Alopecia woman in haircut for charity

Before the cut Josie Sanders said: "I'm really excited, I'm nervous, but I am excited"

A woman who lost her hair to alopecia has had a haircut for charity after it grew back.

Josie Sanders, 20, from Crediton, Devon, still has recurrent episodes of hair loss, but has grown enough to donate to the Little Princess Trust, which makes wigs for people who have lost their hair.

"It's something that I really wanted to do for a long time and it feels brilliant to be able to really give back to them," she said.

Ms Sanders was diagnosed with alopecia at the age of four and started losing her hair severely when she was 15.

Josie Sanders threw away her wig on stage and the video went viral

The haircut, a blonde bob, was the first 'proper' cut since then.

"It has grown back now and I thought, well, now is the time to do it," she said.

"And partially just because I don't know if in six months I'll be able to do it, I don't know if it'll still be on my head."

She said she "always had very, very long blonde hair" which was a "huge part" of her identity.

"And I think that was one of the hardest things, kind of losing that aspect of myself," she said.

"But it did teach me a lot and and although I would pay any amount of money to get rid of it, I would never want to get rid of the kind of lessons that it's taught me in life."

Ms Sanders said it felt great to be able to give back to the charity that helped her by donating her hair

A video of her throwing off her wig on stage at the age of 16 went viral attracting more than one million views online.

Of the video going viral she said: "I think it was incredible. It was somewhat surreal."

Ms Sanders said: "I think it was the messages that I got afterwards from young people that also had alopecia or their mothers really made it completely worth it.

"It was just it was lovely to kind of see those people identifying themselves in me. And then really finding something good out of it."

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