'I never dreamed I'd go on stage completely bald'

"I thought, 'what would happen if I went on stage and just took my wig off?' The reaction was quite big; people gasped and covered their mouths."

Actor and writer Emily Glaze has alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition that causes sudden, patchy hair loss.

The 30-year-old from Telford started losing patches of hair at 16, before all of her hair fell out at 21, when she was in her final year of university.

"It's not really what you imagine, going out into the world," she said.

Glaze is now taking a one-woman show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, based on her experiences of living with alopecia.

The show Basic Bald B*tch, revolving around the fictional character of Amy, originally started as a 10-minute monologue which Glaze wrote for a scratch night - an opportunity for theatremakers to test short excerpts of works-in-progress - in 2021.

"For a really long time I felt so much shame about the subject of having alopecia," Glaze said.

"I got to a point in my life where I was really done with having to hide all the time and I found a lot of empowerment in performance."

She decided to go on stage at the scratch night and take her wig off, eliciting a powerful reaction from the audience.

"It was quite a shock for that performance. People would come up to me afterwards and have lovely positive things to say," she said.

One aspect of the condition that Glaze wants to raise awareness of her show is the myriad of different forms of alopecia and how they can present themselves.

"A lot of people don't realise - there's an assumption that when you lose your hair, it's completely gone forever," she said.

"It did mean at one point I had no hair. It's grown back and fallen out four times in my life. I've had pixie cuts, I've been bald.

"It can feel like that rollercoaster."

Glaze hopes the show will be seen by people with alopecia or other physical differences, to help them "feel really seen and heard, and feel empowered in their own skin."

She added: "There's still not enough representation for people with physical differences. Especially when we're in such an image-obsessed society."

For the 30-year-old, her work will now be performed at the world's largest performing arts festival, after she felt like she needed to pursue her story.

She concluded: "I've got to do this for me, for younger me, who would never have dreamed of getting up on stage completely bald."

Basic Bald B*tch is at Underbelly Cowgate at the Edinburgh Fringe from 5 August until 30 August.

• Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition that causes sudden, patchy hair loss

• It happens when certain immune cells mistakenly attack the hair follicles, stopping them from producing new hair, and in severe cases, hair is lost from across the body

• It affects approximately one in every 1,000 people worldwide at any given time.

• Living with alopecia can also be profoundly challenging, causing anxiety and stress

• People may experience difficulty at school and in the workplace, and it can lead to social isolation

Source: Alopecia UK

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