What women need to know about hair loss [Video]

London, Ont.-resident Marcy Gallant began losing her hair when she was around five years old. 

The alopecia advocate says she woke up one morning and noticed hair on her pillow. Her mother investigated and found a bald spot, and Gallant was soon diagnosed with alopecia areata, a condition sometimes called spot baldness. 

Over the course of the next decade or so, Gallant embarked on a journey that included numerous doctor visits. Her alopecia areata grew into alopecia universalis, and she eventually lost all the hair on her body. 

“When I was a kid, whether it was at school or at soccer, I was always constantly thinking about it,” said Gallant, who co-ordinates youth engagement and special projects at the Canadian Alopecia Areata Foundation (CANAAF). 

She spent years receiving treatments ranging from lotions to steroid injections, with her hair even growing to shoulder length at one point in her teens. 

Now …