“Ah, it looks like you have cancer”: Laure talks about how alopecia affects her daily life

My name is Laure, I am 37 years old and I suffer from androgenetic alopecia.

Alopecia, a reality that affects both men and women

Androgenetic alopecia is baldness. So it exists in both men and women. But among women, very few people are aware of its existence. It’s the fact of becoming increasingly sparse over time.

For me, androgenetic alopecia started around the age of 18. I started losing my hair. Where I come from, it spread a bit and I went to a dermatologist who, at that moment, made the diagnosis.

Alopecia and loss of self-esteem

Over the years my scalp has become thinner and thinner. Especially around 30, after my first pregnancy. It’s really become a big, big complex. Little by little I lost all my self-esteem.

When I looked in the mirror I only saw my alopecia. I didn’t even want to appear in photos anymore.

On the slightest occasion, a wedding, a job interview or even at work, I felt like people were looking at my scalp when I spoke to them.

What does alopecia look like?

Alopecia does not appear for a specific reason. It is something that is physiological and genetic in nature. They are simply the receptors on the hair follicles that are too sensitive to the DHT hormone. It’s a characteristic that you either have or you don’t. And in fact, depending on the hormonal upheavals, it will be felt more or less.

It’s something you have from birth. My dad lost all his hair at age 20, so I actually had a good proposition.

About 20% of women suffer from alopecia after the age of 40. I think they actually have it long before, but it’s just that often it’s after 35, 40 years that you start to see it.

It’s the fault of women suffering from alopecia

So it affects many women, just as it also affects many men. We see bald men every day. We see a lot of women who are gaunt, but they blend in and find things so they don’t show up.

To a woman who is losing her hair, we will tell her: “You are eating poorly or maybe you are stressed, or maybe you have a health problem.” A man who loses his hair, we will never tell him this. We will never tell him to take supplements, that if he takes control of his diet or tries a certain pill, he will be able to get his hair back.

So there is a shame among women that is still very important because it is still too taboo a topic.

Stigma of alopecia and possible treatments

Androgenetic alopecia is irreversible and irremediable.

There are also hormonal treatments, but they are only relatively effective and sometimes also have side effects.

One of the solutions that exists and that I use today is hair volume which allows you to regain normal density in just a few clips. And this makes it a solution that, personally, has allowed me to regain all my self-confidence.

When I was like this, I didn’t project the same image. People might think I was sick. “Ah, it looks like you have cancer.” Colleagues on a coffee break who looked at my scalp while I spoke.

And that’s actually when I said to myself, “I really need to find a real solution. Not a topical treatment that makes me regrow three hairs in six months, but something that really means that when you look at me you don’t necessarily see alopecia anymore, you see a normal person.”

“Even today there is a lot of expectation that a woman is beautiful”

For me it is an accessory that allows me to go back to being who I was at the beginning. I think it’s a taboo for women because in our societies there are still many expectations that a woman is beautiful.

Beauty is still very, very tied to hair. We can retrain our eyes to find a beautiful, bald or thinning woman.

But there is still a re-education of the gaze to be done because in our societies it is less acceptable for them to have a diminished beauty. On my social media I really try to give a voice to women who suffer from various forms of alopecia. It could be total alopecia.

So these are women who are completely bald because they have an immune problem. Or women with androgenetic alopecia.

I find it really sad that many women feel isolated. Because ten years ago I felt isolated. I couldn’t find any references.

We no longer have to be unhappy because of alopecia, in fact.

Keep feeling pretty

I have my own brand of hair volume and wigs. And the peculiarity of the volumizer is that, in fact, it is a partial hair prosthesis.

Unlike a wig, although I also offer one on Comme un tiara, it won’t take up your entire head. It will mix with our hair and as a result we will have a super natural result. It’s really quick in the morning. It’s not very restrictive. We find a normal density. We can tie our hair back, actually rebuild ourselves.

It’s not just a beauty accessory, it helps you better accept your alopecia.

Because in effect, when we wear it, we say to ourselves, “Well, when I want to feel pretty or something, I have my solution.”

Create connections and exchanges to move forward

The first advice I would give to a woman with alopecia is to really consult the social networks, the groups that exist on the topic. Because they are already realizing that it is not alone and that it affects a huge number of women between 20 and 80 years old.

Being able to discuss, being able to talk about possible solutions, this is what helped me in any case.

The media in general, unfortunately, when they talk about alopecia, tell us the most extreme cases in quotation marks. And it’s important to talk about it. But women with simple androgenetic alopecia are underrepresented in the media. Because actually, somehow, it’s less shocking.

Maybe when I go out on the street, that’s not what he’s going to hit. But in reality, behind the suffering, there is reality and it is important that the media talks about it.