Your Alopecia and Hair Loss Stories
As the Help 4 Alopecia website grows we thought we would invite those of you have suffered from any type of alopecia or hair loss to share your experiences. Sharing our stories can be a powerful way of providing support and encouragement to other sufferers who often feel isolated due to the lack of community support for hair loss conditions. The internet has changed all this and resources like this one can make all the difference.
We will publish stories on this page as soon as we receive them.
My Alopecia Story
OK. I thought I would kick things off with my story about how I’ve lived with Alopecia for over 25 years. My first experience with Alopecia Areata was when I was 6 years old so my memories are still a little blurry. What I do remember very clearly though was the treatment I received, I was living in Cornwall (UK) with my parents at the time and had the treatment at Treliske Hospital according to my mother. Whereas now you have the steriod injections directly into the scalp with a syringe back then they used an applicator which to be honest felt like someone was using a stapler on my head. Ouch!
I have to admit I never felt bothered about not having hair but what really hurt was the never ending bullying I received at school. I’ll always remember having my woolly hat ( it was winter at the time) thrown around the playground and me spending my break times chasing after it ( I had a lot of exercise in those days to say the least). This led to a growing feeling of social isolation and even when my hair grew back after a year or so I was left with a rather cruel nickname of “Gary Baldy”. Being so young I didn’t realise I could retort with stories of a certain famous soldier and patriot and I expect it wouldn’t have made much impression on the kids zealously teasing me everyday.
I had another attack of Alopecia Areata when I was 15 however it wasn’t as severe as my first and I just lost a large patch of hair from the back of my head. Interestingly enough both attacks occurred during stressful times. My parents had gone through a divorce when I was 5/6 years old and I had mock exams around the time of the second attack. Like many other Alopecia sufferers it seems very easy to tie in stress with Alopecia despite the lack of evidence to link the two.
As I grew up my self esteem took a real battering and the low self confidence and self doubt affected me for many years even leading into adulthood. I found it hard to hold down a job for more than a year or so and although I didn’t analyse what was happening with hindsight I can see that it was down to my self image being incredibly low.
I really feel that as I’ve matured I’ve been better equiped to deal with this area of my life and this has been especially important as last year I developed full blown Alopecia Universalis. Although its unlikely my hair will grow back I’m philosophical about the whole thing. There are far worse things to have in this life and I’m very lucky to have loving and supportive wife aswell as understanding family and friends. The fact I get a lot of stares when walking down the street is just a fact of life now.
So how do you cope with Alopecia? Probably my top recommendation would be to talk to people who also have Alopecia. There is no substitute for the support and kindness you receive from people who are going through the same thing. There are lots of groups on the internet, just check out the Alopecia resources page on this site. Its also important to work on your self esteem and confidence and the more I learn about this area the more I realise just what an impact it can have on your life. Why not try a self hypnosis course or NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) to help deal with this area.
Your Stories
Below are some of the stories and comments you have sent in. I have left peoples names out for now but if you would like your name included please send me an email.
I am 27 years old, after years of the occasional patch which grew back within months I gradually witnessed my hair falling out in huge amounts. Until the day where I just shaved the last pathetic remaining hairs. Bath time was the worst just sit their hysterically crying. Through many tears, months of my mum using essential oils and deep massage on my head, I now have full coverage although “boy- like” it’s still hair! The doctors told me it’d never grow back and offered me a life time of free wigs. I say never give up hope. I will be burning my wig in celebration! (just kiddin’ i’m keeping it for those bad hair days or god forbid re-occurance of alopecia)…. 
I think that it is very telling of Gails’ (Gail Porter) strong personality that she has been so open about her hair loss. when it happened to me, I hid away - and even though my hair has now grown back I am still wearing extensions and have agoraphobia - her story has made me think about my own case for which I am thankful - she is truly brave.
I’m sixteen and am not sure what type of alopecia I have, but I have had alopecia for the last nine years. They say mine is stress related as I first got it when I was seven, just after my step dad died, when Ii lost my eyelashes. then when I took my GCSEs last year Ii lost my eyebrows too. For the past like eight and a half years i was ashamed of having alopecia, I wouldn’t go out, I couldn’t hold eye contact with anyone, but then around six months ago Ii took a look on the internet and realised that Ii’m not the only one dealing with this problem, and that it isn’t anything to be ashamed of so now everybody knows I have alopecia and I dont care what people think, and since I’ve started enjoying my life, my eyelashes and eyebrows have started to grow back so maybe all thats needed sometimes is a positive outlook.
