Women’s Hair Loss Project

I found this article that was posted yesterday on the Mirror.co.uk site. It is about a woman whose hair loss nearly killed her. It is a very touching article so I’m reposting it here for all of the readers:

Shoving a handful of pills into my mouth, I washed them down with a big swig of vodka.

I didn’t even know what I’d taken - I’d grabbed whatever was in the medicine cabinet and hoped it would end my pain. Then, I called one of my friends.

“I’ve taken an overdose,” I sobbed into the phone.

My mum Teresa picked up the receiver downstairs and had heard everything.

She piled me into the car and took me to hospital, near our home in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

“Why?”

She kept asking. “My hair!” I cried. “No one knows what it’s like.”

Up until the age of 13, I’d been just like everyone else. Then, suddenly, my long brown hair started to fall out in clumps.

At first, it was just a few places, here and there. But, gradually, more patches began to appear. I tried covering it up, doing my hair in different styles, using hair thickening creams and sprays. But nothing worked. There was no getting away from it - I was going bald.

The doctors diagnosed alopecia. “We don’t know what has caused it,” the specialist said. “It could have been shock.”

One of my grandmothers has passed away and I’d moved house and schools.

But I’d never dreamed it would make me lose my hair.

Going to school became a nightmare. “Hey, baldie!” the kids would shout at me down the corridor.

The doctors didn’t know whether my hair would grow back. But while it was gone, I felt in limbo.

I saw taking an overdose as my only way out.

Thankfully, I didn’t take enough pills to do any permanent damage. But my extreme behaviour worried my family.

My mum got me to see a counsellor, who encouraged me to talk about my feelings more openly. It helped a little but then, when I was 16, the little hair I had left fell out. too.

I was devastated and started to wear a wig permanently. I left school, got a job at Morrisons and tried to get on with my life. Shortly after I’d started my job, I met Paul through a work friend. I told him that I wore a wig. “It doesn’t bother me,” he said.

But the relationship didn’t last long. Two weeks after we split up, I found out I was pregnant.

Surprisingly, while I was carrying my baby, all my hair grew back and, by the time I gave birth to my son Callum, I had a full head of hair. I was overjoyed.

It didn’t last, though. Just six weeks after Callum arrived, I started losing my locks again. And this time, my eyebrows fell out, too.

Home alone with my newborn son every night, I began falling into depression.

I put on weight and stopped caring what I looked like. And when I did pluck up the courage to go out, my worst nightmare came true. I was on the dance floor when a friend from work spotted me.

When I didn’t hear him he tugged my “hair” instead. To my horror he pulled my wig clean off.

I shoved it back on and ran to the toilets where I burst into tears.

“I’m so, so sorry,” my friend kept saying. I didn’t blame him for what had happened. But I’ve never been so embarrassed.

My confidence was boosted when another guy asked me out but when he dumped me on the second date, my self-esteem hit an all-time low.

“I just can’t handle the fact you wear a wig,” he admitted.

His words made me feel as though I were a complete freak. It was ages before I had the courage to try dating again. Then, I decided to use the internet - it was easier to meet blokes that way, especially as I had Callum at home.

I soon got chatting online to a 22-year-old bloke named Lee Fenn.

His messages made me laugh. We spent hours emailing each other and I began to feel hopeful about the future.

It was three months before we finally arranged to meet up in person, in November 2006.

I have to admit that I hadn’t told him about the wig as I was petrified it would scare him off. Our first date went like a dream. Lee was everything I’d hoped he’d be.

We started spending more time together and I kept meaning to tell him my secret. Weeks passed and I still hadn’t got round to telling Lee.

Then, one weekend, I took him to meet my nana. My auntie Rita was there, too.

“So, has Lisa told you about her problem with her hair?” she asked.

‘No,” Lee replied, frowning in my direction.

“I’ll explain everything later,” I told him, as my aunt steered me into the kitchen to apologise.

But it didn’t matter - she’d made my job easier. There was no getting away from it now.

Back at our hotel I took a deep breath and blurted out: “I’m bald.”

“I kind of knew something was wrong,” Lee said. He persuaded me to take off my wig and show him what I really looked like.

Trembling, I took the wig off - expecting him to dash for the door.

“I still think you’re gorgeous,” he smiled, studying my head.

I breathed a big sigh of relief, it was an amazing feeling to have finally found a man who accepted me for who I am.

We’ve been going out for more than a year now and living together for 11 months. In that time, Lee has totally changed the way I feel about myself.

I’ve joined a gym and started looking after myself again. I still wear my wig when I’m out but, behind closed doors, I often don’t bother.

I didn’t even mind when Callum pulled my wig off at his fourth birthday party. Now I’d love to be able to afford treatment for hair replacement but it’s so expensive it’s just a distant dream.

However, I’m trying to raise funds - I can’t give up hope that, one day, I’ll have a head of hair again. But, for the time being, if I’m young, sexy and bald then so be it.

I don’t care who knows it. Lee helped me see that I may not have hair but I’m all woman.

Lee Says: “Out of all the girls I met online, she was the one who stood out the most. In many ways, we were like two peas in a pod.

“On our first date I took Lisa to a club. I felt her hair brush against my cheek when we were on the dancefloor together.

“It didn’t feel right somehow but I didn’t say anything. I just let it go. That’s why when Lisa told me what her problem was I wasn’t overly surprised.

“When she took off her wig for the first time I was a little shocked but it didn’t affect the way I felt about her. I still fancied her like mad.

“I’m used to seeing Lisa without her wig now. She may look different without it on but, the way I see it, that doesn’t change her personality, or who she is inside.”

AS TOLD TO KELLY STRANGE

>>Original article can be Viewed Here