Famous hair loss sufferers

Hair loss can affect anyone at any time, including those in the public eye. Here we look at some of our favourite celebrities who’ve suffered hair loss, and how they’ve dealt with the situation.

Following a series of personal traumas, TV presenter Gail Porter developed Alopecia Universalis, a severe form of hair loss, in 2005. Just four weeks after noticing clumps of hair beginning to fall out, Porter found herself completely bald, and lost her eyebrows and eyelashes; a difficult situation for anyone, let alone a known beauty who was famous for having her full length picture projected across the Houses of Parliament.

Porter used her condition to raise awareness of female hair loss, refusing to wear a hat or wig and maintaining her public profile. She also worked with several charities (including the Little Princess Trust) which help sufferers of hair loss from childhood onwards. Her hair began to re-grow around late 2009, and she now has around 80% hair growth on her scalp, which is styled into a cute crop.

Porter was nominated for a bravery award for her work promoting awareness of Alopecia and female hair loss, but refused saying ‘“I'm not being ungrateful, but I've not got cancer, I've not saved anyone's life. My hair's fallen out. I've just gone out without a hat on. It's no big deal.”

Tennis legend Andre Agassi had a much harder time dealing with hair loss, at one stage, wearing a disintegrating wig in a Grand Slam final to hide his condition. The star, famous in his early years for a luscious mullet hairstyle, developed male pattern baldness in his early 20s, a condition possibly aggravated by his admitted drug use throughout those years.

In his recent auto-biography ‘Open’ he describes how losing his hair affected him saying "Every morning I would get up and find another piece of my identity on the pillow, in the wash basin, down the plughole."  Following his defeat in his first Grand Slam final at the French Open in 1990, which he partly attributed to fear that his damaged wig would fall off on court, Agassi’s then-wife Brooke Shields suggested he shave his head, which he did three days later.

Agassi has gone on record stating that he did look into ways of retaining his hair, but surgery was not suitable, and the French Open defeat had highlighted the risks of living with a hairpiece.

The effective hair loss treatments available today were not yet discovered at that time, otherwise hair loss may not have been a problem for Agassi. Proven treatments are now available that, if used correctly and combined with the optimum hair growth boosters and close monitoring, will result in hair regrowth for the majority of users. To get a better idea you can view hundreds of 'hair loss success stories' to see the kind of results that so many people experience.

Agassi went on to become the only male player of the modern era to win a career super slam, taking all four open titles, the Olympic gold and World Championships in one year, but unfortunately one thing he couldn't win back was his hair.