Whether you're a man or a woman, you take it for granted that you have a head of healthy hair and you take pride in your crowning glory. But what if one day you noticed it starting to slip away?

That's the awful situation that faced 28-year-old Caroline Murray last August. Like TV show presenter Gail Porter, one of the most famous sufferers of alopecia, Caroline was getting ready for work and was brushing her hair into place, as she did every morning.

"I noticed a spot at the front of my head -- the size of a €2 coin," she says. "It was really smooth, with no hair at all on the skin."

Dubliner Caroline was understandably alarmed about it and went to see her GP. "The doctor said it was alopecia and sent me for blood tests," she says. "They came back clear, so I've no idea why it happened. They say it's stress-related, but I'm not really stressed in my life. The doctor gave me a referral note for the hospital, but told me there would be a three-year wait to see a dermatologist."

Caroline's shoulder-length brown hair kept falling out. "It was scary seeing it come out like that in lumps," she says. "When I'd wake up in the morning, I'd see it all over the pillow. If I was in the shower and washing my hair, it would just fall out in my hands. I'd lost it all by the end of October."

Caroline wore bandanas or wigs to cover up her hair loss, but says it did have an effect on her confidence.

Caroline knew that she couldn't wait three years to get treatment, so she booked a consultation at the Universal Hair and Scalp Clinic. She has alopecia areata, which is a treatable form of the condition, and has been attending sessions once a week.

"My hair started to come back after treatment -- it was all white and fluffy at the start," she says. "I wear a wig when I'm out, but my friends know about my alopecia."

Caroline's eyebrows and eyelashes fortunately weren't affected by the alopecia, and the hair on her head is steadily growing back. "I was very upset about it in the beginning, but then you realise that the more you worry about it, the worse it is going to get," she says. "It's growing back a lot more now and by the end of the summer, it'll be flying along."

Losing your hair can be an emotional experience and it's something that trichologist Carol Johnson regularly encounters with clients.

"It can really affect people's sense of identity," she says. "They can become more inward, it can affect their relationships and they may not want to socialise," she says. "We would sometimes have the most confident and successful people coming to see us and they may be reduced to tears over losing their hair."

Carol took over the famous Universal Hair and Scalp Clinic two years ago, but the Dublin institution is actually celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, which means it has had thousands of clients walking through its doors since the 1960s.

The clinic, which is in Dame Lane, has diversified into anti-ageing and beauty treatments in recent years, but is still best known for its hair-loss prevention treatments.

"We've been blending our own secret, prized formulas for a long time and can use different treatments alongside them, depending on the hair condition, such as laser or massage," says Carol.

"When it comes to male pattern baldness, what we do is arrest the hair loss. It is genetic, so you'll never entirely stop it, but you can slow that process down significantly."

- Lisa Jewell