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Laura Mathias

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Laura Mathias started losing her hair when she was 13 and was diagnosed with alopecia around the age of 14. She is a campaigner for charity Changing Faces and a consultant with t...

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Who are you?

Hello, my name's Laura Mathias and I have been living with alopecia for nearly two decades. I am now a very passionate advocate for living well with visible difference. So if you want to ask me questions, ask away.

What is alopecia?

So alopecia is an umbrella term for hair loss. Effectively, it's an autoimmune condition, and it means my body is rejecting my hair follicles all over my body because it thinks they're an alien invader or something. That's my understanding of what alopecia is. Anyway.

How do I get alopecia?

Why do you want alopecia? Oh, alopecia is a really weird one. It's totally random, but so many people that I speak to, myself included, seem to have the trigger of stress that may have caused the start of hair loss, the start of alopecia, let's just put it this way, alopecia doesn't discriminate. If you were trying to get it, you can't get it if like everyone else, you just want to exist with long, luscious hair. It may just come out of the blue and it can be after you've had a baby. It could be after a stressful situation. I know lots of people that have developed alopecia at six months old when there was nothing particularly stressful happening for them. So it is totally random autoimmune condition that anybody can get.

Does this mean you lose all of your hair?

Were you born with alopecia?