Actress Carey Mulligan Allegedly Suffers Hair Loss

British actress Carey Mulligan has quickly risen to become one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars. At just 25, she has appeared in a string of big name movies and TV adaptions, including An Education, for which she won a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role. But, according to recent reports the actress’s constantly changing hairstyles have resulted in hair loss.

Changing hairstyles

Like many people in show business, Ms. Mulligan has been required to sport an assortment of wildly varying hairstyles in order to fit into different roles. Her naturally mousy hair has been dyed and bleached numerous times, with long locks dyed dark brown for her breakthrough role as a schoolgirl in An Education giving way to peroxide bleached blonde hair for her role as a 1930’s prostitute in the Johnny Depp gangster film, Public Enemies. More recently, she had it cut short for her role as Winnie Gekko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, opposite Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas.

Now, according to an unnamed friend quoted in the Daily Mail, she wishes to grow her hair long again, but is finding it hard to do so. According to the friend, the hair loss was triggered by the bleaching required for her role in Public Enemies.

“The role was exciting for her,” said the friend. “Carey is not overly concerned with aesthetics but is incredibly professional, so she was stoic about having to sacrifice her looks for her art. She was eager to please, so she obliged. But when she finished filming she burst into tears because of the damage the peroxide had done.”

The friend claimed that Ms. Mulligan is now taking a hair supplement available from salons, in an attempt to coax it into re-growing. “She would do anything to have long natural hair again but she can’t grow it,” said the friend. “She’s been recommended to take the pills for six months. While her hair is slowly but surely growing back, it’s taking a long time and she doesn’t feel she will have her confidence back until she’s happy with it.”

The hair loss risks of bleach

Bleaches and other cosmetic hair products are a well known cause of damage to the hair. If the story of Ms. Mulligan’s hair loss is true, it may be a case of Traction Alopecia. Often caused by tightly worn or braided hairstyles which put excessive tension on hair follicles, Traction Alopecia hair loss can also be caused by over-processing with chemicals, as this can result in the hairs becoming brittle. In addition to slow hair re-growth, Traction Alopecia can also result in hair falling out in clumps.

Fortunately it is a treatable hair loss condition, provided that the cause of it is identified and ceased before permanent damage takes place. In Ms. Mulligan’s case, if she has stopped colouring her hair and is otherwise looking after it, it should grow back gradually as a matter of course. Hair re-growth treatment courses, such as those offered by the Belgravia Centre can sometimes help speed up the process and nurture the hair back to health, depending on the individual case.

If you think you might be suffering from Traction Alopecia or any other hair loss condition, contact us today for a free consultation to see how we can help or fill out our online diagnostic form.