A #100HairFreeDays recap for the lovely @Chelt52 followers

As part of my week on @Chelt52 and my drive for Alopecia Awareness, I am sharing some things that have gone before that I feel help provide an insight. Here's a recap of my #100HairFreeDays project...

Inspired by the #100HappyDays trend, in February I put a little bald spin on the game and took part in my very own #100HairFreeDays challenge, or as I’d like to call it – ‘The Silver-Lining Game’. For 100 days straight, I posted one benefit of losing my hair (which was more than a little difficult!). Initially, I wasn’t sure I’d manage to find 100, but with the help of some of my fellow baldies, I actually realised that there are so many advantages to having no hair!

Here are my personal favourites:

#100HairFreeDays No hair is perfect ventilation on hot days - a great way to let out some excess heat! #ToldYouTheyWereObscure

— PrettyBald (@PrettyBald) March 6, 2015

#100HairFreeDays means I got to take part in a magazine photoshoot with @CosmopolitanUK, all about #bodyconfidence http://t.co/8UtaCkNQCW

— PrettyBald (@PrettyBald) March 16, 2015

#100HairFreeDays no more sweaty betty hair at the gym! Sign of a good workout, but not so hot once you've left!

— PrettyBald (@PrettyBald) April 4, 2015

#100HairFreeDays No hair makes you more aerodynamic which will shave half a second off your winning swim time ;-)

— PrettyBald (@PrettyBald) April 7, 2015

Losing my hair for the first time was devastating and I felt so alone as I didn’t know anyone who had been through it. I struggled to cope with the emotional and psychological impacts of hairloss because let’s face it, how do you handle losing something which seems so much a part of your identity? For me, the Silver Lining Game was just one technique that got me back on track and was a huge part of ‘accepting’ my condition.

You can check out my #100hairfreedays on my Twitter which is @PrettyBald or search ‘#100hairfreedays’ on my blog as I did a quick round up each week and also collated them in one safe place.

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald

Taking over Chelt52; hairloss awareness in my local area...

As you know, for me, awareness of alopecia and other hairloss conditions is crucial to helping change perceptions, and ensuring body confidence for those who are going through hairloss difficulties! 
Well, I have some exciting news for you - next week, (commencing 7th September) Pretty Bald is taking over the @Chelt52 account on Twitter. We are very excited to be undertaking such a big project and we’d really appreciate it if every one of you guys could support us. It’s really easy, all you have to do is follow @Chelt52 on Twitter and retweet us!

@Chelt52 was set up at the beginning of 2014 as an innovative initiative to create a 'unique voice' in the local area; the idea behind it is a central Twitter Handle (@Chelt52) which is handed over and run by a different company, organisation or individual each week. You can find out more here...

There any many reasons why Pretty Bald is taking over @Chelt52 but the main one is of course to raise awareness. The account has nearly 10,500 followers, which is a pretty big audience for our Alopecia message! Even better, we asked for (and were granted) a week in September, taking advantage of the fact that September is National Alopecia Awareness month. How fitting! 

Running Pretty Bald as a business, my ambition is to provide a useful service, with products that we all need (at least baldies do), at the same time raising as much money as possible for charity. The whole business is running not-for-profit, which means when you buy a product from us, any profit that would normally go to the staff and Directors of a business instead go to charity! A win-win! 

Just as important for me, is our ambition to empower women (and men) locally and nationally who are suffering from hairloss and other circumstances and conditions which affect their confidence. Our first project of course was the Pretty Bald Calendar, and @Chelt52 is another example of this awareness campaign.

All you have to do to check out my week with @Chelt52 is to hop onto Twitter, click 'follow' on the account, then watch as I tweet and if you're feeling nice, Retweet or Favourite the things you like the most so that between us, we can make it go as far as possible!

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald

A hectic trip to Glasgow; filming BBC Quiz Show Eggheads

For those avid readers of this blog, you may have spotted that I've had my fingers crossed for a top secret project in Glasgow to go ahead. Well eventually the news that we were waiting for arrived! It was happening! We were all set, our trains were booked and less than a week after that fateful phone call, a team of fellow alopecians and I filmed the BBC Quiz Show Eggheads! Yes really!

Five other lovely ladies and I travelled up to Glasgow on August 7th to face the Eggheads team on National TV; needless to say we were all scared about what could happen. It started (for me at least) with a six and a half hour train journey as apparently all the episodes are filmed in Glasgow - not that you'd know it! After a very late night arrival and a mix up with the bedrooms at the hotel, we slept, and just five hours later we were in the taxi destined for the studio for a very early 7am start!

Something you may or may not know about filming a programme is the complexities of your outfit. From washing you out, to strobing on screen, there are a whole host of outfits that you can't wear on TV. Trust me, two pages of clothing 'rules' later and my required four outfits had morphed into ten in a rather large suitcase. You think I am joking, but only two things in my entire wardrobe are unpatterned, bright, not strappy, didn't have stripes, aren't dark and aren't floaty or lacy. Instead, I had to take ten 'nearly right' outfits for them to choose from, just in case!

Thankfully, after we arrived, the wardrobe team found an outfit they liked and I was able to go on set fully clothed! We had our make-up done too, which was a blessing at that time of the morning, not to mention the fact that my make-up artist created perhaps the most perfect set of eyebrows I've ever had, even before they fell out! Kudos!

Sporting perfect eyebrows before appearing on Eggheads

Once we were ready, we were guided to the studio to film as the first team of the day and seated in our team 'order'. This is where we would sit for the whole show and at this point we were all experiencing elation, nerves, a mildly sick feeling, masses of excitement and a million things besides. It felt like we'd done it - we'd made it to the show after a mammoth amount of organisation and somehow that felt like the hard bit was over. At least at that very second it did. Then... in walked Jeremy Vine and our five challenger eggheads and we realised, nope, the hard bit was still to come!

We competed under the team name ‘A Clearer Head’, although perhaps we should have called ourselves ‘The Real Eggheads’, and our main reason for going on the show was to help raise awareness of alopecia. You can't deny a team of mad, excitable, bald women on National TV is certainly going to make a splash. 

Just before filming - getting ready to take on the Eggheads

Feeling important! 

My badge - never thought I'd have one of these...

I was surprised by how much time goes into filming a 30 minute episode. It takes a long time (about four hours) and even then we went over schedule because we chatted so much! It astonished us how many people there were on set who all had jobs to do; there was even a lady from wardrobe with the title ‘Badge Straightener’ just to ensure our name badges were level on screen! Anyway, as usual, I digress and I'm sure you're dying to know what happened and how much we were playing for!

Before we got to filming, we of course did some research and discovered that as of February 2015, the Eggheads had only been defeated 122 times out of 1359 attempts; this thought didn’t fill us with much confidence, but still, awareness was key and it was still worth a shot! Even better if we could win some money for Alopecia UK - fingers crossed, but we didn't hold out much hope!

At this stage, I am not allowed to tell you either how much we played for (it will give away whether other teams win or not) and nor am I allowed to tell you if we won for the same reason - #SpoilerAlert'! Needless to say though we left with a feeling of Mission Accomplished with an episode in the bag putting Alopecia front and centre on National TV. What's more, it was great to meet the team - Jeremy Vine is totally awesome, really intelligent and interesting. The eggheads aren't half bad either and despite a cool, superior facade on TV, they are actually bubbly, friendly and welcoming! A delight!

There is nothing much more I can say. We don't yet know when the episode will air, but as soon as we do, I'll of course let everyone know! 

One more thing worth a mention before I sign off this post. Just before the train, and to finish off our long day (at lunchtime) we went to a fish and chip shop where we met an alien. Spotting a fellow 'baldie' was the icing on the cake and I couldn't resist taking this photo - possibly my favourite! Who would have thought we’d spot an alien in a fish and chip show in Glasgow?

My new friend... I shall call him Bald Bill

I think it’s safe to say all of the girls and I were awed by how fantastic everyone was and we would definitely re-live the experience if we had the chance. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the whole cast and crew of Eggheads, from the makeup artists who made us feel very glamorous to the actual team, for being very hospitable and making us feel so welcome. A mention must also go to the show producers 12 Yard Productions for helping make it all happen! We all had an absolute blast!

In the meantime, you can keep your fingers crossed we won and I'll keep you posted when you'll be able to spot the episode...! 

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald

It's first of August and that can only mean...

...it's time to turn over that calendar page! Whoop whoop!

Pretty Bald Calendar - August 2015

As you may have spotted, this month features a somewhat seasonal picture of a summery Jacuzzi, with champagne, obviously!

In reality, this was the very first picture that was taken that day at 7am, and this was only the first glass! It was awkward, chilly, very splashy and an odd ice-breaker. In fact, I have to thank each of the girls in the tub with me for not bailing at this point and for helping me hold it together!

Miss August is the gorgeous Katie - one of the youngest on the shoot - and we'll catch up with her later in the month!

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald

Glasgow is a go...!

You may or may not have spotted my ramblings about Glasgow last week, highlighting my excitement at the prospect of a potential trip and asking you to keep your fingers crossed!

Well this is a very brief Sunday update for you, to let you know that I got the call today to say it will be going ahead! Yippee and thanks to all your lovelies for keeping everything crossed.

Unfortunately, I still can't reveal what is happening, and may not be able to for a while, but I can tell you it will be great awareness AND there's a great fundraising opportunity for Alopecia UK to boot! What could be better?

I promise I will keep you updated and share what I can, when I can!

Victoria x

Fingers crossed for Glasgow...

Other than a holiday, I never thought I'd get the opportunity to go to Glasgow! Oh I'm sure I'd get there at some point, but with Norway, Iceland, Scicily and Croatia just a few on my travel wish list, it was unlikely to happen anytime soon!

That is, until I got an email from the talented Author Sue Hampton, passionate activist and campaigner for Alopecia awareness. Sue is also a trustee for Alopecia UK and you'll often see her sporting zany trousers and huge earrings at one of their events!

Now at the moment, the contents of the email and the reason for a potential trip to Glasgow must remain Top Secret! Needless to say though, if it comes off, it will be great nationwide awareness for Alopecia and there'll be a fundraising opportunity for Alopecia UK to boot too!

I hate not being able to share it with you, but equally I don't want to and can't give it away, but right now, what I really need is for everyone to keep everything crossed that we'll make it to Glasgow!

In the meantime, you might enjoy this post about raising awareness and as soon as I can reveal all, I promise I will! 

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald