Elizabeth
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Elizabeth first had a bald patch at age 2. She has had some hair loss constantly since she was 10. She has tried many steroid creams but hasn’t found these helpful. Elizabeth says she continues to struggle with the impact of alopecia on her appearance.
Elizabeth is 20 years old and an intern in youth work. Her ethnicity is White English.
More about me...
Elizabeth has alopecia areata on her scalp. She developed bald patches at age 2 and 7, both of which took about a year and a half to regrow. She has had hair loss to some extent constantly since age 10, usually on the left-hand side of her scalp. Elizabeth has been told by her doctors that her alopecia is caused by stress. She disagrees and doesn’t see how her stress levels could have been so high for all this time without damaging her physical health in other ways. Elizabeth says that she didn’t know much about alopecia at the start and that her doctors didn’t give much information. She started to understand more from the age of 10 onwards with the help of her mum and biology lessons at school. Elizabeth is unsure about getting a wig because she says she copes as it is at the moment. It would also be a huge expense since she doesn’t think she’s eligible for these on the NHS. She likes having her hair curled but tends not to do this anymore, or put her hair up in a ponytail, because the patches are more visible to others.
Elizabeth saw a doctor about her alopecia for the first time when she was 7. Her GP prescribed her a steroid cream to rub into the bald patches. She didn’t like that the cream would get in her hair and doing the treatment meant that she didn’t “feel normal”. Her hair regrew after about a year and a half, but Elizabeth thinks this was a coincidence rather than a result of the steroid cream. Since then, Elizabeth has been offered more steroid creams of different strengths for her alopecia from both her GP and the dermatologists at the hospital. Elizabeth doesn’t think that these are effective though and says that she has “ended up just giving up with doctors”. Elizabeth once tried some vitamin tablets that her nan bought from a health foods shop, but says these tasted “vile”. She also used a special shampoo and conditioner which was recommended by a friend and, although it tingled, it was very expensive and didn’t seem to help. She has recently been offered a free trial of a device aiming to electrically stimulate hair growth at a local hairdressers.
Elizabeth has struggled with her appearance a great deal. She was bullied when the bald patches on her head became visible at secondary school. Elizabeth says she used to be an outgoing and confident child but that she grew very quiet at school. Elizabeth remembers getting into trouble at home and, towards the end of secondary school, walked out of some lessons, was in some fights and started smoking. She thinks that this is because she had a lot of anger built up. At age 18, she attended a treatment programme for young people struggling with issues such as depression, anxiety, eating problems and self-harm. Elizabeth says it was intense and really tough being away from home, but that it helped boost her confidence a great deal. Elizabeth currently works with young people and says that she’s sometimes nervous about how they might react to her alopecia. She says that she would rather be asked about it than for someone to talk behind her back though. Elizabeth says there are still occasions when her hair loss gets her down.
Elizabeth says that her family, especially her mum, are very supportive and that her experiences of tough times have also strengthened her friendships. She thinks that having alopecia has affected potential romantic relationships, though she’s not too worried at this point in her life. Music is important to Elizabeth as she says it helps build confidence and express feelings. She has looked online for information about alopecia and finds it helpful to chat with others with similar experiences. She struggled to find resources specifically for her age group and feels that the impact of alopecia on young people is often underestimated. She would like for schools to be more aware of alopecia-related bullying and to offer support, such as by providing someone to talk to. Elizabeth encourages healthcare professionals to recognise that alopecia can affect people’s lives in many ways, including “the invisible stuff” such as psychological and emotional impacts.
Elizabeth didn't tie up her hair when she played football because she didn't like others seeing the bald patches.
Elizabeth didn't tie up her hair when she played football because she didn't like others seeing the bald patches.
Biology classes at school and talking to her mum helped Elizabeth understand more about the blood tests she had.
Biology classes at school and talking to her mum helped Elizabeth understand more about the blood tests she had.
How did you sort of go about learning about alopecia when you were about ten onwards?
I don’t know, I think at the age of ten you kind of start to figure out that you’ve got an immune system and what it actually is and like I’m really lucky cos my mum’s a healthcare professional so my mum kind of explained some stuff to me about it. But it was more me just, I had a blood tests when I was ten and when that came back-, I never got the results for it but I remember when I was-, I remember them going, “It’s just your immune system, it’s-, it’s your, it’s your immune system,” and there being no more to that. And then when I was 15, I remember doing homework on the immune system and me going, “Mum, so-” and kind of going, “With the blood test, were they testing my white blood cells?” and because actually that’s the only way they would have known it was my immune system. And my mum’s like, “Yeah,” and I was like, “Well, why didn’t they ever tell me that?” Like they didn’t seem to give me-, like the hospital didn’t seem to give me a lot of information. And then I started A-level Biology and then we had a discussion on cells and the fact that there’s part of your cell, which I cannot remember what it’s called, that basically let’s your immune system know that the part of the body so don’t attack it and in autoimmune diseases it kind of goes-, people don’t know why but that part of the cell goes and that’s why the immune system attacks it.
Elizabeth says it can be difficult to explain to people, especially children, about alopecia.
Elizabeth says it can be difficult to explain to people, especially children, about alopecia.
It was frustrating when a hairdresser kept assuming Elizabeth’s hair loss was due to her wearing extensions.
It was frustrating when a hairdresser kept assuming Elizabeth’s hair loss was due to her wearing extensions.
Elizabeth talks about a time when she faced bullying in school. She became more confident as she grew older, but then found herself becoming self-conscious again as she moved into secondary school.
Elizabeth talks about a time when she faced bullying in school. She became more confident as she grew older, but then found herself becoming self-conscious again as she moved into secondary school.
Why did you think that happened around that age?
I don’t know. I think it was, there was a lot of new people, a lot of people that hadn’t grown up with me having episodes-, well they knew about it when-, I think some of my friends knew about it when I was seven and only about it-, and only a small group of friends knew about it when I was ten and I think it was it became visible when I moved up to secondary. So I became more self-conscious because I was, I was going into the awkward years [laugh] and school kids are mean.