Eyelashes and Eyebrows Hit the Headlines

Claire Culverwell’s eyebrows were badly thinned (left) after 14 years of using tweezers. Now they have been restored (right) and she says it has changed her life

The topic of female facial hair appears to have caught the imagination of the media recently, with two related yet very different stories hitting the headlines. Both of the stories involved eyelashes and eyebrows, and provide an intriguing insight into this particular aspect of female hair loss.

Olivia Munn's surprising confession

The first story involves Magic Mike star Olivia Munn, who admitted that she has to wear false eyelashes in public because she purposefully pulls her own out. 32 year-old Munn confessed to experiencing a condition known as Trichotillomania, saying "I don't bite my nails, but I rip out my eyelashes".

Trichotillomania, also known as trichotillosis, is an impulse control disorder which sees affected people literally pulling their own hair out. Usually hair is pulled from the scalp, but there are recorded cases of eyebrows, arms, legs and even pubic regions being affected.

Trichotillomania is generally treated through therapy, although some medical trials suggest the use of particular antidepressants may also help prevent the urge to pluck hair. Getting the sufferer out of the habit is the most important way of curing Trichotillomania. Once this is done, sufferers can concentrate on regrowing the lost hair with treatments such as minoxidil cream.

Eyebrow hair transplants

The second story involves Claire Culverwell, a 30 year-old woman whose zealous eyebrow grooming regime prevented her hair from regrowing naturally. Lancashire-dweller Culverwell has plucked her eyebrows for more than 15 years, unknowingly damaging her hair follicles and stopping hair from growing permanently.

When Claire came to change her eyebrow style, her eyebrows refused to regrow as expected as she said herself, “a hair follicle only has a number of cycles of growth, if you pluck it too many times, you end up killing it off”. Claire’s condition is an example of a hair loss condition known as Traction Alopecia which sees hair become follicles deformed, stopping future growth.

Following diagnosis of her condition, Claire opted for a hair transplant operation, having healthy hair follicles transferred from the back of her scalp and re-implanted above her eyes. Not all transplant surgeons will carry out a procedure on the eyebrows, but there are some who do.

What can you do?

Unfortunately The Belgravia Centre cannot help hair loss of the eyebrows or lashes, but if you are experiencing any form of hair loss of the scalp, please contact us online to arrange a free, no obligation consultation. Alternatively, if you can’t come to the clinic in person, you can fill in our online diagnostic form for a home use treatment service that can be posted directly to your front door.

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