Quiet hell. These two words, part of a long, long social media post put up by American actress and TV presenter Ricki Lake this month perfectly summed up what losing your hair, as a woman, feels like. And she's been fighting it for 30 years. "It has been debilitating, embarrassing, painful, scary, depressing, lonely... I have even felt suicidal over it," she wrote, detailing a journey of extensions, wigs and steroids. Lake attributes her condition to many factors including yo-yo dieting and hormonal birth control. Eventually, she decided to chop her locks off — "to be set free."

Unpacking alopecia

Dr Neha Pakhare