MY HAIR FELL OUT SO I KNOW HOW MUCH IT MEANS

GROW old gracefully. That’s the rather dismissive mantra spouted by those who think hair is purely a cosmetic issue and nothing to do with our health or wellbeing.

But for many people, hair is closely related to their overall selfesteem and psychological welfare. And I should know – a few years ago I developed a condition called telogen effluvium that is often triggered by stress.

With healthy hair, not all of it is growing. At any one time about 85 per cent is growing and the other 15 per cent is resting or shedding – and this is dictated by your DNA. With telogen effluvium, hair that should be growing instead switches to resting or shedding, and even when it starts to regrow it sheds again very quickly, causing thinning and sparse patches.

In my case it was a result of the hugely restricted diet I was on after weight-loss surgery. I’m a hair expert so I knew what was going on, but even so it was profoundly traumatic. It fell out in clumps and washing it was terrifying – great fistfuls clogged the shower. I knew this was a temporary condition and my hair would eventually stabilise, but it wrecked my confidence. It felt like I had lost my identity.

What did it teach me? That hair isn’t just part of our identity, it’s also inextricably linked to our psychological health.

Wanting to stop the grey – or have a thick mane through a hair transplant – is not about vanity, it’s about taking care of your overall wellbeing. And the better that is, the healthier you’re likely to be.