Former England star ‘born to stand out’ after finding identity through health condition
former England and Team GB forward Heather Fisher
Former England and Team GB forward Heather Fisher has claimed that she was “born to stand out” after years of struggling with her appearance amid constant external pressures and expectations.
Speaking to the BBC, the 41-year-old admitted that she couldn’t look in a mirror for “maybe four or five years” after initially suffering from alopecia – a condition in which hair follicles are attacked by the immune system.
“I’ve had wigs thrown at me outside the pitch, being asked why I’m about to go and play on the pitch with females when I’m a guy, and quite clearly, I’m not a guy.
“I’ve been physically poked out of toilets. I think when you’re a bald woman, you are looked at differently. It’s not until you potentially lose your hair that people question who you are and your gender.
“I felt disgusting, because people look at you like you’re something, not someone. So people’s perception is very, very different.
“We’re at a time where we say that we accept people for being who they really are, and we accept muscular women, and we understand muscles and women, but we don’t understand muscles and no hair, and those two things together, of course, affect me.”
Alopecia
For years, Fisher found herself stuck fighting with her condition and the attitudes that surround it, but now she can be her “full, authentic self.”
“Alopecia is a health condition. It’s an autoimmune condition. It’s where your hair follicles get attacked by your own immune system. That’s because you have a low immune system, and whether it’s from pushing yourself or whether it’s through stress, we don’t really know.
“There’s no treatment for alopecia and hair loss, we either rock it and we try and own it and be our full, authentic self, or some people wear a lot of head scarves or wigs, but I think it’s just the awareness that people need to realize that you can be a bald female with alopecia, and it’s not all cancer and it’s not all fashion.”
With the era of TikTok and social media, rugby players like Ilona Maher are trying to come out and show that rugby players come in all different shapes and sizes.
“Even a few years ago, the platform was building, the platform was growing. And even then, if you worked on your platform, you’re almost seen as not taking the sport seriously, and that starts to come to light a bit now, but players have been doing it anyway.
“I’ve had a coach say to me, ‘Fish, do not think you’re doing a bit too much away from the pitch?’ If I was playing now, it would turn heads, and it would be a really positive way to showcase the game and showcase someone who looks and feels different.”
Identity
Asked if she would like to have hair again, Fisher says that she has found herself through her condition, jokingly admitting that a full head of hair would just get in the way.
“I’d be able to do a hair flick, but it would do my head in, and it would make me itchy, so I wouldn’t change it. It’s made me who I am today,” she says, with pride.
“It’s made me really resilient, and I really, truly believe that I was born to stand out.”