In a candid interview with the Daily Mail recently, the model and actress Danielle Lineker has opened up about her battle with alopecia when she was just a teenager.
Danielle, 31, used to be known simply for being the much younger wife of the former footballer Gary Lineker, who is now a popular TV sports presenter. She has now carved out a career of her own in modelling, TV and theatre, but she wasn’t always so confident.
Admitting she was extremely shy as a teenager, Danielle says that she was trying to overcome it when she developed alopecia at age 17. The condition is likely to have been triggered by the stress of her A-level course. She says:
“I felt overwhelmed by my A-levels. I was the first person in my family who’d done them and I didn’t want to let them down. That’s when the alopecia started.
“I lost most of the hair on top of my head for about seven months. I had a bald patch on top and I had to resort to an embarrassing “comb-over” and coloured in any gaps with eyeliner. I don’t know if it was a subconscious thing to do with my studies.”
Danielle has now overcome her female hair loss condition, which she claims is due to a positive outlook and the support of her husband and family.