Falkirk Footballer Shaves Head to Deal with Hair Loss Condition

A promising young midfielder who plays in the Scottish Championship surprised supporters last week when he arrived on the pitch sporting a newly-shaved head. Falkirk’s Craig Sibbald, who has Alopecia Areata, figured it was the best way to deal with his hair loss.

According to Scottish newspaper The Daily Record, the player who is just 21 first started losing his hair to the autoimmune disorder when he was a child. “I had it when I was younger, but it’s come back,” he told the newspaper. “I had a chest infection and that might have triggered it I don’t know but hopefully it doesn’t stay too long. When I had it as a kid, my hair eventually all grew back.”

Confusing condition

What Sibbald describes is a fairly typical experience of Alopecia Areata, a confusing condition that typically strikes without warning. It usually manifests itself as patchy hair loss that appears suddenly, and in some cases hair will regrow of its own accord in a few months sometimes without any reoccurrence. In other cases, however, it can linger, spread and keep coming back for years or even decades.

Because it can be so confusing and distressing, a number of support organisations around the world have been set up specifically to offer help and counselling to people with the condition.

In the Daily Record article, Sibbald brings up one of the most troubling aspects of Alopecia Areata, a condition that is caused by the body inadvertently attacking healthy cells in the scalp. “I’ve had a bit of stick,” he says, suggesting his hair loss has resulted in a number of negative comments, or at least some dressing room banter. “But when you tell people what’s caused it , they’re quite sympathetic.”

Sympathetic approach

A sympathetic and supportive approach to treatment is at the cornerstone of Belgravia’s work; clients are not only properly diagnosed and brought up-to-speed concerning the medically-proven alopecia areata treatments that are available, but they are guided through their recommended treatment options by a dedicated hair loss professional. Many clients say that this is a very important part of their treatment, and infinitely preferable to “going it alone”.

Belgravia's experts formulate personalised plans around preparations of the key, topical treatment high strength minoxidil from the range available at our in-clinic pharmacies. This method has produced many significant Alopecia Areata Treatment Success Stories with clients achieving encouraging, and often complete, regrowth.

Alopecia Areata can affect up to two per cent of people in their lifetime, and while current treatment has resulted in thousands of success stories, it is also true that these are exciting times in terms of potential new treatments that are currently being tested, particularly for those with the more severe versions of the condition - Alopecia Totalis and Alopecia Universalis - which currently have no reliable treatment options. Among them are treatments that may arise out of cancer and rheumatoid arthritis drugs known as JAK inhibitors.