I’ve been bald since I was a teenager

GEORGINA POBERT, 36, is a business owner and lives in Sevenoaks with her husband Tom, 39, and their daughters imogen, 5, and florence, 17 months.

“When my best friend Izzy asked me to be her bridesmaid, I had a lot of mixed emotions.

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On the one hand, I felt happy, on the other hand, I felt nauseous, because I knew that my wedding pictures would show everyone that I was going to go bald.

I have androgenic alopecia, which means I am slowly losing my hair – and it will never grow back. I have known Tom, my husband since I was 10 years old. We grew up in the same village in Kent and bonded as teenagers.

As a child, I had thick and fine black hair, but when I was 14, I discovered a gray hair and pulled it out. Examining ‘exotic’ hairs and plucking them quickly became an addiction. My mother told me to stop, but

I wasn’t able to, although I was alarmed when, a year later, I realized that the hair in my crown was thinner.

My friends noticed it too and didn’t talk much about it, but one day a girl on the school bus asked me if I was bald, which really annoyed me.

My mother took me to see a general practitioner, the doctor told me that I had a hair pulling disorder, a trichotillomania disorder. The doctor suggested treating it with hypnosis, and amazingly, it worked – I haven’t pulled my hair since.

But the damage was done and the hair never grew back, leaving me permanently bald.

By the time I studied English and art history at the University of Kent in 2003, my hair was thinning, even though Tom assured me I was beautiful.

We got married in 2013 and I wore my hair up with clips, but they didn’t completely hide my hair loss, as it was mostly from the top of my head.

When I became pregnant with Imogen in the summer of 2015, I loved it because my hair was actually thicker, which is common during pregnancy.

But after she gave birth the following February, I noticed that my hair started to grow in bunches in the shower and became noticeably thinner around the front and parting again.

I went to my GP, who told me that my hair pulling had started the sex hormone alopecia I was born with, which my grandmother Betty also has.

HAIR Glue Disorder

While most people grow back their hair after plucking, mine did not. To slow my hair loss, I was prescribed the birth control pill desogestrel in 2017, but it didn’t work so I quit.

It’s a constant worry, and I wake up hating what I see in the mirror. When Izzy asked me to be her bridesmaid in early 2017,

I panicked. I started searching online and came across ‘toppers’ wigs, clipped to the top of the head, disguised for hair loss.

The first time I wore one, I felt self-conscious, but Tom told me he couldn’t tell which was my real hair from my cap, and that wearing one to the wedding made I am much more confident.

However, I started to worry that I wasn’t being honest with people when they complimented my curls, paranoid that they might find out I was wearing a wig.

In May 2019 I had a miscarriage at three months. In the weeks that followed, I realized that there were more important things to worry about than what other people thought of my hair.

TO SEARCH FOR Mature

I’ve followed a few women on Instagram posting about hair loss and I’ve found they really work. Male pattern baldness is completely acceptable, but for some reason, female hair loss is still taboo.

I decided that I wanted to go public about it, so in July 2019 I posted the first reveal bald.

When I share it on Instagram it makes me more open to people in real life and I get loads of positive comments online which is lovely.

In June 2020, we have our much-anticipated second daughter, Florence. I still love wearing a wig in public, but I no longer fret over the fact that it’s not my real hair.

This summer, I opened a business in the UK that sells real human hair clippers, just like the ones I love to wear.

If my condition were transferred to either of my daughters, I would reassure them that they are beautiful and support them whenever they want to settle. I wish I had come out about my hair loss sooner, because I finally feel free. “

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Source: * NHS Visit Herhairmyhead.co.uk