A Greenwich woman who suffers from alopecia gets ready for work the night before and sleeps with her hair and eyebrows done. Jess Mullen, 27, has alopecia and lost her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes when they fell out aged 16.
She was diagnosed with alopecia areata which quickly developed to alopecia universalis – and her hair has never grown back since. Jess says she didn’t leave the house for two years before she built up her confidence and started sharing her story online.
Jess, a childcare practitioner, from Greenwich, London, said: “I was the kind of girl that loved my hair. I was always setting the trend – dyeing it, cutting it into a bob. It was traumatic to lose it. There was a two-year period where I didn’t go out. Then I built up the courage to try and wig.”
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Now she feels “amazing” and is able to leave the house without her wigs and make-up done. But Jess, who works in childcare, still feels more comfortable wearing wigs around the children she works with as she worries they will be “scared of her”. She spends half an hour putting on her wig and applying eyebrow transfers the night before – but applies any make-up in the morning.
She added: “It takes so long to get ready in the morning. I started doing it the night before. I put my eyebrows on and my wig on. It normally takes about half an hour. I feel it’s like second nature.”
Jess first noticed a clump of her hair had fallen out after she finished her GCSEs in 2013 – but it was dismissed by doctors as a cause of having her hair up too tight in a bun. But a month later Jess lost all of her hair suddenly – including her eyebrows and eyelashes – and was diagnosed with alopecia.
Jess said the wigs started to make her feel more confident – but she still wouldn’t leave the house without one. Gradually over time she realised she couldn’t change anything and began feeling able to leave the house without a wig and her eyebrows on.
She said: “I got more confident. I knew there was nothing I could do to change who I am.”
Jess started an Instagram page in 2018 and connected with others like her. She said: “It made me feel more comfortable and more confident. I can go out bald. I love the person I am.”
Despite this Jess still has days when she doesn’t feel as confident and tends to wear a wig for work. She said: “I worried the children were going to be scared. But I have gone without a wig a few times and they have smiled and saw me for who I am.”
Jess gets ready the night before to make sure she is looking glam in her wigs. She said: “I have a wardrobe filled with boxes about 50 to 80 wigs. I’m able to change my hair colour whenever I want.”
Jess wants other people to know they a not alone. She said: “You might feel like an alien, but you don’t have to feel like you’re on your own. If you have a visual difference it’s OK to way you do – sad or anxious. I am who I am – you can be like that too.”
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