Louise

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Louise

Hi, I'm Louise and I'm a customer at Lucinda Ellery in Solihull.

I've got a grade 2 Intralace System and I've had it since December 2019, and I absolutely love it. This is my first system.

So my hair loss story is that I started losing my hair when I was just 13. Over the years they still don't really know what's made my hair fall out - lot's of different things have been bandied around, and treatments to try. Nothings really ever worked and at my last appointment I was told they really don't know, there's nothing they can do about it and basically just get on with it.

My hair's kind of fallen out in stages over the years. I'll lose quite a bit, it doesn't really grow back, it sort of plateaus for a while and then I'll have another big loss as well. So I've just got very thin hair everywhere.

Obviously at 13 it was really hard - it's a the time of your adolescence and your hormones when people are starting to go to the hairdressers, are absolutely loving it and enjoying it, whereas hairdressers to me was always a thing of nightmares really. Big mirrors, mirrors everywhere, you could see the back of your head, teh side of your head, the front of your head. That question I used to dread "Let's just show you what the back looks like" - all I was thinking was "I don't want to know what the back looks like - I know what it looks like".

Not only that but bright lights, I could never stand under bright lights. I always feared what they looked like, I would go out with girlfriends or I would be out for dinner with my partner, and I'd be looking at where am I going to sit, where am I gonna stand, what lights are on my head to make it look even shinier.

When it rained I wasn't worried that my mascara was going to run down my face, when I started using colourant dry shampoos and colourants that are sprayed on my hair, my worry was that my hair was going to start dripping down my face as well.

Over the years people have said all sorts of comments to me that you try and shrug off and you think it's ok, but they do start to get to you, you don't realise quite how much your self-esteem's been affected to it. I know I was me before my hair loss and it hasn't defined me, but I know definitely through going to Lucinda Ellery I've definitely got my sparkle back.

What made me want to share my story with people, as hard as it is sometimes to discuss it. I know that before I went to Lucinda Ellery I was trying to decide what I was going to do, and I know that the pictures of the Befores and the Afters really helped me and really inspired me and it's just nice to know that you're not alone and you're not the only one to do it.

So what message would I like to give to ladies who are out there and are maybe at the start of their hair loss? You're you, your hair doesn't define you. You're beautiful and you're brave for even getting this far. An you do what's right for you. Me it was going to Lucinda Ellery's and it's definitely the best decision I've ever made. The team are amazing, they've got my colour and my cut completely perfect. I've had people come up to me and say that they evny my hair now, which obviously before with hair loss I'd never heard.

Women, we're beautiful, but it definitely gave me my sparkle back.