One of the most common things women with alopecia areata want to know is when their hair will grow back. Unfortunately, alopecia is an extremely unpredictable disorder. Many factors can combine to cause it, it can start quite suddenly, and the prognosis for each person with the condition will be different.

This rather vague answer can be frustrating for women with alopecia when they hear it from their doctor, but it’s often the only answer available. Doctors can prescribe treatments, and these may even be effective – it’s all about trial and error. Some people may experience hair regrowth after a few months or a year, whilst others may have to wait a lot longer. In some cases, hair may grow back and then fall out again.

It’s hard to accept that you don’t have any control over the disorder or even your own body, but acceptance of what’s happening to you and a healthy dose of positive thinking are some of the only things you can do to cope. Another is to find suitable hair replacement or hair management solutions to help you cover or disguise hair loss until your hair can grow back.

Alternatively, you could shave your remaining hair off and embrace your baldness. It’s all up to you, but you aren’t alone in making your decision. Seek out support groups and other people with alopecia to see how they’ve coped and talk through your concerns.

An auto-immune disorder is one caused by an overactive or excessive response by your body’s immune system to something that is already present in the body. This means that the body mistakes a normal tissue or substance for a pathogen (an infectious agent) and attacks it.

These kinds of diseases can be limited to a particular organ, or it can affect the same tissue in different places of the body. One notable example of this is the hair loss disorder alopecia areata, which can affect hair all over the epidermis (skin).

Although alopecia areata is suspected to have hereditary causes, it is generally considered to be an auto-immune disorder. In people with the condition, the body attacks its own hair follicles, therefore stopping or inhibiting the growth of hair. T-cell lymphocytes are believed to cluster around the affected follicles, which in turn causes inflammation and the loss of hair.

What triggers alopecia?

It is currently thought that a combination of emotional trauma or stress, a pathogen and possibly hereditary factors will trigger the condition. Alopecia areata often starts suddenly, and can be difficult to diagnose due to the many factors that can trigger it.

Losing your hair can make a massive dent in your self-confidence, as well as completely changing your perception of how you look. This can negatively affect your life if you let it.

To boost your confidence and self-esteem, and feel good about yourself again, try these helpful tips:

• Accept yourself and what you look like, as well as what’s happening to your hair. You can’t change it right now, so there’s no point making yourself miserable and wishing the problem would go away

• Stop comparing yourself to other people – even when you have hair, this will never do your self-esteem any good

• Remember: true beauty comes from who you are as a person. It doesn’t matter what physical changes you go through, you will always be you

• Try not to worry what other people think of you and what you look like – it is your own opinion that matters

• Take back control of what is happening to you, by researching your hair loss condition and getting a formal diagnosis from a trichologist (a hair loss specialist)

• If you need an extra confidence boost, consider human hair wigs or other, more advanced hair replacement solutions.

A number of female hair loss conditions are caused by emotional or physiological trauma, stress or hormonal changes in the body. This is why it is important to learn ways to beat stress, to avoid conditions such as alopecia areata and telogen effluvium which can cause considerable hair loss.

The following are a few useful tips to help you avoid or cope with stress:

1. Find out what stress really is. The sooner you are able to understand stress and its effects on the body, the better you will be able to recognise the signs and take positive action to reduce stress.

2. Sort out work problems. If excessive workload or bullying at work is causing your stress, you need to speak to your boss about it right away. Don’t be afraid to explain how you feel – everyone gets stressed sometimes and your health is more important than any deadline.

3. Talk out your problems with a close friend or someone you can trust. This can make you feel a hundred times better, as you work through what’s bothering you and release some tension.

4. Learn how to relax, and do things that help you to release stress. Some people like to read a book to wind down, whilst others prefer exercise to let off some steam and get an adrenaline boost.

Female hair loss can have many causes, not all of which you can do anything about (i.e. hereditary conditions). However, some types of hair loss can be caused by something you’re doing or more accurately – what you’re not doing.

The body needs certain vitamins, minerals and nutrients in order to stay healthy and specifically, create red blood cells. If you aren’t eating properly or getting enough of these nutrients as part of your daily diet, you could run the risk of developing anaemia. This condition has a wide range of symptoms, one of the most notable being hair loss.

There are three main types of anaemia that can trigger hair loss. These are:

Iron deficiency anaemia

This is the most common form of anaemia, caused by not getting enough vitamin C and iron in your diet. Symptoms include rapid hair loss, depression, dry hair, weight loss and paleness. Women are more susceptible to the condition than men due to menstruation.

Copper toxicity anaemia

This can be triggered by many things – eating too much meat, smoking, using prescription medications containing copper – and it can cause hair loss, insomnia, headaches and even hypoglycaemia.

Pernicious anaemia

This is a type of anaemia caused by vitamin B12 deficiency and generally affecting people over 40 years old. It can cause weight loss, hair colour change, rapid hair loss and dry hair.

One of the worst things about suddenly or unexpectedly losing your hair is that you can often feel quite alone in what you are going through, like no one else could possibly understand.

It is true that it’s hard for people who haven’t experienced hair loss problems to really get how it feels, but sufferers tend to experience similar reactions. By knowing how other people with female hair loss feel about their condition, you needn’t feel alone.

The following are a few of the most common psychological responses to female hair loss. See if any of these sound familiar:

• Anxiety, panic and worry as hair starts to thin or fall out
• Feeling frustrated, helpless and desperate to take back control over your own body
• A drop in self-esteem and self-confidence
• Feeling unattractive and less feminine due to hair loss
• Worrying about the effect hair loss will have on relationships
• Endlessly thinking about hair loss and wishing you had more hair
• Trying anything and everything to get hair to grow back

If you have experienced any of these responses, you are not alone. Talking about your feelings with other hair loss sufferers who share them can really help you to cope, as will going to see a hair loss specialist for reassurance and professional advice.