Single Bald Female

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The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) has produced a Patient Information Leaflet for Alopecia Areata.

Between 10–50% of people with alopecia areata also experience nail complications: the most common symptoms are pitting and ridging of the nails. What are the symptoms of Alopecia Areata?

My humour-laden articles didn’t reflect the fear and sadness I felt

Alopecia Barbae is a form ofAlopecia Areata, in which hair loss affects the beard and moustache. Alopecia Barbae can occur only in the beard area, but can also happen alongside hair loss in other areas, such as the scalp. Alopecia Barbae usually causes beard hair to fall out in small circular patches. If more hair is falls out, the circles can begin to overlap. Hair around the edge of the patches sometimes turns white. Does the condition affect anything other than hair? A decade after her diagnosis, Laura Price found that writing her novel, Single Bald Female, not only helped her to process her grief, but also provided her legacy. Witty and charming characters, twists and turns, and quietly devastating moments' Justin Myers, The Guyliner Do your research. To have a book published, you’ll need an agent. The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is a brilliant resource to help you figure out how it works.

Class Notes Single Bald Female: A bold memoir on alumna’s journey with cancer Laura Price (Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, 2005) Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia (CIA) is when the hair falls out following chemotherapy. It is one of the most visibly distressing side effects of commonly administered chemotherapeutic drugs. Hair loss is never like it is in the films. My friends didn’t offer to shave their hair off in solidarity, and to be honest I didn’t expect them to. Quite a few of them took me wig shopping though, and it was fun trying on different hair shapes and colours. Around her, her friends’ lives continue to follow the script, with the big white weddings and the baby scans. With her own future so uncertain, the only thing Jess is sure of is that she’s being left behind. Four years later, I began to write. Instead of memoir, I opted for fiction, creating characters, friendships and love stories to escape my own world. Although cancer is the saddest of subjects, I peppered the novel with humour – I wanted it to be uplifting because no one wants to read a book that makes them cry from start to finish.

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My path to publication wasn’t simple. Since graduating from King’s in 2005, I have always used my language skills – first as a journalist covering Latin American news, and later writing about Latin American restaurants (yes, it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it). It took me five years to complete the novel, squirrelling myself away to write on weekends and evenings. When it was finally ready to send, I was delighted to receive interest from several top literary agents who wanted to represent me. I was blown away by fellow King’s alumna, Sophie Lambert at C&W Agency, who showed such passion for my book and my characters. I also felt a strange affinity with her because we’d both studied at King’s. I signed with her straight away. As every cancer patient knows, life is short, and there’s no point putting off your dreams for some distant future day that might never come. I fulfilled my childhood dream to write a novel and I’m so proud of it. When will you write yours? Alopecia Universalis is characterised by hair loss across the entire scalp, face (including eyebrows and eyelashes), and the rest of the body (including pubic hair).

Author Laura Price (Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, 2005) and literary agent Sophie Lambert (English & German, 1999) are proud to have published Laura’s debut novel, Single Bald Female. Laura writes about her experience of publishing a novel here…

In about 20% of cases, Alopecia Areata is inherited. Alopecia areata is a 'polygenic condition', so there are several genes involved. As well as a specific set of genes, your environment also contributes to developing Alopecia Areata. Most children with Alopecia Areata do not have a parent with the disease, so most people with the condition do not pass it down to their children. Additional Information: I’ve written a diary since I was a little girl, but for some reason, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 29, I stopped. There’s an entry from June 2012 where I told myself I’d be just fine, then nothing, until I finished treatment eight months later. I didn’t stop writing entirely – I blogged my way through surgery, chemo and radiotherapy – but my upbeat, humour-laden articles didn’t reflect the real fear and sadness I felt. I’m sad that I can’t read my journals from that time, but I made up for it with my novel, Single Bald Female. I listed myself on my dating profile as a ‘single, bald (possibly infertile) female’ Please note, many people experience forms of Alopecia Areata that are somewhere between Alopecia Totalis and Alopecia Universalis, so can lose some but not all body hair, or some but not all facial hair. Diffuse Alopecia Areata (Alopecia Areata Incognita)