By Louise Atkinson
PUBLISHED: 16:22 EST, 6 October 2013 | UPDATED: 04:50 EST, 7 October 2013
'It was a horrific time,' says Rachel. 'My world fell apart. I thought I was happily married, we'd planned the baby together, but when he told me he no longer loved me, everything came crashing down around me.
The lowest point was when Rachel visited a salon to ask if there was anything they could do. 'The stylist tried to mask a look of disgust and called over her supervisor,' she says. 'She took one look at me and shrieked: 'There's no way I'm touching that!' '
Only last month, Hollywood actress Kristen Stewart was photographed with what appeared to be bald patches in her long, dark hair. The pictures appeared around the time she split from her long-term boyfriend, Robert Pattinson.
'The stylist tried to mask a look of disgust and called over her supervisor,' she says. 'She took one look at me and shrieked: 'There's no way I'm touching that!''
In Rachel's case, experts believe the heartbreak triggered the release of excessive quantities of androgen, causing a condition called androgenic alopecia (or female pattern baldness), which is characterised by thinning all over the head, but particularly at the top.
According to Dr Farjo, women who suffer from alopecia areata tend to be genetically predisposed, but it can take severe stress to trigger it, as 48-year-old Kate Johnston found out.
Kate, who works as a transport controller for her local council in Dundee, started to lose her hair 20 years ago - shortly after her brother Colin's sudden death aged just 38.
'I've had to go through all the agonies of hair loss so many times,' she says. 'Last week, I had two eyelashes and I thought 'Is this it? Is my hair coming back?', but they've gone again.'
'The first thing I noticed was handfuls of hair on the pillow and in the shower,' says Dee, a full-time mother of four from Oxfordshire.
In the end, she cut her hair very short and used gels and mousse to make it appear thicker. Dee's GP tested for early menopause, which can also disrupt hair growth, but the results came back clear.
She was lucky. Many women are left with irreparable hair loss even after their heartbreak has healed. Doctors may recommend exercise and meditation to tackle stress. Nutritional therapy can help, too.
But to Rachel it is worth every penny. 'I know some people will think I'm vain spending so much on a hairdo, but it has transformed my life. It has made me feel confident again,' she says.
Additional reporting: Helen Foster
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