The secret of my sleek new bob? It’s a wig... I’m going bald
TV chef Sally Bee reveals how she is facing up to hair loss – caused by the heart drugs she takes to stay alive
POURED into a pillar-box red body-con dress and sporting a vampish auburn bob, Sally Bee is positively smouldering as she steps on to the television studio kitchen set. The star chef on ITV’s Lorraine show twirls a few strands of fringe around her fingers, flutters her lashes and shakes her head, giving her hair a lightly tousled look, as the crew begin filming her next cookery segment, to be aired next week.
But Sally, 47, has a confession to make. The hair is not her own. It’s a wig. And, in fact, viewers have been unaware until today that she has already been on screen in ‘Wiggy Number One’, which is a brunette crop.
‘Two’ and ‘Three’ are dark brown and red bobs. And, Sally reveals, soon she will be seen in ‘Four’ – which is longer and blonde.
She chose the first wig because it was almost identical to the pixie cut she has been sporting this year, and she didn’t feel ready – until now – to reveal the reason: her once lustrous, wavy brown locks have been falling out.
‘I’m going bald,’ admits the mother of three when we speak later.
She slips off the bob to reveal short hair with strikingly obvious bald patches around her temples.
‘I don’t want to hide the truth. I know I’m lucky to be alive, but in many ways, losing my hair has been one of the most traumatic things I’ve gone through. I had two options: I could hide behind the sofa for ever, or I could go for it and really have some fun. I hope it’s obvious which option I went for.’
The cause of Sally’s hair loss is the daily medication she’s taken since suffering two massive heart attacks in September 2004. She has spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), a rare condition with very few survivors – most cases are diagnosed at a post mortem.
The main artery in her heart had fallen apart from top to bottom, causing massive damage to her heart. There is little that can be done surgically to treat SCAD, so Sally has to manage her condition with medication and lifestyle changes.
Although she has spoken openly about her heart health – famously, 12 copies of her debut healthyeating book were bought by US First Lady Michelle Obama – she has never disclosed the devastating effect it has had on her hair.
‘My hair lost half its volume almost overnight after the heart attacks as a result of the shock. I had hair extensions to bulk it out. But there was nothing I could do about the effect of the medication, and my hair loss accelerated dramatically this year.’ A beta-blocker called Sotalol, which is designed to keep the heart calm, and the blood-pressure drug Perindopril are, she believes, to blame for her bald patches. The hair loss, Sally has been told, is likely to progress and be permanent.
‘I can control other side effects, such as aching limbs, with daily 40-minute walks and eating a carbohydrate based snack such as pitta bread before bed, but losing my hair is out of my control and that makes it harder to bear,’ she adds. ‘Wearing the wigs is a way of taking back control.’
Sally wants to ‘bring back the glamour of wearing a wig’. She adds: ‘Younger pop stars such as Rita Ora and Adele see them as fashion accessories. To me, it’s now a necessity, as it is for many other women, but it helps to see the positives. Joan Collins and Barbara Windsor wouldn’t be seen out without some kind of hairpiece and I want people to see wig-wearing as part of that oldschool glamour.
‘I was amazed at how different I felt with the bob on, sassier and confident enough to wear that bright red fitted dress, which isn’t like me. It felt good, as I’ve been struggling a lot to feel good about myself this year.’
Sally, who lives in Stratford with husband Dogan, 52, a cameraman, and their children Tarik, 16, Kazin, 13, and Lela, 11, continues: ‘When I first showed the bald patches to my husband recently, he was shocked but very supportive.
‘He’s going bald but it’s different for a man. He can shave his head or grow a beard and still look masculine. For women, a good head of hair is central to how attractive we feel.
‘Hair is intrinsically linked to our sense of femininity and self-esteem and losing it has been devastating.
‘Forget the fact that I work on TV – even walking to the school gates I could feel my self-confidence wilt, convinced that other people would clock my thinning hair. I didn’t know who I was any more.’
Although wigs are available for as little as £15 as a fashion accessory, they are too hot and itchy to wear all the time. Sally’s is from a specialist maker called Raphael Perrier, where they cost from £300 to £700.
‘When you first try one on it looks horrendous. You have to spend 20 minutes fluffing it up and moving it around. Then you need a hairdresser who can trim it to frame your own face. I wash mine with a wig shampoo and it falls into place now.
‘Now I’ve revealed my story, I’m going to embrace wearing them.’
To follow Sally’s hair-loss journey, visit sally-bee.com.