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Trisha Buller, a member of the Institute of Trichologists, a group representing specialists in the science of hair growth, says: “This can be a major issue. Many of these women go to their doctors for help and are just told to buy a wig.

"To cover up my hair loss I started to tie it up a lot, but I was really worried it would show when we filmed the scenes where I was lying unconscious"
Shobna Gulati

"The trouble is many doctors see it as a vanity thing, not a psychological warning. I’ve known people who didn’t venture out of the house for years because they were so distressed over their hair loss. Yet often something can be done about it."

Hair shedding can often be due to a nutritional deficiency and with many women working full-time these days and bringing Shobna, from Manchester, first experienced rapid hair loss when her father died in her late teens as she was about to go to university.

Her hair also thinned again while pregnant with her son Akshay, now 19, before growing back after he was born. However losing handfuls of hair due to stress last year was the most worrying episode of all. 

“I am of Punjabi origin and Punjabi women always keep their hair long,” she explains. “In fact women from my culture see much of their beauty in their hair.” 
As well as stress Shobna is convinced her hair loss was partly down to eating disorders earlier in her life and the fact that in 2010 she was diagnosed with coeliac disease."

Excerpt from Daily Express