He once dreamed of getting paid to ride his bike and has no truck with her whingeing. You don't know how easy you've got it,'" she says.
Dan isn't bothered about her alopecia and nor, it would seem, is she. But she concedes it was very hard when her hair first started to fall out, back when she was Really, the brave thing was learning to deal with it when I was young — going to my first training camp when nobody knew me or about my condition.
That was brave. Alopecia is a general term used for hair loss; this can be anything from a small bald patch on the head to the loss of all the hair over the entire body. According to Alopecia UK , it affects approximately 1. The exact cause is still not known, but it is generally agreed that it is a disease of the immune system, which attacks affected hair follicles by mistake. It doesn't affect the sufferer's physical health, though it can certainly cause psychological scars.
Rowsell has lost almost all her hair, hence not having to shave her legs and having to pencil in her eyebrows each morning. By the time she won gold in London aged 23, she had stopped obsessing over it and was surprised by the reaction her bald head caused. But she doesn't like people treating her wigs as fashion accessories: she remains unhappy about a photoshoot with a national newspaper post-Games, which got her to wear six different wigs with six different outfits.
Despite being softly spoken and certainly more of an introvert than Trott and some of her other team-mates, there is a steeliness to Rowsell. She doesn't react when anyone shouts sexist remarks at her when she's out on her bike, reasoning, she says, that "I think I've made something of my life. My teachers used to tell me I would burn out as I worked so hard.
But, to me, working hard stopped me worrying about the future. Then there was the cycling: at 15, Joanna was scouted by the British Cycling talent team when they visited her school in Sutton, Surrey. At the time she had little interest in cycling but, after clocking her incredibly fast time in a school trial, the scouts felt she had raw talent and she started to train.
Then, at the age of 16, the thing she had longed for happened: her hair started to grow back. Within a few months it fell to below her ears. But it changed everything. It was so nice to leave the house and feel normal. My heart would sink when I saw another clump coming out. She went through that process again three years ago, when her hair again grew back in patches, although this time only for a month. After the previous cycle of hope followed by disappointment, it must have been another crushing blow.
Maybe doing it would mean properly confronting the fact that I had lost my hair. There is still part of me that is in the process of accepting it. This time, though, she was determined. She enlisted the help of a friend, and together they went to Selfridges in London for a wig trying-on session. That, suddenly, I could be in control and I could have hair whenever I wanted, look however I wanted.
She emerged from the shop with two wigs: one dark brown and straight with a fringe for daytime, and a dark curly one for evenings. It felt like a new me. I remember trying on all these different clothes and just really enjoying it. I felt more feminine. Among them was her boyfriend Dan, now 25, a fellow cyclist with whom she lives in Manchester. The pair met through cycling when Joanna was 18 and were friends before they became a couple three years ago.
Today she has about ten wigs, all different, and she changes them according to her mood, although she currently gravitates towards a light brown one during the day. My wigs get shoved in bags a lot. Her natural eyebrows and eyelashes, meanwhile, come and go.
She seems entirely without vanity, although looking after herself is part of her job. Now I want to focus on the things that matter — like getting that gold medal at the Olympics. Bald patches can eventually spread across the scalp leaving complete baldness — but there are different degrees of the condition and mild-to-moderate, patchy Alopecia can be treatable.
The exact cause remains unknown but it is thought to be triggered by stress and trauma. Hair loss in patches on the scalp or elsewhere on the body generally signifies Alopecia Areata. When the entire body is affected by hair loss, this is known as Alopecia Universalis — the kind that TV star Matt Lucas experienced. Alopecia Areata is surprisingly common — it is thought to affect up to , people in the UK alone, and is often treatable. Our hair loss specialists have successfully treated patchy hairloss conditions such as mild to moderate Alopecia Areata and Traction Alopecia , by using treatments such as high strength minoxidil.
To find out more, take a look at some of the success stories with pictures and comments from satisfied clients on our website, or contact us for a consultation by messaging the centre or calling Alternatively fill in our online diagnostic form for a home-use treatment programme that can be sent anywhere in the world. How did Mel Gibson Restore his Hair? Human Avoids Baldness for , Years.
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