Alopecia (young people)

Chris: When it’s on your face it’s just like every time you look in the mirror like you see it, like, if you, if you’re looking at someone and they, you know, you usually make eye contact but if you see their eyes move - like even if it’s just down to like, say, this side of your face, you know, that they’ve kind of, they’re kind of looking and you, it just makes you feel really self-conscious.  And, yeah, like every time you look in a mirror, I don’t know, even from a distance you can see like it’s, when it’s flaring up and it’s just really difficult to deal with. 

Hester: Yeah, I got a bit frustrated because after a year or so it was like 'surely it has to clear up at some point?' And I think I was-, I didn't really think it was something you could see the doctor about, because I thought 'yeah, I'm quite spotty but.' When I went to the see the GP for the first time it was like, “What's wrong with you?” And I was like, “I've got spots.” [laughs]. It felt like the most like menial thing to say, but I think I also had it quite badly on my back at that point, and yeah, the doctor was like, “You should have come a lot, lot sooner.” Because it left like a bit of scarring. Yeah. And I think I didn't really realise that it was something that the doctors could do anything about until a friend of mine at school- this must have been when I was, yeah, about 16. Or a little bit before then. She, she'd been to see the doctor about acne on her back and he’d given her cream which works wonders. But until then I didn't know it was a thing that the doctors could do anything for.

Rachel: I remember asking like, "What is causing this?" as well.  And they're like-, I was like, "Can I wear make-up?"  And they were like, "It's not caused by the make-up; like you might think it is but it just, it is the hormones and it is like bacteria and stuff." I don’t really know the exact causes but they were like, "It doesn’t matter if you wear foundation or not; like you’ve either got it or you haven’t got it," and that made me feel a lot better about it I think cos I knew it wasn’t anything I was doing.

Ollie: I know there's obviously a massive range in how people feel about their acne.  A lot of people it destroys their confidence I think, and with some people they don’t really mind too much.  And the, obviously the dermatologists and the GPs know that whole range, and so they treat everyone as sort of like that their acne is a priority, which I mean in a dermatology clinic that’s…, you go there to get your acne sorted out and although it was sort of slow to get the appointment, but that was just because it's quite a complex thing to do.  To get the actual treatment was really, really fast after I got there.