiligh lost her hair at 15 and said she had never been to a hair salon before participating in the Rose of Tralee Festival. <\/p>\n

However, it is an experience she will have a chance to get used to as her prize package includes 12 months of hair and make-up styling from the Kerry<\/a> College of Further Education. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls are so well-versed in hair styling that they were able to style my wigs for the TV night. I really enjoyed that,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I was losing my hair, I was too young to go to a salon. But the lady who did my hair, her niece had alopecia, and as soon as I mentioned it she knew what to do. Both women who styled my hair had styled wigs before, I am very blessed. So it was really nice to be pampered with all the girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 2026 International Rose of Tralee Caoilfhinn N\u00ed Choiligh. Photograph: Domnick Walsh\/Eye Focus <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rose of Tralee review: Westmeath winner is a good-news story from a creaky eventOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

N\u00ed Choiligh said she was \u201cshocked\u201d to hear her name announced as winner of the Rose of Tralee and was \u201cvery proud\u201d to represent women who live with hair loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the messages coming in the group chat and it\u2019s amazing because some of these women I have not even met in person. So, like, my biggest supporters I haven\u2019t even met or are from other parts of the world, and it\u2019s amazing.\u201d <\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt\u2019s a lot right now but I just can\u2019t wait to see them all and show how proud I am of all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WestmeathWestmeath Rose Caoilfhinn N\u00ed Choiligh won this year\u2019s Rose of Tralee. Photograph: Domnick Walsh <\/p>\n

Although going through hair loss at such a young age was a challenging experience, N\u00ed Choiligh said she would not change it, as it has made her the person she is today. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that I have gone through and the things that make me, I wouldn\u2019t change it for the world. I don\u2019t want my hair to grow back because … if I could change time and make it so that I didn\u2019t lose my hair … I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way because it made me resilient, it made me strong, it made me connect with other women who are also all those things\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s something that really shaped me.\u201d <\/p>\n

In terms of her plans for the next 12 months, she said she was uncertain but wanted to \u201cembrace everything that comes my way\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to highlight more of the festival aspect of it because you see so much on telly and social media, but I have been involved now with the tour, and the parade and everything that goes on in between and I think that\u2019s something that is a credit to Tralee<\/a>. The organisers put so much work and effort into it and I think they deserve a bit more attention for it because it\u2019s all about the kids at the end of the day, it\u2019s about family, it\u2019s about community.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m actually speechless\u2019: Westmeath woman who shared alopecia journey crowned Rose of Tralee 2026Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caoilfhinn N\u00ed Choiligh, the Co Westmeath woman who was crowned the 2026 International Rose of Tralee, has said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,957,888,14233],"class_list":["post-645956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry","tag-rose-of-tralee","tag-tralee"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117123782654091370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}