A dream holiday in Bali turned into a nightmare for a young woman when her hair appeared for a surprising reason, she writes Hollie Marie, 27, went to an Indonesian island with friends when she noticed that her 30cm long blonde hair had suddenly started thinning. When she returned home, the situation rapidly worsened.
She started losing huge clumps of hair every time she combed her hair, and within a few months she was forced to make the devastating decision to shave her head completely. Hollie was so traumatized by her hair loss in 2021 that she turned into a recluse. “I didn’t go out for about two months. I didn’t go shopping, I didn’t go to the gym, I stopped seeing people because I just didn’t want to see anyone. I felt so ugly,” she explained.
“I went to the doctor and thought, ‘Do I have alopecia?’ But I still had eyelashes and eyebrows. The texture of my hair changed and the strands of my hair were literally melting, it was really scary,” she added. Although she hoped that when the hairdresser cut her hair, it would grow back, unfortunately it did not happen. “I have about a fifth of my hair left on my head. I had to call the guy from the barber shop to come and shave them for me. I wore a wig for four months anyway,” she said Hollie.
It wasn’t until April 2022 that an Australian hairdresser in Bali told her that this was caused by the hard water on the island. “He told me it happened to a lot of people. The water quality here is so hard that it can really affect your hair and skin.” she stated.
This discovery inspired Hollie to start a shower filter company. The businesswoman, who now has shoulder-length hair, has vowed to always spread awareness among others. She recently told her story on TikTok, where it has been viewed by more than 750,000 people. “The last thing anyone wants is to come back from holiday and find they’ve lost all their hair,” she said.
