Alopecia: Living with alopecia – ‘When my hair started falling out, I just didn’t want to acknowledge it. I had all the mirrors in my room covered with sheets’
‘I noticed my first bald patch when I was 21. I was in college at the time and, knowing what alopecia was, I panicked. I went straight to the doctor where I was diagnosed with alopecia areata, which is bald patches about the size of a euro coin.
cycle of hair loss and regrowth followed, which went on for the next seven years. Then, when I was 28, it got worse. The middle part of my head was completely bald and despite what friends and family were saying to me, I knew, I just knew, that I was going to lose it all.
I got a referral to a specialist who put me on steroids, and that was hell. Some people love being on steroids. It boosts their immune system and they feel great but, for me, it was horrendous. I wasn’t sleeping, I was having heart palpitations — I had every possible side effect listed and it cost me a fortune. Worse, I had no regrowth, so it was all for nothing.