Alison Braun

After losing 55kg on The Biggest Loser, Alison Braun found she also lost a lot of hair that saw her sporting unfortunate bald patches from breakage, old colour jobs and stress. ‘The fast weight loss and the stress my body was under led to a significant amount of hair loss,' says Alison. ‘I wasn't alone on this; a lot of the girls had the same problem.'

There are various causes of hair loss, and a connection has been noted between weight loss and hair loss. Extreme and sudden weight loss is likely to rob the body of the vitamins and minerals necessary for overall good health. Your body directs its energy towards maintaining more essential function which leaves non-essential elements of the body like your hair on the backburner.

Alison says she tried clamp hair extension to disguise her thinning head of hair, which made the patches worse. She then visited extensionist Naomi Panizza at Creative Lengths salon at her wits end. She encouraged Alison to nurse her hair back to health instead of simply continuing to mask her hair woes. She recommended Nano Keratin treatments to boost Alison's hair strength and keratin-bonded extensions to solve Alison's hair troubles.

'My aim was to eventually remedy colour damage, straightening and stress hair loss for Alison,' says Naomi. We wanted to get the damaged hair healthy so that eventually she didn't need extensions any more.'

It is important to understand the normal hair growth cycle to understand why hair loss occurs. The hair follicle is an anatomical structure which evolved to produce and extrude a hair shaft. Hair is made up of proteins called keratins. Human hair grows in a continuous cyclic pattern of growth and rest known as the 'hair growth cycle'.

Three phases of the hair growth cycle exist: anagen, the growth phase; catagen, the degradation phase; telogen, the resting phase. Periods of growth (anagen) between two and eight years are followed by a brief period, two to four weeks, in which the follicle is almost totally degraded (catagen). The resting phase (telogen) then begins and lasts two to four months. Shedding of the hair occurs only after the next growth cycle (anagen) begins and a new hair shaft begins to emerge.

On average 50 to 100 telogen hairs are shed every day. This is normal hair loss and accounts for the hair loss seen every day in the shower and with hair combing. These hairs will regrow. Not more than 10 percent of the follicles are in the resting phase (telogen) at any time. A variety of factors can affect the hair growth cycle and cause temporary or permanent hair loss (alopecia), including medication, radiation, chemotherapy, exposure to chemicals, hormonal and nutritional factors, thyroid disease, generalised or local skin disease, and stress.

‘I now have Hollywood hair and, to my surprise, after Naomi had attached the extensions I couldn't even tell they were extensions - that's how natural they looked,' says Alison. ‘I have been seeing Naomi regularly and having them done has encouraged growth in my natural hair, so I'm down to having only half the number of extensions I used to need.'

‘I will continue to go back because I'm so in love with the look it gives me. To say it has boosted my confidence would be an understatement. Between the compliments from stylists on shoots and at events I think my new hair has really given me a "wow" factor.'

The beauty of hair extensions lies not only in the stunning results, but that they are suitable for all ages and even pre-damaged hair. Even those with hair that leaves a little to be desired can go vixen and revamp their look in just one visit thanks to new hair extension technology. A little length can go a long way!

Australian Cosmetic Surgery Magazine