The bespoke answer to hair loss

Behind the cream façade of a terraced house in West London is hair salon with a difference. Every woman leaves with an elegant style and many of the younger ones have gorgeous swooshing manes. But, in fact, they have all made their way to the Lucinda Ellery Hair Studio because they have lost some or most of their hair.

Over the past 20 years, Lucinda has developed her own Volumiser hair extension system, which can transform lives. Research suggests that one in three women experience hair loss due to causes such as accidents, cancer treatment, burns, alopecia areata (spontaneous hair loss), alopecia androgenetica (genetic hair loss) or trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling). ‘I changed from being an outgoing person to someone who rarely left the house, ‘My doctor said it wasn’t life-threatening, but I dreaded looking in the mirror.’

Lucinda, 55, knows exactly how they felt. At the age of nine, her father died suddenly and her hair started falling out and has never recovered, ‘It’s like a fine frizzy, black dandelion,’ she laughs (though you’d never guess from her long blonde tresses). Growing up, she became ‘obsessed’ with finding a solution which looked more natural than wigs or the extensions then available. ‘I left my job in recruitment and did all the courses I could on hair extensions, and then I started my own designs on a small scale,’ she explains.

The Volumiser magic is achieved by placing a shaped lightweight lace mesh on the head, pulling the remaining hair through and then locking the mesh, either by braiding strands around the edge, or with medical-grade tape for those with very little hair. Next, real or acrylic extensions are attached which you can wash, blow-dry and even swim in. This process, for people with 40 per cent (or more) hair loss, takes one day (from £900), with six-weekly upkeeps and scalp check and realignment at six months (both £90 per hour). After 18 months to two years you will need a re-do. For thinning hair, simpler extensions are used.

To improve hair, Lucinda recommends Superior Hair by FoodScience of Vermont, £19.95 for 90 capsules (one months supply), from Victoria Health, see below, and her own Exceptionally Cleansing Shampoo, Exceptionally Nurturing Conditioner (both £17.50 for 200ml) and Exceptionally Restoring Hair Balm (£18.50 for 200ml) from her studio. Some clients, including men, come via their GP’s and Lucinda hopes for more NHS funding for her patients. As one woman says: ‘I have the right to look and feel good, despite suffering from an illness which robbed me of this.’

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