Matt Lucas health: The Bake Off star’s hair loss condition explained – alopecia

Matt Lucas speaks to Brian May about his weight loss

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The star who is also known for his work alongside David Walliams in comedy series Little Britain and Come Fly With Me which sees them both play multiple different characters – some more tongue in cheek than others. When not in character, the star is known for his distinctive baldness which is caused by a hair loss condition called alopecia – something that Matt has had to deal with since the age of six.

When holidaying in Portugal with his family at the age of four, Matt was hit by a car. Picked up and carried away by his father it seemed that he had survived unscathed.

Two years later Matt started to lose his hair. Despite the period of time between the car crash and symptoms, doctors told Matt and his family that the hair loss was a “delayed response to the shock of being knocked down”.

At only six years old he had to adjust from having a full head of thick brown hair to having none at all.

Talking to The Guardian he said: “Suddenly everything and anything else that I was at that age was eclipsed by the fact that I was the little boy in the town with absolutely no hair. And that is how it was, from the age of six for the remainder of my youth. Right up until I became famous, my lack of hair was considered the most – perhaps even the only – notable thing about me.

“I was never allowed to forget for one moment that I was bald. If I went swimming or to the cinema or got the bus or went to a shop or simply walked down the street, adults and children stared at me.

“‘You got no hair,’ said the younger kids, pointing.

“Others who had previously called me Matthew now yelled ‘Baldy!’ as I passed by. Or ‘Skinhead’ or ‘Slaphead’ – but mainly ‘Baldy’.”

Assured by experts that the condition was curable, Matt’s hair did start to regrow, but his hopes were dashed when it started to fall out all over again.

WebMD describes alopecia as an autoimmune disorder that causes your hair to come out, often in clumps. There are different types of the condition which relate to the amount of hair individuals lose.

These are as follows:

• Alopecia areata totalis means you’ve lost all the hair on your head.
• Alopecia areata universalis is the loss of hair over your entire body.
• Diffuse alopecia areata is a sudden thinning of your hair rather than lost patches.
• Ophiasis alopecia areata causes hair loss in a band shape around the sides and back of your head.

The main and often only symptom of alopecia is hair loss, although individuals may also notice that they have brittle fingernails and toenails and hair only grows back in patches.

The bald patches of skin are smooth, with no rash or redness. But you may feel a tingling, itching, or burning sensation on your skin right before the hair falls out.

During the third national lockdown Matt shared an image to his social media followers of his “first ever moustache” which grew at the age of 46.

Although true to his comical nature he added: “I don’t have eyebrows so it looks a bit weird.”

When his condition first started his family were in shock and immediately started to seek medical help to find a cure. The star added that he was “prodded and poked and gazed at with curiosity,” but there were no conventional medicinal treatments available to him.

After trying acupuncture and wearing a wig Matt learned to accept that the condition was now a part of him and was due to an overactive immune system which was constantly looking for things to battle.

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Even today alopecia remains incurable, although there have been developments in drug therapies that help the condition.

This most likely includes corticosteroids – anti-inflammatory drugs that are prescribed for autoimmune diseases. They can either be given as a pill or rubbed onto the skin as a cream or ointment.

Alternative treatments include topical immunotherapy and minoxidil. These two treatments try to cure baldness and promote hair growth. However, both have to be repeated several times and may take an extensive amount of time to work – if ever.

The NHS states that hair loss in general might not be down to alopecia can can be caused by the following:

• An illness
• Stress
• Cancer treatment
• Weight loss
• Iron deficiency.

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