Categories A-Z

Rochelle

Age at interview: 23
Age at diagnosis: 14
Brief Outline:

(Text only clips) Rochelle developed a bald patch on her temple when she was aged 14. She saw a dermatologist once but did not find it helpful. The prescribed medications didn’t work for her and she has since been trying different products bought from hair shops.

Background:

Rochelle is 23 years old. She is in a long term relationship and lives at home with her parents. Her ethnicity is Black Caribbean.

More about me...

Rochelle first developed a bald patch on the temple area of her head when she was 14 years old. Over the years, the hair on her temple has repeatedly fallen out and then regrown, and her alopecia has not affected any other parts of her scalp or body. She finds it reassuring that the hair tends to regrow and she is keen to find products which will permanently help. Her GP referred her to a dermatologist but Rochelle did not find the appointments helpful. Looking back on it, she is annoyed at how she was treated by medical professionals but felt too preoccupied with wanting to get her hair back at the time. Rochelle began researching different products and visiting hair shops to see what they stocked. She describes it as a process of “trial and error”: some products have been really effective but others sting and do not seem to help. She spends a considerable amount of time and energy trying to find products to stop her hair loss. She also has mild eczema, which she has had since she was a baby, and she copes well with managing it now. One shop-bought product she tried for her alopecia was originally meant for eczema, but she has since stopped using it after finding out that it contained steroids.

Rochelle was at secondary school when she first had a bald patch. She says that this is a difficult time when young people often feel very insecure. She thinks it helped that she attended an all-girls school because a mixed sex school might have meant more pressure on appearances. Rochelle’s hair loss was very gradual. Family and friends reassured her at first that they couldn’t see any difference to her hairline. She was very shocked when she first felt the bare skin of her scalp where hair had previously been. From this point onwards, everything became a “rush” with seeing her GP and then a dermatologist. She was distraught and cried a lot. She tried to disguise the bald patch with hair bands, later moving on to wearing weaves and partial wigs with a front fringe. 

Rochelle’s GP referred her to a dermatologist. She remembers the dermatologist telling her that her hair may never grow back and that it would fall out completely if she permed it. The dermatologist said that the hair loss was because of stress but Rochelle does not believe this. She thinks her hair had been pulled too tightly in canerows (which can cause traction alopecia), but also says that weaves helped her hair grow back at another time. Rochelle’s dermatologist gave her several prescribed medications which she used for two months. These didn’t seem to work so she phoned the dermatology clinic. She was told to stop using them and she was not offered a follow-up appointment. At this point, Rochelle felt that she had to take the matter into her own hands through online research and trying out different shop-bought products. She thinks healthcare professionals should recognise that alopecia matters because hair can be a big part of personal identity. 

Rochelle has been interested in hair generally for a long time, even before she developed alopecia. She says that hair is very important to many women in the black community. She likes talking to people about hair and she also finds it helpful to look online for blogs and Youtube videos. Rochelle does a lot of internet-based research about haircare products and wigs, although she prefers to go to a shop to buy something so that she can see and smell it. She has found that some of the products she uses leave a medical smell, so she has a routine of using these ones before bed and masking it with oils in the morning. She tries a shop-bought product for two weeks; if it doesn’t seem to help in that time, she moves on to the next one. Rochelle also changes the hair products to suit different seasons; for example, she uses almond oil in the summer because it is lighter than castor oil. She usually mixes the oil with shea butter, a sealant which she also uses on her skin to manage her eczema, so that it is more likely to absorb into the hair.

Rochelle’s family, boyfriend and close friends have been hugely supportive and offered her lots of reassurance over the years. She values the advice from other people about things to try for her alopecia, including from the other customers and the owners she meets in the hair shops. Rochelle thinks that healthcare professionals should think more about emotional support for young people with alopecia, although she thinks that the opportunity to meet other young people with alopecia would have been more beneficial for her when she was diagnosed than one-to-one counselling. Rochelle has since looked up local alopecia support groups but she is hesitant about going to a meeting. She is unsure how she would cope with meeting people with more severe alopecia than her own and worries that she “would feel a bit out of my depth”. Rochelle says that she is not interested in prescription medications for alopecia as long as she can wear a weave to disguise the bald patch. She prefers using natural products and hopes that changing aspects of her lifestyle and diet will help maintain the regrowth of her hair in the future.

Rochelle’s family didn’t believe that her hair was falling out at first. It felt like everything was happening very rapidly once she started seeing doctors.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle’s family didn’t believe that her hair was falling out at first. It felt like everything was happening very rapidly once she started seeing doctors.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
Did you talk to anyone about it when you first noticed that there was some hair missing?

My mum. I was like, “Mum, I’m losing my hair,” my mum was like, “Oh, Rochelle, you’re chatting rubbish, you can’t see nothing”, “Oh you can’t see nothing, Rochelle, its fine.” And then when it started to drop out I think that’s when the whole family was like, “Oh my gosh”, and when I could feel my skin from my finger on the skin of my head, that’s when I was just so nervous and crying all the-. I think every day I was just crying, I had to put this band on my hair and I was just, over my head, and I was just like ‘oh my gosh’. And then, yeh, my mum, and then me and my mum went to the doctors and then we went to the dermatologist because by then when we saw it actually dropping out – it was all like rush, rush, rush, rush, rush. Because when it’s falling out you don’t really see it until you see it and then by the time it had fell out that’s when everything was a rush. We had to go and go to the doctors go to the dermatologist, try this and try that, and that’s when I tried to look into more research and talking to the people.

Rochelle doesn’t worry too much as she says her hair always regrows after a while.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle doesn’t worry too much as she says her hair always regrows after a while.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
When it first happened, I was shocked and crying all the time and then I started to get used to it around 19 because, only because my hair started to grow back. If my hair never started to grow back, I don’t know how I’d be feeling right now. But because I know my hair can grow really long, it grew from like, oh, it was about, how short was my hair? Maybe like four to five inches to 12 inches it grew in two years, so obviously I know it can grow. But if I didn’t have my hair right now, I don’t know how I would be feeling. But now I can just chop it off, like, “Yeh, split ends – chop it off, chop it off,” because I know it will grow back. If it went totally bald, I don’t know how I would be feeling right now.

Rochelle felt she was given no further help after being diagnosed with alopecia. She would have liked more information from her doctors.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle felt she was given no further help after being diagnosed with alopecia. She would have liked more information from her doctors.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
They could have been more caring, not just “Oh okay, it’s alopecia.” More caring, especially at that age of 14 and losing your hair, you’re gonna feel very-, you’re gonna be very upset, like I was distraught [laughs]. So they need to be more caring. Give more information, more research, not just to the person who's suffering with alopecia but also their, the person they’re with – so they could have given my mum something to maybe help with me suffering with this or even normal recommendations.

Rochelle’s had patches of hair fall out, including around her hairline. Some people have suggested it is traction alopecia but she’s unsure.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle’s had patches of hair fall out, including around her hairline. Some people have suggested it is traction alopecia but she’s unsure.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
God knows if it is alopecia or just a general hair loss but I think it is, I don’t know. Cos the thing is since I was 14, the big bald patches haven’t come back which is weird it’s just slight, oh you’ll see a little hair there or you'd see a little patch there, but it’s never been as bad as it was when I was 14. Maybe cos I let it get to that state before I started to use any products on it but I’m not sure.

So right now because I’ve got a wig on it’s not going to, nothing is pulling on my hair so I know it will grow back. Whereas what I tend to do is when I see the hair growing back and it’s looking nice, I then put actual weaves back in my hair so a stitch and that’s when it pulls again and then that’s when alopecia comes back. So I think what I’m going to do now is start to wear wigs more often and then just leave my hair out natural because I’ve still got a lot of hair and that’s about it. But not putting no more sewn in weaves into my hair because it pulls a lot on my hair, even though when I did start to get alopecia I did use sewn in weaves and it grew it back.

Rochelle was given a steroid cream at her first and only appointment with a dermatologist. When this didn’t seem to work, she called the department and was told to stop using it but she wasn’t given a follow-up appointment.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle was given a steroid cream at her first and only appointment with a dermatologist. When this didn’t seem to work, she called the department and was told to stop using it but she wasn’t given a follow-up appointment.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
I think they probably asked [laughs] “Do you have diabetes?” the usual stuff in your family but no, they just had a look. Obviously I think they could see it, no, they just had a look, “Oh yeh, it’s alopecia” and that was it. “Oh, I’m going to give you this,” they probably prescribed me with the same things they prescribe their 10 other people they’ve seen before or so, that’s what it is. They weren’t interested at all, no way was they interested. I remember they just gave me this stuff and after a while they were just like, “Stop using them” and that’s when I was like ‘alright, Rochelle, you're going to have to do something about this yourself’ and that was it. But they wasn’t interested at all.

No ‘come back for another’, no. Not a ‘maybe you should try this’ or nothing, they just said “Stop, stop using it” and that was it. When I think about it now I was thinking ‘wow, you guys are harsh’ but back then I was like ‘let me just stop using, let me try a different thing,’ maybe cos too many things going on in my mind, that I just want to get my hair back that I didn’t think about the way I was actually being treated.

Rochelle adds in products specifically for hair growth/regrowth to her normal haircare and styling routine.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle adds in products specifically for hair growth/regrowth to her normal haircare and styling routine.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
So in a day I would use a moisturiser, so a moisturiser would be an oil whether that's, so at the moment that’s an almond oil and then I would use a sealant. So a sealant is something to keep the oil texture in with the hair so that’s shea butter which is, it’s a-, oh what can I call it? It’s a cream that turns into oil when you really rub it in. So that’s what I would use at the moment and I’d put that through my hair and I’d canerow it and then put my wig on. If I had sewn in weaves then I would try and put the oil through the tracks, through the tracks, each through the tracks and then I’d make sure that with the Groganics where my alopecia is, I need to rub that in especially. And then I would do my hair, once a month I would wash it and then weave it again straight after which is bad so I’ve stopped doing that. So I’d just, see now cos I’m in transition so I’m thinking I might need to wash my hair every two weeks again and then, instead of once a month, but we’ll just see how that works out. 

Rochelle says it’s “trial-and-error” finding what works for her hair regrowth. She keeps track of things she’s tried before and those she plans to use in the future.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle says it’s “trial-and-error” finding what works for her hair regrowth. She keeps track of things she’s tried before and those she plans to use in the future.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
I’ve tried a two week rule since I was 14. I’ve tried a two week rule of trying all these different things and as well since Youtube has blown up, you see a lot, you just, I write, I’ve written down a chart of all these oils that I could use and just tick them off as I go along cos it doesn’t work. Right now coconut oil, coconut oil never worked on me two years ago so I don’t know why I went back to it, I just wanted to try something else and now I know it’s just not going to work. So that’s what I do just write down a list of all the things I could use and all of the things I’ve heard of and all of the things I’ve researched and had a look at what they contain, and then I would see that okay maybe I can use this or maybe I could use that. And stuff that a lot of people have used for alopecia already or just general hair loss, then I would use that as well. But anything like a lot of people I know use like Head and Shoulders I haven’t tried that but a lot of people say it’s good so I might.

Okay.

So yeh.

So do you keep like a record of stuff that you’ve tried before?

Before, I know them in my head but I need to start keeping a record of all the things that I’ve tried because it’s important because I actually need to start ticking them off like Dr. Miracle or KaraCare, hell no. And so it’s just like Groganics and organic greases, that’s all I use now like soya oil, jojoba oils, anything organic I’ve started to use as well. 

Rochelle talks about feeling insecure and getting frustrated when people tried to give advice.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle talks about feeling insecure and getting frustrated when people tried to give advice.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
You feel insecure – especially in secondary school everyone’s getting into their prime, you know, going sixth form and that, so you do. You feel everyone else around you has got their hair, especially your Indian friends – everyone’s got hair [laughs], so you do feel insecure and everyone’s trying to help but then it’s not helping. So, “Oh, Rochelle, you know, Rochelle’s got this”, you know everyone’s talking, “oh, Rochelle’s got-“. So everyone is, there was more of people trying to help but it wasn’t helping at all. And sometimes I’d get frustrated when people told me to use this and I would tell them, “I’ve already used that” and I would start crying, especially my parents cos we’re a funny family so maybe they’d make little jokes and I’d just start crying.

Rochelle talks about alternating between weaves and wigs, as well as leaving her natural hair to grow during holidays in the Caribbean.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle talks about alternating between weaves and wigs, as well as leaving her natural hair to grow during holidays in the Caribbean.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
So at the beginning I was using wig caps which is, I would use a mannequin and I would stitch weave tracks onto the mannequin and I would just use that as a front fringe. Then when it started to grow back and my hair started to grow back I used U- Wigs which is a whole wig but they cut out so I can leave my natural hair out at the front, which I’m wearing now then I started to look at that, that was through Youtube and friends as well. And then, after when my hair actually grew back then I started just have it natural – like in the summer I would have it natural because it needs that sunshine in my hair, when I’m on holiday I wouldn’t wear a wig at all because it needs that, especially when you're in the Caribbean, it’s very good to have your hair out. So and that was about it, yeh, because I never, before alopecia I never wore wigs or weaves, I would just have my hair canerowed and maybe just put a piece on top but it’s all my natural hair, just not the piece. But since I got alopecia, that’s when I become like the wigs, wigs, wigs, wigs, weaves, weaves, weaves. And sometimes in summer, I’ll take out the hair but other than that I’m wearing a weave.

Rochelle goes to hair shops that specialise in Afro-Caribbean hair where a lot of women buy their wigs.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle goes to hair shops that specialise in Afro-Caribbean hair where a lot of women buy their wigs.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
Oh I’ve been going to hair shops since I was maybe four, no, since probably all my life to get creams and greases and everything. What an experience in there, you just go and everyone’s cheerful because you know a lot of the women, they’re buying their wigs and weaves anyways or you’re buying your shampoos and your creams or just normal Vaseline or anything, they’re really big. I normally go to [name] hair shops and they’re really helpful in there. And they have everything that you want, everything that caters for all types, mainly Afro Caribbean hair but any, any types of hair they really cater for, they do anything from Vaseline to cocoa butter, to Groganics, they have all oils, lavender oil, coconut oil, any, almond oil, anything you want you can get there for hair. So yeh, it's a great experience going there.

When Rochelle was boxing at the gym, she thought her wig might come off but says she doesn’t “take it too seriously”.

Text only
Read below

When Rochelle was boxing at the gym, she thought her wig might come off but says she doesn’t “take it too seriously”.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
Yeh so since last week, two weeks ago, I went into the gym before I’d cut my hair with my hair curly and this guy, yeh, I went into the gym with my hair curly which was natural, it’s fine because I kind of hid, it was up in a pineapple and it had curls coming down so it looked really nice, so I wasn’t bothered about it then. But last week, no, like yesterday, I went to the gym and I was doing boxing with my friend and I was like ‘please do not make my wig come off’ and when I put my headphones in I’m like ‘oh my gosh’ but I don’t take it too seriously. Like other people would be like ‘oh my gosh’ but I’m just not really worried about it at all but if it does like, oh my God, if it fell off and you’d see my big doody plaits and I’m gonna be like ‘ahhhhh’ but no it doesn’t bother me really much at all. But it’s only the time I went into the gym and my hair was straight so you could kind of see that there’s a bit of hair loss around there, so that’s when I was like ‘ohh my gosh’. And I sent a picture to my partner but he was just like, “It’s growing back,” and I just got on with what I had to do at the gym. So yeh, it doesn’t bother me.

Rochelle says her partner was very supportive about her alopecia.

Text only
Read below

Rochelle says her partner was very supportive about her alopecia.

HIDE TEXT
PRINT TRANSCRIPT
Sixth form, I went to an all-girls sixth form as well, then by the time I got to uni, you know what – cos I’ve been in a relationship for so long it never-, I was never really worried about guys or anything because only really my partner, and when I started going out with him, I did have alopecia but he was very supportive like ‘oh’. He’s a very-, he just gets on with life, so he was like, “Oh, it happens you know, Rochelle, you just need to do that and do that or try that” and blah blah so it never affected me at all. But when it started growing back, that’s when we were both like ‘oh my gosh, it’s growing back’ so we were both happy. But it’s never, with boys – it's never really affected me cos I just don’t care [laughs].