Is anyone too 'ugly' to be in a relationship?

Is she really too ugly for love?

In the past four years, former beauty therapist Chloe Moore has had one serious relationship and has gone on a series of unsuccessful dates.

The 29-year-old Australian suffers from alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that attacks the body’s hair follicles and which first afflicted her when she was just 14.

She appears in new reality TV series Too Ugly For Love 2, which chronicles the attempts of 12 singletons struggling with an embarrassing illness or defect at finding romance.

Others featured who fear they will never be loved include one woman who suffers from meningococcal septicaemia (blood poisoning) that has left her with severe scarring and just two toes, and another who has Crohn’s disease, a painful condition which requires her to wear an external ileostomy bag on her abdomen that collects her faeces.

Too Ugly For Love 2 premieres on March 1 at 8.10pm on Eve (StarHub TV Ch 425).

About her own condition, Miss Moore told The New Paper in a phone interview from her home in Brisbane: “It doesn’t affect my health in any way but it does affect you emotionally and psychologically.

Depression and self-esteem issues can come along with it.

“I haven’t had a full head of hair since I was 14 and I always had patches of no hair. When I moved to the UK, the patches started to get bigger and bigger and then about two Christmases ago. it got really bad that I couldn’t cover it anymore so I decided to get a wig.

“In the end, I just ended up shaving my head,”

Miss Moore moved to the UK four years ago to travel and explore Europe, but her condition was “an issue” when it came to meeting men.

She said: “One person said after I told him I had alopecia that it was too much baggage for him to deal with.”

Miss Moore agreed to join Too Ugly For Love 2 after watching the first season of the show, which featured Alopecia UK’s charity manager  Jen Chambers .

“So for me, it was about continuing to raise awareness for alopecia areata and other types of alopecia. Since being on the show, I’ve had people who have alopecia write to me and tell me about the struggle with doctors not wanting to try different treatments on them.”

On the show, viewers witness Miss Moore going on two dates.

“They’ll also probably see how much confidence I’ve lost since my alopecia developed over the past couple of years and how nervous it makes me. Talking about it is also challenging,” she said.

Her first date was with a clinical psychologist named Ian.

She recalled: “I was very reserved... and nervous, but I really tried to get to know him and ask him questions about himself and the things that he holds near and dear to his heart. So I went out of my comfort zone trying to get to know somebody, which I’m not very comfortable doing, and so that was a very good learning experience for me.”

Even though she didn’t achieve any success on the show or outside of it, she doesn’t regret being on Too Ugly For Love 2.

“No one in the world is too ugly to be in a relationship. I hate the word ‘ugly’ and that’s why I love the title of the show - it’s so shocking and it really tries to challenge the notion of attractiveness.”

Miss Moore returned to Australia last year in order to further her studies and is hoping to attain a Bachelor of Health Science (Nutritional Medicine) degree.

“I want to focus on working on and healing certain diseases, particularly autoimmune diseases like alopecia and Hashimoto’s disease,” she said.

She has resumed treatment for her alopecia and her hair has started to grow back. She’s hoping to ditch her wigs and rock a pixie cut soon.

“I’ve never had this idea that I will end up with some man and live happily ever after because I also believe that people get divorced and relationships do end," she said. 

“If I meet somebody who’s amazing and sweeps me off my feet and challenges me, I think that would be amazing, but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t.

“I’m also quite happy being on my own. If it happens, it happens."