When Rebecca Brown twiddled and played with her hair for comfort as a child, never did she imagine it would develop into a full-blown psychological disorder leaving her completely bald.

Film student Rebecca, who lives off Park Drive in Maldon, suffers from Trichotillomania - a condition which sees sufferers experiencing compulsive urges to pull out their hair.

By 11, she was plucking and pulling at strands and, during her GCSEs, she lost half her long blonde hair in just two months.

Despite the hope that once exams were out of the way, the situation would cease, the now 21-year-old noticed the condition worsen.

When she turned 18 she lost three-quarters of her hair, pulled hair from the top of her scalp and decided there was nothing left to do but to shave it all off.

See this week's Standard for the full feature on Rebecca's battle with trichotillomania.