Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers is rightly proud of being the first person in his family to go to university. Sadly, by the time he had graduated, Dave, 64, had lost both of his parents. And his mother’s protracted ill health also meant Dave endured hair loss when he was still a child.
It began when his mother was diagnosed with MS when she was 50 – and Dave was just eight-years-old.
This weekend, Dave and Si King head to Poland for The Hairy Bikers‘ Northern Exposure. So here’s a little more information about what Dave went through as he battled alopecia as a young boy.
What has Dave Myers said about his hair loss?
Speaking in 2009, Dave recalled how his hair loss developed into alopecia when he was 14.
Read more: The Hairy Bikers: Dave Myers became a child carer aged 8 when his mum was diagnosed with MS
He said: “Over a period of three weeks, I would wake up every morning to find clumps of hair clinging to my nylon sheets. The obvious cause was my mum’s illness, but I wasn’t overly anxious about it. I was too young to understand the reality of it at that point.”
Dave went on to read Fine Art at university but admits his achievement “didn’t really mean that much” to him due to his parents’ conditions.
His mother’s illness had persisted and his father was also fragile after suffering a stroke. A second stroke proved too much and Dave’s mum also passed away shortly after, meaning he lost both parents by the time he was 23.
View this post on Instagram
Why Dave’s hair ‘grew back’
Dave threw himself into his work amid his grief and got a job at the BBC. He recalls how his new role in the make up department came with an odd work ‘perk’ relating to his hair.
Dave said: “I refuses their ‘offer’ to send me to a wig maker and have the money docked out of my first pay packet. I don’t think that would happen these days.”
The irony is not lost on me that I’ve made my name as a Hairy Biker.
He also revealed how his hair actually grew back at age 40. The unlikely development came after an emergency operation to remove a cyst on his brain.
Read more: The Hairy Bikers: Si King’s on the headache that turned into a fight for life
Dave insisted: “The medical profession will never admit that it was the pressure of that which stopped my hair growth, but I’m utterly convinced that it was. So the irony is not lost on me that I’ve made my name as a Hairy Biker.”
The Hairy Bikers’ Northern Exposure airs on BBC2 on Saturday January 22 at 12pm.
Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think of this story.