Now that we've been able to catch our breath after an incredibly busy couple of weeks, both before and after our Big Weekend 2025, we are proud to provide a little summary of what went on in Birmingham from 26^th-28^th September.

We welcomed over 170 attendees from all over the UK and Ireland. With the addition of our staff team, trustee board, volunteer team, Sponsors, Exhibitors and speakers, it was more than 270 people who made the event as special as it was. 

The Friday began with a welcome reception in our Exhibition Hall. As with previous years, we were delighted to welcome some fantastic sponsors and exhibitors. Our two Diamond Sponsors, Pretty Little Wigs by Hollie and GHOSTBOND x Scruffy Hair Co headed the line up, with Gold Sponsors Freedom Hair and HEADS volu-med and Silver Sponsors Banbury Postiche, Eylure, and Aderans Trendco providing support too. A huge thank you to all our Sponsors, who help us enormously with the cost of putting on this event – we couldn’t do it without you.

Our wonderful Sponsors were joined in our Exhibition Hall by some fantastic Exhibitors, creating a busy room buzzing with advice and chat. We’re not sure we’ve ever seen so many wigs and headwear in one room!

After a Friday evening icebreaker session, a welcome from Alopecia UK CEO Sue Schilling, a heart-warming speech from Alopecia UK’s founder Vicky Rees, along with canapes and welcome drinks, it was time to say goodnight ahead of the BIG day on the Saturday.

For those who joined us early on Saturday morning, there was a choice of attending an icebreaker session or a 'Mindfulness and Meditation' session run by long-standing volunteer Rob Newman.

New for this year was our Wellbeing Hub, with appointments throughout the day including reiki, henna, colour analysis, make-up, and massage. One of our volunteers Sarah also ran a creative drop-in zone where attendees were encouraged to make their own mini self-care planners. We were delighted to exhibit a small number of portraits from photographer Isaac Qureshi’s ‘True Crowns’ exhibition in our Wellbeing Hub.

Welcome talks began at 9.15, with words from AUK CEO Sue and our Diamond Sponsors Pretty Little Wigs by Hollie and GHOSTBOND x Scruffy Hair Co. Our Research Manager Dr Niels Bootsma provided a talk on the basics of hair and hair research, to help set our attendees up for the scientific talks in the day. To round off our welcome talks, we were delighted to welcome Alopecia UK ambassador and comedian, Zoe Lyons. Zoe shared her own experience of having alopecia with some very relatable humour.

Our educational and scientific talks included sessions on ‘Alopecia Areata’, ‘Other Types of Alopecia’, ‘Latest Research’, ‘Psychology of Hair Loss’ and ‘The Alopecia Healthcare Pathway’. Our Research Manager Niels has pulled together his own more in-depth summary of these session which you can read here.

Zoe Lyons was our Session Chair for our ‘Alopecia My Way’ panel discussion, featuring community members Amanda, Chloe. Nathan, Neha, and Sharon, who did a fantastic job of sharing their different experiences with alopecia.

In addition to all these talks, there were also workshops run by both our Diamond Sponsors, plus breakout sessions about ‘Fitness and Alopecia’, ‘Being a Support Group Leader’ and ‘Supporting a Loved One with Alopecia’.

Our day was rounded off with a raffle (Congratulations to the lucky winners!) and a talk from ‘Joyologist’ Donna Easton.

It was then time for us to say goodbye to our Saturday daytime attendees and quickly transform our main talk room into our dinner hall for the evening. For those that joined us on the Saturday evening, we enjoyed dinner, drinks, and dancing! There was even a surprise cake brought out to celebrate Alopecia UK’s 20^th anniversary! Attendees were able to capture memories from the evening with the help of our fun photobooth.

On Sunday, 40+ attendees returned to join us for our Flashmob! Our Volunteer Manager (and expert choreographer) Katie, led the group in rehearsal and then it was time to take it to the public. At 11am, we headed to Victoria Square and the sun came out for an energetic and uplifting performance. We can’t wait to show you the video!

Then it was time to say goodbye and wish everyone safe journeys home.

We want to thank EVERYONE who was a part of Big Weekend 2025, but we want to give a special shout out to our volunteers, our 'Dream Team'. From the warm welcome that they extended to every attendee, to the setting up and taking down at the beginning and the end of the event, each and every volunteer worked tirelessly to ensure the event not only ran smoothly but was able to deliver in a way that the charity envisaged for our community.

We enjoyed every minute and hope those who attended did too. It was incredible to see the amazing support that you all show to each other. It is this support that make our events so impactful. 

A final thank you to the following Exhibitors for supporting our event and creating such a buzzing Exhibition Hall: Alopaca House Hats, Embrace Wigs, Katie Dear, Masumi Headwear, Milly Headwear, My Beautiful Wigs, REVAMP, The Wig Bar London, and Wigs by Kirstie. Special thanks to Nanogen and Lush for their giveaway goodies.