Former Love Island star Kaz Crossley opened up about her experience with alopecia and choosing to shave her head for charity.
Chatting to host Gabby Allen on the health and fitness show What the Health?!, the influencer explained that it was the unknowns around her condition that caused her the most stress ‘Initially it wasn’t so big, it was just a little patch and then it just grew and grew and grew. And I think with alopecia areata which is the condition I had, it’s the unknown and that it’s the fear that causes more stress because it’s getting bigger and it’s like ‘oh my god is it going to get worse, is it going to be all my hair, is this patch going to grow?’ And you can’t help but look at yourself in the mirror and concentrate on it.’
She continued ‘I think for months it really affected me because I was looking at it and it was a reminder of everything that caused it in the first place so I was trying to overcome a situation that happened that caused me a lot of trauma and a lot of stress and now I’m dealing with a new situation that was as a result of an old situation. That’s what was so difficult. I think in my head it was a lot worse than what it was. I actually look back at it and I think it’s just a patch on my head but the feelings I felt at the time, I can’t compare.’
Later in the interview, the 29-year-old discussed her decision to shave her head for the charity Little Lady Locks ‘I’ve been going to the [Little Lady Locks] salon for months. I’ve seen the difference that it makes when these girls receive their wigs because they are going through hair loss. I can relate it to when I lost my hair and how it made me feel. Your hair is like your identity, and it affects your confidence so much and that was like when I was a 28-year-old woman. Imagine going through that as a kid, like, imagine feeling depression, anxiety, all these struggles that we face as adults but as a kid just because you’ve lost your hair. So, for me, it meant a lot to me.’
Crossley also gave her honest opinion on the new look ‘I feel like a boy. I’d be lying if I said that I felt super confident or I love it. It’s weird for me to not have my hair but you know if it means that I take a bit of my confidence away to give these girls their confidence, then I’ll do that’.
She later revealed that her mum made an impulsive decision to shave her head as well ‘You know what she did. She literally went ‘I’m going to do it too’ on the day and I was like ‘what’ and she was like ‘yeah.’ And they were like ‘how short do you want to go?’ and she was like ‘the same.’ I was like ‘you sure’ and she was like ‘yeah.’ So they shaved her head and she just sat there meditating.’
You can listen back to the episode, also featuring Dr Karan Rajan and Sabi Kerr, here.
