A woman who first suffered hair loss when she was just two years old decided to go totally bald to stop the condition dominating her life.
Robyn Bridge, 27, was sick of feeling like she needed to cover up the bald patches on her head, which she said made her feel ‘disgusted’ with herself.
Ever since she shaved her hair off three months ago, she’s found a new form of freedom.
Carer Robyn said she can finally walk in the rain, swim with her children and go to the gym without having to worry about hiding anything or keeping her hair meticulously styled to hide the hairless patches.
The Bolton-based mum-of-two says: ‘I went swimming with my boys for the first time ever as I didn’t have to worry about wearing a wig.
‘I can now go to the gym without fear of messing up my strategically styled hair.
‘This has been the most freeing thing I have ever done.’
Her first episode of hair loss happened around the time of her parents’ breakup when she was just two and her mother noticed bald patches on her scalp.
‘Of course, I wasn’t aware of that incident. It wasn’t until I was around 11 or 12-years-old that I had the first episode that I was actually aware of’, Robyn explains.
‘I remember my friends telling me they had seen a bald patch on my head. I wasn’t even aware I had been losing it. My hair loss was always very gradual.
‘My friends were ever so lovely at the time and I remember we drew smiley faces on my bald patches.’
Robyn said her alopecia is triggered by stress, and her hair has fallen out at particularly stressful times in her life, such as when she was taking exams and her driving test.
She adds: ‘I was never an overly anxious person, but the hair loss made me anxious, it is a catch 22 situation.
‘Aside from losing my hair, my hair is actually really thick and long, I loved my hair, so losing it was particularly hard.’
Before she shaved her head, Robyn would style her hair in a variety of different ways to try and disguise the bald patches.
She’d also use root spray, and wear wigs or a baseball cap.
Eventually hiding herself away became the main way she chose to hide her hair.
Robyn says: ‘I suffered a little with postnatal depression after having my firstborn in January 2017 and, that, combined with the stress of being a new mum, meant my hair loss accelerated.
‘I thought that I was disgusting.’
At one point, Robyn was able to get treatments – which involved a mesh being bonded to existing hair and strips of extensions sewn throughout – for a time, but this became impossible after the birth of her second child in February 2019.
After speaking to other women in online forums who have the same condition and had shaved their heads, Robyn decided to do the same in June.
‘I cried for three days,’ says Robyn, ‘and then I felt free. I felt an enormous release of pressure and stress.
‘I have felt amazing since.’
Robyn wore wigs at first, but now she’s happy going without a wig full time. She says: ‘There was no big moment when I decided to brave the world with my new self, I slowly eased myself into it so that I didn’t actually even notice the transition.
‘But now I don’t wear a wig at all.’
Robyn joked that now she and her 39-year-old fiance Andrew, who’s also bald, look the same, saying ‘We’re practically twins.’
‘The benefits of no hair are amazing – I can shower in two minutes, I save money on hair products, I can go out in the rain without a care and not worry about my boys pulling at my hair,’ she says.
‘I have had a few funny looks and some will even ask me what’s happened, but I expect that and I’m fine with that.
‘People mainly think I am going through chemotherapy, but I am happy to explain about alopecia. The more people know about the condition the better.
‘Some said I have a good head that suits being bald – which is funny.
‘Luckily, I do not have a life-threatening condition, I am fit and healthy and I now embrace that. The way I feel now, I can honestly say I am not wishing for my hair back.
‘Of course having a natural head of hair would be a bonus but I am completely happy the way I am.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/25/alopecia-sufferer-sick-of-hiding-bald-patches-finds-freedom-by-shaving-her-head-13325499/
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