The Block’s Sev on her alopecia journey and getting her confidence back

Exclusive: For The Block’s Sev, hair thinning has been a personal journey since she was 12 years old.

After using extensions for years to manage her hair loss, an alopecia diagnosis presented a painful new challenge as bald patches began to appear, prompting her to seek a different path forward.

“In terms of hair thinning, I knew that was going to be a genetic thing; I saw it with my mum,” she said in an interview nine.com.au. “But when my balding started two years ago, extensions just didn’t suffice.

“I resorted to wigs. I started to discover that it was just another creative outlet for me, and that gave me so much more confidence.”

Packing for The Block meant bringing her collection of wigs along – a decision Sev knew would get people talking, but one she was ready to embrace.

“I didn’t come on the show with the intention to talk about my situation. I just sort of fed into the fact that I love playing around with wigs, so we sort of felt like there was an opportunity there to be transparent and open and brave about it.”

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Sev stuck with her “primary wig” for the first two weeks of filming before switching it up. She confessed the initial reaction was confusion.

“There was a bit of a response when I went from brunette to pink, but I didn’t really say out loud that I was wearing a wig, I just sort of thought people would assume that I was,” she added.

“Being females, we know that going from dark to really light would take a while!”

It was tradies in particular who took a little while to figure things out. According to her teammate Courtney, a few of them even approached her directly to ask about Sev’s wigs.

“It was so funny – the tradies almost felt sorry for me because they thought Sev was just living at the hair salon; they’d say ‘Sev’s been at the hairdresser again’,” she said through laughter.

Sev added that ever since she’s been open about wearing wigs, the response has been nothing but support.

“People became so much more understanding about it – I sort of love that too, that I had that backing. People didn’t sort of say ‘Why are you wearing a wig?’”

“I love that it’s now a part of my identity. People know that I’ll have blonde hair in the morning and then brown hair at night, it gives them a little bit of shock value, which is fun to see on their face.”

Courtney couldn’t be prouder of her friend for starting such an important conversation, knowing how deeply Sev’s openness will resonate with people watching at home.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am,” she said to Sev. “It’s something some people are really nervous to speak about, women and men.

“No one wants to lose their hair. It’s a big part of us. It shapes our face. It’s a huge part of who we are. It’s a massive part of who Sevy is.

“I’m just so glad she’s able to show that you can have fun with it and be creative with it.”