Children's hair loss can be a difficult and emotionally complicated process, both for the child at the centre of the trauma and for their families. It can feel incredibly cruel that your beautiful baby has been robbed of their hair, and often their health and their confidence at the same time. However, it’s important to remember that hair grows back a lot of the time, and there are things you can do to help your child deal with losing their hair. This blog shares top tips for those who have children experiencing hair loss.
Reasons for Children’s Hair Loss
There are many reasons why children might experience hair loss, but the most common causes of these are hair loss as a result of chemotherapy for cancer treatment, and hair loss as a result of scalp disorders including early onset alopecia or alopecia areata.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy medicine works to kill cancer cells within the body and stop cancer cells from growing and spreading. Whilst chemotherapy can be extremely effective for treating cancer because the chemo targets rapidly growing cells, this can damage the hair follicles and lead to hair loss. Although less common, radiation therapy for cancer can also cause hair loss if it’s used to treat head and neck cancers.
Alopecia
Alopecia is a condition that causes your immune system to attack your healthy hair follicles, resulting in either patchy or complete hair loss. This usually happens over a relatively short period of time and occurs in both children and adults.
Trichotillomania (hair-pulling)
Another reason that children lose their hair is trichotillomania or hair-pulling. A mental health disorder that causes kids to pull out their hair, some children are completely unaware they are doing it, whilst others do it consciously because it makes them feel better. Many children with trichotillomania feel shame or embarrassment about their hair loss and as a parent, it can become frustrating to understand why your child can’t simply stop pulling their hair. However, there are ways of helping children deal with hair loss and regain their confidence.
Top Tips on How to Help Children Going Through Hair Loss
Talk About It to Build Confidence
Researchers have found that there is a strong link between our sense of confidence and identity due to our hair. This is particularly true for young girls, who use their hair to form a picture of who they are. Losing this can be very difficult to cope with, leading to increased occurrences of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.
As a parent, it is important that these concerns are acknowledged and understood, rather than brushed under the carpet. Provide a safe space where your child can talk about their feelings around their hair loss and acknowledge that all of their feelings are valid. Work hard together to boost their self-confidence (whether that involves buying a new dress or finding a wig that fits) and find role models who your child admires for what they do, rather than how they look. Appearance should not be seen as anyone’s most important attribute, and this is particularly prevalent for children who don’t feel they look the same as their peers.
Support Groups
Hair loss in children is more common than you may think. Across the country, there are support groups in place for children who have lost their hair and would like to meet like-minded young people. Support groups are a great way of boosting self-esteem, building confidence, and meeting new people along the way. So, whilst it's crucial that as a parent, you work together to boost your child's confidence, it's also beneficial for them to spend time with other people who are in their shoes.
Engage with Your Child
At your child’s age, unfortunately, bullying is a common experience for children who are experiencing hair loss. Other kids can be cruel about those that are different or going through experiences they don’t understand, and rather than talk to the child who is different they lash out at them instead. As a parent, it is important to be aware of any opportunities for bullying and to make sure you know exactly what is going on in their lives, so that you can provide support when they need it. You and your child can learn more about how to deal with bullying here:
- https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/bullying-and-cyberbullying/
- https://www.kidscape.org.uk/
- https://www.childline.org.uk/
Parenting a child experiencing hair loss can be tricky, because many of your former roles and rules will go out the window. If your child doesn’t want to go outside to play for example, then find something that you can play and enjoy together inside, rather than force them out into the world as you might have pre-hair loss. You need to listen to, and validate, your child’s feelings. And work together to find solutions to any of the problems they face. You are not only your child’s main advocate, you are part of their team, and they will need you now more than ever.
Wear a Wig for Hair Loss
When going through hair loss, many children will choose to hide this by wearing a wig for children or through hair pieces. Whether your child is needing a wig whilst experiencing alopecia or whilst undergoing chemotherapy, there are options. Modern wig technology means that wigs now look incredibly realistic and fit like a second skin. None would ever need to know your child is wearing a wig unless they choose to tell them, which may help to boost their confidence and be useful in the battle against the negative mental health impact that often accompanies hair loss in children.
Take a look at stories from other people going through hair loss and find out how a wig helped them to regain their confidence.
Wearing a wig or head covering will help with so much more than just aesthetic concerns. It can also be beneficial for your child’s physical health. During the summer wearing a head covering will protect the delicate skin on your scalp from the sun’s harmful UV rays. We also lose a considerable amount of body head throughout head, meaning that no matter what the time of year, wearing a wig could help to protect you from feeling the cold. This is particularly important if your child is undergoing cancer treatment, as sensitivity to the cold is one of the side effects of this.
Joseph’s Wigs’ Compassionate Wig Fitting Services
We understand just how daunting trying your first wig can be. We are on hand to help and offer discreet and compassionate private wig fitting consultations in Surrey where your child can find their perfect wig. On top of that, we will also show you both how to fit and look after your children's wig correctly, meaning your child can go to school feeling comfortable and happy in their new wig.
Get Our Advice
For more guidance on how to deal with hair loss reach out to Joseph’s Wigs today or learn more about wearing wigs for hair loss.
