South Yorkshire mum-of-2 opens up about her alopecia journey
36-year-old Rachel Wadsworth from Sheffield first suffered from hair loss as a toddler
A South Yorkshire woman's been opening up to us about how her journey with alopecia affected her mental health as a teen.
36-year-old Rachel Wadsworth from Sheffield has suffered from the hair loss condition since she was a toddler.
Rachel's parents first noticed her hair falling out when she was just 2 years old.
It did grow back - before it happened again at 15 - & another time when she was 23.
The mum-of-2 says the awareness around alopecia today is far better than it was when she was younger:
"In the early noughties, there wasn't much out there.
"The internet wasn't what it is today.
"There wasn't much support for my parents, so it probably affected them just as much as it did me.
"Mental health probably wasn't recognised as much in schools, and so there wasn't a great deal of support for me in how to deal with having alopecia at the time.
"My hair all grew back when I was about 15 years old.
"It didn't fall out again until I was around 23, and then this time around it all fell out.
"Previously, I'd kind of lost half of my hair or patches of my hair.
"So, navigating it as an adult was quite tricky.
"Most days I wear a wig if I'm going to work or if I'm going out.
"If I'm going to the shops or the park with my kids, or even on holiday abroad, then I won't wear a wig.
"It can be like wearing a woolly hat, so for obvious reasons, sometimes it can be too warm to wear.
"When I first started wearing wigs, they were maybe £600, but in the Covid-19 pandemic because of a lack of supply, these wigs more than doubled in price to around £1,400."
Alopecia affects around 400,000 people in the UK.