British Star Turns Tide on Hair Loss, So Can You!

by Alexandra Kilpatrick

Known to millions of Loose Women viewers for her bouffant, Shobna Gulati recently revealed that she has long battled with thinning hair.

The British actress, known for her role as Anita in the soap opera Coronation Street and as a panelist on the lunchtime talk show Loose Women, has suffered from hair thinning since her teens. However, her most severe bout started about two years ago when she noticed visible patches of scalp and found clumps of hair on her pillow and brushes.

“An inch fell out from all around my hairline and I had bald patches in my parting all over the top of my head that were up to a centimeter wide,” the 47-year-old star explained to the Daily Mail. “I felt dreadful and unattractive and panicked that it was all going to come out. I’d leave my hair down to try to disguise it or use brown eyeshadow to cover up the bald patches. I was miserable and hated looking at pictures of myself.”

Nearly 40 percent of women will experience some form of hair loss by age 50 from hormonal changes. However, female pattern baldness is still a taboo subject. Gulati hopes to change that norm by speaking out about her condition.

She also comments that she is using seaweed supplements to restore her locks. She first discovered her hair loss condition when her father died and she moved out of her family home in Manchester at age 19.

“Both the trauma of my father dying and the change of diet had an impact on my hair,” Gulati commented to the Daily Mail. “I skipped meals and didn’t eat as well as I could have done.”

Stress, poor diet and weight loss can all cause temporary hair loss. However, the temporary condition tends to last only six months. Gulati’s hair thinning continued until her pregnancy at age 27 caused a rise in estrogen and stopped the hair fall. However, just three months after her son Akshay was born, the hair loss began again and she struggled to cope.

“It was something else to deal with in addition to the upheaval of single motherhood,” Gulati told the Daily Mail. “It was a mess.”

When Gulati played Anita in the sitcom Dinnerladies, her thinning hair wasn’t a concern, since it was tucked away under a hat. However, the condition became an issue when she joined Coronation Street in 2001.

“On screen, with it all blow-dried, it looked fine,” Gulati explained to the Daily Mail. “But I secretly hated what I looked like. As a shop girl, I’d be asked to wear my hair up. AS I got more comfortable with the makeup girls, I’d ask them to leave some curly bits at the front to make it look fuller. Clip-in extensions became my favorite accessory.”

During a three-year-break from the soap opera in 2006, Gulati cut her hair short and bleached it, but it only made her hair more brittle.

“The peroxide killed it,” Gulati told the Daily Mail. “As my hair grew, I had weaves put in, but my hair was so weak, it broke.”

When she returned to Coronation Street in the role of Sunita in 2009, she dyed her hair brown to make it look fuller.

“The Only Way is Essex was popular and everyone wanted big hair,” Gulati explained to the Daily Mail. “I bought into the trend with clip-in extensions. I looked like a Barbie doll.”

Her hair began falling out again when she left Coronation Street in 2012.

“During my last year, I was under a lot of stress over the change in my career and my relationship,” Gulati, who split from her boyfriend Anthony Brown in July 2013, told the Daily Mail.

Adrenal stress glands cause hair loss by secreting male hormones into the body. As Gulati approached menopause, her estrogen levels fluctuated, also contributing to hair fall.

While low iron levels and thyroid disorders can contribute to hair loss, the most common female hair loss condition, androgenetic alopecia, generally occurs when hair follicles become sensitive to normal male hormone levels in the body.

The common treatment for alopecia is minoxidil, which stimulates blood supply to encourage regrowth when applied to the scalp. Steroid injections help to suppress the immune system, thought to damage hair follicles.

“I didn’t feel ill and didn’t want to waste my doctor’s time,” Gulati told the Daily Mail. “I didn’t see my hair loss as an illness. I was embarrassed and would have found it too difficult to talk about. It was like saying the word ‘balding’ would make it worse.”

Gulati had hair extensions put in to boost her self-esteem after she finished filming last March.

“They were marvelous, but they weren’t good for my hair,” Gulati explained to the Daily Mail. “It grew dry and horrible and every time the extensions came out, I felt worse.”

Gulati turned to supplements with vitamins, minerals and marine extract to make her hair grow stronger earlier this year.

“I was skeptical,” Gulati admitted to the Daily Mail. “I worried it would be a waste of money.”

However, she claims that the supplements have made a noticeable difference. A couple years ago, she took out the hair extensions.

“I’m not saying this is the solution for everyone, but it feels as if I have more hair,” Gulati told the Daily Mail. “It feels healthier and more invigorated. I feel like I have taken action and not let the beginnings of the menopause take control of who I am.”

If you or someone you know would like to learn more about hair loss and how to treat it, please feel free to schedule a consultation or contact one of our representatives today!