Tom is a great inspiration to any one who is experiencing Hair Loss, here is what he had to say when he recently visited our Hair Loss Clinic in Leeds:
I first started noticing the effects of hair loss when I was around 15 years old. Each time I went to my local barbers my hairline seemed to both be getting thinner and also receding. At this time I had my hair in a spiked up style using shockwaves gel, however within the space of around 9 months I had to have the front down giving me a slight fringe to cover my thinning hair as well as switching to a lighter wax as the gel was simply too “heavy”.
Having hair loss at such a young age had a dramatic effect on my life, I went from being the school football captain and the sportiest person in my school to completely quitting football and any other sport, as soon as I got my hair wet it looked even thinner, so playing sport in front of anyone was out of the window. My confidence to even look at girls never mind talk to them was completely diminished. Although I had always managed to be a popular character within my school the bullies still caught up with me, making the odd comment about how I was going bald or how I was going through a mid life crisis at the age of 15. What was worse than that though was my friends telling me in an informative voice, “you’re going bald you are aren’t you”, as though I hadn’t been looking constantly in a mirror at what was happening to me. To say that I was depressed would be a complete understatement, I was devastated.
I felt sorry for my mum and dad, they were so proud of my achievements within sport and academia but had seen me drop everything within the space of a year and a half. I spent hours every single night searching the internet for the latest cure for hair loss. I tried lots of different ones funded by my savings as well as my mum and dad’s money. These included hair loss shampoos, hair filler, herbal shampoos, medication where you added drops to the bald patches (??), all these were supported by different websites claiming the products to be the best on the market. All of these products did not work whatsoever they instead left me hundreds of pounds worse off and still with dramatically thinning hair. It was this that caused so much frustration having promised so much and delivered so little, it is a cruel industry with people brutally making money off of innocent people when they are at their most vulnerable.
Eventually I found a product made of fibres, these were small fibres that cling onto your hair making it look thicker and fuller, however this only made it look slightly better with my hair still looking much thinner than all my friends hair. To make matters worse they didn’t have my exact colour match so I ended up having extremely bright blonde hair which looked almost yellow. I went on struggling with trying to make my hair look thicker for a further six months, whilst still doing my research on the internet. This took me into the first year of college, I had still managed to do pretty good in my GCSEs and was now studying chemistry, Biology, sport and Geography. Towards the end of my first year in college, I begain to do some research on advice on hair loss in Leeds, West Yorkshire and I came across Sat who is the director of a company called Total Hair Loss Solutions which offered a free hair consultation. Although extremely skeptical I decided to fill in a form online and left my contact details. The next day whilst I was at my part time job I received a phone call, it was Total Hair Loss Solutions, however I was that shocked and at work with my work friends nearby that I put the phone down in a panic. I then left it another week. However having had another day of people telling me that I was going bald at college I finally broke down, seeing me in such a state my mum had had enough and she made a call back to Sat, he understood totally about my panic and I booked in to see him for the following weekend.
Whilst on the train to the consultation I was extremely nervous but slightly hopeful just to be given the opportunity to talk to someone else about the issues I was having. At this moment the question going through my head was how can someone with a full head of hair and no hair loss possibly understand what I was going through? So I walked into the consultation room feeling both disappointed and highly pessimistic. Sat, explained to me and my parents that there were a variety of options including laser hair treatment, tablets or in fact the non surgical hair system. Seeing as though my hair had already progressed pretty badly and I was at such a young age it was decided that the best source of action for me was to have the hair system. Although the hair system is not cheap, a financial package was discussed so that I, being a low earner and from a working class family, could still afford to pay for the system. I actually bought three systems and these would be rotated. A date was arranged for my fitting, it was done so I had my system fitted in the summer holidays of college, this way I wouldn’t see anyone from my college for a couple of months as well as giving me time to adjust to my new system. Both important points in making the transition from lack of hair to head of hair go as smoothly as possible.
The systems took approximately 8 weeks to make but finally having had a long wait the systems were ready and the fitting day had arrived. I went to back to the hair studio feeling very nervous. The process in total took about three hours, my new hair was styled into a cool new spiky hairstyle using some of the products provided. I couldn’t believe the transformation. The system literally looked like my very own head of hair, it would be impossible for anyone to ever think otherwise unless someone had told them.
As I walked out of the studio I was delighted and feeling extremely confident. However an anxious feeling soon took over. What if people asked questions? What if they can tell I’m wearing a hair system? It turns out most people didn’t even flinch an eye, some people asked if I had had my hair dyed which I just replied yes (the hair system was no longer yellow like the fibres). A very small minority asked if I had had treatment, I told them that I had had laser hair treatment and if they wanted to find out more that they should do a Google search on it, no one asked any further questions when I gave them this response.
After my initial fitting I started to go to the clinic every 3 or 4 weeks to have a refusion or sometimes know as a regroom, freshen up my system and get my own hair cut. Any initial problems I had were soon taken care of by the experienced staff at total hair loss solutions who were very happy to help. Going back to the Clinic every four weeks however allows me to catch up with the team at the Clinic as well as getting my system thoroughly cleansed and then changing it for one of my other systems. This way a systems lifetime is expanded saving you money in the long run.
I managed to pull back my A level results and get straight A’s. I now study chemistry at university, I have an amazing girlfriend who knows about my hair system but accepts me for who I am. As for my sport? I play football again three times a week and I’m about to participate in my very first ever marathon at the end of the month.