Shaun Ryder, frontman for the Happy Mondays, now bears a striking resemblance, by his own admission, to Uncle Fester. Hair loss was the first sign of trouble but far from the end. We look closer.
Happy Mondays Heyday
In the eighties, Britpop, briefly, took over the world. Manchester unleased its own wall of sound with acts like the Stone Roses and Oasis. For Mancunians, the heart of this revolution was a club called the Hacienda. And at the heart of the Hacienda was another local band, the Happy Mondays. Their story of that time would later feature in a film titled “24-hour party people.” The title sums up the bands’ hedonistic approach to life, and nobody encapsulated the approach better than their larger than life frontman, Shaun Ryder.
Hair Loss An Early Sign Of More Serious Problems
Today, Shaun Ryder, now 56, is still touring with the Mondays. Though these days, he says, he is straight back to the hotel room where he grabs the slippers and watches the news. The drugs of his youth replaced by even more prescribed by medics to stay on top of his health issues.
Shaun claims that he started this year with a full head of hair and a beard, before losing all of it, and all the hair from his body, in an indecently short space of time. He was checked for an immune deficiency but came up clear. Stress was a suspect but Ryder is dismissive of the idea, He does not believe that he came through 14 years of court battles with former managers, during which he lost everything, only to succumb to stress at this stage of life. Where he claims, he is as happy and enjoying the least stressful time he has ever known.
His hair loss was never diagnosed, just labelled as Alopecia Universalis. It may well be linked to the fact that he has not produced testosterone for over a decade, something for which he took pills though now swears by a gel. He was told that he still had follicles, and attempts were made to revive them. Unfortunately for Shaun, those attempts never achieved anything beyond a rash.
HIS Hair Clinic
Alopecia Universalis is about as challenging a condition as there is when it comes to hair loss, you can learn more about it by clicking here. Losing hair from unusual places, like eyebrows, is distressing. Losing it from private places that other people do not even see is damaging to self-confidence. It points to the seriousness of Ryder’s other health issues, he claims to be taking more pills now than he ever did, that he seems to have taken it in his stride. We send our sincere best wishes for the upcoming tour, you can find more details on that by clicking here.
If you would like to discuss your hair loss situation with one of our team of friendly experts, simply complete our contact form on this page or click here to find your nearest clinic.
