One of the side-effects of cancer that a lot of people find it difficult to deal with is hair loss, partly because it is an outward sign of illness. Hair loss in women, in particular, also has the effect of making the sufferer feel less feminine and less confident about their appearance.
This is why it’s so important for cancer patients to have support from friends and family. One inspiring example of this kind of unconditional support is Adele Marshall and her two friends Rachel and Karen.
According to the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, Adele was diagnosed with lymphoma in October 2010. She lost her hair during treatment, so her two close friends Rachel Newall and Karen Thompson decided to shave their heads in a show of support.
Speaking of the motivation behind their bold decision, Rachel said:
“It struck us because we also have another friend who has been battling cancer for two years. I wanted to do something for Lymphoma Research, something longer lasting than a jump out of a plane or a fun run.
“I rang my girlfriends and said this is what I’m going to do, does anyone want to join me?”
A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation points to a particular stem cell as possibly playing a large part in the development of male pattern baldness.
Otherwise known as androgenetic alopecia, or AGA, male pattern baldness affects over half of men by the time they are 50 and is often thought to be related to testosterone levels. This study involved looking at skin cells taken from a small sample of men in the US, all of whom were getting hair transplants. Both bald and non-bald tissue was taken.
Comparing the two types of cells, it was found that both had the same numbers of stem cells but that bald cells had only a tenth of the progenitor cells. Stem cells in hair follicles ordinarily convert into progenitor cells and these then turn produce hair.
It seems that in men suffering male pattern baldness, the process is blocked, preventing the growth of hair. A related experiment involved injecting mice with human progenitor cells and this resulted in hair growth. The next step will be to identify the signals that help transform stem cells into progenitor cells.
Kayla Martell, who is a Miss America contestant and the current Miss Delaware, suffers from alopecia areata and says she is entering the competition to raise awareness about the condition.
“People always assume when they see a girl like me who is bald, that she is either very, very sick, or just ageing. I am neither.”
The modern version of the Miss America competition demands that contestants champion an issue as part of their bid for the title. Martell’s choice was fairly obvious.
She first started losing hair when she was just 10 years old and was taunted about it while at school. She says that at first the hair came away at her parting and the bald patch then began to spread.
From the age of four, Martell wanted to enter beauty pageants and she believes that persisting in her efforts despite suffering from the auto-immune disorder has developed her resilience. She even wonders whether she would have achieved what she has without it.
Martell entered Miss Delaware three times, only emerging victorious after getting a hairpiece, which she has brought along to the Miss World final, along with four others which she will wear at various stages of the competition.
Gail Porter has spoken of how nervous she was prior to her first public appearance since a recurrence of her alopecia.
Porter suffered from hair loss for many years but had been seeing new growth. However, recovery can be unpredictable and she has recently been losing hair once more. The process began in November but has speeded up in recent days to the extent that she has once again shaved her head.
Porter made her first public appearance since then at the film premier of Tangled, a Disney film, where she sported a mini Mohican.
Speaking of the development, she said:
“I was extremely nervous this morning because I haven’t been out like this apart from Sainsbury’s. It’s a bit daunting but it’s fine. I’ve done it before and I’m just going to have to get used to it again.
“It’s actually growing back a bit where I shaved it. It was actually so patchy it was more distressing being like that, but it’s fine. Hopefully it will strengthen a bit.”
Porter published images of her having her head shaved via Twitter and said that she was going to have some fun with the new look.
In a candid interview with the Daily Mail recently, the model and actress Danielle Lineker has opened up about her battle with alopecia when she was just a teenager.
Danielle, 31, used to be known simply for being the much younger wife of the former footballer Gary Lineker, who is now a popular TV sports presenter. She has now carved out a career of her own in modelling, TV and theatre, but she wasn’t always so confident.
Admitting she was extremely shy as a teenager, Danielle says that she was trying to overcome it when she developed alopecia at age 17. The condition is likely to have been triggered by the stress of her A-level course. She says:
“I felt overwhelmed by my A-levels. I was the first person in my family who’d done them and I didn’t want to let them down. That’s when the alopecia started.
“I lost most of the hair on top of my head for about seven months. I had a bald patch on top and I had to resort to an embarrassing “comb-over” and coloured in any gaps with eyeliner. I don’t know if it was a subconscious thing to do with my studies.”
Danielle has now overcome her female hair loss condition, which she claims is due to a positive outlook and the support of her husband and family.
According to reports, an eyelash lengthening serum is currently being tested in America to discover whether it has applications for treating hair loss.
The serum is called Latisse, and it is currently used to enhance and darken eyelashes as a kind of cosmetic product for people who are unsatisfied with the length of their lashes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medication, available only on prescription, claims to help lashes actually grow in length.
This product is now being considered as a possible solution for people suffering with hair loss. The company which makes the product, Allergan, is currently conducting clinical trials of Latisse with alopecia and other hair loss sufferers. Within the reported test group are both women and men displaying signs of pattern baldness.
If Allergan can develop Latisse into a hair loss solution that actually works, as well as being able to secure FDA approval, the finished product is likely to take the form of a cream that is rubbed into the scalp.
If it does actually work, however, Allergan’s product is likely to be astronomically expensive. This means that people who are completely bald or have large bald patches may have to look for a more realistic hair loss solution.
In a recent interview TV presenter Gail Porter has admitted that after suffering with alopecia areata for a number of years, she now feels that she is taken more seriously in her chosen profession. She also revealed that having to overcome her female hair loss condition and the social stigma surrounding it, she has become a braver person.
Speaking to the News of the World’s online magazine Fabulous, Gail also confirmed that after a brief period of regrowth, she is starting to lose her hair again. This doesn’t seem to faze her, however, as she says:
“Having no hair made me realise how lucky I was. I was being taken more seriously as a TV presenter. I was meeting other alopecia sufferers and gaining strength from them. I was helping other people, too.”
Gail, 39, also discussed the probable cause of her hair loss, saying that the first time round she attributed it to the stress caused by post-natal depression and getting divorced. The Gadget Show presenter has no idea what’s causing her condition to flare up again this time, but is very accepting and calm in her attitude towards it. She says:
“But if it does continue to fall out, so what? There’s not much I can do about it. Whatever happens, I know [boyfriend] Jonny and [daughter] Honey will love me, bald or not.”
Kayla Martell, the beauty queen from Delaware who started to lose her hair at the age of ten, has placed in the top ten of the Miss America 2011 beauty pageant competition.
Although the eventual winner of the competition – aired in the US last Saturday 15th January – was 17-year-old Miss Nebraska Teresa Scanlan, the youngest to win in 90 years, it was Kayla who garnered the most oppress attention throughout the preliminary rounds.
Kayla, 21, has alopecia areata, a female hair loss condition that first started to show itself when she was in the fifth grade at school. Despite her lack of hair, Kayla has entered and won numerous beauty pageants and eventually became Miss Delaware.
Thanks to audience voting in the America’s Choice category, Kayla became only the third ever Miss Delaware to reach the top ten of the national competition. She wore a series of stunning human hair wigs during the competition, but has competed at beauty pageants bald in order to raise awareness of alopecia areata.
Speaking just before the final Miss America showdown in Las Vegas, Kayla defiantly said:
“You can’t be defined and shouldn’t be defined by your hair,”
Carey Mulligan, the acclaimed British actress and star of An Education, is reportedly facing hair loss problems at the tender age of 25.
Mulligan, who has starred in Never Let Me Go and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, is now seeking hair loss treatment to help her hair grow back after sustaining extensive damage. According to a source talking to the Daily Mail, this damage has been caused by the actress having to constantly change her look to suit different film roles.
The Daily Mail source said:
“Carey is not overly concerned with aesthetics but is incredibly professional, so she was stoic about having to sacrifice her looks for her art. She was eager to please, so she obliged. But when she finished filming she burst into tears because of the damage the peroxide had done.”
“She’s been recommended to take the pills for six months. While her hair is slowly but surely growing back, it’s taking a long time and she doesn’t feel she will have her confidence back until she’s happy with it,”
Female hair loss conditions such as traction alopecia and thinning hair are often experienced by those in the entertainment and fashion industries, particularly models who are required to change their look at the drop of a hat.
Gail Porter has revealed this week that she is still suffering from alopecia. Ms Porter who has been suffering with the female hair loss condition for many years had previously experience her hair returning and was hoping that she had finally beaten the hair loss conditions. However, she has revealed that she is once again losing her hair.
Gail has said that she believes that being in a stable and happy relationship has helped her to overcome her hair loss. It was believed that her first marriage, its subsequent breakdown, post natal depression and drug use were to blame for her losing her hair in 2005.
It is true that your family and home life situation can affect you and it might not be very noticeable until you start losing your hair that you are struggling with something. Your hair, scalp and hair follicles are very sensitive and can respond to additional hormones that are flying around your body and any major changes in your lifestyle.
Your doctor may ask that you try and make changes to your lifestyle as well as take the right medication to ensure that your body has a chance to recover itself and for your hair to return.
