When I hit perimenopause and piled on weight I was desperate to lose it. I did, with this quick fix method. But it came at the cost of my glorious thick hair. Don't make the same irreversible mistake I did... ⊕

It was my 13-year-old ­daughter who called it. Heading down the escalator at ­Fenwick last summer, she announced from behind me: 'My God, Mum, your hair is thinning. I can see your scalp.'