South Korean Starlet IU Reveals Album Stress Caused Hair Loss

Being a musician and a celebrity can put a lot of pressure on an individual, particularly when they are young and inexperienced. Here in the UK there are frequent news stories that emerge about one celebrity or another on either side of the Atlantic who has suffered hair loss which may be attributed to stress. Now, some news from the other side of the world has surfaced to remind us of the more or less universal nature of stress and hair loss.

You’ve probably never heard of a young woman named Iu, but in her native South Korea she’s a big deal indeed. Think Britney Spears meets Mariah Carey meets Adele and you're getting there (and if you’re genuinely curious you can view her latest video at the bottom of this story.

With a photogenic smile, and a number of music awards and number ones already under her belt at the age of just eighteen, IU would appear to have the world at her feet (or at least the Korean-speaking part of it). But as is so often the case, the price of success and fame rarely comes cheap.

Teenage singer’s bald spot

The singer told Korean national newspaper Sports Donga that while she was making her second album, ‘Last Fantasy’, she discovered, “a coin-sized bald spot on my head.”

She attributes this hair loss to the pressure and stress that she put she herself under while creating the album, going on to comment, “To be honest I suffered from a headache maybe because I was always trying to bear this and that. And in the end, one coin-sized hole of my bare skin appeared on my head.”

The hair loss she suffered appears to be a classic case of Alopecia Areata, a hair loss condition which can be brought on by stress. Alopecia is a disorder of the auto-immune system in which the body’s natural defences mistakenly attack healthy hair follicles, causing them to cease producing new hair, at least temporarily. This can result in ‘coin-sized’ bald patches as experienced by Iu, but in more serious cases it can lead to total loss of all hair from the scalp (Alopecia Totalis), or even the whole body, including eyebrows (Alopecia Universalis).

In many case Alopecia is only temporary, and it is believed that her hair has since re-grown. What’s more, the stress and effort appears to have been worth it, as her album has shot to the top ofKorean pop charts. For some though, Alopecia is a much more serious and long-lasting problem, as has been the case for troubled British TV presenter Gail Porter.

Treatment for Alopecia at The Belgravia Centre

Of course you don’t have to have the bright lights of fame and success on you to suffer stress-related hair loss, and many people suffer it as a result of life’s everyday turmoils, such as problems at work, relationship troubles and illness.

If you think you may be suffering from a case of Alopecia then the hair loss experts at The Belgravia Centre can help in cases of mild to moderate, patchy Alopecia. For further information contact us for a consultation with no obligation. Alternatively, fill in our online diagnostic form to receive a treatment programme which can be shipped anywhere in the world, including South Korea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NJR8Inf77Ac

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