My 30 inch-long hair fell out when I moved to Bali – I didn’t leave the house for 2 months because I felt so ugly but then I found out the cause

A business owner who relocated to Southeast Asia was shocked when her luscious locks, which measured over 30 inches long, fell out during her threesome.

Holly Marie, 27, from Cardiff, spent two months confined to her home because of her hair loss, which she blames on the hard water in Bali and left her feeling ‘ugly’.

Hollie arrived on the island in 2021 when she noticed her hair was thinning, but she had no idea why it was happening.

Within months, she had lost most of her 30-inch blonde hair because it became tangled and fell out in “big clumps” every time she brushed it.

This forced Hollie, who had been wearing wigs for months to hide her bald spots, to shave her head completely.

Hollie felt humiliated and couldn’t leave her house for two months because she felt ‘so ugly’.

Hollie believes her hair loss is due to stress, the sun or even alopecia, and says a hairdresser discovered the ‘hard, poor quality’ tap water on the island was the culprit.

To prevent other tourists from having to go through her ‘traumatising’ experience, Hollie, who has lived in Bali for the past three years, has started her own shower filter business.

Hollie documented her hair journey on TikTok, sharing a clip urging people to be aware of the impact of water on their hair and skin. The clip went viral, garnering 786,800 views.

A shocking clip shows the large clumps of hair left on Hollie’s brush after just one use.

Hollie, originally from Cardiff, Wales, said: ‘It’s horrendous. You just take a lot of yourself for granted, it’s such a shock when things like this happen.

‘I noticed I was losing hair, but because I had so much hair in the beginning, it took me a while to notice how drastic the change was.

‘When I lived in Bali for three months, I went on a trip and on the way back my hair was in a mess.

‘The texture of my hair changed and my hair strands literally melted together, it was really scary.

‘The bonds of my hair had changed. It was so matted that the people at the hairdresser couldn’t do anything with it anymore and had to cut it all off.

‘I went back to the hairdresser because I was still losing a lot of hair.

‘Every time I brushed it, it would come out in huge clumps. I would see I had a bald spot and think ‘what the f**k is going on?’.

‘I went to a doctor and thought, ‘Do I have alopecia?’ But my eyelashes were still intact and my eyebrows were still there.

“I’ve never actually done my hair in the pool, so I knew it wasn’t the pool water.”

The content creator, who is naturally blonde and has never dyed her locks, revealed she was losing so much hair that she decided to shave it all off on Christmas Eve 2021.

Hollie said: ‘I had about a fifth of my hair left on my head. The texture was horrible, it was so tangled all the time. I thought ‘let’s start again, completely fresh’.

‘I had to get a guy from a barber to shave my head. I had been wearing wigs for four months.

‘The next day I celebrated Christmas with a bunch of friends, which was quite traumatizing. I’ve never wanted a bald head.

‘I knew it wouldn’t suit me, I looked like Bob the Builder. It was very strange. You take your hair for granted, it’s not something you ever think will leave you. It’s part of your identity, it’s your crowning glory.’

After shaving her head, Hollie, who at the time still didn’t know what was causing her hair loss, didn’t leave the house for two months – not even to go to the gym. She also started avoiding people.

“It wasn’t a good time for me, especially the first year,” she said. “I had horrible hair growth phases.”

Although she believes that appearance is “the least interesting thing” about a person, she claims it can still have a “huge impact” on how you feel.

It wasn’t until April 2022 that Hollie realised the possible cause of her hair loss, when she saw a video of an Australian hairdresser in Bali, who said her hair loss was due to the water on the island.

Hollie: ‘I didn’t realise it was the water until I went to the hairdresser and she told me that this happens to a lot of people.

‘The water quality here is so poor that it can be harmful to your hair and skin.

‘I really regret not being proactive when I first noticed clumps of hair coming out. I thought, ‘Maybe it’s stress, maybe it’s the sun.’

“I just blamed it on something else. I never thought the tap water would be a problem.

‘It wasn’t until I started making videos about it that a lot of people started commenting and saying, ‘Oh my God, this happened to me and I didn’t realise it was because I went to Bali.’

Not entirely confident in the ‘cheap’ shower filters sold online to protect her hair, Hollie set up her own company, Travel with Hair, in December 2022, which sells the items in Bali.

Hollie now has shoulder length hair and vows to ‘always use a filter’ on her shower head, and wants to raise awareness among others.

Hollie said: ‘I waited too long to do anything. By the time I thought I needed to do something about my hair loss and talk to a doctor, I had already lost a significant amount.

‘It’s scary. The last thing anyone wants is to come back from vacation and find out they’ve lost all their hair.

‘It gave me an idea. I’ve been through something very traumatic and I can help people not go through the same thing.

‘If you come for 10 days, then it’s fine. If you come for two weeks or more, it’s very important to get a filter.

‘The filters are specially designed for the water in Southeast Asia.

‘They fit most showers, we test all the water and we make them custom.

“It’s small, you can take it on the plane and it’s easy to attach. It literally takes you 30 seconds.” Plus, it prevents you from getting sad, because who wants that on vacation?