Take the Scare out of Losing your Hair

Today's post is by Sabine Brannan and Audrey Ball, two women who make it their business to support women through hair loss. They are joining forces to offer an exclusive workshop with Yes to Life, to help 'Take the Scare out of Losing your Hair'. The workshop is being held on Thursday October 16th at 2.30pm in Islington, London. For more information and to book tickets please click here.

As a woman the idea of losing your hair is incredibly difficult to come to terms with, yet this is the experience of around 8 million women in the UK today. Hair loss is a well-known side effect of chemotherapy, and during this especially tough time it can be even harder to find the self-confidence needed to face the world. You need not feel alone, we are here to share our experience and expertise to help you develop your own style and feel comfortable in your self, however you choose to manage and cope with your hair loss.



Sabine's story

I was born and raised in Holland, where I grew up in a family interwoven into the tradition of fabric trading. I cut my teeth trading cloth in the dutch markets and though it was hard work, I learned
quickly and served my apprenticeship well.

Later in life I was prompted to put my experience of the fabric world to a different use. In 2008 a close friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer. Whilst this was obviously devastating news, it wasn't long before we started to concern ourselves less with fear and more with practical solutions to the hardships that any cancer diagnosis brings.

One of the hardships my friend experienced was losing her hair whilst undergoing chemotherapy. This was a side effect she found particularly difficult and after searching far and wide could find nothing she wanted to wear on her head. I was working as a fashion designer at the time and when my friend asked if I could design something for her I could not have been more happy to be able to help her in some way.

My designs are what you see today - easy to wear, comfortable, feminine and fashionable. My friend received so many compliments she insisted I started a business and so Hip Headwear was born. We now offer an ever increasing range of designs and styles, from summer hats to winter berets, nightwear, swimwear and everything in between.

Through running my business for over six years in Holland I have had the chance to meet many inspiring women who are embracing hair loss in their own way. I am very excited about expanding in the UK, further developing my range and helping more women overcome hair loss with style and confidence.

Audrey's Story

“It was as if someone had erased me and replaced me with a blank canvas. My identity had gone, and it was more than a year before I began to relocate myself again.” Audrey Ball, Founder of Esteem

My condition is alopecia universalis, a medical condition involving rapid hair loss of all hair including eyebrows and eye lashes.

I was 5 years old when it started, and 17 when the hair on my head and body fell away completely, never to return. It was a devastating thing to happen to a young girl and for a while I lost all real sense of myself. I would look in the mirror and feel that there was nothing there to define me.

That was 30 years ago, and I have long since accepted my alopecia. I have a happy and successful life, married with two children and with a fulfilling career, and I can say with confidence that my hair loss has made me a stronger person, rather than holding me back.

Wigs have played an important part in my journey, both putting them on and taking them off.

Although I embraced full-time wig wearing when I was 19, it took another five years before I was first able to be open with a boyfriend about wearing a wig (we’d been going out for a year, and despite my silence, he already knew). It was longer still before I let a partner see me without my hair.

I have day wigs and night wigs, glam wigs and ordinary wigs and have changed styles over the years to suit fashion and circumstances.

So If there’s one thing I really know about, it’s how to choose, wear, style and care for wigs, how to use make up to address disappeared brows and lashes and above all, what it feels like to be a woman without her own hair.

I’ve had to learn all this though trial and error.  Although wig shopping has improved since the days of department stores with untrained sales staff and dodgy changing rooms, I’ve never found
anywhere that really offers the service I want – and that I absolutely needed when first faced with hair loss. That’s why I set up Esteem.

My aim is to combine a fantastic selection of wigs, with proper understanding and advice on all aspects of choosing and wearing a wig.

Esteem is the place where there is no question you can’t ask, no thought you need keep to yourself  – and above all someone who really knows how to support and guide you through the myriad of choices when faced with hair loss.

For more information and to book tickets for Sabine and Audrey's exclusive workshop, please click here.

Find out more about Sabine's fashionable range of Hip Headwear here.

Find out more about Audrey's products and services at Esteem here.