School bullies made me go bald, says teenager

Sarah Turner lost more than half her hair after her life was made a misery.

The brunette was taunted in the street and beaten up, needing hospital treatment for concussion, and once had her nose broken by a fellow pupil at her school.

Her experiences left her depressed and with such low self-esteem that in her final year at school she began to harm herself with scissors and razor blades.

Her fear of the bullies compounded the stress of studying for her GCSEs and she started to suffer from severe alopecia, or hair loss. Some of her hair has grown back but Miss Turner, who is now 19, still suffers from the condition.

She wants people to think about the long-term effects of bullying.

She said: "Being bullied hurts and it not only affects you when you are being bullied but also in later life for a lot of people. Bullies ruin lives.

"I'm embarrassed about the way I look. It makes me feel less feminine. I've been to the doctors several times but there's nothing they can do about it and it all stems from the bullying at school."

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Miss Turner, from Swansea, first fell victim to bullying when she found it hard to make friends at primary school.

Matters got worse when she went to Penyrheol Comprehensive in Swansea.

One of her classmates was in a gang of three teenage girls who attacked her and two friends on their way home from school.

Miss Turner said she needed two weeks off to recover, while the attacker was suspended for three days.

The broken nose came when a girl headbutted her out of jealousy at Miss Turner's relationship with a boy.

Miss Turner said she first noticed her condition when she and a friend were doing each other's hair. She went on: "From there on my hair just kept falling out. I lost over half."

She finds wigs unnnatural and wears a baseball cap when she goes out. She is also seeing a specialist in hair replacement in the hope of regaining a full head of hair.

Experts say severe stress can cause alopecia, although hair can regrow if the source of the stress is removed.