Message from Lucinda Ellery

My dearest clients,
I have no better joy than seeing the light in your eyes and the smiles on your faces. Sharing your hugs and love bo out of relief and joy at having your hair recreated or normalised, in many cases better than it has ever been. To work in this environment, with the team of amazing people whose pride in their skills and pleasure from your appreciation of the efforts is immeasurable.

Your constant stream of letters and praise for the service that we take great joy in giving, inspires us to continue providing you with the very best we can. I want to share the top characteristics that you expressed to me: the pleasure you feel at how kindand polite my team is. I want to say in tu that there are virtually no exceptions our clients’

continued kindness,politeness and support

to us in tu – a true indication of the

wonderful law of attraction that what

you send out, you receive back.

I now consider that losing my hair
and the 25 years of misery I believe
it cost me in hind sight was a true gift,
for without this experience I would
never have had the opportunity to meet
and share with other women like myself, the anxiety and devastation and the opposite; an abundance of feeling good about our hair, forever more!!

If it hadn’t been for you all, I would have not been able to express my obsession with hair and its beauty. It was your courage 28 years ago in allowing me to experiment on a living, breathing, working alteative to hair loss, wigs and hair pieces - real gigantic 21 century ground breaking solutions, a pioneering new way forward for us girls!!

I loved my wigs; they saved my sanity

butI didn’t enjoy their restrictiveness.

Having my Intralace has made me so

excited in having the opportunity

to make my hair look 20 years old

even if I don’t!

I still get butterflies when having

my hair done, maybe I never truly

got over of losing it in the first place

but I sure do love my hair every

single day now, even enjoying the odd, bad hair day when it needs doing or washing, I’m reminded how lucky I am to have this hair on my head which I can wash, brush, set, dress, style, go to bed with, wake up with and it’s an ever present force for pleasure, glamour and normality in my daily life. I face the world feeling a 100% better than I ever did with any other hair solution. I feel like God has given me my hair back, just a different way and if I can give just a little bit of that joy to the women I work with and on, I think my stay here on planet Earth contributes to the human joy pool that I am surrounded with, every day!

Star Letter

In every newsletter I will be writing things pertaining to TTM (Trichotilomania) and Traction Alopecia.

I received a brilliant letter from the mother of one of my TTM girls. I was struck by her understanding of her daughter’s plight that I asked her consent to share the content of her letter with you. If you are a parent of a TTM girl, you have my sincerest empathy and sympathy. There is never enough support and understanding for the traumatic emotions parents have to face and go through while dealing with their child’s devastating condition. I could write a book on this alone!!!

This wonderful mother clearly gets what’s going on and I was so inspired by what she wrote that I thought it might be helpful to parents and loved ones. If you have children with TTM, please take time to read it. Maybe even parents of children with hair loss might find it useful too. I want to take this opportunity in thanking this lovely mother for taking the time and effort to write to me and share her thoughts.

Dear Lucinda,

I hope this letter finds you well. I feel very guilty that I have to start by offering a big apology for not having written sooner. I know we spoke several months ago and I told you I was writing to you then, which I genuinely was! In fact I have started several letters to you but always found it very difficult to express clearly our very sincere gratitude for all the help and support provided to Kelly by you and your wonderful staff. I suppose I was making my letter far too complicated and as I was determined when I started to write today that I will finish this letter and post it immediately.

It is genuinely difficult to put into words how

grateful my husband and I are to you all for

for helping Kelly to overcome

Trichotillomania. Before she attended the

Hammersmith clinic and had the

Intralace System fitted, she had been

pulling on and off for seven years

but continuously for five. We had

almost ourselves to the fact that she

she would forever wear a head scarf or

disguise of some sort and that TTM

would be part of / dominate her life

indefinitely. All the other ‘cures’ or

treatments we explored such as CBT, family

therapy and hypnosis all had little success. It seemed a very bleak outlook and I had to frequently remind myself to be grateful that it wasn’t a life threatening illness and that Kelly was otherwise a healthy, normal teenager. It was not an easy condition for her to live with as a teenager, which I know you will only be too familiar with. She felt very different from her friends and worried constantly that her bald patches would be seen under her scarf. It left her very self-conscious and vulnerable. Having the Intralace System fitted changed all that pretty much instantly at what I feel was a very

critical time for her. It allowed her so much more freedom, finally she would socialise with her friends, go to parties and sleepovers without the constant worry of her scarf slipping or being pulled off. Her self confidence grew massively which was wonderful for us to see.
To move from the Intralace to extensions just over a
year later and to see how much her own hair had
grown back was another huge leap forward and
for her now to have all her own hair is truly
amazing. I am grateful for everyday she is pull
free but I do understand it is still relatively early
days and there are no guarantees that she
will not pull again. I’m more than a little cross
with her that she has not been to see you
for quite a while now. She has promised
on several occasions that she will make
an appointment so I very much hope it will
happen soon.

During the summer I did find a little ball of hair in the bed and felt my heart sink. I spoke to her immediately about it and she said she had pulled while lying in bed reading but stopped immediately once she realised what was happening. It was a wakeup call for us both not to be too complacent and I ask her frequently if all is ok with her hair. She did make contact with another of your younger clients some time ago and they communicated through Facebook but that also seems to have dwindled. I have encouraged her to try and renew that contact as it is always good to talk with someone who knows what you are going through.

Kelly is in her final year at a Northe university studying law so there will be a lot of pressure and stress over the coming months with essays, dissertations and exams but hopefully the coping mechanisms you have taught her to use will help her to deal with all of this without resorting to pulling again. I’m sure it’s a case of taking every day as it comes and taking huge positives from being relatively pull free for well over 18 months now.

I think I have probably rambled on more than enough for now but wish to apologize once more for not having sent this letter a very long time ago.
With my sincere thanks and best wishes,
Barbara

Lucinda Ellery in the Press

I would love to share a selection of articles and images that have been in the press in the last few weeks and would like to take this opportunity to thank these beautiful young women for sharing the secrets of their truly gorgeous, sexy and glamorous hair. All the girls are normal working women who had the courage to take their hair situation into their own hands. I think you’ll agree; they all look gorgeous and it’s so inspiring to see what they have had done.

Clients’ Letters

There is a lovely letter which just shows how important it is to be looked after and feel joy and happiness. It bounces from every word of this divine woman and our aim is to give every client this fabulous feeling. We are dedicated to your pleasure and fulfilment. It made me smile so much!

Dear Lucinda and your fantastic team of miracle workers,

I have only just had the Intralace System fitted and already I feel absolutely fabulous. I don’t think there are enough superlatives in the English language to describe exactly how I feel. But I think “just feeling normal again” will strike a chord with many ladies who are suffering from hair loss problems.

My emotions at the moment are mixed between grinning like a Cheshire cat and crying with tears and joy.

Like so many other ladies I wished I had known about you earlier - but grateful that I know about you now.

As soon as I made the initial phone call to arrange my consultation, I knew that my “problem” was going to be solved. What I could not have known at the time, however, was just how amazing I would feel.

I could write pages and pages about the fantastic service I received from all your staff – but I think you already know just what a fabulous team you have.

It’s difficult for me to keep this letter brief – I really want to tell everyone about “The Lucinda Ellery Experience” but I think I will close now and have another peek in the mirror at this “drop-dead” gorgeous 60 year old that you have created!

Briefly Mrs. Ellery I feel better than I could ever have imagined. Thank you and your wonderful team so very, very much
Margaret

NHS Funding

Lucinda Ellery has been working with a number of Primary Care Trusts around the UK for several years now. Some of our clients are currently receiving funding for their Intralace System. We understand that applying for funding can be difficult however it is always great news when another client has been successful with their funding application.

One of our clients has recently had confirmation that her funding has been granted for a further period of time. This client received funding periodically since 2006. It is normal for Primary Care Trusts to review the clients funding agreement within certain time frames so we are delighted that her Primary Care Trust has recognized the positive affect the Intralace System has on this lady day to day life and her well being.

Chemotherapy and Hair loss

ne of the hardest aspects when undergoing Chemotherapy is the effect it has on your hair. Not all chemotherapy drugs make your hair fall out and sometimes the loss is minimal however some people will experience partial or complete hair loss during or immediately after the treatment. Permanent hair loss following chemotherapy is rare.

The Cold Cap treatment can reduce the amount of hair loss as it protects some of the follicles. Not all Cancer types can be treated with the cold cap in place so your Doctor or Chemotherapy nurse will let you know if it is appropriate for you.

If your hair is going to fall out, it usually starts within 2-3 weeks of starting chemotherapy and this may be noticed when you brush or wash your hair. One can not underestimate the impact this has on the ladies emotional wellbeing.

There are options to conceal the hair loss. Some ladies choose to use scarf’s or wigs however many ladies would prefer a more permanent solution and so they choose to use a hair integration system like the Intralace System which will disguise the hair loss but also allow the natural hair to grow back freely undeeath the system. It’s understandable why many ladies want to conceal their hair loss from their families and friends. I spoke to a lady recently who said she did not want her young children to see her without hair, she didn’t want to have to remove a scarf or wig at bed time and she pointed out that by having her hair restored through the use of the Intralace System she felt a sense of normality retuing immediately – everyone said she looked better and she felt better.

She also felt that people treated her differently – they assumed all was well as she looked like her old self.

In most cases the hair fully grows back once the treatment is finished. The hair can sometimes grow back a different colour or texture and it can be challenge to wait for it to grow to your preferred length. Your hair can successfully grow back undeeath the Intralace System and it will get to a stage where the system would then just be removed. Ladies may then choose to use fine, lightweight extensions until they are happy with the length of their own natural hair.

Coping with Cancer is one of the hardest things for anyone to deal with. Having Chemotherapy for Cancer brings its own challenges. Those ladies that are comfortable to manage their hair loss without concealing it should be admired but our hair is embedded in our femininity and so for many ladies the hair loss has a profound effect on their emotional wellbeing. It is comforting to know that full re growth is entirely possible and probable but while you wait there are great options available to temporarily replace your crowning glory and in tu restore your confidence.