Single Bald Female

Product Information

Alopecia Areata shows up as round or oval patches on the scalp or other places on the body that grow hair. However once the condition has developed to Alopecia Totalis or Alopecia Universalis, the chances of full regrowth become smaller. It is one of the most visibly distressing side effects of commonly administered chemotherapeutic drugs. Telogen Effluvium is often caused by a physical or psychological trigger and often resolves itself spontaneously. Most children with Alopecia Areata do not have a parent with the disease, so most people with the condition do not pass it down to their children.

With the latter, you lose your sideburns, your brows, your lashes and even the thin layer of downy hair on your face.

Reaching the 10-year anniversary of my diagnosis this year is a milestone, but it feels especially poignant because I’m also publishing my first novel, Single Bald Female. I bought a pair of straighteners once, mostly because every woman seems to own them, but I’ve never used them. The novel isn’t about my own life, but writing it helped me to process my grief through my characters and everything they represent. But I didn’t have the guts, partly because of the beauty standards I’d been held to in Brazil and by the glossy magazines I’d grown up reading. In Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia, hair loss starts in the centre of the scalp and slowly spreads outwards.

When all my hair fell out three weeks after my first round of chemo, part of me loved the bald look. Alopecia Areata Ophiasis can be more difficult to treat because it does not respond as quickly to medication. I was offered a book deal with HarperCollins in Germany shortly thereafter, but the UK deal took a little longer, with Brexit, a pandemic and a series of rejections thrown into the mix. Trichotillomania is a psychological condition, where you cannot stop pulling out hair, which leads to hair loss.Sarah has lived with Alopecia since she was 15 and understands how important the work is that Alopecia UK do in supporting and advocating for the Alopecia community.