Covid warning as young woman goes bald with Alopecia Areata

Selfie-loving Lydia Morley says she loved taking snaps of herself until her long, thick brown hair began thinning and falling out in the shower in November last year.

And when her parents discovered a bald patch on the back of her head in January, the vintage shop supervisor booked an appointment with her GP to find out the cause.

Lydia was diagnosed with alopecia areata - a disease that happens when the immune system attacks hair follicles causing them to fall out.

Although impossible to identify the root cause both the 23-year-old, who says she's suffered eight bouts of covid since 2020, and her GP believe long covid may be responsible.

(Image: Kennedy News/@lydiaemorley)

In the first few weeks, Lydia said her alopecia made her feel lonely and isolated and within five months she lost 80% of her hair.

She claims it left her unable to recognise herself in the mirror or wanting to take snaps of herself.

But when she decided to shave her remaining locks off for charity and go completely bald, Lydia said her confidence blossomed and she's now happy to leave the house without a wig.

She's now raising awareness of her alopecia journey to help others speak out about their hair loss experiences.

Lydia, from Newport, said: "In November last year I thought my hair was looking a bit thin, I used to have really long thick hair.

"Whenever I'd brush my hair in the shower, I'd have proper clumps come out and it was getting to the point where it was a little bit strange.

(Image: Kennedy News/@lydiaemorley)

"A couple weeks into January I came home from work one day, I was cooking dinner and my dad was standing behind me and noticed a little patch on my head.

"This was quite an intense experience as I knew I had had hair falling out but I didn't think about alopecia at this point.

"That night was difficult and I was quite stressed about the situation but I think it was more not knowing what was wrong.

"When I first went to the doctors, they did believe the cause to be stress but I'm the least stressed person ever."

Dismissing stress as the cause, Lydia believes her alopecia to be a symptom of long covid first noticing her hair thinning after recovering from another bout in November.

Lydia said: "Before having covid in November I had it in the summertime. I've had it eight times now but in November it was my sixth time.

"I think my alopecia was caused by the multiple times of getting covid as I think after having it so many times my immune system has just been dampened and dampened.

"The doctors did mention that it could be this but alopecia is one of those things where they don't always know exactly why it happens.

"Personally I believe that and doctors did say that this could be a cause of the situation but they also said it could be a million other things too."

Since shaving all her hair off in May, Lydia says she has begun to experience some hair growth on her head but she remains without eyelashes or eyebrows.

And even though she is happy about her hair slowly coming back, she says it can all drop out again without warning.

(Image: Kennedy News/@lydiaemorley)

She now wears a range of synthetic and 'real hair' wigs everyday but also feels confident to leave the house without wearing one.

After sharing a video of her hair journey over the last five months on TikTok, her post went viral racking up 179,000 views and more than 8,000 likes.

What is alopecia areata?

The NHS explains Alopecia Areata is a specific, common cause of hair loss that can occur at any age and usually causes small, coin-sized round patches of baldness to appear on the scalp.