A BOURNEMOUTH University student, whose hair may never grow back following prolonged treatment for leukaemia, is enjoying a new lease of life with the help of a bespoke hair systems salon.

Betzy Olivier, 23, who was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 16, says her life became ‘a living nightmare’ as she underwent a bone marrow transplant which was followed by a bacterial infection that resulted in multi-organ failure.

Her kidneys took a long time to recover and eventually, Betzy had to learn to walk again.

Her immune system remains very low and she is always in and out of hospital.

Two years ago, following a biopsy, Betzy learned that her hair would never grow back, so she set out to find a hair replacement system.

After months of frustrating and expensive experiences in London she went online and discovered a specialist company on her doorstep: Hair Loss Bournemouth, run by 32-year-old Simone Thomas, who has also suffered hair loss through alopecia and cervical cancer.

Simone set up the service at her salon in Westbourne called MWAH Bournemouth – Makeup, Wigs & Hair. Betzy now has a personal hair system which is the same colour brown as her natural hair. “I wash it every week or so, the same way everyone washes their hair, and it looks so natural that people don’t know it isn’t my own,” she explains.

“My bespoke system was built up hair by hair over a period of a few months and it allows my scalp to breathe. When I tell people it is a specialist hair system they think it is attached to my head – but it isn’t. It just looks and behaves that way.”

Betzy paid £575, a third of the price she was paying in London, and it will last two to three years.

Simone and her staff also provide training in the art of hair care at the Lewis Manning Hospice in Poole. Visit hairlossbournemouth.co.uk