The Olympic cyclist Joanna Rowsell, who along with her team-mates broke three world records and won a gold at London 2012, has become a poster girl for sufferers of alopecia, the hair loss condition. “It’s always going to be a part of me,” she said, “so I may as well embrace it and hopefully inspire other girls.” When receiving her medal on the podium, she saw no need to cover her baldness; in her view, the important thing is “being happy with who you are, having self-confidence, and accepting the way you look.” Indeed, she added, if anything her hair loss “might have spurred [her] on to be even more focused.”

Joanna, shall I compare thee to Wayne Rooney? The England striker is famously tetchy about his hair, or lack thereof. In May last year, when the Manchester United player Michal Owen tweeted “Your face looks like a 12 year old’s but your hair looks like a 60 year old”, Rooney replied “Easy mo u know that’s a sensitive subject”. Shortly afterwards he had a hair transplant which cost him up to £30,000, and far more in terms of personal ridicule. The Oasis star Liam Gallagher, for instance, compared him to a balloon with a Weetabix crushed on top. Continue reading on the Telegraph website