My nineteen year old daughter, Siobhan, has a beautiful head of thick copper colored hair. She was horrified this morning to find clumps of it coming out when she was washing it in the shower. I had noticed for a few weeks that the amount of red hair left in the shower was increasing, but just tried to make sure she was eating healthily.
Losing your hair is a natural part of the aging process, obviously for men, but also for women, after the menopause. My daughter and I sat down that evening, after work, to talk about her problem.
It turned out that she has been under a lot of stress at work recently, with extra responsibility being heaped on her because she is a willing worker. She has also had the usual share of boyfriend problems and a missed period. Combined with eating junk food five times a week and drinking half a bottle of vodka at a weekend this was playing havoc with her body chemistry.
Stress can have all kinds of unexpected effects. It can cause stomach upsets, wind and skin disorders as well as the more well known ailments like asthma and headaches.
I went to the chemist for a pregnancy test kit, attracting a few strange looks. Siobhan...