Health & Happiness: Beating Alopecia + Unable To Eat
Gemma’s learnt to embrace her condition
The last thing a girl needs before her prom is a bad hair day! But, aged 15, weeks before I was due to dress up for the big night, clumps of my thick, curly, black hair began to fall out.
‘What’s going on?!’ I cried to my mum Sue, 51, a nurse.
My GP diagnosed alopecia totalis, meaning I’d lose most of the hair on my head and face.
A dermatologist I saw said it could be autoimmune, or the result of medication I took as a child for a rare metabolic disorder.
There was no treatment or cure.
In a few months,
I had just a few strands left.
The NHS gave me a light-brown, straight wig, but my confidence was shot.
In summer 2010, I lost my eyebrows, lashes and the rest of my body hair. I did have my eyebrows and eyeliner tattooed on, but alopecia had hit me hard and I was prescribed antidepressants.
In September 2012, I started at Glyndwr University, studying Sports Coaching.
A friend there, Becci, 26, asked me to coach her netball club. Soon, the more I coached and played, the more confident I got. My wig fell off once while I was playing, then on a ride at Alton Towers. I was mortified, but no-one else cared. Then it hit me… This is me! In summer 2013, I decided to embrace my bald head…
Friends cheered and told me I looked fantastic, and the kids I coached said it was cool.
Unbelievably, my hair began to grow back when I was 21.
Thanks to netball, I learnt alopecia needn’t hold me back.
I do still cover the three bare patches I have left on my head – but I couldn’t be happier!
Then it hit me… This is me! So I embraced my bald head…