The hair loss, learning to live as a baldie, and why my alter ego, Lady Alopecia, was born (or released).
Copywriter, yoga teacher, mum of two, fancy dress fanatic, enthusiastic zumba-er, lover of the colour yellow. And glitter addict.
I’ve had alopecia areata for most of my life. So I’ve got really smooth arms and legs. (Yay!) But I’ve also got a shiny head like an egg. (Boo!)
A few years ago, writing that last line would’ve had me in floods of tears. Now, I’ve fully embraced the hair-free life.
I used to have a mop of auburn curls – they were sort of my trademark.
But when I was 11, I got my first bald patch. My mum had just died from Lupus – another autoimmune condition – so maybe the shock of losing her shocked my body into another loss.
By my mid-twenties, I had a receding hairline and more patches than a quilt convention.
It was a slow and steady process. Some alopecians lose their hair overnight – a trauma I can’t imagine. But watching clumps of hair collect on my pillow and in the shower drain over the next few months and years, was another kind of torture.
I felt like I was responsible. And yet, helpless. Cue years of anxiety and bouts of depression.
After wearing increasingly large headbands, clip-ins, extensions, and then full wigs for years, I felt like I’d been hiding, lying to everyone – most of all, to myself.
I made a big decision.
So I asked my then boyfriend (now husband) Andy to shave my head. And despite the initial shock, I felt so free. Like myself, for the first time in years.
I was bowled over by the outpouring of support from friends, family, and especially complete strangers. People emerged from the woodwork to share their own secret burdens.
We are all carrying something.
Inspired by the reaction I got, in 2018 I started Lady Alopecia to create the advice site I didn’t have (and desperately needed) as a teenager with bald patches.
At the time, I just wanted to talk honestly about alopecia, the shock of losing hair, the awkward bits, the bad days, and the strange little things no one really tells you about, like dealing with sweat in your eyes when you’ve got no eyebrows.
It was never meant to be polished. Just me sharing what I was learning while living with hair loss. I was also hoping to provide a balance to all the shady hair advice sites out there flogging miracle potions.
For a few years, Google smiled on me and the site did alright, enough to cover its costs. Then the internet moved on. It got harder for small sites to compete, and a lot of the questions I used to write about now get answered instantly by our AI overlords.
At the same time, my life changed too. I had kids, and my focus shifted. I stopped keeping up with every new shampoo ingredient or the latest experimental treatment the FDA had approved. I didn’t have time, nappies took over.
I accepted that I’m a bald girl in a world full of hairy people and got on with living.
Today, Lady Alopecia is still here. She’s not going anywhere.
I don’t know if my hair will ever grow back. If it does, great. If not, that’s ok too. I know there’s much more to me than hair. (Thankfully.)
I still support women in need of a shoulder. But most of my support now happens in person, through my work as a yoga and mindfulness teacher in Hoi An, Vietnam, especially with soon-to-be and new mums.
At some point, I will run my yoga for hair loss course again. Because I loved it, but I want to do it justice. One day, I’d love to run retreats bringing alopecians from across the world together to share and care.
For the moment, I still write a weekly newsletter about life as a bald gal in a hairy world, which you can sign up to right here.
At first, I wore them to cover up and hide. Then I realised they’d become a way to express myself.
They’re now the one thing I reach for every day to feel comfortable, like myself, and just get on with life.
The ones below are the exact ones I wear.
It took me a hell of a long time to find a headscarf I actually loved wearing.
So long in fact, that I had to team up with a tailor friend Bee and make my own. That was nearly a decade ago, and I’ve been wearing my bamboo scarves almost every day since.
I probably have every colour under the sun now.
Bamboo remains my everyday, but when I want to feel cosier or fancier I will unleash my super stretchy jersey cotton or my printed cotton.
Unlike many other hair loss websites, I share information that people can actually understand. No confusing medical terms, whenever I can avoid it. I won’t promise to cure your alopecia – but I will do my damnedest to help you feel comfortable again, with or without hair!
Here’s what you can expect:
Join the gang and receive weekly thoughts on life from some living with alopecia.