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Katie-Anna Moore, 20, was just like any other student at Bournemouth University. In March, she was thinking ahead to her upcoming final exams and beginning to worry as their dates neared.
Unlike other students though, Moore’s stress began manifesting in a strange way.
That March, as she was showering and putting shampoo into her hair, a handful of her long, blonde hair came out in her hand. Every single subsequent time she showered, small clumps of hair would continue coming out.
Moore brushed it off, thinking that she had just been using her hair straighteners too often and causing her hair to become brittle and weak from the extreme heat.
But as the weeks went on, her fellow students began to notice her hair loss and Moore realized that she was losing hair, even when she wasn’t in the shower. This time, Moore went to seek solace and escape school at her father’s home.
Her condition had gotten so bad that she “was crying all the time and didn’t want to talk to [her] friends or tell the university what was going on. [She] got more and more self-conscious about it until [she] stopped going to classes completely and wouldn’t socialize with friends for a month.”
After only a couple days at home, however, her father noticed Moore’s hair loss as well. Moore broke down.
It was finally in mid-May that Moore went to visit her doctor. There, Moore was diagnosed with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease present in the skin that causes hair loss on the scalp and body. Her doctor, however, was unable to diagnose why Moore had developed this disease, aside from the fact that she was stressed for her upcoming final exams.
The doctor warned Moore that she would likely lose the little hair that remained on her head, which prompted Moore to ask her father to just help her shave off the rest of her hair before she returned to university for her exams.
One of Moore’s friends promised to act as a distraction if too many people stared at her in public, but even with their support, Moore’s “confidence comes and goes. If [she’s] surrounded by friends, they reassure [her] that [she’s] beautiful, but it’s when [she’s] alone that [she] feels shy.”
Now, Moore is attempting to raise enough money to buy a wig for herself. You can help support her cause here.
