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A mum whose grief made her hair fall out has finally regained her confidence after a miracle procedure that she would recommend to anyone in a similar situation in a heartbeat.
Billie Foyle, 28, always hated her hairline as she felt it ‘went too far back’, but felt ‘awful’ when she started losing even more after developing alopecia in 2016, following the death of a close family member.
Billie, from Billericay, Essex, spent hundreds of various hair growth shampoos and even a failed plasma injection treatment, but found nothing worked.
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Last August, she made the ‘rash decision’ to get a hair transplant at the British Hair Clinic in Chelmsford, which cost her thousands but was ‘worth every penny’.
Billie said: "I had alopecia on one side and just had a really far back hairline, which I never liked.
"I'd had alopecia since 2016 when I went completely bald on the left side. It was about the size of a ten pence piece. I just lost all the hair
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"I lost someone in the family and had a lot of stress, so it all fell out and never grew back at all. It was completely smooth.
"When I'd look at it, I just felt awful.
"It was not very nice, I tried all different shampoos and nothing ever worked. I tried plasma injections which cost me £1,000 at a different company and they never worked either.
"No one else really noticed it as I had a far back hairline anyway, and I've got quite a lot of thick hair.
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"But I never liked my hairline either, it just went too far back. No one ever said anything, it was just myself, but I didn't feel that confident about it."
She added: "It bothered me when I started going on girls' holidays. I started to feel a bit insecure going on nights out.
"I'd never wear my hair in a ponytail or anything like that."
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Billie went to the clinic for a consultation and had the £5,000 treatment done just two days later after a cancellation opened up a last-minute spot.
She said she felt surprisingly relaxed by the painless process after surgeons used a local anaesthetic, meaning she was able to spend the seven-hour session watching TV.
"I turned up in the morning and they gave me the anaesthetic injection, which wasn't bad at all," Billie continued.
"It was no worse than getting Botox done, it was over in seconds.
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"You're awake for it so I sat there watching telly, they even brought me lunch. It was quite a relaxing day.
"I didn't feel a thing from start to finish.
"It took seven hours and then it was all done.
"Afterwards it was itchy where they took the donor hair from at the back.
"When that was coming back through, that was the worst bit as it was just itchy. But it wasn't bad, it was just a bit irritating."
Around seven months in, Billie's hair has now 'grown loads' and 'completely blended' with her original hair.
She said: "I've been for a PRP treatment since, where they take blood out of your arm. They get the plasma I think and then they inject it into your head to make the hair follicles stronger.
"The hair will be there the rest of my life I think.
"When I had the hair transplant done, everyone said to me, 'why did you have that done?'
"And then now when they see the pictures they go 'Oh, it was actually quite bad'."
Billie thinks her hair looks 'so much better' and she feels 'a lot more confident' since having the hair transplant.
"Where I lost hair through the alopecia, it's all grown back through," she added.
"When I wake up and look at myself in the mirror in the morning I just feel a lot happier about the way I look.
"I'd definitely recommend it and have it done again.
"More people should go for it. I don't regret it at all. It's not painful and was worth every penny."
A British Hair Clinic spokesperson said: "Billy is over the moon. She said that its one of the best things she has ever done.
"You can see that even on already confident happy people like Billy, a fuller hairline makes a huge difference to how she looks and feels about herself.
"That is the most important thing, how our patients like Billy feel afterwards.
"The pictures you see of Billy are only at the six-month stage, which means she has approximately 40% more hair growth and thickening still to show in the coming months. Full results can take up to 12 months."
Jess Hardiman