Chanelle Hayes has revealed her hair transplant journey after her female patterned baldness shattered her confidence.
The former Big Brother star, 34, was left horrified after pictures of her hair scraped back made the headlines last year.
The former reality TV star was stunned by the 'bald patches on the top of her head' and following the publication of the photos, she decided to hide herself away.
After seeing her hairlines, Chanelle decided to have a hair transplant after discovering she suffers from female pattern baldness.
Lifting the lid on her hair journey, Chanelle told The Sun about how she felt when she first laid eyes on the 'shocking' snaps.
"It was awful. I did a 45-minute spin class and I looked ridiculous. I had been working hard at the gym, I was flushed," she explained.
“But the next day when the pictures of me were published, my heart just sank. All I could see was how thin my hair was, and my receding hairline.
"I was fine with being overweight, I knew I was doing something about that. But it was my hair. What could I do about that?
“It just felt ridiculous, and so I didn’t go back to the gym for at least a week.”
Chanelle, who is a proud mum to Blakely, 11, and Frankie, three, revealed that she can pinpoint the moment she saw her hair loss start to happen.
“I can’t pinpoint when it actually started to happen, it was more of a gradual process because I’ve always had a big forehead anyway," Chanelle told.
“I’ve also always had thin hair and nails, it’s been an issue of mine. I’m adopted so I don’t really know anything about my family having it. But I am assuming it was after both the kids were born, as well as gaining weight.
“After seeing that pap picture of myself, I looked back at old photos and then realised the difference.”
It became such a huge part of Chanelle's life that she sometimes wouldn't leave the house amid fears her hairline would be revealed.
The reality TV star said she 'couldn’t go outside if it was raining, because it would dribble down her face'.
She also said that it came to a point where she knew she 'couldn’t go on like that any more', and that's when she started looking into getting a hair transplant.
After 18 months of research, Chanelle discovered the Farjo Hair Institute in Manchester and underwent her hair transplant — which typically costs upwards of £7,000 — in February 2020.
She told The Sun: “I was in the chair for eight hours. During the hair transplant, my surgeon removed follicles from a denser area of hair, like the back of my head. He would then implant the follicles into tiny slits on the front area of my scalp.”
Now that her hair is finally looking great again, Chanelle is happier and more content than ever.
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