Hair loss horrors

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Sophie Milicevic's world turned upside down after she got her hair done for a wedding. Just three days later Sophie's thick, dark hair began falling out in clumps.

"I went to this hairdresser because it was empty, my usual hairdresser was busy that morning, I went in for a hair straighten. They washed my hair and then straightened my hair," Sophie said.

"[Three days later] I washed my hair. Started brushing it and my brush filled up with hair. And then I looked at my hair and there was a big patch with hair gone.

"I confronted my hairdresser and he said my ringworm would have caused it and I don't have ringworm. I went to the chemist to confirm it and she just laughed, and I went back to him and he pretty much told me to get out of his shop," Sophie added.

In just a few weeks Sophie was completely bald. The big question is, how could a simple hair-straightening procedure cause someone's hair to fall out completely?

We took Sophie to see Trichologist Tony Pearce, who specializes in scalp and hair problems.

"Many practitioners make the mistake of just assuming it's totally associated with stress, and it can be, but it's also associated with many other things," he said.

In Sophie's case, getting her hair straightened triggered a genetic condition she never knew she had.

"Alopecia Areata is much more common in people with dark hair or Asian people and the hair can literally fall out overnight and that's exactly what's happened," Tony said.

This auto-immune condition affects a staggering 200,000 Australians.

While Alopecia affects men and women equally, women suffer the most.

"Who gives a middle-aged guy a second look walking along the street, but with women, your hair is what defines your femininity, it's what defines you as a woman and it's just devastating for women to lose their hair," Tony said.

Angela Jackman runs an Alopecia Support Group. She has an extreme form of the condition which began just after she got married.

"At one stage I had one eyebrow, the other one had washed away literally, I washed it off. It was just devastating," Angela said.

A rise in Alopecia is being blamed on the growing number of Australians with thyroid problems, decreased levels of iron, zinc and selenium in our diet and lifestyle choices.

"We are seeing more of it. In women it's to do with synthetic hormones; in hormone replacement, oral contraceptives and our environment. With males, males are definitely presenting with hair loss ten years earlier than they did 20 or 30 years ago," Tony said.

The condition is also triggered from increased used of chemicals on our hair and the latest fashion to straighten hair.

In healthy people, overuse of GHD's and other hair straighteners would normally just cause hair breakage, but for others, the consequences are extreme.

"By the time I see them, it's a major hair loss event and sometimes a permanent hair loss event," Tony said.

Trichologist:
Tony Pearce (02) 9542 2700
Suite 5, 852 Old Princes Highway (nearest Cross Street President avenue) Sutherland, Website: www.hairlossclinic.com.au

Other Trichologists around the country can be found by searching Yahoo!7 for "Trichologist".

Alopecia Support Groups:
NSW.
www.alopecia-sydney.com
email: info@alopecia-sydney.com
Phone: 02 98744392

Victoria
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aasa
PO Box 89, Camberwell, 3124.

Queensland
PO BOX 340, Fortitude Valley, 4006.
Tel 07 3829 0684

Western Australia:
Elena - mob: 0438958387

South Australia:
Liz Bear (08) 8251 4786
Helen Browne (08) 8277 1797 (after 8pm)
Caroline Munchenberg (08) 8342 0793