Dealing and helping clients cope with Alopecia

Devastated ,upset, self conscious, angry, depressed, life shattering, emotionally distraught, these are all words that my client have used when explaining how they first felt when they realised they had alopecia and in fact still do.

Not knowing what had caused it either. Was it an accident, stress, family illness or bereavement, child birth, the menopause, moving house, divorce, being bullied at school or work, too much sun on holiday, these are some of the thing that my client have thought could have caused their hair loss.

As alopecia is not a life threating complaint, there is little research in to finding a cure, if only there was one common cause.
The age of my client with hair loss varies from 80yrs to just 8 yrs old, with varying time scale, some regain their hair, and some get patches back from time to time …they all know the upset this causes.

I can safely say that 90% of my client has been more upset by the treatment they received when first going to talk about it with a professional, who don’t consider how devasting this is to either men or women and children. Some have told me that they have been told you just have to wait and see, while others have been offered an array of treatments.

The main thing is for them to know they are not on their own;I have occasional meetings at my home, which allows everyone to exchange ideas , bringing their partner or a family member with them letting more people be aware that there are thousands out there who have the same problem, I am sure a problem shared is a problem halved. We talk about and show how to put on false eyelashes, maybe wear a bandana in the house or on holiday, just for a change. Help them to have the confidence to change their hair style, after all they would their own hair.

All my client benefit from their hair stroke brows, which are brilliant for them as often their hair piece makes them hot, brow pencil just disappears, a lot have eye line or smudged effect eye line, so that they appear to have eye make upon all the time, saving them from applying several times a day. It’s wonderful for holidays, swimming or simply walking in the rain.

Wigs
My experience with wigs and hairpieces goes back to 1967 and my first salon. At the time ‘Wig parties’ were the way I introduced my client to wigs and hairpieces which were very fashionable. I then met my first client with alopecia and set time aside time to talk to her privately the next day to try to help her in any way I could, at the time her wig really irritated her head, I thought of an idea, I used a headscarf and unstitched part of one of my old wigs to make a fringe, this simply made it, easy for her to take off her wig and still feel OK. Nowadays these are manufactured by someone and are readily available.

I have always enjoyed changing my look with the help of a wig and still do. This has kept me up to date with the ever changing fashions and improvement in manufacture of wigs Although I have never suffered from permanent hair loss , years ago I have tried all new hairdressing product on my own hair causing it to break off from time to time. (I do realise this is no where near as upsetting) as I was always lucky and my own hair did grown back…

With a change the style and colour I feel and look different there is no reason why with a little confidence ever one of my alopecia clients could do the same.