'Hair treatment got my swimming confidence back'

Ruth said getting the treatment gave her her confidence back

A keen swimmer said getting treatment for her alopecia to restore her hair gave her the confidence to get back in the pool.

Ruth, from Staffordshire, said she tried different methods over the years for her androgenetic alopecia but none worked and the hair loss badly affected her confidence.

"I didn't really go out, hardly at all. For years, I'd given up really," she said.

She finally found a treatment which worked, at a salon in Stoke-on-Trent, and said getting her hair fully back was "brilliant".

"I swim in it, I go to bed in it, I've had to learn how to style it," she added.

"You just kick yourself that you didn't find it years ago."

Ruth, who did not want to give her full name, said she had years of struggling with her type of alopecia which caused hair loss all over her head.

"I've got hardly any hair now...so there is nothing you can do really," she said.

"For me, going to the hairdressers was like going to the dentist - but worse.

"It's so embarrassing, I can't tell you, it's nerve-wracking to even just to go to a normal hairdressers. I hated going, you feel like everybody is looking at you.

"The hairdressers themselves don't know what to do with your hair."

An integrated hair system is a process of using mesh and tape to attach donor hair to existing hair

The 62-year-old tried wearing wigs but said she found them old-fashioned, uncomfortable and impractical.

"The wigs are awful in the heat," she reflected. "They were itchy and really uncomfortable to wear."

She was not able to have extensions fitted after she said she was told she was not suitable, as she did not have enough of her own hair.

In March, she had a consultation with Stacey Clarke, from Specialist Hair Enhancement (SHE), in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent.

She fitted Ruth with an integrated hair system, a process of attaching real donor hair to existing hair using mesh and tape.

"[Customers] think and feel that they're alone but it affects more women than you can imagine," Ms Clarke said.

"Most clients are extremely nervous, definitely lacking confidence, sometimes they don't even want to look in the mirror.

"I'm proud of what I do. It's just so rewarding. I love it."