Restaurant entrepreneur and celebrity chef Sami Garam fell ill with a rare form of alopecia.
When a celebrity chef Sami Garam56, walks down the street these days, acquaintances may not recognize him.
– A year ago I started losing hair. First the hair color turned gray, during the summer all the hairs fell out. The picture of the disease is alopecia universalis, he tells Iltalehte.
– Some have said that they don’t know me these days. There’s not that much of a difference with a cap on.
It is a more severe form of the commonly known inflammatory autoimmune disease, baldness. While in baldness, i.e. alopecia areata, the hair falls out in patches from small areas of the head, in the rare alopecia universalis, the hair and all the skin hairs on the body disappear, says Allergia.fi.
For many alopecia sufferers, the diagnosis is a shock. Garam’s world was not shaken by the knowledge of the disease, even though the change in appearance has brought unpleasant acknowledgment.
He wants to make his situation public, especially because of the comments he has received.
– This won’t kill me, and it won’t knock me to the ground either, but for someone else this could be a difficult place, he says.
– It’s weird about people’s attitude that if I had gained weight, no one would dare to say anything. But when the hair has gone, they shout “hey bald head, come here”, or they say “you should grow your hair, it looks more like a rock”. But since this is not my choice at all! You could first ask why I don’t have hair on my head.
Garam chalks up the throws he hears to thoughtlessness. He urges people to be careful when commenting on other people’s bodies.
– Someone else can really get very upset about something like this, he says.
“I don’t want treatment”
Sami Garami has had fast hair growth and strong hair since he was young, so it took time to get used to the change.
– When there are no eyebrows and no eyelashes, it’s different. Even the clothes feel different on the skin, when the hairs insulate a little. For example, if you are in cold weather in just jeans, you get cold faster, he explains.
The initial cause of alopecia is unknown. People who suffer from it can have baldness in the family, which means it can be inherited through several hereditary factors. Stress may affect when it starts or gets worse. How the hair starts to grow back is individual. Alopecia universalis is found in only about five percent of patients with baldness, says the website Allergia.fi.
Garam has not seen a dermatologist since receiving the diagnosis.
– I haven’t had time, and once you can live with this. It’s not necessarily useful to go when the diagnosis doesn’t change anything. Blood tests have been taken, and according to the doctor I am as healthy as a goat, yet all the hairs left my body. I don’t want any treatment for this, he reveals.
According to the website Allergia.fi, the treatment could be, for example, cortisone solution or cream, minoxidil solution, PUVA light therapy or sensitization treatments. Garam is not interested in these, but intends to continue his life as before.
– Both of my daughters have bald spots, so in some way this could be genetic. In the spirit of research, I could go for tests when this once occurs in a milder form in the family.
Sami Garam in May 2023. SAMI GARAM’S HOME ALBUM
Sami Garam photographed in October 2023. SAMI GARAM’S HOME ALBUM
Sami Garam took part in the filming of the Erikoijoukot series, where the changes caused by alopecia are visible. At the same time, he was immortalized in recent promo photos. FOUR
Stress as the root cause?
The celebrity chef suspects that stress may also have contributed to his illness. The corona era brought debts to the own restaurant company and at the same time a divorce also happened, where the spoons were divided in stormy atmospheres.
Garam states that a stressful life situation may have contributed to the onset of alopecia universalis. Now, though, it’s already better in every area.
– We have thirteen locations in the restaurant chain. Last year was pretty good and this year has started well. Now you can breathe a little more freely. Corona-era debts still have to be paid off!
Tailwinds are also blowing in private life. Garam says that he lives a peaceful life with his current partner.
The change in appearance is clearly visible in the promotional photos of Nelonen’s Special Forces series. The difference to the former is even more emphasized, because in the promo image, Garam is not wearing his trademark glasses.
– It’s the first reality show I was involved in. It was tough, but I was surprised how nice it was to go into the unknown, away from my own safe environment. There was no knowing what would happen a quarter of an hour later. It was masochistic madness, I liked it in a perverted way, he praises the TV filming.
All in all, Garam’s feeling is zen. He is even a little amused by the change at the moment.
– I cut my head bald for many summers in a row, but the hair always grew back. Except last summer they stopped growing. Now individual hairs may have stood out on the skin. They give hope that if one day I still have a strand of hair on my head, Garam laughs.