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Conversations With a Hair Loss Stylist

Conversations With a Hair Loss Stylist

by | Jul 16, 2024 | Episode

Episode 21

Conversations With a Hair Loss Stylist

hair-system-stylist-Rachel-Rivera-021-blog

 In this episode of HairPod, we dive into the world of hair systems with hair loss stylist Rachel Rivera. We explore the intricate process of maintaining and styling hair systems, shedding light on the importance of having a skilled personal stylist. Rachel has been a hairstylist for over twenty years and has worked with HairClub for the last thirteen. Kevin and Rachel share encouraging stories of helping people get their hair back and Kevin’s personal experience with a hair system. They also discuss common misconceptions about hair systems that can, unfortunately, keep people from trying them. 

 

Getting Your Hair Back: Hair Restoration with Hair Systems

Getting a hair system can be transformative and powerful, but it can also be a vulnerable process. Hair loss stylist can guide their clients toward finding the right solution for their hair loss. Hair systems start as long, rock-staresque hair before being styled and cut for a sleek, personalized look. Rachel explains the significance of starting with longer hair, which allows the stylist to cut and shape it into the desired style. Rachel and Kevin reflect on the shock and awe clients (Kevin included) feel when they see themself with a full head of hair again!

 

Managing Hair Loss, Balding, and Thinning Hair

The conversation touches on the art of color matching to ensure the hair system blends seamlessly with the client’s natural hair. Rachel elaborates on her process of selecting and blending colors, paying attention to changes over time, such as the addition of more gray hair. She explains the concept of “graduals” for clients who prefer a subtle transition to a full hair system. They discuss the maintenance routines necessary for keeping the hair system looking its best, including the importance of regular conditioning and using the right styling products. Kevin appreciates Rachel’s personalized care, which addresses his specific needs, such as managing dry scalp and ensuring his hair system stays secure even with his active lifestyle.

 

Hair System Maintenance and Styling Demystified

Hair systems can radically change the way we look, and even if the results are perfect, it can still be a scary process – journeying into the unknown. Rachel shares her approach to building rapport with new clients, making them feel comfortable and informed throughout the process. The meticulous attention to detail provided by stylists like Rachel ensures that the hair system looks natural and flawless, a stark contrast to the obvious toupees of the past. It is an inspiring and enlightening conversation for anyone interested in hair systems

 

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.21 Transcript

Rachel Rivera [00:00:04]:

Again, it’s so emotional. When you first get started and you’re getting your hair for the first time, we’re giving you something back that you haven’t had in years. So for some people, they’re seeing hair in the front of their hairline that they’ve never seen before, and it’s something amazing. And then when they see themselves in the mirror, it’s really such a life changing experience. I can’t explain it. When I see it for the first time, it’s amazing. For me, this is why I love what I do. And then at the same time, when they’re looking at themselves in the mirror, it is literally you’re taking off a minimum of ten years off of somebody’s life.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:00:39]:

They look so much better.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:00:55]:

Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Ralston, and each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. I’m really excited for this episode because I get to speak with my own personal hair system stylist, Rachel Rivera about her experience styling hair systems. Rachel has worked with Hair Club for 13 years and has over 21 years of hair experience. She is truly a hair wizard and always leaves my hair looking natural and flawless. It takes a lot of skill to work with hair systems, and I imagine all of Rachels clients feel just as lucky as I do to work with somebody as caring and knowledgeable as her. Getting a hair system is a process.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:01:52]:

The initial steps can feel vulnerable for some people, but the best results are worth it, at least for me. Having hair system has been life changing, but I honestly don’t know if I would have had the same experience without such amazing stylists. They do so much more than just cutting hair. For many of the guests that we’ve talked to here on the show, myself included, stylists guide us with empathy as we navigate our own hair loss journeys. It can be daunting to think about going from thinning hair, bald patches, or even no hair at all to having a full head of hair again. But a great stylist will make sure that you look and feel great and that you’re not dealing with it alone.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:02:39]:

We always get our hair a little bit longer and it always. It’s good because if you ever came to me and you decided at one point you wanted it to wear just a little bit longer. We could absolutely do that. But it gives me the opportunity to work with and I be able to cut in the style that you like or even the style that anybody’s looking for that they would want to have.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:03:01]:

How hard is it to do that? If somebody comes in with a photo, how do you match that? Do you go on descriptions and how do you make sure that you’re cutting the style that the client wants?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:03:11]:

We always suggest pictures. That’s the biggest thing. So if somebody can’t find pictures, we always have them look at, hey, YouTube Pinterest, anything that they can look at and see, any model, any pictures for age relations, whatever they want to look at. And then I’m pretty good at copying whatever I see. I love visuals. I’m a very visual person, so I can always copy what they’re looking for.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:03:34]:

Now, how do you work with clients? Because there are a lot of people that they really don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to hairstyle and they don’t know what’s going to look good. Look, I’m one of those people. That’s why I trust you inherently to say, give me a hairstyle that looks good. Because as I was a kid and I saw what was the early beginnings of hair systems, there too often were guys who got hair systems that just didn’t match their age, their look. And there seems to me to be kind of an art form because you want something to look realistic. To me. What’s amazing with my hair system and what I have, you look at me and you dont think that that guy has any kind of help. It looks just exactly like my natural hair.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:04:20]:

So how do you work with somebody to do that? Because ultimately that would be the goal.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:04:24]:

And im sure a lot of times.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:04:25]:

You know better than somebody whos coming to you, even with a picture, they want to look like Brad Pitt in 1994 and theyre a 62 year old guy. And youre just like, thats just not going to be consistent. How do you work with that client, Brian?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:04:37]:

Absolutely. You know, we’re big on making suggestions. You know, I always like to go with, again, when these situations, it’s always different. So you always want to go, according to one, how much hair the actual client has their own natural growing hair as well as a style that’s going to accommodate their face and how it looks. So we’re really big on suggestions. If I see you and you want, you know, the 1990s, Billy Cyrus Mullet, and I’m not thinking that’s a good look for you. I’m going to suggest something different. Hey, I appreciate your style, but let’s take a look at something like this.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:05:11]:

What do you think along the lines? So I usually try to have my artillery of hairstyles also, so that they can kind of take a glance and we can come together to find that nice middle ground.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:05:23]:

The other thing that I find amazing, that I never would have known, is how you can match up the color so it looks natural. Because on the side of my head, I’ve got my real hair that is right there. And, you know, I’ve gotten different levels of gray since I’ve even been coming to you. But you seem to be able to look at what I have on the side, and then what is in my hair system, it seems to match up perfectly. How do you wind up doing it? How do you just eyeball that and you can get the color exactly right?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:05:49]:

Well, from the beginning process, I know when. When you first set in and we first did your measurements. What we do is we have a selection of colors that we use, ultimately, to help blend it with your color. So a combination of those colors, we come together and we create what’s going to be your hair now with time, of course, as you remember, we’ve just added a little bit more gray into your own hair. It’s just me paying attention to the things that are going on with your hair and paying attention and adding those little things that we need to customize it because we always want it to be flawless.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:06:22]:

Cause that was one of the things that I always noticed with hair systems from back in the day when I was a kid, is you would have an older guy, and he’d have gray hair on the side, and he’d have a jet black top.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:06:32]:

Oh, yeah.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:06:33]:

It looked like he was just putting on a hair cap. And it looks so fake. And that’s the difference, to me, of the old hair systems to what you have now. It’s completely seamless. It is cut to fit the sides, and it goes right up all the way through the top.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:06:46]:

Absolutely. We’ve broken the molds. When you think about those old heads of hair and, you know, rest in peace, I talk about Burt Reynolds. He started to look good a little bit later on, but his hair was very heavy and thick. And those are your old style toupee is that came along in the beginning of time, and we’ve broken all those barriers, and all we’ve done with time is just created something that’s going to be thinner to match and blend with. Your own hair flawlessly. It’s amazing.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:07:19]:

The way that Rachel colors and styles my hair. To look completely natural and to perfectly match the existing hair I have still blows my mind. This is the extra challenge of working with a hair system. Everyone’s hair loss is a little different. The amount of hair loss, the textures, the colors, and each client’s goals for a hair system are unique to each client. When you factor in just how emotional hair loss can be for people, you start to get a sense the special combination of skill and compassion these stylists need to have.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:07:57]:

You always want to build a good rapport, a good relationship, and make sure that your clients are very comfortable with what they’re doing. This is a very emotional process for everybody involved, so it’s always my job to make somebody feel as much at ease as possible. The entire time that we are doing this process, I always make sure that I explain everything that I’m doing so that I’m not leaving my client behind at all. And those usually are the steps before we start cutting their hair. I always make sure I explain what we’re doing today as we’re doing the hair, and we’re doing all of our process. I’m explaining everything to them as we’re going along.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:08:35]:

If you had a client that was a little bit more self conscious, and they don’t want the whole world to know that they have gone from not a lot of hair to a hair system, is there a way to gradually ease that person into society so that they don’t have the self consciousness that they might otherwise have?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:08:54]:

Absolutely. We’ve created these. It’s funny because at one point, we called them graduals, which is what they were, and realistically, what it is. It’s hair that we have added into their own growing hair, the exception of it being very finer and thinner and even a smaller area, so that as they start going on and on, we can start increasing as we go.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:09:16]:

Wow. And what would that go like? If somebody has, say, 60% to 70% hair loss, how do you walk them through? And then how long of a process would you recommend before they finally go with a full head of hair and a hair system?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:09:29]:

We always want to make sure that it’s at their comfort level realistically, but we’ll make a suggestion on kind of where to start, and usually that’s where I have that input with my client. Hey, tell me, where do you think you want to add that hair first? And as we go along the lines, hey, are you ready for a little bit more hair? Or even that client will come to me and be like, hey, you know what, Rachel? I think I’m ready to add just a little bit more hair. And can we do that for the next time? Absolutely.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:09:59]:

I love that there are so many more options available now and that I can feel confident knowing that if I start needing more hair, it’s going to be a smooth and easy process. To add that in, we talk a lot on the show about barriers to seeking a solution for hair loss. It seems that hair systems specifically are often a solution people shy away from because theyre worried that its going to look obvious or they might face some social scrutiny. Even if it does look natural. When you first journey into an unknown territory, trying anything new is always a little scary. People often really dont understand how hair systems work, and the only frame of reference that they have are those old toupees that we mentioned earlier. The reality is the science behind hair systems has advanced. The hair is better, the adhesives are better, and they are totally customizable, not only for people’s hair loss and hair types, but also for their lifestyle.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:10:59]:

Well, let’s talk about you now. So, Kevin, you have a smaller head of hair, which is nice. You have, for the most part, most of your own growing hair. So realistically, all we’re doing is we’re covering your areas that are thinner. When I do the liquid adhesives, liquid adhesives depend on activity level. And, you know, what anybody does on any given day, what we’ve chosen for you is something a little bit lighter. And depending on how we put it on, it can either be perimeter, which is only around the edges, or we can do all the way full and cover the whole head with adhesive.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:11:31]:

And what is the difference? Lets say, for instance, my activity level. Im somebody likes to go to the gym three to five days a week. What kind of adhesive level do I need to get?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:11:41]:

Well, when youre, if youre that heavy, you work out, youre a heavy sweater. Typically, we go with something just a little bit stronger, because ultimately, we want to make sure that your hair is holding on for as long as possible. So anywhere between that four week timeline is really what were looking for before we have to make any changes to the hair. So realistically, we would go with something a little bit stronger, depending on activity level. If your scalp has a tendency to be a little bit drier and you hold really well, then we’ll use something a little bit lighter.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:12:11]:

Evan, and tell me a little bit about maintenance. What would you recommend when somebody has a hair system, how does it compare to having real hair that they used to have and what the treatment cycles are like and how do you keep it looking as good as it possibly can?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:12:25]:

We always say our middle of the road maintenance is always right around your one month timeline, because, remember, most of the time when our clients are coming in, their own hair is growing as well. So what we want to do is we want to make sure that we’re achieving a really nice, consistent look as far as growth is concerned. So we always want to make sure that we get them in at a minimum, or, you know, just get them in and have their hair cut and make sure that their hair is always looking good. So minimally, you’re looking at about a month timeline.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:12:55]:

Okay? About a month in between visits. And when I come in for a visit to see you, tell me about what we’re going to be doing each time. Because when I come see you, it’s not every single time that I get a new hair system.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:13:06]:

Now, sometimes when you’re coming in, we call it reversing the process. So the hair that we’ve added on to you, we actually remove the hair. And then what we do is I’ll give you your haircut, I’ll cut and blend your style into however you want it, and then I will leave the room with your lovely head of hair, and I will walk around and I will clean it up for you and get it nice and ready. Any colors that we need to add, if I need to tone it. If maybe you were on the sun for a little bit or on the boat and your hair turned a little bit lighter, we tone it out, make sure the hair looks good when you come back in, and then I put it back on for you.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:13:42]:

So tell me a little bit about care and maintenance. How often am I having to wash my hair? Do I use conditioner? What is it like with styling? Are there any differences in having real human hair? When I have a hair system?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:13:53]:

Absolutely. When you’re going the human hair route, I always like to explain to people that it is just like having your own natural growing hair. You have to wash it, you have to condition it. Conditioning is especially big with our hair because the hair that we’re adding for you does not have any natural moisture to it. So you are having to put in what it is lacking. So you want to wash it and style it like you normally would your hair. When you wake up in the morning, your hair is going to look crazy. It’s going to look messy, and it’s your job to wake up in the morning and use the proper products to style the hair.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:14:27]:

And what is that typically? Just a brush comb. Just like any old head of hair.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:14:31]:

Is what you’re using for most people, yeah. Like in your case, your hair is short, so you want to just put a little brush to it, put a little styling. If you want to blow dry it, absolutely. You can. If you don’t want to. That’s completely up to you. I have some of my clients, they love to blow dry their hair and then put a little product. Some people don’t need a little bit.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:14:49]:

Just a little bit and add a little taffy.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:14:51]:

Doctor Justin. Yeah. The one thing I’ve noticed that’s so amazing is when you do have a hair system, it is exactly just like having the old head of hair that you grew up with. There’s really no difference. You clean it the same way about the same time, you styled the same way, use the exact same products. It really is the exact same thing. But tell me about getting to know your clients. And for me, a client myself, getting to know your hairdresser, what seems to help for me and the reason why I love coming to you? One, you’re fantastic with my hair.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:15:20]:

I believe I’ve got the best hairstylist on the planet, but you know a lot of things about the person’s, their skin, for instance. One thing for me is you seem to identify pretty quickly, and you helped me figure out that my skin gets dry pretty quick. And I assume every client you have, it’s going to be different. And having a great hairstylist is somebody that’s going to help you understand. Because I was getting some red spots, there was some irritation that was going on, and I think it took a little bit of time before we found a sweet spot, at least for me, for maintenance on exactly how frequently to wash my hair and how to wash it. Do you notice that with every single client that everybody is kind of different and you have to design specific instructions for different people?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:16:05]:

Absolutely. It’s always my job to pay attention, especially to the skin. And I kind of look at it in a way. When you’re putting on adhesives on somebody’s hair or any kind of liquid polymers that we’re using, you want to make sure that you’re paying attention to the scalp. So I’m going to. I’m going to look for any little signs of maybe dryness or redness, any mild irritations. Because what that tells me right away is that there’s something that we need to change, paying attention to those things, make sure that our clients don’t have any issues going forward with their hair. So, yes, I pay attention to the scalp.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:16:39]:

I’m looking at it. I’m making sure that your scalp is always looking good. And if it’s not, maybe looking its best. There’s something that we can always change.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:16:47]:

So this is quite a revolutionary thing where I think a lot of people don’t even fully understand what it is like to get a hair system. We’ve talked about when the person sits down and when you first begin, but I if nobody’s ever seen the process, it truly is amazing. And I can tell you the perspective of being a client. The first time I ever sat down to get a hair system, it is a little unnerving because the first thing that happens is I lost the hair on top of my head. We decided to take it all off. Now, do you have the option to leave some of the hair that you have on top of your head? If you want? And what do you think is better to go all the way and remove all the natural hair that you have to put your system on, or is it good to have a little bit of both?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:17:28]:

I mean, in my opinion, if you’re asking me, I will always tell you to trim off what you have on top for the simple fact that it just makes it easier for the process to adhere, for it to go smoothly. Now, you absolutely have the option not to. I will always talk to you about those options before we get started, and then we’ll decide on the best solution. I will always give my recommendation and be like, hey, listen, it’s going to keep growing back. No one’s going to see it. Let’s just put the hair on. Let’s take it off. That’s the best way to go.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:18:00]:

So, to me, you talk about the first day that you go in to get a hair system. You are building a level of trust, because what hair you do have, it goes bye bye. And you take it off and you’re sitting there and you’ve got that toilet bowl seat looking hair that is kind of going around like the doctor Phil. And at that point, you’re like, oh, man, have I just made the biggest mistake of my life? I could not go out into public looking like this. And then all of a sudden, you come in with the hair system, you put the adhesive on, it goes on. And then now you’ve got this long, gangly hair, and then you’re like, okay, well, I have hair, but now it’s just so unruly and so crazy. And then what happens next is the wizardry. It is the masterful part of seeing just how you craft that hair that, like I had said, is down around my ears.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:18:45]:

And then the next thing you know, it is a short, stylish haircut where the front bangs are flat. I flipped up, and it is revolutionary what it does in just that hours time and sitting in the chair and transformative for anybody in there, I will tell you. To me, I feel like it takes ten to 15 years off of your look. And I know my first reaction was just disbelief. I was so thrilled. I was stunned. I couldn’t believe I was seeing what I saw in the mirror. Have you gotten emotional reactions from people for the first time? They ever got a hair system that sat there and you saw the fear in their eyes to the transformation you gave them?

 

Rachel Rivera [00:19:23]:

100%. It is always the most. Again, it’s so emotional. When you first get started and you’re getting your hair for the first time, I always relate it. We’re giving you something back that you haven’t had in years. So for some people, you know, they’re seeing hair in the front of their hairline that they’ve never seen before, and it’s something amazing. So you see them and they look in the mirror, and we’re going over this process, and it’s. It’s funny that you say that because I always explain to people, I’m like, we’re going to go through three different looks here.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:19:54]:

You’re going to go from how you look now. You’re going to go to the monk look, because after we’ve shaved your hair down, before we place it, it’s going to look different, and then you’re going to look like a rock star before we cut in your style. So they are very well aware of all of that going in. And then when they see themselves in the mirror, it’s really such a life changing experience. I can’t explain it when I see it for the first time. It’s amazing. For me, this is why I love what I do. And then at the same time, when they’re looking at themselves in the mirror, it is literally you’re taking off a minimum of ten years off of somebody’s life.

 

Rachel Rivera [00:20:31]:

Yeah, they look so much better.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:20:36]:

It was really fun to get to talk with Rachel about all this. I’m sure you’ve gathered I am a very big fan of hers. I’m a big fan of hair systems and the stylists who help people like me look good in them are heroes. Having a hair system has helped me to feel like myself again, and the guidance and care that I receive from stylists like Rachel were monumental. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search Hairpot on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, wed love it if youd share it with them. If youre enjoying the show, make sure to subscribe and consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:21:19]:

We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. we are here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review, and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time. It.


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Hair Loss Solutions for Active Lifestyles

Hair Loss Solutions for Active Lifestyles

by | Jul 9, 2024 | Episode

Episode 20

Hair Loss Solutions for Active Lifestyles

Tyler-morehead-active lifestyle - episode 20 header

 

In this episode of HairPod, outdoor enthusiast and former model Tyler Morehead shares his experience with hair loss and non-surgical hair loss solutions. Tyler expresses his original aversion to hair systems. We discuss the stigma and misconceptions that can get in the way of finding a solution and the things that helped open him up to new hair loss options. Tyler and Kevin discuss how their hair systems have come to feel like a part of them. Tyler shares some of the things he has put his hair system through as an active person with a love for outdoor adventures. The conversation highlights how finding the right solution can help you get your lifestyle back.

 

The Stigma of Hair Loss, Hair Loss Solutions and Hair Systems

Tyler had an accident early on that left him with a large scar on his head, as he started losing hair in his twenties the scar became more exposed, adding to the feelings of frustration and insecurity that are so common with hair loss. Tyler like so many others was not ready to embrace a hair system, and in many ways wanted to avoid the reality of his hair loss for as long as possible. He related balding to being old, and hair systems to his grandfather. Tyler saw hair loss as a barrier that would keep him from living his life the way he wanted. We discuss how even though things like hair extensions and permanent makeup have become very acceptable, especially for women, there is still a lasting stigma around hair loss and hair loss solutions. These norms and stigmas can limit the options we see for ourselves.

 

Hair Balding Treatments For Active Lifestyles

Beyond just the stigma Tyler discusses other things that kept him from trying a hair system or seeking solutions. He recalls his grandfather’s hairpiece, and how it would come on or off for different activities or events. Tyler did not want to live like that. Of course, hair pieces fifty years ago are not what they are today.  When Tyler finally decided to try a hair system after some encouragement from his mother, he was relieved to discover how much the technology had changed. He looked and felt like himself again, he finally had his hair back. Tyler shares how it has felt to embrace his his active lifestyle with full confidence that his hair system can keep up with him rain or shine.

 

Regaining Confidence with Hair Restoration

Tyler was beyond satisfied with his hair system and wished he had tried it sooner. He encourages listeners to seek advice early on and most importantly, be open-minded. It is important to note that there are a lot of different options. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for hair loss. Everyone is on their own journey. Talking with someone who can help you find the right fit for you can be a game-changer, restoring your confidence and helping you live your life to the fullest.

 

 

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.20 Transcript

Tyler Morehead [00:00:04]:

From the day I went in there, if anybody asked me, and I’ve had people ask me, at first I did not want to do it, and I was really against it. I just thought that was one of the most ridiculous things in the world to think about doing. But the minute I got it on, I realized what it did, too. And since then, it’s just become such a non issue for me. I mean, I wish I’d have known about it ten years earlier. It would have saved me so much time and hassle and money.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:00:41]:

Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Rolston, and each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. In this episode of Hairpod, I talk with outdoor enthusiast and former hair club model Tyler Moorhead about his experience with hair loss and non surgical hair loss solutions. Tyler expresses his original aversion to hair systems. We discussed the stigma and the misconceptions that can get in the way of finding a solution, as well as the things that helped open him up to new hair loss options. Tyler’s story begins with an accident when he was 13 years old that left a large scar on his head, something he didn’t worry about until he started losing his hair in his twenties.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:01:40]:

Well, the scar is pretty big. It goes from about my eyebrow on my left side all the way to the back of my head. But it was a farm accident we had during wheat harvest. It was right after the 4 July, and we were moving equipment from one, what we call strips, where we farm the wheat from one strip to the next. And I was on my way home with a buddy of mine who had gone up to help, you know, do it. And on the way home, we lost control, or I lost control of the truck. And, yeah, that was. That was how it all started.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:02:09]:

It wasn’t, I guess, not a good situation, according to my parents, but I, you know, by the grace of God, it all came together.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:02:16]:

Yeah. So survived. That’s a scar that people usually always ask me.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:02:20]:

They’re like, wait a minute, you were 13. How are you doing this? Well, out there, we were able to get. You could get what’s called a farm husbandry permit at the time. So you were allowed to drive farm equipment on the farm, and that’s what kind of made it okay. But, you know, it’s still a 13 year old kid out driving a farm truck because, you know, in most cases, today doesn’t sound too realistic. But, you know, back in the eighties, I guess that wasn’t as big a deal.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:02:44]:

Yeah, that’s one thing I discovered. I think farm people have their own rules, so it’s just, life’s a little different on the farm.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:02:50]:

It tends to be sometimes, yeah.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:02:53]:

So you have a scar on your head, but in your teens it’s not really a big deal because you had hair to cover it up. Right, right.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:03:00]:

Yeah. It wasn’t a problem until I got to about college and it even wasn’t even a problem then. But just as my hair started thinning out a little bit more and more, I could see it. And, you know, it’s kind of funny. I always make the joke, like, during the summer it’s red, and during the winter it’s purple. That’s just kind of how it looks, meaning the scar. So the more as time went on, you know, you could just see it all the time.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:03:21]:

Okay.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:03:22]:

Some kind of huge deal. But, you know, we all get self conscious about stuff like that, and that was just one of those things for me.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:03:28]:

Yeah. You said in your twenties about what age? And how did you first notice that you were losing your hair?

 

Tyler Morehead [00:03:35]:

I think I kind of started noticing somewhere around, it was early twenties, say maybe somewhere around 23, 24. I was living in New York at the time, in New York City, and I just started noticing hair on the bottom of the shower when I got done, you know, showering. At first I didn’t really think that much of it, but it seemed like it was just getting more and more. So it took a little while for me to physically notice that was happening. But, yeah, it just kind of crept in one night and that’s what it was.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:04:04]:

What age were you when you finally tried to do something about it? What were the first steps you took?

 

Tyler Morehead [00:04:09]:

Let’s see, what would I have been, about 30? I was in my mid thirties at that point. And, you know, I lived in, worked in La, I was. Filmmaking is really was what I wanted to do. And so I’d go on these sets and I had hair and makeup artists that would always say, oh, you should try this stuff. And there’s all kinds of little things you can put in your hair to make it look a little thicker. I was doing them all, you know, I was trying them all, but I think by the time I hit my mid thirties, I kind of started getting tired of doing that, and it just seemed to be getting a little bit harder and harder to do that, too. And, you know, I have to credit my mom on that one. One day she said, hey, you know, why don’t you check out no hair club or Bosley or one of those things and see what they can do? And that’s kind of what kick started it.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:04:50]:

Okay.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:04:51]:

Was just her saying that.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:04:56]:

Hair loss is hard enough without dealing with the exposure of a scar or the pressures of the film industry. Denial is a common response in the early stages of hair loss, and sometimes a little extra push is helpful. Fortunately, Tyler was able to get some direction from his mother. But this was just the beginning. Ultimately, it’s up to the individual to take action. Finding the right solution is a process. It is emotional, and, look, it’s hard to decide on a solution for a problem you never wanted in the first place. Tyler shares a bit about his initial experience seeking guidance.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:05:34]:

The first thing that they had recommended to me was a hair transplant. And just based on what they were telling me, I decided that I did not want to do that. It just didn’t seem to be something that I was that interested in, so. And I really wasn’t. Like, when I first went in, I really didn’t want to be there in the first place. Kind of that denial or something, you know, but I really didn’t want to be there, you know, I was kind of doing it not to appease my mom, but she had recommended. It was a great idea, so I wanted to not let her down in that way, I suppose, but, yeah. So when they told me the hair transplant, I just immediately decided that that was something I didn’t want to do.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:06:10]:

When I told them that then they had recommended the non surgical procedure that you can do and they explained what that was, and I didn’t want to do that either. So I left there. I just thought, yeah, no, this isn’t for me. It’s just what it is. I’m just going to have to live with. It was my initial, and I think a couple of days later, you know, I was talking to my mom on the phone. She asked how everything went. I told her I just wasn’t interested.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:06:34]:

And the idea being was, you know, well, why don’t you go try it? You don’t know until you try it. If you don’t like it, just go back to normal. But if you do, then great, you got a problem fixed.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:06:44]:

Yeah.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:06:44]:

So that once again, you know, she kind of changed my mind on that one. But I did go back in and try it. Of course, I haven’t regretted it sense.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:06:53]:

Tell me a little bit about how.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:06:54]:

You felt when you first got it. Because I have a hair system myself, and my first look, it was life changing. It was pretty legitimate. So tell me about your reaction. The first thing you thought when you saw yourself now all of a sudden struggling to have any hair, and now you got a full head of hair. What was that like for you?

 

Tyler Morehead [00:07:15]:

You know, it sounds so cliche, but I I really remember that, that moment vividly, actually, because initially, you know, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I saved the picture. They took a picture of me before and one right after, but I’ll never forget. They didn’t let me look in the mirror until it was done. They said, don’t do it. Just let us do what we need to do. You look at it when you’re done, and if you want to keep it, you’re good. But when they wheeled me around in the chair and they swung it around and I saw myself in the mirror, I made the joke to myself, and this is a farm kid thing. Like, we don’t speak up too much about much, but I remember thinking to myself, oh, there’s that guy.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:07:53]:

I haven’t seen him in forever. And it was just a really great feeling. And when I left there, I’ll never forget, too. I had a big dog at the time. I had an Akita. She had been in the house all day long. So when I got done at hair club that day, I went home to walk her, to let her out and let her do her thing. And I remember walking her, you know, around the area where I lived, and it just felt great.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:08:16]:

I didn’t have to wear a hat. I didn’t have to worry about all the hair junk in my hair. I mean, it was just one of the most amazing things. I just. To this day, I still remember how it feels.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:08:25]:

You used to do some modeling, too, is that right?

 

Tyler Morehead [00:08:28]:

I did. That was back in my younger years, when I still had my good looks or whatever looks I did have.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:08:35]:

So when you see yourself, you’re in an industry where, you know, everything is your image and your appearance. Did you feel a little bit of that same kind of confidence you used to have as the younger model, Tyler?

 

Tyler Morehead [00:08:48]:

Honestly? Yeah, I had it all. I mean, I had all that confidence back. I mean, it was pretty wild, you know? And at the same time, there was always a little bit of trepidation, too, because I knew what I had done, and I always wondered how many other people knew. And, you know, I think going back to what you said earlier, fewer people, I think, have recognized it or seen it or even asked me about it.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:09:10]:

Yeah.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:09:10]:

Then I thought everybody would know that I did. And as it turns out, I guess, you know, people don’t look at your hair that closely or something. I don’t know, but they just never, I’ve been asked very few times.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:09:21]:

Yeah, I think it really does just blend in so well, first of all, and my other question for you is, you talk about other people noticing, but what about you noticing it? Is it often that you have that thought, how do you feel with it on? Is it something that’s always on your mind that, oh, I’ve got a hair system on, and this is someone else’s hair that I’ve got on my head, or is it something that kind of blends in and feels more a part of you?

 

Tyler Morehead [00:09:45]:

Definitely the second, I think when I first got it. Yeah, I would think that more often than I do now, obviously. But, yeah, after a few weeks of having it or a couple of months of having it even, I didn’t even think about that anymore. Those first couple of days. I knew it was there. And, you know, it’s new and you’re, it’s new to your body and you kind of can sense everything about it. But that went away after a couple of days for sure. And nowadays I don’t even think about it anymore and I don’t even really notice it anymore either.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:10:13]:

I just. It’s become such a natural part of life.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:10:21]:

Hyler decided to set aside his fears and take a leap. This is pretty inspirational, especially considering the positive impact it had on his life. Its interesting to hear peoples first impressions of themselves after getting a hair system. Its normal to be concerned about what other people might think. But as Tyler points out, most of this is in vain. People often take us as we come. It turns out we are our own biggest critics. It seems both Tyler and I share the same sentiment, that the longer we have our hair systems, the more they become a part of us and the more faith we have in them to withstand all of our adventures and activities.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:11:02]:

My wife and I are very active with just about everything. We live near the beach and we love cruises, we love the beach life, surfing. I mean, everything that I used to do, I still do. And, yeah, we’ve come back on nothing, and I don’t remember that. It’s the second part of your question, but it was the same thing. I’ve come back on nothing.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:11:20]:

Yeah, it’s just basically about the awareness, and that’s the one thing that a lot of people can’t believe. When I first got my hair system, I did a series of videos wherever I, I just put it, the test, and I was standing in it upright in a jeep that was kind of going down the road. And we hit, you know, pretty good pace, and the hair was fine and it was holding on. They even had a, here in south Florida, they had a hurricane simulator at the science museum. And I went in there and you could stand it and feel the winds. And I put it to the test and cranked that thing up to a cat three, and, you know, it held on. Look, I mean, if your hair can hold on in category three, you’re good. You know, the water skiing and swimming and biking and mountain climbing, whatever you want to do, there’s really no limitations to it.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:12:01]:

And that’s how I, you know, answer that question to a lot of people. So it’s great to hear that you feel the same way.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:12:07]:

Yeah. You know, your second part of your question, I did think about it. We put it through a lot, just like you have, or I’ve put it through a lot. And when you said that about the cat three hurricane, that’s awesome. I love that story. But when my wife and I first met, I took her on a trip to Cabo, Mexico. My family was going down there. I remember we were out in the water that day and there was a storm or something, but I got rocked with, like, a five foot wave that crashed right on top of me.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:12:33]:

I did not see it coming. And I can remember my face and head and everything getting planted in the sand. I mean, it rolled me pretty good. And I remember coming up, you know, from, from the depths and thinking to myself, I better check to make sure the hair is still on there. Yeah, it was fun. I mean, I came up with my hand on my head, trying to make.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:12:51]:

Sure that it was there.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:12:52]:

Yeah, it was there. It was fine the whole time. Not one issue. Yeah, I think you can put them through quite a bit.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:12:59]:

Yeah. Oh, you definitely can. And, yeah, when you have a moment like that, then, you know, you build up trust with your hair and you realize how much of a part of you it becomes. Now, you mentioned that you’re married, so when you met your wife, is this with a hair system? When you met her, it was. It was okay. And how does that go now? Right away? Are you open and honest about her, or does it take time when you realize that she loves you for who you are before you say, hey, by the way, I wear a hair system.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:13:27]:

You know, it’s funny, that’s become kind of a big story, really, for both her and I, technically, but even more so with hair club, because this is not the first interview I’ve been asked that question, and I’ve answered it the same way. But when we first met, I think we were out on our. The first date was, you know, as a story in itself, but the second date, we were sitting down at dinner and I decided, I thought, well, I was new to having the hairdouse, but I wanted her to know. I thought, well, if this is going to be an issue, we might as well get this out of the way now. And I told her, I said, hey, something you should know, you know, I told her about the hair and she goes, oh, that’s cool. I’ve got extensions in. And that was the end of the story. It’s never been an issue since.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:14:03]:

We’re like, well, I guess that’s. She’s definitely a keeper.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:14:12]:

What a sweet story. You know, it raises a good point. People are always working on their appearance and should be free to do so. Whatever makes us feel more confident, right? We do view hair systems differently than hair extensions, lash extensions, or other forms of personal style and expression. It is unfortunate how societal norms and stigmas can limit the options we see for ourselves. Tyler talks about his journey from resistance to finally trying out a hair system.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:14:44]:

From the day I went in there, if anybody asked me, and I’ve had people ask me, at first, I did not want to do it, and I was really against it. I just thought that was one of the most ridiculous things in the world to think about doing. But the minute I got it on, I realized what it did, too. And since then, it’s just become such a non issue for me. I mean, I wish I’d have known about it ten years earlier. It would have saved me so much time and hassle and money. I mean, the thousands of dollars I spent on all this other stuff that didn’t work for me personally. And I just thought, man, if I had just done that ten years earlier, it would have been so much easier and so much less stressful.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:15:19]:

I tried a lot of things that weren’t right for me. It wasn’t the right solution, but it cost me a ton of money. And if I could have gone right to the solution that I needed, which was the hair system, it would have been better. Tell me about your journey a bit and some of those things so that if you were talking to that Tyler ten years prior, what are the things you learned, what are the shortcuts you could have taken? What are the things that you tried that did not work for you that would have saved you some money? What were some of those things specifically?

 

Tyler Morehead [00:15:50]:

Oh, my gosh. Well, I can honestly, I can just say I tried everything. There was nothing that I didn’t try. Whether it was the clinically stuff, the stuff that you go to the doctor get the prescriptions for, all the way to the hair, laser treatments to the shampoo. I mean, you name it, I tried it for sure.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:16:07]:

Yeah.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:16:07]:

But I think just for me, you know, to kind of more on. Answer your question, I grew up in the eighties. That was kind of my childhood. My grandpa was. He had lost all of his hair. He had three brothers. He had five brothers, so half of them had full heads of hair. The other half did not.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:16:24]:

My grandpa was one that did not. But he had a toupee, and I can remember as a kid him wearing that when the family would go down at night for dinner, and then he would not wear it during the day. He’d wear out. On the farm, you just wear a cap all day, perhaps. So. I always equated everything with hair, whether it was transplant or the systems that you and I both have. I always equated it to what my grandpa used or wore, and that was, I think, my biggest deterrent to say, yeah, I don’t want to do that. Like, I’m not gonna.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:16:53]:

Not that I had anything against my grandpa, obviously. I love that guy.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:16:56]:

Yeah.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:16:56]:

You know, I just didn’t want to, especially my thirties, be equipped to my grandpa. I was like, nope, not ready for that yet. Yeah, maybe one day, but not today. And that’s really. That was my biggest mental challenge with it all. And that’s just the thing. I’m like, we get these ideas in our head that limit us from so much more stuff that we probably could actually do. And this was one of those things for me.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:17:18]:

Yeah.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:17:18]:

I think that through trying all that other stuff, it was just that denials of just saying, go try it. I mean, check it out, at least research and find out if it’s something that would work where I just didn’t want to do that. That wasn’t even a conversation for me. I’m like, nope, I don’t want to have it. My cousin, he knew that I was getting there, and. And he had considered it. I think he’s still considering doing it, but he has said that to me before, too. He’s like, dude, I just can’t believe you probably look ten years younger than you did before.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:17:44]:

Yeah.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:17:44]:

So to me, I mean, age has never been that big of a deal to me either way, but, yeah, to hear that kind of stuff, it’s pretty nice, actually, so I’ll take it. I’ll put that in the bank. Mandy, I hear you.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:17:57]:

Anymore, when you get a compliment, you got to take it. You got to run with it.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:18:00]:

Exactly. One day, I’ll really appreciate those compliments. Granted, I still get them.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:18:08]:

You living in south Florida, talk to me about the heat with your hair system. Does it feel hotter than having a natural head of hair?

 

Tyler Morehead [00:18:16]:

Honestly, I don’t think I could tell the difference one way or the other. No. I think some days, especially with the humidity, when it gets really hot, you know, you know, we get the nineties, and it’s 100% humidity out there. There are oftentimes I kind of feel like, oh, man, what’s this thing going to do? Or what’s this hair going to do? But, yeah, it’s pretty much always the same.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:18:34]:

Yeah, I tell people that because people will ask, yeah, no, it’s. To me, it’s. There’s no temperature difference. It’s amazing how much the hair system really breathes, that it feels exactly like a regular head of hair. And if I had to say, if there’s any annoyance that, you know, comes with having a hair system is the curse of having hair, is you have to fix your hair. But, oh, wow. You know? So that, to me, is the thing. It’s having real human hair on your head that, yeah, you gotta put a little bit more time in it.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:18:59]:

It’s not as quick as being completely bald. So if there’s any kind of attraction to it whatsoever. But you know what? That is a curse I am thankful to have every single day. I’ve got to fix my hair. Oh, wow.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:19:11]:

I have to comb it. Yeah, that was another first thing out when I first got the head hair. I remember waking up the next morning. I didn’t even have a comb. I had a couple brushes, but I’m like, I didn’t really have anything to actually comb it, so I had to make it to the store. But back to your point. Yeah. That’s about the only downside to having hair.

 

Tyler Morehead [00:19:28]:

You actually have to comb it.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:19:34]:

It was really refreshing to have such an open conversation with Tyler about his journey with hair loss. Personally, I related so much to what he had to say. It was also nice as a reminder that sometimes the answer were looking for is the one we are most resistant to. Being open minded is key. Its essential to emphasize that while Taylor is delighted with his hair system, it may not be the ideal hair loss solution for everyone. There are numerous options available, and just because Tyler didnt have success with laser therapies or other treatments doesnt mean that those options dont work great for you. Thats why at hairpod, we strongly encourage our audience to seek professional guidance. Discovering the right solution can help you regain your confidence and live life to the fullest.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:20:22]:

I hope my conversation with Tyler has been encouraging. If youd like to hear more stories about hair loss, make sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpot. Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search harepod on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, wed love it if youd share with them. If youre enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com.

 Kevin Rolston [00:20:56]:

were here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review, and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time.

 

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What It Means to Live With Alopecia Areata

What It Means to Live With Alopecia Areata

by | Jul 2, 2024 | Episode

Episode 19

Living with Alopecia Areata: What I Have Learned

Ep. 17 Living with Alopecia with Claire Fullam

 

In this episode, we hear from returning guest Claire Fullam, who has lived with alopecia areata for over eight years. Through her personal experience with hair loss and work as a trichologist, Claire has found that while alopecia areata cannot be cured and is often unpredictable, there are still many ways to manage it and live a happy, fulfilling life. Claire stresses the importance of self-care, community, and professional guidance and shares her insights, tips, and resources.

 

Hair Loss, Autoimmune Conditions, & Stress

Hair loss can significantly impact our emotional well-being, and conversely, our emotional state can influence hair loss. Like many autoimmune conditions, alopecia areata can be triggered by stress. Claire’s journey with alopecia areata has taught her that managing this condition involves much more than just applying topical treatments or taking medications. She has learned to closely monitor her body’s signals, such as the appearance of bald patches, and to respond swiftly to these early warning signs.

Claire’s approach involves having a comprehensive plan for scalp and hair maintenance. This plan helps her feel more in control of her condition, allowing her to manage flare-ups more effectively. By taking prompt action when she notices the first signs of hair loss, Claire has been able to mitigate some of the unpredictability associated with alopecia areata.

 

Beyond Hair Loss Therapy: The Role of Self-Care and Stress Management

Alopecia areata affects more than just the physical body, and external treatments alone are not sufficient to address the condition. Living with alopecia requires a high level of stress management and self-care. Claire has observed that many people with this form of alopecia tend to have similar personality traits—they are often very giving, tend to internalize their feelings, and prioritize the needs of others over their own.

In managing her condition, Claire has learned valuable lessons about setting boundaries and managing stress. She emphasizes that understanding and addressing these personality traits are crucial for effectively managing alopecia areata. For Claire, this self-awareness has been a key factor in her ability to cope with her condition and maintain her overall well-being.

 

The Emotional Toll of Hair Loss & the Power of Community

Hair loss can be a devastating experience, affecting one’s self-confidence and emotional health. Claire talks about the serious emotional repercussions of hair loss, highlighting the profound impact it can have on an individual’s life. She underscores the importance of community support in dealing with these challenges.

Feeling isolated and terrified by hair loss is a common experience, regardless of age or gender. Claire encourages listeners to share their stories and emotions openly. She believes that educating oneself about alopecia areata and exploring different options for managing the condition can empower individuals to take control of their situation.

 

Building a Supportive Community

Finding a supportive community is crucial for those dealing with alopecia areata. Claire advises listeners to seek out groups and forums where they can connect with others who understand what they are going through. These communities can provide invaluable emotional support, practical advice, and a sense of belonging.

Claire’s own experience with community has been transformative. She shares that connecting with others who have similar experiences has helped her feel less alone and more understood. This sense of community has been a vital part of her journey, providing her with strength and resilience in the face of her condition.

 

Professional Guidance & Resources

In addition to community support, professional guidance is essential for managing alopecia areata. Claire emphasizes the importance of consulting with healthcare professionals who specialize in hair loss and autoimmune conditions. Trichologists, dermatologists, and other specialists can provide tailored advice and treatment plans that address the specific needs of individuals with alopecia areata.

Claire also highlights the importance of staying informed about the latest research and treatments. She encourages listeners to explore various resources, including books, articles, and online forums, to stay updated on new developments in the field. By staying informed, individuals can make more educated decisions about their care and treatment options.

 

Practical Tips for Managing Alopecia Areata

Claire shares several practical tips for managing alopecia areata and maintaining a positive outlook. One key strategy is to develop a consistent hair care routine that includes gentle cleansing, moisturizing, and scalp care. This routine can help maintain the health of the scalp and hair, potentially reducing the severity of flare-ups.

Another important aspect of managing alopecia areata is stress reduction. Claire recommends incorporating stress-relief techniques into daily life, such as mindfulness meditation, yoga, and deep-breathing exercises. These practices can help reduce overall stress levels, which may in turn help minimize hair loss.

Diet and nutrition also play a role in managing alopecia areata. Claire suggests adopting a balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals that support hair health. Foods high in antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, and biotin can be particularly beneficial. In some cases, dietary supplements may be recommended to ensure adequate intake of these essential nutrients.

 

 

Embracing a Positive Mindset

Living with alopecia areata can be challenging, but Claire believes that maintaining a positive mindset is crucial. She encourages individuals to focus on the aspects of their lives that bring them joy and fulfillment, rather than dwelling on their hair loss. Engaging in hobbies, spending time with loved ones, and pursuing personal goals can help shift the focus away from alopecia and foster a more positive outlook.

Claire also advocates for self-compassion and acceptance. She reminds listeners that it is okay to have difficult days and that it is important to be kind to themselves. By practicing self-compassion, individuals can build resilience and better cope with the ups and downs of living with alopecia areata.

In summary, Claire Fullam’s insights and experiences provide valuable guidance for those living with alopecia areata. Her emphasis on self-care, community support, and professional guidance offers a holistic approach to managing the condition. By sharing her journey, Claire hopes to empower others to take control of their own health and well-being, and to find happiness and fulfillment despite the challenges of alopecia areata.

Listeners are encouraged to apply Claire’s tips and resources, seek out supportive communities, and maintain a positive mindset. While alopecia areata may be incurable and unpredictable, it is possible to manage the condition and lead a happy, fulfilling life.

 

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.19 Transcript
Claire Fullam [00:00:04]:
You really have to dig deep and really care about yourself again because there’s some parts of you who’s let that go along. That way, maybe you’re bottom of the pile. You’re not looking after yourself a little bit. This is a whisper from your body to you to try and get you back on track again. You are as entitled to be here with hair or no hair. So try and give yourself that to care about yourself enough, because if you stay down too long, it’s really, really hard to kick the bank of the river and kind of swim back up for breath.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:49]:
Welcome to HairPod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Rolston, and each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. In this episode, I spoke with returning guest Claire Fullam, who began her hair loss journey over eight years ago. Claire and I previously discussed how her struggle with hair loss had led to addiction recovery and self discovery, inspiring Claire to create her Internet Persona “Claire Balding”, and to pursue a career in trichology. Claire has returned to HairPod to share her insights on living with alopecia areata through her own personal experience with hair loss and work as a trichologist. Claire has discovered that alopecia areata cannot be resolved solely through external approaches, but must also be addressed on an emotional level. She emphasizes the importance of self-care, finding community, and seeking the support of a specialist.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:52]:
Claire encourages listeners to share their stories and avoid minimizing the emotional impact of hair loss.

Claire Fullam [00:02:03]:
I went to a dermatologist, a trichologist, loads of different doctors. I tried every, you know, thing that was out there at the time, every kind of treatment plan. But I stuck with the trichologist, and I was with her for about 20 weeks, and we did loads of, like, LLP therapy at the car. We did a lot of lotions and potions. We did a lot of, like, electrolysis work as well on the scalp. And to be honest, Kevin, now, knowing what I know now, and I’m a trichologist now, right? And I have a big patch of alopecia up here as well. Like, I always get patches. Like I had.

Claire Fullam [00:02:35]:
I have a big, full head of hair, still get patches all the time. It’s like the type of alopecia I have is alopecia areata. So it’s like, it’s an autoimmune condition. So it’s like a psoriasis. You know, somebody who has psoriasis, it will flare up and then it will disappear, and it will go through different bouts and all that kind of stuff. So that’s the type of alopecia I had. So I did loads of different treatments. But really, I think what was the making of me and the reason why I have hair today is because I spoke about it.

Claire Fullam [00:03:02]:
You know, I was such a person who used to internalize every slight worry that I had in my life. I used to never want to express myself because I didn’t want my mom to worry or my dad or my husband to worry. So I used to internalize. I was one of those, like a swan on the water, you know, like, I looked like I had it all together, but underneath I was panicking. And I think through my work now, like, I meet people with alopecia areata all day, every day. And it’s always the same type of personality. It’s always people who take on a lot from other people. They’re the friend of everybody.

Claire Fullam [00:03:37]:
You know, you’ll take your shirt off your back, like that kind of personality. And, you know, it’s funny how now I can see that, okay, the lotions and potions and the laser light therapy could have helped. Of course it does, because it will bring blood up to the follicle and that will encourage hair growth. But actually, what it was was taking that hour every week for myself. So every Wednesday, I used to go into the clinic. So I used to have to leave work half an hour early, and I used to get the bus in, and I used to listen to my music, and I used to go into the clinic, and then I used to come home, and it gave me that, like, sense of control. Does that make sense? It gave me this kind of. Right, okay, I have no hair now, but what am I going to do to try and help myself with that? So.

Claire Fullam [00:04:22]:
Or I washed my hair with the shampoo. They told me to. I did this, I did that. So it was a level of a plan. And the power of a plan is so, so important for people that are going through something which is so unpredictable. So I think, like, that was really, really important that I kind of had something to do. Does that make sense at all? Like, I had something to do every week, which I speak to my patients about all the time. You know, there’s so much.

Claire Fullam [00:04:46]:
And even, I mean, that was eight years ago. There’s so much more therapies out there that we know of now that we can help people with. But I really believe that no lotion or potion, no vitamin, no stress relieving therapy will stop an autoimmune condition. You have to learn how to work alongside that a little bit. And I always say now, like, when I get a patch, like, I have one up here now, there’s little hairs growing out of it. Thank God it’s there about eight, nine weeks now. It’s like a whisper from my body. It’s like a cleaner.

Claire Fullam [00:05:17]:
It’s like, be careful. It’s an autoimmune condition. So, like, you’ve got loads of different systems in your body, right? So the ones that we’re going to top on air, like your nervous system and your immune system. So your nervous system is the one that controls all of your emotions, okay? So when you are physically stressed or emotionally stressed, she’ll whack her sister, because that’s what sisters do. Okay? So your immune system then goes up and up and up and up. So she goes off on one. And all along this invisible ladder here, there will be different rungs, which some people with autoimmune conditions, that little switch will be kind of gone off, and it will keep going back there. So when I ever get stressed, one of the first things to go is my hair.

Claire Fullam [00:05:56]:
So it’s an autoimmune condition that I can slightly control, but not always control, you know, depending on what’s going on in my life. I know for me, it’s when I’m not really taking care of myself, when I’m bottom of the list, which happens as parents, doesn’t it? Right. And as a business owner, like, you’re always bottom up the list. I take on too much all the time, you know, and it’s a different type of stress now because I have so many people to provide for. You know, it’s not like it’s just me and the kids and my husband anymore, but other people’s families that I need to look after as well. So that different type of pressure and stress, I know that I wasn’t looking after myself about three months ago, and now this is the result of that.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:41]:
Alopecia areata doesn’t just go away. Stress management is key for living with any kind of autoimmune disorder, but it’s not a fix all at the same time. External treatments alone are not enough to prevent flare ups. Managing stress, scalp maintenance, and creating a plan for ongoing care can make a huge difference.

Claire Fullam [00:07:05]:
I think a lot of people, again, this is a common thread that I see through people with alopecia is that they don’t have very many boundaries, you know, they don’t have very many. They’re people yet. Yeah, no problem. No problem. Hair’s on the ground, you’re not going to wake.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:18]:
It’s such a personality type.

Claire Fullam [00:07:19]:
It sounds like such a personality type. And it really only happens to people as well that have a lot of hair. You would never see somebody rarely. Yeah, you’d rarely see somebody with an appeche areata who has fine hair. They have big, big, big hair. It’s like your body knows what to pick. Does that make sense that Claire can survive without this patch of hair? You know? But, yeah, like, I suppose what I do is I listen now and I get stuff off my chest because I used to kind of internalize a lot and I used to not speak about things. I will unfortunately ring my friend, ring my mom, talk to my husband, and I will say I need help right now, and I’ll dish out the jobs and I’ll delegate and all that kind of stuff.

Claire Fullam [00:08:01]:
I try as well to get more sleep again, your body will get stressed if you don’t sleep enough. So look at your diet as well. I could reduce sugar at times to try and manage inflammation, all that kind of stuff, but there’s not one single thing in that group, Kevin, that will stop my autoimmune condition. And I think sometimes alopecians have to forgive themselves sometimes, because again, we’re not very good at that. And I think that it’s not our fault that this happens to us. This is the way your body will commute, will kind of communicate stress to you. And some people will be like, well, you shouldn’t have ate that, or you shouldn’t have done this, or you should. It’s going to happen anyway.

Claire Fullam [00:08:36]:
You know, it’s going to happen anyway. So it’s about trying to manage that as much as you can and not beat yourself up too much about it. But, yeah, there’s loads of stuff you can do. There’s so many things that we should do all the time. But listen, sometimes we need a bit of a kick up.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:49]:
We all slide a little bit.

Claire Fullam [00:08:50]:
Yeah, yeah. Right.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:52]:
If somebody’s listening right now and they have alopecia, and let’s say that they are where you were when they are just noticing a little bit of hair missing in a spot, what do they need to do right now? Do they treat it right away? Do they wait? And if they do something right now, what is that thing?

Claire Fullam [00:09:10]:
I would say get into a good routine. Try and maybe look up a trichologist in your area or a dermatologist. I’m not always the biggest fan of going straight to medicine because I think that drugs have side effects. Like any drug will have a side effect. And a lot of alopecia, especially alopecia areata, is something temporary. So you don’t need drugs to try and get over that. I would say get into a simple scalp routine. You should be exfoliating your scalp, you should be washing your scalp regularly, and you should put something on the patches that would have some level of growth factor on them.

Claire Fullam [00:09:42]:
And some of the biggest brands in the world have growth factors within them. You know, stimulators.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:48]:
Would that be a minoxidil, a Rogaine, something like that? Is that what you’re referring to?

Claire Fullam [00:09:53]:
Yeah, not really. Minoxidil would be something that would be used for more of a chronic condition. So maybe like female pattern, male pattern hair loss, angiogenetic hair loss, and a piece of ariasa. It is a like, it can be temporary at times. If you go in with a minoxidil, you’ll become reliant on that minoxidil. And when you take minoxidil away, you could have a bit of a dread shed. So be careful of minoxidil. I would say things like there’s those of energizing potions and lotions out there, like ice nioxin.

Claire Fullam [00:10:20]:
I’m sure you have nioxin over in the states. All of those kind of big brands would have something stimulating within them. Caffeine, rosemary, all that kind of stuff. But I would say try and get some sound advice in terms of a process. As I said, that little plan, you don’t have to go somewhere every week, but if you had, okay, I’m going to exfoliate my scalp every single week. I’m going to wash my hair every second day, and I’m going to stick on something stimulating onto the patch to try and encourage while I work this out, while I contact a trichologist, while I go to the dermatologist. Steroid injections, like, if it was pretty bad or if it was just one big patch, a steroid injection, a cortisol injection from a dermatologist would be really, really stimulating to that kind of way. And that could help grow the hair back as well, I suppose, as well.

Claire Fullam [00:11:05]:
Like Kevin, like, what I would like to kind of get across is that it can get really dark, really quick hair loss, you know, and I think that a lot of people would understand that who have gone through it. And I think that it becomes very, very out of control. What I would say to people is, when I had no hair, people still loved me, I could still do my job, people still wanted to be around me. I was still exactly the same as I am now with loads of bloody hair, do you know, that kind of way? And I think that it’s really, really hard in those moments to see that, but I think that, and it’s a really hard lesson to learn, and I’ve had to learn it the hard way as well. And I’ve gone through so much over the past eight years to be where I am today. But you really have to dig deep and really care about yourself again because there’s some part of you who’s let that go along that way, maybe you’re bottom of the pile. You’re not looking after yourself a little bit. This is a whisper from your body to you to try and get you back on track again, you know, and you’re not here.

Claire Fullam [00:12:06]:
It’s an absolute miracle any of us are here, right? So you are as entitled to be here with hair or no hair. So try and give yourself that grace to care about yourself enough, because if you stay down too long, it’s really, really hard to kick the bank of the river and kind of swim back up for breath, you know, that kind of way. So, yeah, be annoyed, be upset, be angry, but you dont let it take over your life.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:37]:
Neglecting our own needs can have serious consequences on our physical health, hair loss or no hair loss. Im sure many of us share the experience of preparing for a big event or a presentation only to find ourselves sick from overexertion. Unfortunately, you dont recover from hair loss in a few days. For most of us, it’s something you must learn to live with for the rest of your life. Claire shares some tips on managing the flare ups that come with alopecia areata.

Claire Fullam [00:13:06]:
A lot of people with alopecia, particularly alopecia areata, have a lot of hair. So if you had like two patches at the back of your head, you go to the best hairdresser in town and make sure they’re going to be able to cover that up for you in the day. And I would like, don’t feel silly about it, like, I know you might be the bride, right, but go and get like a trial. So if it’s in six weeks time and those patches are annoying you three weeks beforehand, go and sit there and let’s discuss this. And they’ll be only delighted that you’re coming in and trialing this a little bit. There’s loads of temporary hair pieces as well. Kevin, of course, like, you don’t have to get a full blown wig. There’s so many systems out there that can be sewn in for a week, you know, can be glued on for two weeks, all that kind of stuff.

Claire Fullam [00:13:48]:
So I would try and investigate as much as possible in terms of what your options are. Just be careful. If it’s something like alopecia areata or something that has the ability to grow back anything that you put on there, it’s really difficult sometimes for that hair to grow underneath. Does that make sense? So, like, I always say to people, you know, when you’re out in the garden and you’ve got your little flower or your little watering can, and you put the watering can down on the grass and then you forget about it. So, like, two nights later, you come and you take the watering can off that patch of grass, right. And what that grass looks like. So just be careful in terms of if you have hair that you can save, don’t put that watery can down on it too long. Okay.

Claire Fullam [00:14:26]:
So go and investigate a little bit and understand what type of loss you have.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:31]:
Yeah. Some very valuable information. Is there anything else that you could tell somebody that is listening and saying, I want to plug into a community and I want to get more information. What are the top resources for that that you have found? You talked about getting a hold and trying to find a trichologist of your own in the area where you are. There’s obviously your social media account that people can check out. Is there any other places you would recommend for information or community?

Claire Fullam [00:14:54]:
Yeah, like, I think Alopecia UK, which is obviously Great Britain’s version of Alopecia UK, so we don’t actually have one here in Ireland, but Alopecia UK is an amazing resource, and of course, anyone from around the world can access that as a resource as well. But I’m sure in the states there’s an alopecia.com as well that will help. And I think, like, honestly, entering those communities, like any community, like, I know from getting sober, like, you need people, you know, you need people around you that understand what you’re going through, you know, because, like, that you will have people in your life that, like, it’s not that bad, or she loads of hair, like, and they’re trying to be kind, but they’re actually just making the whole thing worse. What they’re doing is they’re diminishing your pain that little bit more. Because then what starts to happen is you start to feel, oh, God, like, maybe I am being vain about this, or maybe this isn’t a big deal, and you start to diminish your pain a little bit, you know? So I think you do need to surround yourself with people 100%. Trua is, if I do say so myself, Kevin Trua is a great resource, you know, on instagram, in terms of just learning about how the scalp works, because, you know, I found that I remember asking, I’m so annoying. Like, I go into the dermatologist, like, but why? They’d be like, oh, go away. Just take this medicine.

Claire Fullam [00:16:10]:
I don’t want to see you again. I was so annoying. Or the trichologist, I’d have their heads wrecked. I’d be constantly asking them different questions and stuff. It’s so important for people to really understand their condition. I can’t tell you that enough. If someone has frontal fibrosis, alopecia, angiogenetic alopecia, they’re losing their hair during menopause, after baby male hair loss, DHT, if you understand those little bits right, it’s not going to take that away, but it’s actually going to make you go, okay, again, I’m driving. Again, I understand this.

Claire Fullam [00:16:44]:
Again, it’s more within my control and within my reach to help myself with that, you know, so I can’t recommend trying to really investigate that and get loads of different opinions on it, because unfortunately, with hair loss, doesn’t matter how much I study, right, or a dermatologist study or whatever else, there is only so much research out there because it’s not killing people. Okay? So, you know, I remember the doctor would say to me, I’ll tell your grandchild, off you go. But, like, it does kill people. I know people who haven’t left their homes in 1012 years. I know people who have taken their lives from hair loss.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:25]:
Hair loss shouldn’t be taken lightly, even if it is often overlooked in the realm of well funded research, the experience of hair loss can erode our self confidence and deeply affect our mental health. This becomes increasingly true in a culture where we are constantly bombarded with unrealistic beauty standards. Regardless of who you are, how old you are, or why youre losing your hair, its always a challenge. I was curious about what differences Claire had observed in men and women experiencing hair loss.

Claire Fullam [00:17:56]:
From speaking to hundreds of men and women in the same situation. It’s as emotionally, you know, that toiling on a man or a woman, I think that if you lose your hair, depending. It really is, you know, and there’s a lot of emotions that go with both, and it equally hurts them. But it’s easier because society allows a man to be bald so he can live his life. You might get a couple of comments from his colleagues or his brothers who are his friends, but eventually it will be okay. Whereas when I was bald, I could not leave the house without my hairpiece ever, because I would just be open to scrutiny. Open to, is she sick? What’s wrong with her? And all these questions, because that’s society, you know, and society, you know, will always, you know, in our lifetime, anyway, hold women to an unachievable beauty standards, you know, and I think that that’s a real issue. So it’s not that it’s easier on men.

Claire Fullam [00:18:55]:
I don’t think so. Personally. I think it’s the same, but it’s a society allows a man to live without her. And I really hope one day when I see bald women. I actually saw one yesterday. She was absolutely beautiful, walking along the beach in the south of France, living her best life with her bald head. She looked beautiful. I just get so much pride and so much joy that she hasn’t allowed that shape her life.

Claire Fullam [00:19:20]:
You know, she is living her best life because you can live a really gorgeous, successful, love, joy filled life with no hair. You just have to be brave enough to try and capture that. It’s not just the hair loss. It’s all the other stuff that people experience around that. People, women sleeping in hair pieces their husbands don’t even know, you know? Again, that’s more his problemo, to be honest. But I think that there’s so much more to it. I remember we did a survey two years ago, and we asked women who had lost 70% of their hair more. Describe how you feel.

Claire Fullam [00:19:57]:
And some of those words, Kevin, were like, you’d choke up reading them, you know? And three women wrote suicidal. And I had to ring them, and I rang them and said, I don’t even know what I can say to you, but I want to make sure you have someone to talk to. And they were so thrilled that we took the time to listen to them, you know, because I think this isn’t a frivolous vanity. It’s nothing to be ashamed about. Unfortunately, most of us will suffer with some form of hair loss in our lives. It’s the aging process. Ultimately, you know, some of us will go through more extreme than others, you know, and it will shape their lives, and it will change their lives. But all of us will go through a form of it, or someone close to you will too, you know, and I think that the more people have conversations with it and about it and around it, the better we are then helping others do that kind of way.

Claire Fullam [00:20:46]:
I think it’s so, so, so important.

Kevin Rolston [00:20:53]:
During our conversation, I felt a growing appreciation for the way Claire expressed the emotions of hair loss. It can be a devastating experience and is so often exacerbated by isolation. Alopecia areata can be especially unpredictable, but there are ways to work with it. Finding a community that truly understands what you’re going through firsthand and can share resources and encouragement can be life changing. We hope Claire’s insights have been helpful. If you’d like to hear more from her, make sure to subscribe to the show so you can check out our previous conversations with Claire on hair loss and mental health. Take a look at our show notes to find links for Claire’s social media and the resources she mentioned during the episode. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod.

Kevin Rolston [00:21:37]:
Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search Hairpod on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if you’d share it with them. If you’re enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast to we also have a website, check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. we’re here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time.

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Growing Up with Trichotillomania

Growing Up with Trichotillomania

by | Jun 25, 2024 | Episode

Episode 18

Growing Up with Trichotillomania

trichotillomania-solution-Heather-Brooke-018-blog
This week, I’m bringing back the amazing story of Heather Brooke, a beauty pageant winner, licensed counselor, and author of the children’s book, “Where Is My Hair? A Trichotillomania Story for Children”. Heather grew up with trichotillomania and now she treats patients who are dealing with this disorder. In this episode from the vault, Heather talks about how she came down with this condition, how it impacted her throughout her life, and how she learned to cope with it.

Understanding Trichotillomania: A Lesser-Known Cause of Hair Loss

Hair loss is a common issue that many people face, but not all hair loss is the same. Trichotillomania is a lesser-known disorder that causes individuals to compulsively pull out their own hair, often as a coping mechanism to deal with trauma or extreme stress. Unlike other forms of hair loss that may be due to medical conditions, hormonal changes, or genetics, trichotillomania is sometimes rooted in psychological distress. Heather, a beauty pageant competitor and therapist, shares her personal journey with trichotillomania stemming from childhood trauma.

Finding a Solution: Heather’s Journey to Recovery

For those dealing with trichotillomania, finding an effective solution can be a long and complicated process. Heather describes her journey through different types of treatment and medication, none of which provided a complete solution for her. Her preferred approach covers her bald spots, which also helps keep her from pulling her hair out in those spots as well so they have the opportunity to heal. This option not only concealed the effects of her trichotillomania but also instilled a newfound sense of confidence in Heather. She shares that seeing a full head of hair again was a transformative experience for her.

Coping with Hair Loss: A Message of Hope

Heather’s story is a beacon of hope for others dealing with hair loss, whether due to trichotillomania or other reasons. She emphasizes that no one is alone in this struggle and encourages people to seek out solutions that work for them. As Heather has shown, solutions like hers can significantly improve one’s quality of life by restoring both hair and confidence. Her journey underscores the importance of seeking help and exploring all available options. For those feeling lost and overwhelmed, Heather’s message is clear: there is hope, and effective solutions are within reach.

Episode.18 Transcript

Heather Brooke [00:00:05]:

When I was a kid, I was probably about five years old when I started competing in pageants. But when I was around nine or ten years old, I was sexually abused by an older cousin. And it wasn’t long after that I started developing a disorder called trichotillomania. So the person who has the disorder actually pulls out their own hair. And the best way that I can describe it is as a coping mechanism for all the trauma that was going through and experiencing.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:00:53]:

Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Rolston. And each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. This week, we’re bringing back one of the first episodes we ever released. It’s a story of trauma, triumph and transformation. When we were getting ready to launch hairpod, I got to interview Heather Brooke about trichotillomania, the condition that caused her to pull out her own hair. She is a beauty pageant winner, a counselor, and the author of where is my hair? A childrens book about trichotillomania.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:01:39]:

Were going to cover all that and more today. But before we do, I just want to let you know that Heather does briefly mention abuse and trauma in this episode. Its not graphic, and we dont dwell on the subject, but if thats not something that you want to hear about right now, maybe save this episode for another day. Now let’s get into Heather’s story of hope after hair loss.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:02:06]:

Hello, Heather.

 

Heather Brooke [00:02:07]:

Hi. How are you?

 

Kevin Rolston [00:02:09]:

I am doing great. Tell me a little bit about your hair journey, because you’re started in a different place than what most people do. You were doing beauty pageants as a child and you started having hair loss issues. Why was that?

 

Heather Brooke [00:02:27]:

Yeah. So actually, when I was a kid, I was probably about five years old when I started competing in pageants. But when I was around nine or ten years old, I experienced some trauma. I was sexually abused by an older cousin. And it wasn’t long after that that I started developing a disorder called trichotillomania. So unlike a lot of people with hair issues, hair loss issues, theirs are usually natural or medical or something. Trichotillomania is actually a hair pulling disorder. So the person who has the disorder actually pulls out their own hair.

 

Heather Brooke [00:03:07]:

And the best way that I can describe it is as a coping mechanism for all the trauma that I was going through. And experiencing.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:03:15]:

What did that look like? How noticeable was it, and how did your parents deal with this situation?

 

Heather Brooke [00:03:21]:

Yeah, so my journey, it started out, it wasn’t super noticeable super quick. I could actually remember the first time that I pulled, and my trickatilla mania began with my eyelashes, not from my head. And I was in the hallway at our house, and I had an eyelash that kept poking me in the eye. And I went to a mirror in our hall and was just trying to straighten out the lash. And as I was pulling on it to try to straighten it out, it came out. And when it came out, there was, like, this release. I’m a therapist as well, and so the one thing that I can compare it to is for people who do self harming and cut, there’s that release that people do get when that happens. And that was kind of what that felt like for me when I pulled that lash on accident.

 

Heather Brooke [00:04:15]:

Like, that wasn’t even intentional, but that sudden, like, release that came, it was like, for a brief moment, all of the stress and anxiety that I had been holding inside was gone. But it almost creates, like, endorphins, like a high, and. But like any high, you have to continue the behavior to continue to get it. And so, for me, that started with my lashes, and it took probably months before anybody ever noticed that. When that became noticeable, I moved to my eyebrows, thinking, oh, if I pull from somewhere else, then maybe I’ll stop pulling from there. That didn’t work. So my parents thought that I was shaving my eyebrows, and it probably wasn’t until three or four years after I actually started pulling that I developed enough bald patches on my head, because at that point, I had started pulling from my head that I had developed enough bald patches that it was noticeable.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:05:13]:

About what age were you at this time?

 

Heather Brooke [00:05:16]:

13 or 14.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:05:18]:

And was it your parents that stepped in and said something? Did you hear anything from kids in your school? How was it that it really kind of first came to light to them?

 

Heather Brooke [00:05:27]:

Yeah. So my grandmother, I believe, was actually the first person who noticed. I always had really long eyelashes, and I had, like, Brooke shields eyebrows as a kid. And so when my grandmother was, like, looking at me one day and she was like, what happened to your eyelashes? And I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know why I was doing it and why I couldn’t stop. So I was just like, oh, I was trying to curl them with one of those eyelash things. So I, like, lied about what I was doing. And then when my parents, when I moved to my eyebrows, and my parents thought that I was shaving my eyebrows.

 

Heather Brooke [00:06:01]:

I just allowed that to continue because I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt so weird that I was doing this, and I couldn’t stop, and I didn’t know why. And so it was when I was 13 or 14, I was up really late one night watching a. It was like an infomercial or something that was on television, and it was about wigs. And as I was sitting there watching this infomercial, there was a woman on there who started talking about pulling her hair. And then she started talking about, like, these fake eyelashes and different things. But as she was talking, she said, trichotillomania. And a couple of days after that, my mom noticed a bald patch on my head in the pool.

 

Heather Brooke [00:06:55]:

We had been swimming, and I wore. At that point, I was wearing. I had always had super thick hair, and I think that’s one of the reasons that, other reasons that it took so long to notice that I’d always had super thick hair. And so I just got to the point where I was always wearing my hair in a ponytail. But this one specific day, she was coming out of the pool behind me, and my ponytail had moved enough that she could see the bald spot. And so when she said something to me about it, I was like, okay, I think I saw this commercial. I think this is what I have. And I told her, and she said, okay.

 

Heather Brooke [00:07:30]:

And so she scheduled an appointment with me to see the doctor that she worked for. And so I went in. He diagnosed me, and then he made a referral to a psychiatrist and put me on some medications, and that was kind of where the treatment for it started.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:07:50]:

Even though the trichotillomania was causing some ball patches on Heather’s scalp, she never let that stop her from competing in beauty pageants.

 

Heather Brooke [00:07:59]:

I competed off and on throughout high school, even with my trichotillomania. I competed some years with a wig, some years with glue in extensions or clip in extensions.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:08:14]:

In between pageants and trying to be a normal kid, Heather started to receive different treatments for trichotillomania. Trichotillomania isn’t one of those things you treat once and just move on from. It’s a chronic issue that Heather still deals with to this day.

 

Heather Brooke [00:08:28]:

Yeah, it was a lot. It’s still a lot because it’s still something that I struggle with because there’s so little research done on trichotillomania. So there’s still a lot to be learned about it. And I’ve actually been part of a couple of different studies that are looking at how genetics can be involved, how mental, other mental health issues can play into it, but there’s just so little known about it. So when I was diagnosed, I was put on an antidepressant. That didn’t help, just made me sick. Then there was points where when I was real under really high levels of stress, I would pull more. There would be times where I would pull subconsciously or unconsciously, like I would be pulling and not even be aware until after I had already been doing it, that I had done it.

 

Heather Brooke [00:09:13]:

Sometimes it was conscious, so there was a mixture of those, but I tried everything that I could to hide it. By the time I was a junior in high school, I was almost completely bald. I had to wear a wig. I’m wearing a wig in my senior pictures. But by the Christmas of my senior year, I was able to let my hair grow out enough that I had this short, cute pixie cut. And it’s been more manageable since that point. I still struggle with it. It’s still something I struggle with on a daily basis, but, and I’ve tried covering it up, like I said, with ponytails, doing ponytails, doing wigs, wearing extensions, all different kinds of things.

 

Heather Brooke [00:09:54]:

And when I got ready to compete for Miss woman Colorado, United States, I was looking for alternatives to help hide some of the spots that I had at the time. And I found hair club, and hair club was actually one of my sponsors. And so that’s kind of helped a lot with my journey.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:10:11]:

Oh, wow. That’s so cool. Tell me a little bit about that. Like, how did you exactly find them? Just the name popped up and you decided to go. And how did that all come about?

 

Heather Brooke [00:10:21]:

Yeah, I was just googling hair salons and that did extensions and looking for sponsors, and hair club popped up. At the time, I’d only heard of hair club for men, so I thought that it was just for men. But I did a little bit of research and found out that women used hair club as well. And so I just emailed them. The manager at the Denver location messaged me back, emailed me back, and we set up an appointment. I went in for a consultation, and then the next thing I knew, I was a hair club client, and they were one of my pageant sponsors. And it was awesome because once I won the pageant, right, I was going to compete for Miss woman Colorado. Whenever I got hair club as a sponsor.

 

Heather Brooke [00:11:12]:

And when I actually won the title for the state, I jokingly with my stylist, was like, I wish I could take you with me to nationals for you to do my hair at nationals. And so they were like, yeah, we’ll send her out there with you. So they actually sent her to Florida with me for nationals, and she did my hair for the competition.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:11:40]:

Now, tell me, with the x strands, how does that work with your trichotillomania that you still are trying to recover from? Do you pull out the x strands? Is there a desire to do that?

 

Heather Brooke [00:11:50]:

Yeah. No, actually, it’s really interesting because I have what I call trigger spots. So there’s specific areas that when I’m stressed or bored or not even paying attention that I pull from. And so what extras does is it covers the areas that are lacking hair, and then my own hair is still used in addition to that. So all of the edges I pull from the sides and the crown of my head, so all of the edges are my. Is my hair, and just the crown and the sides is a system that is glued to my scalp. And so I shave underneath the system so that the system, it fits snug on my scalp. That’s just a personal preference.

 

Heather Brooke [00:12:36]:

Some people don’t do that, but I choose to do that. But it covers those trigger spots for me, so I don’t typically have the desire to pull anymore.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:12:47]:

How about that? And tell me, how do you feel with your system on? When you look in the mirror and you see that you’ve got a full head of hair and you don’t have those, you know, bald spots that you had had before, what is that like for you?

 

Heather Brooke [00:13:01]:

Oh, it’s amazing. Like, I wanted to cry when I saw myself in the mirror for the first time when they did the reveal, because it had been so long since I had seen myself with a full head of hair. Right. So when I look at myself, like, I don’t see the clips from the extensions, and I don’t see, it’s really hard to tell where your hairline is at and where the extras is at. And so it just gives me so much confidence to know that I can do whatever I want to with it. If I want to curl it, I can curl it. If I want to straighten it, I can straighten it. If I want to cut it, dye it, like, whatever I want to do to it.

 

Heather Brooke [00:13:41]:

I have those options again. And I’m not just stuck with, like, one hairstyle or fixing it just a certain way because I have to worry about hiding the clips or the different things from the extensions. And so it’s just, it really gave me back a lot of my confidence.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:14:10]:

Listening to Heather today, its hard to imagine her lifelong battle with trichotillomania stemming from childhood trauma. Now, as a licensed professional counselor, Heather commits herself to assisting those grappling with mental health challenges. She’s even authored a children’s book on trichotillomania to help young clients facing the same struggle.

 

Heather Brooke [00:14:31]:

Yeah, so I wrote where’s my hair? A trichotillomania story for children in 2018. And I actually, I wrote it because where I was living at at the time, people got to know me as a therapist who worked with people with trichotillomania because of my own personal experience. And so I would get a lot of kids. And so I had this girl, young girl, come in. She was 13 or 14, and she was on the autism spectrum, and she was non verbal, and she started pulling her hair, and her stepmom brought her in to me, and she said, her occupational therapist says that she has trichotillomania. And she started giving me all of this information that the OT had given her about trichotillomania. And I looked at her, and I was like, the only thing that’s accurate about any of that is the name of the disorder. And so I use with kids a lot books to help them understand what they’re going through, what they’re experiencing, that they’re not alone.

 

Heather Brooke [00:15:36]:

And so I went online and started looking for a book that I could share with her in session, and I couldn’t find anything. There was stuff for professionals, there was stuff for adults, there was stuff for parents, but there was nothing specifically for children. So I sat down and wrote my book loosely based off of my own personal experience. And then I sent it to my mom and was like, I’m gonna write a book. I’m writing this children’s book. Here it is. And my mom likes to draw, and so I was like, will you illustrate it for me? So my mom got grabbed some pictures of my oldest daughter and some friends, and she sat down and she. She illustrated the stories for the story for me.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:16:22]:

Wow, that is so cool. What a great full circle story that you have to share with so many people. What an inspiration. And I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us if you had to talk to any other women out there, for whatever reason, because hair loss, you know, your story is unique. I don’t know how many other people are going to say that they have what you do, but hair loss is something that so many men, and believe it or not, so many women are going through, and it’s hard to probably hear from another woman that’s got hair loss and is open about it. What would you say to them if they just feel kind of lost and they’re listening to this conversation saying, okay, what are my next steps? What do I do? How should I feel about this?

 

Heather Brooke [00:17:02]:

Yeah, I would definitely say that you are not alone. First of all, we all experience hair loss in some form or fashion and are going to at some point, whether it’s from hormone issues, medical issues, mental health issues, medications, all of these different things that we experience and deal with in life can create hair loss at some point. Doesn’t mean that you won’t get it back, but you know that. But we all struggle with something. And so the first thing would be that you’re not alone. The second thing would be that there is options, you know, and whether that is, you know, a treatment that hair club has that will help your hair regrow or you’re doing something like I am with, like, xtrands. Plus, there are options out there, and you just have to seek them out.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:18:09]:

We want to thank Heather for appearing on the show. It was great to talk to her about her resilience, despite the struggles she faced and how she transformed a painful past into a commitment to helping kids who are going through their own difficult journeys with mental and emotional health. We find her so inspiring, and we hope you do, too. If you know somebody who is currently dealing with trichotillomania or has a child with this condition and you’d like to pick up a copy of Heather’s book, we have a link to where is my hair? A trichotillomania story for children in our show notes. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpot. Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search Hairpot on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know somebody who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if youd share it with them. If youre enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:19:01]:

We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. were here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review, and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time.

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Women’s Hormonal Hair Loss & What to Do

Women’s Hormonal Hair Loss & What to Do

by | Jun 18, 2024 | Episode

Episode 17

Understanding Hormonal Hair Loss in Women

EP17 Hormonal Hair Loss - Ft. Lisette Davila

Understanding Hormonal Hair Loss in Women: Causes and How To Treat It

Although it’s most commonly associated with men, hair loss can also impact women.

In fact, women may be more vulnerable to hair loss as they age, thanks to fluctuating hormones associated with pregnancy, menopause, and other hormonal shifts. At least 50% of women will experience hair loss at some point in their lifetime.

On this episode of HairPod, we explore Lisette Davila’s story with hair loss treatments and hormone replacement therapy. Learn more about hormonal hair loss in women through the lens of Lisette’s experiences — her challenges, the stigma she encountered, and the hope she found through her courageous pursuit of answers.

Types of Hormonal Hair Loss

Hormonal hair loss in women can happen for many reasons, but in Lisette’s case, the cause was a hormonal imbalance. Here are the three most common types of hair loss for women.

Female Pattern Baldness

The most common type of hormonal hair loss in women is female pattern hair loss (FPHL), also known as androgenetic alopecia or female pattern baldness. It affects about 30 million women in the U.S.

Over time, hair becomes finer and shorter and the volume gradually decreases. Unlike the distinctive receding hairline seen in male pattern baldness, female pattern baldness typically looks like thinning across the scalp, particularly at the crown and part line.

Telogen Effluvium

Telogen effluvium is a common type of hair loss that happens after experiencing severe stress. Hair loss and thinning tend to happen within two to three months after the stressor, but in most cases, it resolves itself after six months.

Traction Alopecia

Traction alopecia occurs when hair is subjected to constant tension and pulling. While it’s not linked to hormones, it’s most common in women who frequently wear tight hairstyles like ponytails, braids, or buns.

Over time, repeated tension on the hair follicles can lead to thinning hair or permanent hair loss, especially around the hairline or temples. If it’s caught early, traction alopecia can be reversed. But if the tension isn’t resolved, it can cause irreversible damage to the follicles.

Symptoms of Hormonal Hair Loss

It took years for Lisette to pinpoint the source of her noticeable hair loss: hormones. But looking back, there were many symptoms to suggest that hormones were a culprit.

Here are some of the hair loss symptoms that suggest hormones might be at the root of the issue:

  • The hair gradually thins out, especially along the crown and part line
  • The part becomes noticeably wider, exposing the scalp
  • Hair feels weaker, thinner, or more fragile
  • Hair grows back slower than before or not at all
  • Loss of moisture, shine, or texture in hair
  • An increase in facial hair growth due to excess androgens

Key Hormonal Factors Influencing Hair Loss

What hormone causes women’s hair loss? The answer is far more complex, as multiple hormonal factors affect hair health. Aging, pregnancy, menopause, and other hormonal imbalances can all lead to hair loss, depending on the person.

The expert team at HairClub helps clients like Lisette navigate these complex hormonal changes with tailored treatments for hair loss that address the root cause and promote long-lasting results.

There are plenty of myths and facts about hair loss that can make it difficult to identify the underlying cause, but understanding these hormonal factors is a key step toward finding the right treatment. Here are the most common hormonal factors that cause female hair loss.

Menopause

Menopause affects each woman differently, but hair loss and hair thinning are common side effects. As estrogen levels drop, blood vessels in the scalp constrict, which can reduce blood supply and restrict the flow of oxygen and nutrients.

Androgens

Other hormonal shifts, like the ones caused by polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), can cause an overproduction of androgens. Excess androgens — like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) — can lead to androgenic alopecia. This can lead to a shorter growth period, resulting in slower growth and thinner strands.

Hormonal Imbalances

Hormones naturally fluctuate over time, from puberty to pregnancy to menopause. These imbalances can disrupt the natural hair growth cycle, even if the hormones themselves return to normal over time.

Some hormone fluctuations can happen at any time. For example, times of stress induce cortisol, which can also affect the cyclic regulation of the hair follicle and lead to hair loss.

Risk Factors for Hormonal Hair Loss

Hormonal hair loss in women can also be driven by a variety of factors that can increase the risk of developing thinning or shedding. From genetics to lifestyle choices, understanding these risk factors is key to identifying the cause and finding a solution.

Here are the underlying risk factors to address with a hair loss technician at HairClub to achieve lasting results.

Genetics

Just like with male hair loss, genetics often plays a key part in the development of female pattern hair loss. You can inherit these genes from one or both of your parents, increasing the likelihood of developing thinning or hair loss.

Medical Conditions

In some cases, the body reacts to illnesses or medications with hair loss. Illnesses like anemia, thyroid issues, PCOS, eating disorders, and more can all result in hair loss or thinning, especially when hormone levels are affected.

Some medications or medical treatments can cause hair loss, like the known side effect of chemotherapy, for example.

Stress and Lifestyle

Intense or chronic stress and other lifestyle factors can disrupt the body’s hormonal balance and hair growth cycle.

Can you prevent hair loss? While there’s no one way to completely prevent hair loss, the right lifestyle changes can lower your risk and promote healthy hair growth:

  • Get regular exercise.
  • Eat foods that contain nutrients for healthy hair, like iron, biotin, and zinc.
  • Limit smoking, vaping, and alcohol consumption.

HairClub’s expert team works closely with clients to assess all the potential causes, from stress to genetics, in order to promote long-term results. To get to the root of your hair loss, schedule a consultation today.

Confronting the Stigma: Hair Loss Treatments for Women

Lisette recounts the gradual onset of her hair loss, once boasting thick, spiral curls she was proud of. The subtle thinning eventually became an undeniable reality, which of course, prompted a cascade of self-consciousness and anxiety. She didn’t know why she was losing her hair.

Because of the stigma around female hair loss, she was left feeling isolated, confused, and frustrated. Lisette shares that she even received unsolicited comments from coworkers and friends that magnified her insecurities.

Hormone Replacement Therapy and Female Hair Loss Solutions

Lisette shares her experience with hormone replacement therapy. She had a hysterectomy in her early 30s, which coincided with the onset of her hair loss, but Lisette was initially unaware of the potential connection. Her doctor confirmed that hormonal imbalances could very well be contributing to her condition.

Lisette noticed significant improvements in her overall well-being within just two weeks of beginning her therapy. It addressed various symptoms associated with hormonal changes, including fatigue, insomnia, and issues with the skin and nails. However, Lisette’s hair loss persisted, prompting her to explore additional solutions such as HairClub’s offerings. She shares her experience with HairClub and the Trichoview hair analysis system.

Health, Hope, and Hair Restoration

Lisette emerged from her journey with renewed confidence. She extends a message of resilience and empowerment to others facing similar struggles. She encourages listeners to seek out professional guidance, see a hair specialist to help identify a suitable hair loss solution and a doctor to rule out any underlying health concerns. Lisette highlights the importance of having a plan and a community. Whether it’s hormone therapy, hair loss therapy, or some other balding solution, the right option is out there.

Her story is a testament to the transformative power of taking charge of your own hair journey. If you’re struggling with women’s hair loss due to hormones, don’t wait for things to get worse — reach out today to explore the treatments that could restore not just your hair, but also your confidence and sense of self. Schedule a consultation today to find the perfect solution for you.

Episode.17 Transcript

Lisette Davila [00:00:04]:

So I went in, and I was so nervous. I didn’t know what to expect when I went into this meeting with her. And when I came out, I was crying because it was tears of joy, because I felt, finally, somebody hears me, they get it. They know what’s going on, and they think they can fix it. I’ve never had anybody say they can. You know, they have a solution for this problem that I’m dealing with. And we put money in and invest in a home or a car or even a career. But now it’s like I need to invest in myself because it’s my health.

 

Lisette Davila [00:00:39]:

It’s part of my health.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:00:54]:

Welcome to HairPod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Ralston. And each week, I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. Hair loss can happen for many reasons, and in this episode, I spoke with Lisette Devila about her experience with hormonal hair loss. Hair loss in women is perceived very differently than it is in mental, and it’s not uncommon for a woman who is going through it to suffer the physical, social, and emotional effects in silence. Like many experiencing hair loss, it came as a shock and a blow to Lisette’s self-esteem. She once was a social butterfly, but when she began to lose her hair, she became self-conscious and retreated into her shell.

 

Lisette Davila [00:01:51]:

I used to have, like, really thick, curly hair, super curly, like, spiral curls, and it was really thick. I used to let it just go natural. I didn’t have to fuss with it too much and started noticing probably in my early thirties when my hair started thinning out in the top part, where I started seeing my scalp through my curls. I remember fixing my hair one day, getting ready for work, and the light in the bathroom just above the mirror was shining on my head. Like, I can actually see the reflection of my scalp. And I was like, what is that? And I’m looking in the mirror as I’m, you know, playing with my curls, and I noticed it was thinning just a little bit here at the top. And so when the light would hit it, I would see my scalp shining off. And I thought, wow, that’s new.

 

Lisette Davila [00:02:47]:

That’s different. Am I losing my hair like I thought I was, you know, way too young? I’m, you know, still in my early thirties, and that’s unheard of. You know, my mom and my dad both had their hair, and, you know, I didn’t think that that was normal, especially for me, because I’ve never experienced anything like that. So, yeah, I remember, you know, doing my hair up and noticing my scalp in the mirror. And from there on, people started bringing it up to my attention as if I didn’t know it was going on, you know? Yeah, I had co workers, you know, mentioning it, and some family members that did not hold back, you know, they were like, oh, are you losing your hair? Are you going bald? I’m like, what? You know, I felt so mortified. I felt so embarrassed. And that’s when the stigma started for me.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:03:42]:

Well, yeah, I could see why that is. It’s unbelievable what some people will go out and say to other people. That’s completely unreal. So it doesn’t sound like for you, you were that self conscious about it until it was really brought up to your attention.

 

Lisette Davila [00:03:56]:

Right. Because I thought I was able to hide it well, you know, because it wasn’t that bad in the beginning. And so I thought, I’ll just tease my hair here, you know, style it in a way where it’ll look more full and you can’t see my scalp as bad. But when people would bring it up to me on a, it started getting, like, daily. People that I would work with or friends, you know, people that were close to me were bringing it up daily. Whenever they would see me, there was always a comment at least once a day that people were noticing that my hair was thinning because I’ve always had such thick, curly hair where you didn’t see scalp, you know, unless you parted it. And even then it was a really thin part. So I was having trouble parting my hair at that point because the part was growing.

 

Lisette Davila [00:04:45]:

It was getting bigger.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:04:47]:

Yeah. So you, do you find yourself styling your hair in a different way then? Were you styling your hair in a different way?

 

Lisette Davila [00:04:54]:

Yeah. So I started styling my hair, like, parting it on the opposite side that I would normally do, or I would, like, brush my hair all the way back. You know, I would tease it and brush it back and just so you couldn’t see a part at all. But it was. It was starting to get to the point where it was getting very noticeable, like it needed to be addressed.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:05:16]:

How much time are we talking from when you first noticed that reflection going on in the mirror to when you were able to say, okay, I’m getting these comments on a daily basis. What is the timeframe we’re talking about here?

 

Lisette Davila [00:05:28]:

I would say probably about five years. I was dealing with it for about five years. Yeah.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:05:39]:

Like so many of us who experience hair loss, the early part of the journey can be the most challenging. Its all the more so when you dont have a clue as to why the hair loss is even happening. When youre young and healthy, its the last thing you thought youd be dealing with. Of course, hair loss is sometimes more predictable due to genetics or health conditions. Lisette, on the other hand, was caught completely off guard, and it was taking a toll on her emotions and her confidence.

 

Lisette Davila [00:06:07]:

I thought maybe it was just stress from, you know, like, everyday life and, you know, work, things like that. So I thought, well, this should probably be an easy fix because nobody in my family is suffering from this, you know, neither on my dad’s side or my mom’s side. So, you know, maybe I’ll just try some vitamins or some kind of, you know, supplements. Maybe I’m lacking in that. And I was trying different supplements, and it wasn’t getting any better. It was actually getting worse. And I remember my mom trying to bring, like, this old, traditional, latino, like, cure for it, which was just some kind of, like, liquid serum that you massage into your scalp. And it’s something that’s gone way back into, like, I don’t know, like, maybe the forties or fifties or something like that where men used to use it.

 

Lisette Davila [00:06:58]:

And she would tell me, use this. This is going to work for you if it works for me. This is how my hair is so thick. I thought, okay, well, if it works for her, it’s got to work for me. And I’m pouring the whole bottle in there, and I’m massaging and teasing and taking the vitamins and doing all the things, and it wasn’t working. Then I started getting really nervous, you know, I just started getting, like, you know, okay, there’s something seriously happening here that I need to address. Like, nothing seems to be working for me. I was at home one day, and I came across a hair club infomercial.

 

Lisette Davila [00:07:37]:

And that’s when I thought, man, is this like an omen? Because I’ve always watched these infomercials since I was a kid, you know, and it was always a man. It was hairclub for men at that time. And now it was just like, hair club, right? So I thought, maybe this is a sign. Maybe I need to call hair club and see if they can help me. And I was hesitant, you know, but I had it on the back of my brain, like, let me just keep trying other things and seeing if that will help. And use hair clip as a last resort. Right. So that was in the back of my head, but, you know, no pun intended.

 

Lisette Davila [00:08:18]:

My head just kept, you know, it just, I kept seeing my scalp growing. Like, my hair’s thinning out and my scalp is being really exposed. And I finally said, you know, what? What the heck? Let me just give them a call. It says it’s a free consultation. What else do I have to lose here at this point? And that’s when I finally made that call. And this was probably about five years after I first saw my hair thinning out.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:08:48]:

Yeah, it does take a while. It’s an odd thing. I think, that we want to try everything first. We want to be able to solve it on our own. And it’s an unknown, and that’s kind of a scary thing. And for women, too, it’s a stigma that’s out there that I think a lot of people thought, oh, well, losing hair is something that just happens to men. But the numbers on female hair loss, it’s staggeringly higher than you would ever suspect. And I feel like sometimes women may not have the same kind of community or feel like they have a place to connect.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:09:18]:

Were you able to talk with friends? Were you able to find somebody that could relate to your situation, that could give you some good advice and point you in the right direction?

 

Lisette Davila [00:09:27]:

No, I didn’t actually. There was no one. You know, I’m in my thirties, and all my friends are, you know, with their thick, full, lush hair, and I’m going thin and starting to feel like, you know, I’m getting, like, old. Like, am I getting old? Like, you know, what’s going on with me? It was getting to the point where I felt like a recluse. I didn’t want to go out and socialize with people because I was so embarrassed. I was ashamed, and I didn’t have anyone I can turn to that was a female that suffered or is suffering the same situation that I was.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:10:12]:

Unfortunately, I’m sure many listeners can relate to the difficult emotions that come with losing your hair. And as Lisette pointed out, hair loss for women comes with a social stigma that only makes an already scary situation so much worse. When you combine a lack of community, a lack of guidance, and the confusion of not knowing the underlying cause, its easy to see why isolation happens as it did in this case. And even when you make that leap and decide to address the issue, it can take a while to find the answers youre looking for. As Lisette continued to look for the cause of her hair loss, she was able to start piecing together what was really going on.

 

Lisette Davila [00:10:57]:

I had a hysterectomy. I was very young. I was in my thirties. I was like, 32, 33, somewhere around there when I had it. And it was after, when I started noticing the hair loss. Right. I didn’t put the two together for a while. I didn’t think that having that surgery was going to cause my hair loss.

 

Lisette Davila [00:11:20]:

And again, I didn’t have any, you know, females to turn to that were going through my same situation to advise me or tell me that, oh, it could possibly be that. Until I turned to my doctor and said, you know, I had this surgery, and since then I’ve noticed my hair thinning. Could the two be related?

 

Kevin Rolston [00:11:43]:

Oh, okay. So the hysterectomy happens well before the hair loss.

 

Lisette Davila [00:11:49]:

Right? So it was something that, like, maybe took some time after, like, after my recovery to the point where I didn’t even put the two together. So, yeah, I approached my doctor about it. She told me that is definitely a possibility that that could happen because of the change in hormones or loss of hormones.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:12:10]:

Oh, wow. Okay. So I’m wondering, when you get something like a hysterectomy, you’re losing your hair. Did you have other symptoms? Were there other things that were happening with your body at the same time that you were noticing?

 

Lisette Davila [00:12:22]:

Well, yeah, you know, you get, like, dry skin, and it’s mostly, like, stuff to do with your hair, skin and nails, actually. I mean, we. Okay, we all hear and know about changes, mood swings and whatever have you. But nobody really talked about the hair or the skin and the nails, which is all the same kind of organ. Right? Right.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:12:44]:

Yep.

 

Lisette Davila [00:12:45]:

So that is something that I had to do a lot of research on my own because at the time, there wasn’t a lot of information out there about it. I was online all the time looking up, you know, hair loss and hormones or the loss of hormones after hysterectomy. And so with that being said, I had found for my situation was hormone replacement therapy. And that’s something that a lot of women are doing today. And that has actually helped me with a lot of other issues that I was dealing with after my surgery. So that is a huge help for women who are dealing with hormones, whether it be, you know, if they had to have a hysterectomy or if they have a thyroid condition, which can also wreak havoc on your hair, too. Just going to your physician and getting some blood tests done it’s as simple as getting some blood tests done to see where your hormone levels are at and then work with your doctor to see where you can get them back on course.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:13:51]:

Talking to a doctor and a hair specialist is so important. I appreciate Lisette’s insight on signs to look out for. It’s also a good reminder that hair loss can be a sign of underlying health issues and is not something we should ignore, even though it can be hard to confront. Lisette shares more about her experience with hormone replacement therapy and what a dramatic difference it made for her.

 

Lisette Davila [00:14:20]:

I noticed within two weeks I started feeling better. I was really tired and sluggish, and I didn’t. Again, I’m not connecting all these symptoms with the fact that I had this hysterectomy. So feeling really sluggish, not having as much energy as I once did. And at the time, my kids were, you know, I have two children and they were young and I had to keep up with them in a full time career. And I was struggling with all of that with sleeping. You know, I ended up having insomnia and the hair loss was just getting out of control. So when I started my hormone therapy with my doctor, it took about two weeks for me to notice all those things started balancing and I was able to sleep better again.

 

Lisette Davila [00:15:08]:

And all the other things that I was suffering from started, you know, balancing out, and I was starting to feel back to normal, but I was still dealing with some thinning hair.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:15:19]:

Okay. Yeah, that was my next question. I was just curious what that did with the hair loss. So thats still an issue for you. So where did you go after you realized, okay, ive fixed some of the problems that I have with the hormone replacement therapy. What was left to fix? And then what did you do to fix those issues?

 

Lisette Davila [00:15:37]:

Yeah. So with the hair loss, like everything else, I was feeling pretty good. But im fixing my hair still for, you know, to get on with my day. And I’m noticing I’m having to tease it and do other things with it a little bit more than I had in the past. And I was very frustrated because now it’s taking me a longer time to get ready for something that was so simple as to just, you know, getting my day started. So that’s when I decided that moment when I saw the hair club commercial a few years, a couple of years before and put in the back burner, that’s when I said, okay, I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried everything. I’ve even gone to my doctor and we had a game plan, and it fixed some things, but not all right.

 

Lisette Davila [00:16:20]:

That’s when I picked up the phone and I called hair club and had that consultation done. It was a no brainer for me. After sitting down and having the conversation with the hair club specialist, she was able to pinpoint what was going on with my scalp because that was not a thing that I was looking into. I wasn’t really like, is it a scalp issue now? Because I, you know, you don’t think about scalp care too much, right? At least back then, there wasn’t a lot of talk about that either. So when I went in, she, you know, was able to do the Trico view, which is the little, like a microscopic, you know, exam where they put the tool on your scalp and you could see it on a big monitor. And I saw a lot of, like, my follicles. I saw a lot of them were gone. I was like, oh, my gosh.

 

Lisette Davila [00:17:14]:

And a lot of spacing in between. And as I’m looking at it, shocked that I’m emotional. She was so relaxed and calm, and it was actually calming for me because she. She. Obviously, this is what she does. She’s the expert. She’s like, you know, this is normal like this. I see this all the time.

 

Lisette Davila [00:17:36]:

We can fix this. And she actually, you know, explains, you know, the hair loss to me and what the treatment would be at that moment. It was like, under an hour. So I went in, and I was so nervous about. I didn’t know what to expect when I went into this meeting with her. And when I came out, I was crying because it was tears of joy, because I felt, finally, somebody hears me, they get it. They know what’s going on, and they say they can fix it. I’ve never had anybody say they can.

 

Lisette Davila [00:18:10]:

You know, they have a solution for this problem that I’m dealing with. And it was actually instantaneously for me, like, psychologically, I just felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. We put money in and invest in a home or a car or even a career, but now it’s like, I need to invest in myself because it’s my health. It’s part of my health.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:18:39]:

The stress that comes with hair loss can be a huge burden, and that’s because it’s more than just your appearance. It’s your mental and physical health. For so many of us, hair is tied to our identity. It can be such a relief to finally get answers and maybe more importantly, to have a plan and a community. Also, we learned from talking to Lisette hair loss can be an indicator of a hormone imbalance or other unseen health issues. So if you’re dealing with hair loss, it might be a good idea to reach out to a specialist so you can learn the root cause. I hope you find Lisette’s experience as enlightening as I did. If you enjoyed the show and are looking for more stories on hair loss from people who have been through it or experts in the field, subscribe to the show and be sure to check out the show notes for more resources.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:19:31]:

Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search Hairpod on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if you’d share it with them. If you’re enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app. We also have a website, check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. we’re here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you.

 

Kevin Rolston [00:20:09]:

Until next time.

 

Download Transcript

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance.

Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

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A Founding Father of HairClub: Steve Barth

A Founding Father of HairClub: Steve Barth

by | Jun 11, 2024 | Episode

Episode 16

How Hair Loss Changed My Life for the Better

A founding father of HairClub - Steve Barth

Hair loss can significantly affect all aspects of our lives, and the solutions for hair loss haven’t always been as advanced as they are today. In this episode, Steve Barth, an early client and one of the founding fathers of HairClub, shares his experience with hair loss, early hair loss technology, HairClub, and the people who supported him along the way.

Hair Loss and Self-Confidence

Steve’s story began years before his involvement with HairClub. He had known since he was young that he had a genetic predisposition for hair loss and would likely be bald later in life. However, at just twenty-two years old, he wasn’t ready. Hair loss can rob those experiencing it of their time, their money, and their ability to grow and explore the world with confidence; there is simply no way to know the impact hair loss might have on your life, especially as a young person just discovering who you are and who you want to be.

As Steve delves deeper into his personal journey, he highlights how profoundly hair loss can affect self-esteem and social interactions. For many, hair is an integral part of their identity, and losing it can feel like losing a part of oneself. Steve talks about the psychological impact, sharing that he often felt less attractive and more self-conscious, which in turn affected his social life and professional aspirations. The stigma and societal pressures surrounding hair loss can make the experience even more challenging. Steve’s candid discussion about these struggles helps listeners understand that they are not alone in their feelings of inadequacy and frustration.

Hair Loss Solutions & Balding Treatments in the ’70s

Hairpieces, wigs, implants, and other hair loss therapies were quite different in the seventies when Steve’s hair loss journey began. The technology was still in its early stages, and as you would expect, the options were limited. Steve shares his experiences with Jason Paul’s scientific approach to hair restoration, his introduction to Sy Sperling, and his path to HairClub.

In the 1970s, the field of hair restoration was far from what it is today. Steve recounts the rudimentary and often ineffective treatments that were available. Hairpieces and wigs were often noticeable and uncomfortable, while surgical implants were risky and yielded mixed results. Steve’s early attempts to address his hair loss involved navigating these limited options, which often left him feeling disheartened and skeptical about finding a viable solution.

However, Steve’s encounter with Jason Paul marked a turning point. Paul’s scientific approach to hair restoration provided a glimpse of hope. Although the techniques were still in their infancy, the idea of a methodical, research-based approach to tackling hair loss resonated with Steve. This eventually led him to Sy Sperling, the charismatic founder of HairClub, whose vision and innovation were transforming the landscape of hair restoration.

HairClub’s Approach to Hair Restoration

Steve has been an integral part of HairClub from the start, and he shares with us what set the product apart then and now. Finding a hair loss solution that works for you can be challenging but not impossible. Steve acknowledges that everyone’s hair loss is different, and naturally, so are their needs. He has worked with HairClub on developing various methods and solutions for people at all stages of hair loss.

HairClub’s success can be attributed to its holistic and personalized approach to hair restoration. Unlike the one-size-fits-all solutions prevalent in the past, HairClub offers customized treatment plans tailored to the unique needs of each individual. Steve explains how the company combines the latest technology with a deep understanding of the psychological and emotional aspects of hair loss.

The evolution of HairClub’s methodologies is a testament to its commitment to continuous improvement and innovation. Steve highlights some of the advanced techniques and products developed over the years, from non-surgical hair replacement systems to state-of-the-art surgical options. The introduction of laser hair therapy and FDA-approved hair regrowth treatments has further expanded the arsenal of solutions available to clients.

Beyond the technical advancements, Steve emphasizes the importance of the supportive community within HairClub. The empathetic and knowledgeable staff, many of whom have experienced hair loss themselves, provide invaluable support and guidance to clients. This sense of camaraderie and understanding helps to alleviate the isolation and anxiety often associated with hair loss.

Throughout the episode, Steve’s journey serves as an inspiring reminder that while hair loss can be a challenging and deeply personal experience, there are effective solutions available. His story underscores the importance of perseverance, innovation, and community in overcoming the obstacles posed by hair loss.

For anyone struggling with hair loss, Steve’s insights offer hope and encouragement, demonstrating that it is possible to regain not just hair, but also confidence and a renewed sense of self. If you are looking for a solution, take the first step and book a complimentary hair health consultation to learn what stage of hair loss you’re in before it’s too late!

 

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.16 Transcript
Steve Barth [00:00:04]:
HairClub is not the same company that your dad or your grandfather invested in. It’s very different. We’ve always been very progressive. We also were careful to avoid the trending because certain trending, particularly in hair restoration, was introducing products that were not good for your health or were scam products, gimmicks. And we always basically wanted to have a very creditable family of products.

Speaker B [00:00:43]:
Welcome to HairPod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Rolston, and each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by their hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. The experience of hair loss can radically change our lives, and not just in the way of self-confidence. Finances and the search for solutions for some hair loss can alter our entire life path. For this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Steve Barth, a long-time client and one of the founding fathers of hair club. Steve has been working with HairClub for over 30 years. He shares his incredible story, his experience with hair loss, and the people who helped him along the way.

Steve Barth [00:01:39]:
Yeah. So it was 1976 that I actually found myself wandering into 185 Madison Avenue in New York City. That was the only space in the entire city and the entire universe that hair club existed. What drove me into that office was probably about two years earlier. I was starting to really become aware that I was losing my hair. Although, again, that shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anybody, because there’s just such a strong genetic predisposition for hair loss in my family. My mother’s father lost his hair. My father’s father lost his hair.

Steve Barth [00:02:12]:
My father had three brothers that lost their hair. So I guess in many ways, my cards were mocked.

Speaker C [00:02:18]:
You knew it’s coming.

Steve Barth [00:02:19]:
Yeah. And, you know, 1976 was a. A crazy era in the seventies or the mid-seventies, and the most popular show on Broadway was Hair.

Speaker C [00:02:29]:
Wow.

Steve Barth [00:02:30]:
So the ability as a young man getting out of college and getting started in life to be able to have the confidence to go forward, build a career, and build self esteem while experiencing thinning hair was very different then.

Speaker C [00:02:46]:
And at the age you’re at, you’re at this time, at what age I was, what, 22.

Steve Barth [00:02:49]:
22 years old or 2021. Yeah, you know, it had a profile.

Speaker C [00:02:54]:
Way younger than typical.

Steve Barth [00:02:55]:
Well, I don’t know. I mean, I knew of guys that started losing hair even before that, but, you know, I had curly hair, too. So the curly hair, the nature curly hair had a tendency to cover a lot of surface area. So I think I was a little deceptive for quite some time. But then it became more and more obvious, and the impact it had on my personality, my psyche, my self-confidence was profound.

Speaker C [00:03:18]:
What are your options at this time, in 1976? Now, I’m well aware of what you can do today, but at that time, what do you do if you’re losing your hair and you’re in your early twenties?

Steve Barth [00:03:27]:
Well, there weren’t a lot of options in those days. I mean, obviously, there were hair pieces and wigs, but I knew that philosophically that was not going to be right for me.

Speaker C [00:03:36]:
And my perception as a kid growing up, it was always so obvious when someone had a hairpiece, you could tell, and I assume this is kind of the era that you’re in, that if you go that route, okay, you may have hair, but it’s identifiable to most people that you have done something to cover it up.

Steve Barth [00:03:53]:
Well, that was the stigma.

Speaker C [00:03:55]:
Yeah.

Steve Barth [00:03:56]:
And who’s to say that, you know, the people that were obvious were the people that had bad product also, even back then, right. Maybe there were people that you might have bumped into that you never knew.

Speaker B [00:04:10]:
Steve’s story began years before he wandered into haircloth for the first time. He shares with us what it was like as a young man struggling with early baldness in the 1970s. Being genetically predisposed might have lessened the shock, but it didn’t lessen the blow to his self esteem. With such limited options for solutions at the time, hair loss started to have a big impact on Steve’s life.

Steve Barth [00:04:38]:
For a young guy, 22 years of age, the last thing I want to do is come home and take the hair off and put it on the dresser. Okay? That certainly was not going to do it for me and wasn’t going to make me feel as if I got my hair back. So I was desperately seeking out a solution that I thought that would kind of match my own personal objectives and philosophy. So there was transplants. Transplants was in its early generation, early iteration. But to be honest with you, at that time, it wasn’t to me a very attractive option, either because at that time, the plugs, you know, they weren’t small enough or they weren’t able to put these micro plugs close enough together. You see right through the sparse hair into the incision into the scalp. It looked like a doll’s.

Speaker C [00:05:27]:
Yeah, I always heard the term baby doll hair, and that’s what they would say. And you would see it was almost imperfect lines, which hair just doesn’t do naturally.

Steve Barth [00:05:36]:
So if your goal and your aspiration was to actually have a full head of hair, especially at 22 years of age, you really weren’t going to get that in transplants unless it was a very isolated area, possibly.

Speaker C [00:05:48]:
Okay. Yeah.

Steve Barth [00:05:49]:
So, you know, and then there were some really primitive techniques that were around that became outlawed. They were actually implanting into the scalp what was essentially a synthetic therapy. You just.

Speaker C [00:06:00]:
So when you say synthetic, it’s not human hair, it’s plastic.

Steve Barth [00:06:04]:
In those days, the use of human hair was rare because human hair was very difficult to work with, because if you look at a human hair, a strand of human hair under a microscope, it has scales. And for our purposes, if these hairs retain their scales, then when you shampoo or when you do that type of thing, it’ll cause abundant tangling. So hair club had to find a way to strip this human hair of its scales so that it became more functional as a application that you had twenty four, seven. I mean, you weren’t removing anything. And that was the big value proposition. As I think business people would talk about. The real distinctiveness of what hair club was doing, even back then in the seventies, was offering this experience, whereas a hairpiece or a wig was a tangible product.

Speaker C [00:06:55]:
Okay.

Steve Barth [00:06:56]:
This was an experience far deeper, more philosophical. This is something that somebody could essentially feel and adopt as if it’s their own hair and go into the world feeling terrific. And that’s exactly what was my reaction when I first had this applied. So everything started, at least for my journey into hair restoration in 19, 76, 75. But it really started again. I want to remind you that when I was born, because the DNA combination.

Speaker C [00:07:30]:
I had and you kind of know that it’s coming. I knew as a young kid, I was eight to ten, and I saw pictures of my grandparents, and it’s like, okay, this is going to be my destiny.

Steve Barth [00:07:39]:
Yeah, listen, in most cases, it doesn’t really surprise you.

Speaker C [00:07:42]:
No.

Steve Barth [00:07:43]:
And in those days, I was into music, I was writing poetry, I was doing things that were tapping into that sensitive side of me, and I just didn’t feel that hair loss was going to work for me. And I remember compromising greatly, wouldn’t go out on a Friday night if I felt that I couldn’t get my hair placed just right, so that it created the illusion of being more than it was. And I would pass, and God forbid I ever got caught in rain and the hair would get wet and then it would look more sparse. So all of these things were really powerful concessions in my life.

Speaker C [00:08:20]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Steve Barth [00:08:21]:
And I knew that I had to try to put this behind me, and I had to, you know, eliminate a lot of these barriers that were holding me back.

Speaker B [00:08:34]:
Hair loss is hard at any age. But as Steve pointed out, the twenties are a time for self discovery. It’s a time to pursue a career, explore creativity, date, and have an active social life. It’s not a time when a young person wants to worry about which hair piece they should get or to maybe stay in because bad weather might expose their hair loss. Steve couldn’t live like that.

Steve Barth [00:08:59]:
My journey to do something actually started predated, even size spurling and hair club. I remember seeing a little advertisement, a print advertisement in one of the newspapers about a guy that was operating out of a very well known hair cutting salon on the west side of New York City, right by Columbus Circle. And his name, he had the greatest name in the world. His name was Jason Paul.

Speaker C [00:09:23]:
Jason Paul.

Steve Barth [00:09:24]:
Jason Paul. I have no idea if he’s even alive today, but he was a formulator of hair wellness products. And what he was advertising and marketing at the time was that he felt that hair loss, although it was, there was a genetic component to it, obviously, but he felt that through wellness techniques and nutrition, that you could go ahead and stabilize your hair growth and eventually reverse it.

Speaker C [00:09:50]:
Oh, wow.

Steve Barth [00:09:51]:
So I was really receptive to this message speaking to you, because when you’re first starting to lose hair, your first goal is, okay, how can I stop it? And even better yet, how could I regenerate? And I remember I didn’t even own a car at that time. I was a young guy coming in from New Jersey, and I took a bus into New York City, and I met with Jason Paul, who had this little carved out area of the salon. And he brought me there, and he had a white smock on, and it was all very. The staging was very impressive. And he took a little snip of my hair, and he put it in. What was this little vice, this little hand vise. What I mean is, he would, how can I describe this? He put it in this little device. He would then start winding it, which would stretch the hair, and eventually the hair would have enough tension, and it would break.

Steve Barth [00:10:44]:
And he had this way of measuring the tensile strength of the hair. Now, this is how it’s articulated to me, and I can tell you I ate it up. It was just amazing. He then put me under a machine where there was steam coming out of it. And the whole purpose of that was to try to erode or reduce a lot of the extra debris, surplus debris on the scalp that may be preventing you from growing hair or being in the best environment for growing hair. And not to mention that he also prescribed some vitamins that were from Switzerland, Basil, Switzerland. That was designed to be a hair nutritional supplement. I took more of those supplements than probably anybody alive.

Steve Barth [00:11:26]:
Okay. And I was obviously excited, particularly at first. And he was a very, very legitimate guy. He was scientific. But my predisposition, my genetic predisposition to its hair loss couldn’t be overcome, and I was just going to continue to lose hair. So again, this is a very natural first response at an early phase of the life cycle of losing hair. How can I stabilize it? How can I grow it back? Unfortunately, that didn’t work for me.

Speaker C [00:11:53]:
How long did you go on this journey before you realized that this isn’t the right path?

Steve Barth [00:11:57]:
Maybe a few months, six months, I can’t remember exactly, but I realized that it just wasn’t gonna work. And I was still left with this discontent about my hair and how I looked. So, you know, the search continued.

Speaker B [00:12:15]:
Anyone who’s experienced hair loss is familiar with the cycle of hope and disappointment that often accompanies it. Soon after his experience with Jason Paul, Steve was introduced to hair club founder Sy Sperling and began what would become a ever evolving relationship with hair club.

Steve Barth [00:12:36]:
So I was running a little also print ad in the back of the New York Post in the sports section.

Speaker C [00:12:42]:
Okay.

Steve Barth [00:12:43]:
And, you know, I saw it several times. He then finally graduated to the Sunday magazine section of the Sunday New York Times, which gave him a little bit more credibility.

Speaker C [00:12:52]:
Okay.

Steve Barth [00:12:53]:
He had one and only one office, which was at 185 Madison Avenue, on the corner of Madison and 34th Street. I was a young guy. I went in there for a consultation, not knowing much about what he offered. And we had a consultation that lasted about 3 hours. It was like, you know, I mean, this may seem a bit melodramatic, but it was really like two forces finding themselves and or two ships passing through the evening, and, you know, it was a very powerful consultation. Xi was like an action figure. He was a guy that you just believed in. He had that aura, and you just believed that anything he said to you was going to happen.

Steve Barth [00:13:35]:
He also was a terrific business mentor. I’m getting a little off track here, but he was a terrific businessman. I want to hear it all because he looked at things. What he taught me is never look at a business problem emotionally, always be objective. And that’s how I developed my whole approach to trying to solve business problems by looking at a problem and looking at the world the way it is and not necessarily the way I want it to be, and working around that and creating a set of solutions around those realities.

Speaker B [00:14:08]:
Psy had won Steve over, and even in its early stages, so hit hair club. He was ready to have his life back. And hair club offered him the opportunity to do that, to have hair again, even if it wasn’t growing from his own head. Hairclub’s product was very innovative for its time and was able to allow many people, Steve included, to regain their confidence and live with hair again.

Steve Barth [00:14:36]:
Hairpiece was not the language. That was not part of the hairpin.

Speaker B [00:14:39]:
What did you.

Steve Barth [00:14:40]:
Go ahead. Yeah.

Speaker C [00:14:40]:
What did you call it?

Speaker B [00:14:41]:
What was the linguist?

Steve Barth [00:14:42]:
Well, in those days, we used to call it a hair system.

Speaker C [00:14:45]:
Okay.

Steve Barth [00:14:45]:
And the reason that we made that distinction, again, if you go back to the earlier conversation, is that a hairpiece was manufactured and produced very differently.

Speaker C [00:14:54]:
Okay.

Steve Barth [00:14:54]:
And it was also very different philosophically.

Speaker C [00:14:57]:
Okay?

Steve Barth [00:14:58]:
It was meant to be on off. It was not meant to be part of a active lifestyle. Going to the gym, perspiring, jumping in the pool, swimming. So for a young guy that wants to essentially forget about his hair loss problem, having a hairpiece generally didn’t work on.

Speaker C [00:15:17]:
A lot of that meant a lot of jumping in a pool was taking your hair off and then jumping in.

Steve Barth [00:15:20]:
A pool with a normal hairpiece.

Speaker C [00:15:22]:
Yeah. If you had a hairpiece.

Steve Barth [00:15:23]:
Well, generally in those days, I mean, could you jump in a pool? Probably, but probably not confidently. And you certainly wouldn’t look very, very good as a result. I mean, your hair, the way that a hair piece was manufactured, is they would take the space material, and they would just basically, through what looked like almost a sewing machine, inject into that what was essentially synthetic hair fiber. And it was just to fill that base hair club in the strand by strand process, which was one of, you know, it was one of the terms that we owned, and still do, I believe, is we would actually basically take a schematic and notes on the way your hair naturally grew. And when we were preparing our head of hair or our hair system, even in those days, we were adding hair, real human hair, not synthetic hair. I want to emphasize that real human hair. And we were adding it in the natural direction of your hair growth. So, in those days, hair pieces were basically usually cut down by bobbers, whereas we were using only very talented hairstylists and cosmetologists that were using, you know, cutting shears and layer cutting hair, which gave the hair motion and gave it movement.

Speaker C [00:16:41]:
Right.

Steve Barth [00:16:42]:
So those are only few of the distinctions. In addition, probably the most important distinction was you weren’t removing the hair, and you didn’t need to because it was real hair that was added in the, you know, consistent and compatible with your natural hair growth that was cut in a precise way so that it was designed to perform a lot more effectively in an active lifestyle.

Speaker B [00:17:08]:
Hair club became Steve’s career, as well as his personal hair loss solution. He loved the product and the philosophy. However, he still took great interest in Jason Paul’s work and integrated this approach into his own.

Steve Barth [00:17:25]:
They were two very different people and very different approaches. Jason was really a scientist. He formulated a product. He was interested in trying to find out the biochemical root causes of hair loss. Psy was a guy that wanted to capture the interest of somebody that got to the point that they want to do something. So his approach to communications was very different. Psy was not a technology guy. He was married, actually, to a stylist.

Steve Barth [00:17:51]:
Her name was Amy, Amy Sperling. And he relied on her more for technology development. Now, how was that product, let’s say, in the seventies, compared to hair club products and services in 2024? Yeah, very different. I mean, we’ve, you know, we really have advanced in every conceivable way. As a matter of fact, I always urge people to. That hair club is not the same company that your dad or your grandfather invested in.

Speaker C [00:18:21]:
Very true.

Steve Barth [00:18:22]:
It’s very different. We’ve always been very progressive. We also were careful to avoid the trending, because certain trending, particularly in hair restoration, was introducing products that were not good for your health or were scam products, gimmicks. And we always basically wanted to have a credible, very creditable family of products. But remember that for the longest time, hair club only had one single solution, which at those days, we.

Speaker C [00:18:51]:
It’s the end solution.

Steve Barth [00:18:52]:
It was the end solution. It was at a point where you got physically and psychologically where you wanted to basically create this appearance of more hair, but it wasn’t growing out of the scalp, obviously. It was subject to maintenance, which people were more than willing to do because they were so delighted with feeling better about themselves. But all of those things were about one solution. It would all do modesty. It was I that introduced and expanded that product window and introduced hair and scalp therapy. And much of that was inspired by my time with Jason Paul. Okay, because he was the guy that introduced me to the science of hair loss and to products that perhaps can reverse hair loss.

Steve Barth [00:19:38]:
And I was very impacted by that presentation. Even though it didn’t succeed for me.

Speaker B [00:19:48]:
Hair loss can truly be life altering. Like many of our guests, after experiencing hair loss himself, Steve went on to pursue a career that would allow him to help others navigate this challenge. Learning about Steve’s journey with hair loss in the seventies, the technologies of that time, and specifically the development of Hair Club has been fascinating. If you’d like to hear more from Steve, make sure you subscribe to the show. We’ll be having him back on to discuss the development of his state of the art diagnostic tool, the tricovue hair and scalp analysis system. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search Hairpot on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know somebody who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if you would share it with them.

Speaker B [00:20:33]:
If youre enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. were here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time.

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My Hair Loss Journey with Kevin Rolston

My Hair Loss Journey with Kevin Rolston

by | Jun 4, 2024 | Episode

Episode 15

My Hair Loss Treatment Journey with Kevin Rolston

My Hair Loss Journey with Kevin Rolston - episode 15
Experiencing hair loss at a young age, or any age, can be challenging; there are a lot of options out there, and finding the right solution often requires time and guidance. In this episode of HairPod, our host, Kevin Rolston, shares his experience with hair loss solutions.

The Shock of Balding and the Hunt for the Best Hair Regrowth Treatment

Like many of us, Kevin’s hair loss was not just a physical change but also an emotional journey. It was a part of his family history, and he had always dreaded the day his hair would start to thin. So when he began balding at 26, it was not a shock, but it was still a challenge. Kevin took immediate action, trying over-the-counter topical solutions without much luck. In the early years of his hair loss, Kevin received some guidance and began taking Finasteride. The medication successfully slowed his hair loss for a time. As the years passed, Kevin noticed increased hair loss and began seeking new methods. It is important to keep in mind, that just because something works for a time, this does not mean it will work forever. The good news is there are many different options for all stages of hair loss.

Searching for Hair Loss Solutions – Laser Caps and Hair Transplants

Determined to have a full head of hair, Kevin tried laser hair therapy. He found it to be convenient and accessible. However, Kevin’s hair loss became more significant as he aged; he wanted a permanent solution. At this point, he decided to undergo a hair transplant procedure. He shares what this experience was like and some of the key things to look into when considering a transplant. Kevin was very satisfied with the results of his procedure for many years, but his journey wasn’t over yet. His hair was still thinning, and Kevin decided to try another hair solution instead of continuing to pursue transplants.

Not Sure Where To Go – Find A Hair Specialist!

Kevin eventually found a solution that worked for him-a hair system that gave him a full head of natural hair. He was ecstatic; he felt young and confident again. Kevin recommends seeking the guidance of a hair specialist so that you can discover the solution that will work for your hair, your lifestyle, and your budget. It’s important to know all of your options. We hope Kevin’s experience will shed some light on your own – keep your chin up; the right solution is out there, and there are many different options to explore!

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.15 Transcript

Kevin Rolston [00:00:04]:
That’s why I completely recommend finding a specialist and somebody that walks you through all this. But as far as what I am doing right now with my hair, it is natural hair. It looks absolutely amazing. It blends in. I have a hairstylist that cuts it any way that I want. I go in every three weeks and it looks completely natural. You would have no idea that I have a hair system on at all. And that’s, to me, why I love it.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:47]:
Hello, my name is Kevin Rolston, and I am the host of the HairPod. And today I want to take you through my own hair loss journey. Everybody’s going to have their own story and it’s going to be completely different. But maybe something I say in my own hair loss journey can help you with the hair loss journey that you are going through as well. For me, I knew at a very young age that I likely was going to have to deal with hair loss. There was a portrait of my maternal grandfather that was hanging in the upstairs hallway, and I remember noticing just how much hair he was missing and having a conversation with my mom, and she may not even realize, but she flippantly just said, yeah, you know what they say that it comes from your maternal grandfather. That’s probably what your hair is going to look like when you get older. And it freaked me out.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:34]:
It really did, because I didn’t want to look like that. To me, that was the embodiment of old. I loved my hair. I always thought hair was absolutely gorgeous. So I had that dread at an early age, probably around the age of eight. So I continue on. I progress through high school and I get into college. Everything is still fine.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:54]:
Hair is okay, even though it is very fine and thin. I didn’t have any hair loss that I noticed. Then it was finally at the age of 26. I was doing an event where I was breaking a board for a taekwondo class, and I had to bend over to strike the board to break it. And as I did, somebody snapped a photo of me and they said, hey, look at this photo. That was so cool that you did that. And the only thing I noticed was not me breaking the board, it was the fact that I had a noticeable bald spot right at the crown of my head. And it freaked me out.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:30]:
And I said, here it begins. And I knew that that photo that I had seen when I was eight years old was now starting to begin. But the question is, how fast would the journey be? Because the portrait of my grandfather was him in his seventies. So was I going to be able to hold onto my hair until my seventies, or was it something that was going to rapidly start falling out? I didn’t want to wait and find out, so I went out and I found somebody that could give me advice on what to do, because there are so many things that happen and, yeah, you can start with your rogains. In fact, that was the first thing I did. I went out and I got some of the stuff that you can get at your regular pharmacy now. I started applying it and using it. I was impatient and I was concerned, but I stuck with it.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:15]:
I would say a good six months I was there, and I kept doing it, kept using it, but I kept noticing hair coming out my hands as I would wash it. I noticed in the drain that there was more and more hair, and I just felt like I was still losing more than I was keeping. And so I thought that I needed to go to the next level. And there are so many levels, and that next level was talking to somebody that gave me some guidance. And I was very happy that they plugged me into something called finasteride. It was a pill that I would take that would basically blocked the DHT, the testosterone created by my body that would start closing up my hair follicles and making my hair fall out. And for me, it was really great. It really did slow down my hair loss.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:00]:
And from the age of 26 into my thirties, probably a good ten years, it was all I needed. But look, im a person thats always been on that quest to have a perfect head of hair, and im very particular about it. And any kind of hair loss or just something looking like Im losing it at all still bother me. And there were still some of those issues. So I continued my journey and I tried about everything because I wanted to see, hey, what was going to work best for me. And that’s the one thing I found. That’s why to me, every person’s hair loss journey is different, because I think things work differently for people. And not to mention, too, I was at a different budget at the age of 26 than when I was 36, so I had more options and there was more that I could do, and that’s part of the conversation as well.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:48]:
So throughout my journey, there are other things that I went to. Lasers. That was something that’s pretty interesting. I started off by doing a salon laser where I would have to sit in the chair, and for 30 minutes a week I would have this blinky little light on top of my head. And so many people have talked about great experiences that they’ve had with that, and the technology for it’s really improved. And so many people just absolutely love you using the laser caps, and that’s all that they’ve needed. And the laser caps now can be done portably. You could have a laser cap, which I did.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:25]:
After I went through the salon visits, I got my own, and it was something that I would wear, and I wanted to up my frequency, too. I found that just one time a week wasn’t enough. I wanted more. Cause, hey, if it worked great, one time a week, I heard that using it several times a week was even better. So I’m doing it three to four, maybe even five times a week, at least a minimum of three. And when you have your own laser cap, that’s something you can do, and you can walk around. It can be portable. If you’re on a road trip, you can actually put it on your head and drive around.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:54]:
And who cares what anybody else in traffic thinks about you? They don’t even really notice. It was really amazing because it really looked like a ball cap factors, a ball cap that went over top of it, so it was pretty discreet. And the laser caps work really well. So that might be an option that you want to do. There are so many other options that I didn’t even try outside of the ointments and the topicals that you could do. Even now, there’s people that are doing the tattooing, and there’s just interesting little extra ants and stuff like that that you can use that I haven’t really gotten into. And, look, if you seek something like that out, there’s just so many options. I even went the route of the hair transplant, and that was my next step, because I wanted to fill in a few spaces, and I knew it was going to be more of a permanent solution.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:38]:
And my experience was, honestly, really good. With the hair transplant, it wasn’t anything that was painful. They numb up your head. I was doing something where we had a show. We were walking people through the procedure, so mine took a little bit longer. I was down for about 10 hours. But a couple things that I would tell you about the hair transplant is you might want to look into the payment plans that they do, because I had one of those, and it became something that worked into my budget when I did that. The other thing you might want to find out, too, is how many strands you’re putting in, how they’re putting them in.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:11]:
I had a really good transplant doctor that could make it look really natural, and that’s, of course, what you’re definitely going to want, and I think a lot of the transplant specialists out there today are going to be somebody that is going to do basically what I had with numbing of the scalp. I didn’t feel anything at all. That wasn’t any kind of issue, and I wasn’t really out. You had to, you know, cover your head, hair up for, you know, a couple of weeks because there’s going to be some fallout, some shedding, and it’s going to take a little bit of time. That’s one thing to know, to really fully see that hair and that area come to fruition and be strong. Like, it’s going to be six months to probably a year is about what it’s going to take. But, boy, when it’s in there, it’s permanent, and it’s pretty awesome. And you might also want to try to get an idea of just how much more hair you’re going to lose because you get a hair transplant.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:01]:
It’s possible you might need another hair transplant down the road, or you might need more than one to fill whatever space that you have. You know, those, to me, are good questions you need to ask when you go in if you are going to consider doing a hair transplant. And I love mine, and it maintained for probably another five to maybe even ten years, I would say I wound up doing that. But as I continued to look, yeah, I continued to lose. I was heading down the path of where my grandfather was, and that’s where I was going to go. And what I started noticing was some of the commercials that I would see on tv of people that were showing a little bit before and after and their stuff on social media. And it was pretty amazing because people who had the kind of hairline that my grandfather had and what I felt like I was heading to even a doctor Phil type of hairline, they were finding hair solutions with natural hair. I said, you know what? I think that’s where I want to go.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:57]:
And again, it was something that I could do, and I started looking into the budgeting of it. I said, okay, this, to me, is my best fit. And going with that option really was fantastic. That was my hair solution, to have that and look maintaining with the finasteride, I found a great deal because I got the generic where it was only a dollar a day for the pill, and that was something that I could work in. And that really does slow down the hair loss. And so you might want to have a combination of things that you want to do. So that’s why I completely recommend finding a specialist and somebody that walks you through all this. But as far as what I am doing right now with my hair, it is natural hair.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:43]:
It looks absolutely amazing. It blends in. I have a hairstylist that cuts it any way that I want. I go in every three weeks and it looks completely natural. You would have no idea that I have a hair system on at all. And that’s, to me, why I love it. You can change up your hairstyle the way you look. They can gradually make it look like you haven’t just all of a sudden gone from completely bald to having a full head of hair.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:11]:
They have strategies. They can start small. They can continue to improve it. You can do things like grow facial hair, take facial hair off, start wearing glasses, take glasses off so that people don’t really understand the big change that you made. If being discreet is what you want to do. For me, I just wanted to have that kind of hair, and I wanted it today, and I wasn’t shy about it. I’m a very open individual, and so I was cool with telling people what I did because I want people to know. And that’s why I host the hairpod, because I want people to know what great solutions are out there.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:42]:
Because if you can get that confidence on day one, go for it. And for me, the biggest thing about having my hair system is how much younger it makes me look. I’m 50 years old now, and I’m not trying to toot my own horn. Most people say I look about 35. It really does. You take off my hair system and I look my age, it takes ten to 15 years off of your appearance, I believe, at least for me. And that’s why having a hair system is where I wanted to go. But doing this hair pod is all about these different solutions that are out there so that you hopefully find the one that is right for you.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:18]:
And that’s why I recommend getting a hair expert in your corner. Finding out, is finasteride right for you? Is it a minoxidil type of solution that’s going to be right for you? Is it a laser cap? It is a hair transplant. Is it one of the other many solutions that are out there? Having somebody that’s in your corner and continuing to come to the HairPod to hear these great discussions is going to help you find your solution for the budget that’s right for you, and make sure you get a hold of us, too, because if you have any kind of questions, we would love to address them and correspond with you and maybe even do an episode that you suggest. So check us out on Instagram @HairClub or go to Facebook. We’re there as well. I hope you find some great information in this episode and hopefully my hair journey is going to help you on yours.

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Hair Loss and Mental Health with Claire Fullam

Hair Loss and Mental Health with Claire Fullam

by | May 28, 2024 | Episode

Episode 14

Hair Loss and Mental Health with Claire Fullam

Hair loss and mental health with Claire Fullam - episode 14
Hair loss can have a significant impact on mental health, but unfortunately, this is often not given the attention it deserves. To complicate matters, mental health issues such as stress can even be the trigger for conditions related to hair loss. In this episode of HairPod, we wrap up Mental Health Awareness Month by discussing the connection between mental health and hair loss with guest Claire Fullam, a trichologist from Dublin. Claire shares her story of living with alopecia, her struggles with addiction, and her journey to recovery. We hope her story provides inspiration and insight for those experiencing the emotional impact of hair loss.

Claire’s Story – Alopecia and the Birth of Claire Balding

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease that can cause rapid hair loss. It can be triggered by stress and can vary in intensity. Claire was hit hard and fast, losing most of her hair in less than two months. She tried all avenues and specialists, seeking a solution and explanation. During this initial phase of her hair loss journey, Claire also launched her social media persona, “Claire Balding,” to share her story and empower others, while at the same time creating her own network of support.

It’s Not Just Hair – Hair Loss, Trauma and the Path to Addiction

Claire’s hair loss was not only a result of the stress she was experiencing but also a contributor to it! Autoimmune disorders such as alopecia areata can be challenging to manage because of the vicious nature of the stress cycle. Struggling with the pressures of motherhood, life, and her newly discovered alopecia, Claire found herself slipping into substance abuse. She shares her story and transformation, highlighting the need for support and community.

Prioritizing Mental Health While Seeking Hair Loss Solutions

Claire brings to light the emotional impact hair loss can have on the individual experiencing it. The pain of hair loss is difficult to understand for those who haven’t been there, but is a very real problem. Our hair is tied to identity, health, and security. The trauma of hair loss is real, and sometimes this only becomes apparent in hindsight. It is important to seek emotional support along the way. Claire shares how hearing others’ stories has helped her and inspired her to share her experience with alopecia and addiction.

Empowering Resources

Follow Claire on Instagram

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.14 Transcript
Claire Fullam [00:00:04]:
I was drinking for a lot of reasons, Kevin. I think I was drinking to escape the trauma of the hair loss. I think it affected me a hell of a lot more than I really knew. And I think I dealt with it strangely. Like, I dealt with it. You know, most people try and hide, right? Well, I went online and I made this Persona, and I lived through this person that I called Claire Balding. And she was everything I’ve ever wanted to be.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:44]:
Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Ralston. And each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. As some of you may know, May is mental health awareness month. A theme that arises during almost every episode of Hairpod is the unforeseen impact that hair loss can have on our emotions, our stress, our daily lives, and our relationships. Losing your hair can feel devastating and isolating, but it doesnt have to stay that way. For this episode, I spoke with Claire Folum, a Dublin based trichologist who, like so many others, has faced the struggle and shock of dealing with rapid hair loss.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:38]:
Claires search for answers and support led her to begin a bold journey. Is the social media presence of Claire Balding. And eventually to open her own trichology clinic. Claire discusses the impact her hair loss had on her mental health, her struggle with addiction, and her choice to pursue a career that will help give others struggling with alopecia more options and more community. Claires path has been a rocky but inspiring one. And today she shares with us not only what she learned about alopecia, but what Alopecia has taught her about herself.

Claire Fullam [00:02:18]:
I lost all my own hair almost eight years. Go to the day. It was actually, I think, next week, eight years ago. So I lost 90% of my hair and went on a big journey with that, a huge journey with that. And then decided, you know what? I really want to learn why this happened to me in the first place. I want to go back to college. I want to study, and I want to try and understand, because I’m a big believer in, like, things happen for a reason, you know, and I think that there’s always a reason behind some sort of pain that you got through in your life. And I think that I really wanted to understand how was I supposed to help others going through hair loss? And, you know, also for me, I still suffer with it.

Claire Fullam [00:02:55]:
I still get patches of alopecia. So how am I going to manage this? Because I understand that it’s something I’m going to have to manage. It doesn’t just go away from lotion or a potion, you know, that kind of way. So how am I supposed to manage this? So I did that. I opened my trichology clinic then four years ago. It’s called Trua. We’re an online trichology clinic. Trua means compassion of school.

Claire Fullam [00:03:17]:
That’s the irish language. And I suppose that’s what our clinic is based on, is compassion and is understanding, you know, and trying to come at hair loss and scalp conditions from a huge, you know, all different angles, I suppose. So that’s what has led me here. So kind of, I suppose, quite a full circle story, because I visited a trichologist when my hair was falling out, and I visited dermatologists, my general practitioners here in Ireland as well. And the only one who gave me that little bit of hope, to be really honest with you, was a trichologist, you know? So it’s funny, if you asked me eight years ago, Kevin said, claire, what do you want to be when you grow up? It wouldn’t have been a trichologist, to be honest with you. I didn’t even know what one was. So it’s funny where life takes you.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:00]:
Let’s talk about your journey, where it began. It sounds like it began with hair loss. And what age were you when that first started to appear?

Claire Fullam [00:04:08]:
Yeah, so I was 27 and. Yeah, that is, I was 27, nearly 28, actually. So that’s eight years ago now. And I had two children who were very young at the time. I think my daughter was about five and my son was about one. And I think. I suppose I got, you know, did everything really young, like most of my friends. I’m nearly 37 now.

Claire Fullam [00:04:30]:
Most of my friends are only starting their families and stuff now, you know, whereas I started, like, 13 years ago and like that. Myself and my husband, we grew up really fast. We bought a house in the area that we grew up. We raised our kids. My friends were going to college and going on nights out and traveling Europe, and I was changing athys, you know, and I was paying bills and I was doing all that kind of stuff. And I suppose I didn’t manage my stress very well. You know, I think that I internalized a lot of it, and I think that I tried to pretend that everything was okay because you can’t really drop a ball when you’re a young parent, you know, it’s hard to drop that ball and also pick it back up. There’s a lot of expectation on you as well.

Claire Fullam [00:05:07]:
So I think a lot of people would say to me, God, Claire, like, when your hair started to fall, like, were you. What was going on? Like, was something really traumatic going on was, you know, but it wasn’t. It was just life. You know, life is stressful and life can take a toll on you sometimes. And when you’re trying to continuously juggle balls and pretend you’re okay and that you’re coping, I think sometimes your body is a funny way of showing you that you’re not, you know, and I think that when I first found my first patch of alopecia, I found it just in my split here. And I assumed that I’d. With the curling iron or something too close to my scalp. And then I remember, like this time of the year, like, you know, coming into the summer months, well, the summer that we get in Ireland isn’t spectacular, but it’s slightly warmer for a couple of weeks.

Claire Fullam [00:05:50]:
But, you know, I just assumed, just assumed that, you know, around that time of the year, I lose more hair. We all do. We’re like animals shedding kind of, you know, for the summer months and stuff. So I always knew. And I had a lot of hair. Big, classic redheads, big, classic irish head on me. And I was losing a lot of hair at that time. But again, I assumed that, oh, that’s fine, that’s the time of year.

Claire Fullam [00:06:11]:
But this time was different, you know, I started to lose an extreme amount of hair. I was scooping it up in the office, I was hiding it, I was emptying the bins in the office because I was so embarrassed of it. And within five weeks, I was in a wig, you know, a full blown wig. I’d lost 90% of my hair in five weeks.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:27]:
Did you say 90%?

Claire Fullam [00:06:29]:
990. Yeah. Yeah. So I went from somebody who was hugely identified by my hair, like everyone would say, oh, you know, Claire with the red hair. Like, that’s the way people would describe me now, Claire with the red hair to having no hair, really, you know, in five weeks, at 27 years of age, doesn’t matter what age are, you know, it’s spectacularly stressful. I went on every radio show, every tv show that would have me trying to find this answer, I suppose, you know, somebody will tell me what to do. Somebody like nobody knew. And my family, my friends group, nobody knew.

Claire Fullam [00:07:05]:
And I remember uploading a status on Facebook to like my 400 close friends at the time. And I remember the Irish Times. It’s a big national newspaper here in Ireland. Picked up the story and shared the story. And from there, I suppose, I started to document my hair loss online, you know. So at the time, Snapchat was really big. Apparently, it’s back again with a bang, with the kids too old for that now, but Snapchat at the time. And when I called myself Claire Balding, and Claire Balding is a big tv personality, actually, over in the.

Claire Fullam [00:07:37]:
Over in Great Britain. And I named myself, I suppose, after her. And it’s a real irish trait to, you know, almost slag yourself and take the mick out of yourself first before anybody else can. Does that make sense? It’s like a self deprecating kind of thing. So Claire Balding was born, and Claire Balding is still around to this day. I suppose I kind of cultivated a community and an audience, you know, that were looking for help with hair loss as well. But then, you know, slowly but surely, it kind of became my life and just documented my life and the ups and the downs of it. I had a large audience, somewhere about 90,000 followers on Instagram, which is big for Ireland, because there’s only about ten of us in the country.

Claire Fullam [00:08:19]:
So, you know, it was. It was, you know, white went from zero to 90 pretty quick.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:30]:
Claire’s baldness was not permanent. When her hair began growing back, people assumed that she had overcome the emotional aspects of her hair loss, but her alopecia would continue to flare up, and the challenges this brought to her mental health were far from over. Her experience with hair loss had started her on a journey, and there was no turning back. She had become a public figure, and now, for better or worse, had a social identity tied to this condition.

Claire Fullam [00:09:02]:
Within about a year, my hair started to come back, which was unusual. People didn’t think that that was going to happen, but very, very quickly, quite, you know, as fast as it fell out, it started to come back. Now it was white, the pigments never returned, and it was a different texture, all that kind of stuff. So really, really weird one to manage. But I suppose I thought then, and especially when my hair started to come out, or even when I wore my hair piece, when I wore my wig, people were like, Claire’s grand now. Like, she’s fine now. She’s got her hair back now. But there’s so many demons, I suppose, you know? And I suppose some of the things that were going on, but my mental health, you know, it was masking all of that a little bit.

Claire Fullam [00:09:42]:
And eventually that erupted along those years. Like, that’s eight years ago now. I’m three years sober, thank God. You know, it led me to a path of addiction, and it all stemmed from my hair loss. So, I mean, as strange as that story is, Kevin, you know, there’s a lot there. I’ve just like, embarked eight years on top of you there now. Sorry about that. But as strange as that story is, that’s why I’m a great trichologist.

Claire Fullam [00:10:07]:
That’s why I’m great at running our business. That’s why. Why I’m passionate about scalp and hair health and people like you bringing awareness of it. Because I think hair loss can sometimes get lost in this level of vanity, you know, whereas it really, truly can affect people’s lives, you know, and not just your life and your God, through your family’s life and everybody else’s life as well. So it’s so important to speak about it as much as possible. I think.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:37]:
The stresses of life and the impact of living with alopecia continued to weigh on Claire, even as she worked so hard to adapt to it and provide a community for others to do so as well. Claire began leaning on alcohol more and more.

Claire Fullam [00:10:57]:
I was drinking for a lot of reasons, Kevin. I think I was drinking to escape the trauma of the hair loss. I think it affected me a hell of a lot more than I really knew. And I think I dealt with it strangely. Like, I dealt with it, you know, most people try and hide, right? Well, I went online and I made this Persona and I lived through this, you know, person that I called Claire Balding. And she was everything I’ve ever wanted to be, but I was always too scared to be. So I treated her as this Persona and, you know, allowed all of life. Stress has come out through her.

Claire Fullam [00:11:32]:
And I did a tv show, I did countless live shows all around Ireland. And all the time my drinking just kept getting a little bit bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, you know, but I suppose when. And look, we have a culture here as well, you know, that we rely on it a lot. And it’s a deep rooted issue within Ireland that we run from, you know, a lot of people, especially. What age was I then, like 33? And it’s very young to kind of, you know, I suppose, face these demons a little bit, you know, but I knew that if I didnt, I die.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:06]:
Like many people who find themselves struggling with addiction, Claire was not fully aware that she had a problem. By all appearances, Claire had it all together. She was a mother, a wife, a business owner. Not to mention her hair had come back. It can be hard to recognize that youve even got a substance abuse problem when its so normalized by the society around you. It wasnt until she heard a few familiar voice on the radio that Claire was able to face her budding addiction and turn things around.

Claire Fullam [00:12:39]:
I remember hearing on the radio, I was sitting, I was working in my front room in my kitchen, and I remember the radio came on. And again, a really famous program in Ireland. And I heard somebody I knew on the radio, and she was talking about her own alcoholism. And I was like, oh, my God. Like, I didn’t know Sophie suffrage, like, with alcoholism at all. Like, I didn’t realize this. I met Sophie. She’s a podcast in Ireland.

Claire Fullam [00:13:04]:
She’s very well known. She’s an author. She’s a brilliant person, you know, and I didn’t have any idea that Sophie was struggling so much. So I remember going, like, so close to the radio. It was actually a radio. It wasn’t like a Siri or my Google. It was an actual radio in my kitchen, right? And I remember I went up to it, and it was as if I could, like, feel Sophie’s breath coming through the radio and talking to me. And I remember holding my own hand as if I was holding hers.

Claire Fullam [00:13:29]:
And every single thing she said, I was like, oh, my God, she’s describing me. She’s describing my life. She described this, that every day she lit this fire in her own home, and every day she tried to control it, you know, and she knew that if she let it get out of control, it would ravage her and her home and her boys and her husband. But she kept lining it every day, and she couldn’t understand why she was doing this to herself. And I just remember that analogy stuck with me. And I said, she’s Claire. Like, what are you doing? There was no rock bottom for me, Kevin. I think it was more like a real deep realization.

Claire Fullam [00:14:07]:
I remember I went to my first AA meeting. It was 2021, so there was no physical AA meetings, really, because it was still COVID times back then, of course. And I went to my first one on St. Patrick’s Day of all days. And I remember it was actually all my friends were having pints, you know, and I was sitting on my bed crying at the spectacular. I was like, oh, my God, what a day. Yeah, but I’ll never forget it. I suppose that’s a good one, you know, but I remember it was actually an american AA meeting, because I was too scared.

Claire Fullam [00:14:40]:
Scared to go to an irish one. So I joined an american link because nobody would know me over there. This would be fine, you know? And it just. It was a real eye opener, you know? And I think that my hair loss started that. Maybe not started it. I always loved to drink, you know? And I think, again, being a young parent, when I get a night off, I’d go wild, you know, because I had a night off, and I was always the friend who had a story. I was always the friend. She went too far.

Claire Fullam [00:15:06]:
I was always a big drinker. But I think the hair loss didn’t help. And then having this big community online, the pressure of that didn’t help either, you know, and I think that it kind of came to a point. And when you recognize yourself and somebody else, it’s so important. That’s why I think these stories are so important, because somebody else will hear this and say, that’s me, you know, or that’s her, that’s him, you know, and their family. So sharing those stories are hugely important. They’ll save people’s lives, you know? Again, like, as I said earlier on, like, it’s funny where life brings you, isn’t it? Because fair balding was such a painful thing for me for a while, you know, she. I say she, like, she’s a different person, but, you know, she.

Claire Fullam [00:15:45]:
It was. It was a painful place because you can only be on top for so long, you know, and what comes up must come down. So even though people are very fond of you, they might have a different opinion on one thing than you. And social media can be cruel. It can be a cruel place, you know? So I think I ran from her for a while. I took six months off social media, and I said, you know what, Claire? You’re gonna have to sort. Sort yourself out. And that’s when I started, you know, my sober journey, thank God, and started that whole process then as well, you know, so it’s given me huge strength.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:22]:
Talking with Claire has been such a great reminder of how important community can be, especially when it comes to mental health support. It can be so comforting and inspiring to discover that we are not alone in our experience and to learn from those who have already walked the path. If you want to hear more from Claire, make sure you subscribe to the show, because were going to be having her back on to discuss living with alopecia. And make sure you check out our show notes for links to follow Claire on social media. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpot. Check us out Araclub on Instagram or search Hairpot on Facebook to continue this conversation. If you know somebody who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if you would share it with them. If youre enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:12]:
We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. Were here to build people up and share real stories of people experiencing hair loss so they feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time.

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Do Something About Your Hair Loss by Joey Logano

Do Something About Your Hair Loss by Joey Logano

by | May 21, 2024 | Episode

Episode 13

Do Something About Your Hair Loss by Joey Logano

Do something about your hair loss by Joey Logano
For this episode, we’re bringing back one from the vault. Listen in to hear our host Kevin Rolston and NASCAR-champ Joey Logano talk about all things hair loss – from the first time, Joey noticed his alopecia to how he found a hair loss solution that can handle the heat of a stock car race!

Alopecia: What is going on with your hair?

Most men notice hair thinning along their hairline or the crown of their head. In Joey’s case, his hair loss journey started suddenly. After going to the barber, he came home only to have his wife comment that the back of his haircut looked patchy. Over time, however, Joey realized the hair wasn’t growing back.

After speaking with a dermatologist, Joey was diagnosed with alopecia. Alopecia is an autoimmune condition that can vary widely in severity. While Joey was learning to live with his condition, one thing he couldn’t live without was hair! He was able to find a solution that would work for him and his fast-paced lifestyle.

The Ultimate Test: A NASCAR Race!

As a competitor, Joey needs to have clear focus. With so many things to worry about during a race, Joey can’t be wondering if his hair is going to cause him any issues. He has discovered that his new hair is the least of his concerns amidst the heat and high-pressure environment.

When he’s not on the racetrack, Joey balances the busy life of a public figure and a family man. Keeping up his image is important, not just to the fans, but to his confidence.

You Can Do Something About Your Hair Loss

For Joey, HairClub was the perfect solution. He’s not shy about sharing that, either – Joey hopes to help people who want to find their path towards better confidence and liking what they see in the mirror. If you’re struggling with those first steps forward, consider booking a free consultation, just like Joey did!

Empowering Resources

Follow Joey on Instagram @joeylogano

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.13 Transcript

Joey Logano [00:00:06]:
Well, when Alopecia thing started up, that’s when they just did some, like, steroid shots. And for one, I didn’t, oh, I didn’t really like the needles in my head for one of them, for one thing, and it wasn’t working. That was the other thing that really, really wasn’t working. And I was like, okay, I need to. That’s when I drop back and punt here. There’s something. I’m not going down the right road here. I need to kind of, you know, find something better and different.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:48]:
Welcome back to another episode of Hairpod. I’m your host, Kevin Ralston. And each week, I get to interview people from different walks of life, but they all have one thing in common. Their lives have been affected by hair loss. Each week, we’re going to share people’s lived experiences with hair loss and most importantly, what they did to get their hair and their confidence back. For this episode, we’re bringing one back from the vault and one we know you’re going to love. Anybody who’s a fan of NASCAR knows the name Joey Logano. Joey is a two time NASCAR Cup Series champion and has made waves in the world of stock car racing with his achievements.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:25]:
But newer fans may not know that Joey has struggled with an autoimmune disorder called alopecia, which causes partial or total hair loss. And Joey learned of his alopecia after a routine trip to the barber.

Joey Logano [00:01:40]:
Well, it’s actually kind of. I mean, at this point now, it’s a funny story, but at the time, I just went to get my hair cut like I typically do at the local barber shop. And I got home, and my wife goes, what did they do to the back of your head? I’m like, oh, what do you mean, what did they do back? They gave me a haircut. She goes, they completely botched your haircut. Like, no way. And she shows me a picture, and it’s just spots all over the back of my head. I’m like, well, it did botch my haircut, but she’s pissed. She’s like, this lady that cut your hair should not be working there.

Joey Logano [00:02:11]:
She’s gonna screw up someone else’s haircut, and then everyone’s gonna look ridiculous like you look. And so she drives down there to tell this lady how she shouldn’t be cutting hair anymore. Fast forward. Fast forward a week or so, and it’s not growing back. I’m like, hold on. I think there’s something wrong. And I went to dermatologist, and, like, they diagnosed with alopecia. And I was like, okay, well, I don’t know what that means, and what do I do? And the first thing I knew what it meant is that we need to drive back to the barbershop and apologize to the poor lady that cut my hair.

Joey Logano [00:02:43]:
And that was the first thing we had to do.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:47]:
Yeah. Yeah. Because I’m curious, like, how much, like, alopecia, how many bald spots did you have? How prominent was it?

Joey Logano [00:02:56]:
It comes in and out. Honestly, comes in and out. Sometimes in the back of my head, top my head. Sometimes it shows up in my beard.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:03]:
Oh, wow.

Joey Logano [00:03:04]:
You know, it just. It’s different ways. It’s an autoimmune disorder, is what it is. And.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:08]:
Okay, okay.

Joey Logano [00:03:10]:
There’s no rhyme or reason. They can’t really understand it. They say maybe stress, hereditary. It’s really like, you don’t know. I mean, on top of the alopecia, I was just going bald. Right? Like, that was the other piece of. Wait, do you.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:21]:
Do you ever come under any stress at all? What do you do that’s so stressful?

Joey Logano [00:03:26]:
Yes. We’ll just flare it up here not too long ago. So it makes sense. As the playoffs usually roll around, it is a lot of stress that gets put on the plate. Yeah. Driving circles as fast as never. Fast enough is what it is, though. So.

Joey Logano [00:03:41]:
Always looking for more on that one.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:47]:
It’s common for people who are losing their hair to try a few different solutions before they find one that works for them. Things such as reducing stress, changing their diet, taking supplements, essential oils, grandma’s remedies. Shoot. I gotta admit, I have tried some crazy ideas myself. So you are like a lot of guys. You notice that you’ve got some hair loss issues. You’ve got a unique situation. And the reason why we’re doing the hair pot is because we’re trying to let people know that there are solutions out there.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:18]:
And it sounds like your first step was what a lot of guys first step is. And being a NASCAR like you are, you were able to wear a lot of hats. But then tell me about the challenges with that, because, you know, I know being in the field that I’m in, where you do media is, you wind up with these social functions where you just. A hat’s just not going to cut it. You kind of wound up with the same situation.

Joey Logano [00:04:40]:
Yeah. And it happened, whether it’s, you know, you think about Ferrari stuff during the national anthem or the prayer before the race, you take your hat off and then you see, like, pictures and stuff afterwards, like, golly, I’m like, I’m bald, honey. You can’t realize it because it happens so slow. You know what I mean?

Kevin Rolston [00:04:56]:
Yeah.

Joey Logano [00:04:57]:
But then eventually, like, yeah, I should just do something about it. I can, so why wouldn’t I? What’s wrong with that? And, you know, like, a lot of people, you know, it’s a little awkward what direction we’re supposed to go here is this. But honestly, it’s normal, right? Like, so many people deal with it. And if you can do something about it, why? Why wouldn’t you? You know, there’s nothing wrong with that. And, like, who’s gonna judge you for that? For wanting to be better, right? Like, why do you go to gym and work out to be better? You know, look good, feel good, right? Like, that’s kind of the same situation, I think, with your hair. And if it bothers you and you can gain some confidence from having hair the great thing is that there’s a lot of different ways of going about it that you can have hairy in. And I think that part’s pretty neat.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:48]:
But after pursuing other options Joey connected with hair club as a hair solution and a partner and even a sponsor was your very first attempt at trying to do something about your hair loss. Was it going to hair club or did you try something else before going to hair club?

Joey Logano [00:06:07]:
I wasn’t educated enough to even know which direction to go. And I just went to my local dermatologist that I’ve gone to and, you know, they have a couple options there but they weren’t, like, great ones. When alopecia thing started up, that’s when they just did some, like, steroid shots where the alopecia spots were. And for one, I didn’t. I didn’t really like the needles in my head for one of them, for one thing. And it wasn’t working. That was the other thing that really, really wasn’t working. And I was like, okay, I need to.

Joey Logano [00:06:42]:
That’s when I dropped back and punt here. There’s something. Yeah, we’re not going down the right road here. I need to kind of, you know, find something better and different. And so then when I went to hair club, it’s like, well, there’s, like, a lot of different things I can do here depending on my situation. And I learned about all the things they have, like. And like I said, it’s different for everybody, right? Like. Like, your issues would be completely different than mine and there’s a fix for.

Joey Logano [00:07:05]:
For all of them. And, like, I couldn’t believe how many different avenues there was when I got there. That was the part that blew my mind. And they all were pretty simple, right? It was all quick and like, easy. Okay, you can do this. You can do that. Like some more permanent, some, you gotta, you know, be around a little bit more often. It just kind of depends on what your situation was.

Joey Logano [00:07:24]:
And so I was like, cool. I felt really comfortable after leaving hair club the first time because, you know, I walked in there feeling awkward and uncomfortable and I thought at the end I was like, okay. Like, I’m usually not a quick decision maker. And I was like, okay, well, that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna do that. Sounds good. See you next week. You know, like.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:51]:
When most people find a solution with the new hair system, one of the natural concerns is what are my limits? Being a race car driver, Joey naturally has an extremely active lifestyle. Flying around the track at nearly 200 mph, your hair is the last thing you want to worry about. So I had to know if Joey ever got nervous about bringing his hair system into new situations.

Joey Logano [00:08:16]:
Only in the beginning, I was nervous. Now I’m not. I’m not now because I feel very confident in everything now. But at first when things are new, you’re like, I don’t know. Like, I don’t know about this jet ski and I don’t know where I’m at with stuff. But you honestly kind of figure out your way, your things go and everything and you get confident and comfortable and what you got and it’s fine. But I’m telling you, and I asked a lot of questions before to a lot of people. I’m like, that’s fine.

Joey Logano [00:08:50]:
So that you can, like, and they look at you like you’re an idiot. Like, yeah, you can live your normal life. What are you talking about? And I’m like, okay, well, I just wanted to ask, like, I don’t know. And, and it took, I mean, I’m being honest. It took a month or so before you, like, you get used to, for one, seeing yourself with hair, right? You look in the mirror and you’re like, oh, who’s that guy? Right? Like it takes a second to get used to it for one. And then also how to live just the way you live your life, right? Like all that stuff. Like you’re, you’re concerned it’s going to change and do all so, but it really just, it’s not a big deal.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:31]:
What is the temperature like for you and how does the hair feel? Because you got a helmet on, you’re in a car. I mean, I know? You know, I’m in south Florida, so when you come to a Miami homestead, the temperatures in that car have got to be absolutely insane. So how breathable is your hair, and what does it feel like when you’re in those extreme temperatures?

Joey Logano [00:09:52]:
I wouldn’t even know.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:53]:
Yeah.

Joey Logano [00:09:54]:
Wouldn’t even know, really?

Kevin Rolston [00:09:55]:
Okay.

Joey Logano [00:09:58]:
Honestly, like, from you think, the conditions that I am in, in the cyto race car, it’s 30 degrees warmer than the outside air temp. So when you have a 90 degree day, it’s 120 degrees in the car.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:10]:
Wow.

Joey Logano [00:10:11]:
And we just shoot, we just raced in Texas. It was 100 degrees outside. It was over 130 in the car.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:16]:
Wow. Nothing.

Joey Logano [00:10:17]:
I get right out and walk away. I don’t. I don’t think twice about, like, I got other things to worry about when I’m in the race car. If hair is one of them, I don’t want that distraction. I wouldn’t want the distractions. Not worth it to me as a competitor. This is like, I wouldn’t even know. You know, I get out, I walk out, right? Like, all I do now is I fix my hair a little bit before I get out of the car because I actually have it.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:40]:
Yeah.

Joey Logano [00:10:42]:
That’s the only difference.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:44]:
What about the reactions you get? Have you ever had another driver tease you about your hair? Has there any been anybody that’s done anything that’s made you feel self conscious about it? And tell me a little bit about the confidence that having the hair does for you.

Joey Logano [00:10:57]:
Yeah, I mean, the shock factor is real. There’s no way around that. You first show up and be like, whoa, what’s different? Or what happened? You know, it took. It took a little bit for people to just kind of get used to it. Now it’s not even like, it’s never even really brought up, which is what you want to get to, I think. Right. You don’t really want it to be a topic of conversation everywhere you go. But, you know, for me, think about, I’m in the public eye as much as.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:25]:
Oh, yeah.

Joey Logano [00:11:26]:
As a race car driver can be, at least. And so, you know, you’re getting a lot of reactions. The first, you know, few days, especially because when I first started having it, I. There was a. We were raced at the La Coliseum, and one of the big banners there was hair club banner, and it said, ask Joey. Well, I’m like, everybody’s asking me about it because it says to ask me so well, I don’t think I have the best experience there. Most realistic experience for the normal customer. They’re telling people to ask me about my hair.

Joey Logano [00:12:00]:
So it’s probably a lot different for the normal customer that’s not advertising it as much as I am.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:12]:
So then if you’re going to do an appearance, say you’re on an american idol, you’re doing Sharknado twelve or something like that. Are you confident with how you do the hair yourself? Because, you know, for some people, they feel like they can never get the hair the way a hairdresser does. And it’s hard to style. And that is one of the things when you do have hair, you know, you have the potential to have to style it. And, you know, there’s a little bit of work that goes into it.

Joey Logano [00:12:36]:
Well, there’s an education that goes into it because I didn’t know what to do at first because it took, it took a few times to, like, learn how to style your hair because I was like, man, this doesn’t look right, or it doesn’t look as good as when I left hair club. And honestly, I got trained, you know, as a girl. Show me how you do it. Like, and I said, give me the comb. Let me. Let me do it. You know, let me put the stuff. Give me the stuff I need and fix me up.

Joey Logano [00:13:05]:
Like, train me how to, like, I want to make it look as good. So I learned how to do it. And it’s kind of funny because, you know, before, I just combed my hair to make it look like I had hair, you know, like, whatever, whatever hairstyle made it look like I had the most hair, you know what I mean? I had to comb over, going, and now it’s like, huh? I can do anything I want. What do I do? It’s like, there’s too many options. I don’t know what to do. So I had to learn a little bit. I want to look good. I do a lot of things on tv, and, you know, as a race car driver, not just driving the car, but I do a lot of tv broadcasts and stuff like that for the Xfinity series, which is one level down from the cup series, but I end up doing the broadcast a lot for them.

Joey Logano [00:13:55]:
So I want things to look fresh all the time, look good. So, you know, I’m probably a more of a frequent customer than most, but, you know, the option is there to go either way, for sure. I try to schedule everything, so I do it when I’m at home, but I can. And I have been to other locations, but not for a haircut or anything like that or freshen up or whatever. I’ve always kind of stuck to what I do and I try to be consistent as much as I can, but we all know, like, sometimes stuff comes up and you’re like, I can’t do it this week, but I got to get in there before I leave for, you know, because sometimes I’m gone from home for a week at a time and, like, I got to get in there before I leave and, you know, can you fit me in here? And then it’s like, hey, hang on a second. You know, they kind of move things around. Boom, okay, you get in there, I’m like, all right, cool. You know, and, you know, try to work together on that stuff, but I try to be consistent and say, okay, this is what I’m going to be.

Joey Logano [00:14:51]:
This is what I’m going to do. But, yeah, I mean, things change at the blink of an eye a lot of times, and in our life, for sure.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:00]:
Yeah, I know you’ve got three kids and they’ve got something called hair club for kids. Can you tell me a little bit about the hair club for kids, why it really strikes your heart and why you think it’s such an important charity that hair club does?

Joey Logano [00:15:12]:
There’s a few kids that I know that have gone through that piece for them. You know, one of my friends that was part of the jail kids crew where we bring kids to the racetrack, they’re going through a life altering situation one way or another, and we bring them to the racetrack, give them this great experience and all that. Well, one of them that was a, became good friends of us is actually, is one of their hair club for kid kids as well. And you just help give them confidence, right? There’s always, there’s already something different already, right? And people, you know, it’s tough for them, right? Think about it like as a kid showing up, being different than everybody else, as an adult, you can somewhat handle that because you’ve gone through more of life or you’re more confident yourself, you know who you are, you know, those type of things. But as a kid, man, it’s even harder because you just, you don’t know. And now you’re, now you’re the different kid. And like I said, kids that aren’t real nice are going to say things and it’s just, it’s horrible and it’s not their fault. Right? It just happens.

Joey Logano [00:16:14]:
So the fact that hair club came up with a fix for them in a terrible way, right? Like, that part’s really neat.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:34]:
Hair club is the solution that works for, for Joey for so many people experiencing hair loss, the idea of going in and getting a consultation is really what’s holding them back. It’s difficult. Some people feel embarrassed about the whole thing and others just feel that’s not gonna work. Having been in their shoes, Joey offered sound advice to help those hesitant to take the first step.

Joey Logano [00:16:57]:
I would say just go get the consultation and get comfortable going. Going there the first time. Don’t make a decision before you walked into the place, yes or no. Just say, hey, I’ve noticed I’ve been losing my hair. I’ve noticed I’ve have an issue with this, this or this. And is there anything you guys got here? And let them. Let them do their job. Let them go in there and say, okay, evaluate what’s going on and send you some options.

Joey Logano [00:17:25]:
That’s like, my regret is that I wish I did something like that. I wish I did that years ago. Instead of waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. If you get ahead of it, it’s just. It’s a little easier and you don’t have, like, the shock factor as much either. Right. If you get ahead of it a little bit, like, when it’s starting and it’s been. It’s been really cool for me to see how many people reached out to me saying, what did you do? I want to do something.

Joey Logano [00:17:55]:
I just didn’t know where to go or what to do or who to talk to. And all of a sudden, like, I became that guy and I’m like, I got you. I got the hookup, bro. Don’t you worry. I send them in, you know? So I think that part, like, to me, is a lot of fun because it’s an insecurity that a lot of people have. It’s something that people don’t feel comfortable a lot of times talking about. And why not? Like, why not talk about it? It is what it is. You can’t do anything about it, so do something about it.

Joey Logano [00:18:22]:
Like, this is. This is your one fix. You got one option here. So what’s it hurt to go talk to somebody? This is what they do. So it’s not awkward when you get there because this is what they’re used to, you know, like, so they used to, people don’t have hair, right? And then they give you hair. That’s their job. So it’s not even awkward at all.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:41]:
That’s amazing. Well, you have a fantastic hair story. I love how you’ve embraced it. Awesome talking with you. Thanks for sharing your story, Joey.

Joey Logano [00:18:49]:
Absolutely. Thanks for doing this.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:06]:
That was Joey Logano dealing with alopecia is a challenge and its great to hear just how Joey was able to overcome the challenge and has gone on to thrive and feel confident in the public eye. Dealing with alopecia is a challenge and it’s great to hear that Joey has overcome that challenge and has gone on to thrive and feel confident in the public eye. If you want to hear more from Joey, you can follow him. Oeylegano on instagram that’s l o g a n o. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search Hairpot on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know somebody who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if youd share it with them. If youre enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:55]:
We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. Were here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time.

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Moms Helping with Hair Loss Problems

Moms Helping with Hair Loss Problems

by | May 14, 2024 | Episode

Episode 12

Moms Helping with Hair Loss Problems

How moms help us deal with hair loss
Hair loss affects us all differently, but for many, it can be an isolating experience. In this special episode of HairPod, we look at how moms have been impacted by hair loss, whether they are experiencing it personally or seeing how it affects their kids. From our team here at HairPod, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of the moms out there!

Getting Your Child Help for Their Hair Loss Problems


Trichotillomania can go undiagnosed in children for years, just like it did in our first guest’s story. Heather Brooke is a behavioral therapist, beauty pageant winner, and model, and she shared how her grandmother and mother noticed her hair loss despite her attempts to keep it a secret. Her mother took quick action to help her get the care and treatment she needed, which led to her regrowing her hair before her school photos in her senior year of high school.

Children Facing Amniotic Band Syndrome


When Abby shared her story about her hair journey, she told us about her amniotic band syndrome, which caused scarring on her scalp. Due to the scarring, Abby has been on her hair journey since she was a newborn. Thanks to the quick action taken by her mom, Abby never had to go to school without hair. Abby told us how challenging the experience was for her and how hard it also hit her mother. She came on the show to help parents see that even if their child experiences hair loss, they can still grow up happy and healthy.

Motherhood and Postpartum Hair Loss


Jessica-Marie Laurent is a mother and a hair replacement expert. She knew she could experience postpartum hair loss after she had her baby, but the emotions of it still hit hard. After a period of denial, she sought solutions to help get her on the path to regrowth. Many women don’t know that there are things they can do to mitigate and reverse postpartum hair loss. We hope Jessica’s story can help inspire them to seek the help they need!

Empowering Resources

Where Is My Hair? – a children’s book about trichotillomania by Heather Brooke

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.12 Transcript

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:00:09]:
The best thing that I can recommend for any female in any situation is do your research. So, of course, if you’re, you know, becoming pregnant or if you notice something is happening throughout or during your pregnancy, do a little bit of research. Make somebody aware, whether it be a hair loss expert or a doctor. Don’t sit in silence and think that, you know, you’re alone or that nobody else has ever experienced it, because you’re not alone.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:53]:
Welcome to HairPod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk, talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Ralston, and each week you get to hear stories about people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves, and they found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. This week, we want to do something special to celebrate Mother’s Day on hairpod. We share untold stories and shine a light on things that people may not always be aware of. When we think about hair loss, we typically think of men losing their hair as they age. But if youve listened to the show before, you probably know that women experience hair loss, too. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, as many as 50% of women experience some hair loss at some point in their lives.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:45]:
And it can happen for a variety of reasons, such as stress, hormonal changes, or female pattern baldness. But thats not the only way moms can be affected by hair loss. Conditions that cause hair loss can happen to kids, too. Weve been lucky enough on the show to interview two guests whose hair journey started when they were young and they both shared how instrumental their parents were in getting them the help they needed. Were going to talk about those stories today to celebrate the moms out there who are supporting their kids who may be feeling the isolation of trying to handle it all alone. Youre also going to hear some advice from one of our guests on what parents can do to support their kids going through hair loss. This first clip comes from Heather Brook. Heather is a behavioral therapist, model, and beauty pageant winner.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:34]:
Her story began at the age of nine, when she began pulling out her eyelashes, eyebrows, and the hair on her head due to a condition called trichotillomania. Even though she tried to hide the condition from her mother and grandmother, they noticed what was going on and they helped her on the path to getting the care that would start her hair regrowth journey.

Heather Brooke [00:02:59]:
So my journey, it started out, it wasn’t super noticeable, super quick. I could actually remember the first time that I pulled, and my trichotillomania began with my eyelashes, not from my head. And I was in, in the hallway at our house, and I had an eyelash that kept poking me in the eye. And I went to a mirror in our hall and was just trying to straighten out the lash. And as I was pulling on it to try to straighten it out, it came out. And when it came out, there was, like, this release. I’m a therapist as well, and so the one thing that I can compare it to is for people who do self harming and cut, there’s that release that people do get when that happens. And that was kind of what that felt like for me when I pulled that lash on accident.

Heather Brooke [00:03:51]:
Like, that wasn’t even intentional, but that sudden, like, release that came, it was like, for a brief moment, all of the stress and anxiety that I had been holding inside was gone. But it almost creates, like, endorphins, like a high, and. But, like any high, you have to continue the behavior to continue to get it. And so, for me, that started with my lashes, and it took probably months before anybody ever noticed that. When that became noticeable, I moved to my eyebrows, thinking, oh, if I pull from somewhere else, then maybe I’ll stop pulling from there. That didn’t work. So my parents thought that I was shaving my eyebrows. And it probably wasn’t until three or four years after I actually started pulling that I developed enough bald patches on my head, because at that point, I had started pulling from my head that I had developed enough bald patches that it was noticeable.

Heather Brooke [00:04:45]:
My grandmother, I believe, was actually the first person who noticed. I always had really long eyelashes, and I had, like, Brooke shields eyebrows as a kid. And so when my grandmother was, like, looking at me one day and she was like, what happened to your eyelashes?

Kevin Rolston [00:05:01]:
And.

Heather Brooke [00:05:01]:
And I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know why I was doing it and why I couldn’t stop. So I was just like, oh, I was trying to curl them with one of those eyelash things. So I, like, lied about what I was doing. And then when my parents, when I moved to my eyebrows and my parents thought that I was shaving my eyebrows, I just allowed that to continue because I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt so weird that I was doing this, and I couldn’t stop, and I didn’t know why. And so it was when I was 13 or 14, I was up really late one night watching. It was like, an infomercial or something that was on television, and it was about wigs.

Heather Brooke [00:05:36]:
And as I was sitting there watching this infomercial, there was a woman on there who started talking about pulling her hair. And then she started talking about, like, these fake eyelashes and different things. But as she was talking, she said, trichotillomania. And a couple of days after that, my mom noticed a bald patch on my head in the pool. We had been swimming, and I wore at that point, I was wearing, I had always had, and I think that’s one of the reasons that, other reasons that it took so long to notice. But I’d always had super thick hair. And so I just got to the point where I was always wearing my hair in a ponytail. But this one specific day, she was coming out of the pool behind me and my ponytail had moved enough that she could see the bald spot.

Heather Brooke [00:06:20]:
And so when she said something to me about it, I was like, okay, I think I saw this commercial. I think this is what I have. And I told her and she said, okay. And so she scheduled an appointment with me to see the doctor that she worked for. And so I went in, he diagnosed me, and then he made a referral to a psychiatrist and put me on some medications. And that was kind of where we the treatment for it started.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:47]:
One thing that makes Heather so inspiring is that she has gone on to help kids going through trichotillomania as a behavioral therapist. She even wrote a childrens book called where is my hair? That talks about the condition. For more information about her book, check out our show notes. Heather isnt our only guest whose mom helped make her hair journey possible. Abby Jensens story began when she was a baby. She was born with amniotic band syndrome which caused scarring on her scalp. Even though she has a very rare form of this condition, the experiences she went through is shared by many children who experience hair loss. Abby just wanted to be a regular kid and fit in, and it was up to her parents to make that happen.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:30]:
Now that Abby is an adult, she understands how hard this experience must have been for her mom, and she offers up some advice on how parents can navigate these challenges.

Abby Jensen [00:07:44]:
When your mom is pregnant with you, you’re in this amniotic sac. And when my mom was pregnant with me, it ripped and her body, like, tried to fix it and a bunch of blood vessels, like, came together and they created this band, which is where the name comes from. And when I was born, this band was like, wrapped all the way around my head. And when the doctors were like, this is like causing an infection, like she’s really sick. They ended up just ripping it off, and when they did that, all my hair went with it. I’m actually not wearing any hair right now, so my scar kind of goes all the way around. So I have some, some hair in the back here, but I have nothing up top at all. So right away.

Abby Jensen [00:08:22]:
And afterwards, I was in the hospital for a couple weeks. Cause I was also a pre me, so my parents had to learn very quickly how to get care together. So my head offered I needed a bunch of care, but my head needed to be changed every couple hours with, like, new dressings and, like, stuff to cover it up and keep the infection away. Kids are meant, so I would get a bunch of looks and stares and pointing the finger. And so hats were a big thing. When I was younger, it was definitely tough. I think my mom took it harder than my dad, but my dad, they both. I mean, it’s their kid and something that’s not normal about them.

Abby Jensen [00:08:58]:
And so I don’t remember before I started with hair club, but I remember kind of after I got a wig on, and kids in elementary school kind of, like, started to figure it out because I would go different, like, lengths or colors or whatnot. And no fourth grader dyes their hair, so it was very a big topic when I came into school with, like, brown hair versus blonde hair, kind of a big conversation. My parents, I mean, they handled everything tremendously. I couldn’t ask for a better support system. I mean, they helped me with everything my mom was researching. So essentially, I was four years old when I started a hair club. So my mom was very on the ball of, like, I don’t want her to go to school without hair. So we started with, I forget the organization, but there was one that wouldn’t help me because I didn’t have cancer.

Abby Jensen [00:09:42]:
And then my mom found hair club for men, because back then, it was just cloud for men. There was really nothing else. And I would have to ask my mom who the directors or the people in charge were, but she found them, and they kind of were like, okay, let’s meet with her. Let’s see what we can do. So they met with me and my parents, and I’ve been a client now for 20 years.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:02]:
If you were speaking to parents out there, because we deal with a charity that has a lot of kids that have cancer treatments and things like that, where theyre losing their hair and its tough. And we always focus on the kids and making sure that theyre emotionally right. But I see the same kind of struggles going on with their parents. They just, they want to help, and they feel so lost and so desperate. So what would you say to a parent that has a child that at the age of four is dealing with hair issues like what you were?

Abby Jensen [00:10:32]:
I think I would just say, just be there for them. I mean, let them complain, let them be sad about it. Let them kind of embrace it. I mean, it’s okay. And I needed to hear that when I was younger that it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to have something wrong or something not 100% and just be there and that it’s okay. And my mom outweighed the whole line sheets still tells me to this day is, if I could trade places with you, I would. And now that I’m older, I wouldn’t want her to trade places with me.

Abby Jensen [00:11:03]:
So I just, your kid is, I mean, they’re strong as all hell and they can get through this. And I’m here to talk to little kids like that. I mean, I, when I was younger, I definitely wanted someone, so I can just kind of spread my knowledge is like, I can talk to your kid, I can talk to you, I can help kind of give them a perspective, but just kind of it’s okay. And essentially, that’s what I think my parents needed to hear, too, was that it’s okay that she’s going through this and she is going to handle it and she’s going to grow and be strong. And that’s what I needed to hear when I was four. And I think that’s what my parents needed to hear, too.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:40]:
Abby Dean grew up with examples of people to look up to who had been through an experience like hers. She came on Hairpod to tell her story and to show kids and their parents that it’s possible to grow up different from other kids and still go on to lead a happy, healthy life. She hopes that kids and parents alike can take some comfort in knowing that things get better as you get older and are able to find the solutions that works for you. At Herapog, we love sharing these stories of mothers who would do anything to help their kids through these difficult, life altering situations. But motherhood just isn’t about looking after your kids. Moms can also deal with hair loss, like our next guest, Jessica Marie Laurent. As a new mother, she experienced a common phenomenon called postpartum hair loss. Roughly 40% to 50% of women face postpartum hair loss, but unfortunately, many dont realize that theres a lot they can do to help encourage their hair to grow back.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:39]:
Jessicas experience as a professional in the hair replacement industry helped her recognize why she was losing her hair after her son was born. And she shared some insights about how moms can give their bodies the care and nutrition they need for hair health.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:13:00]:
For most women, I would say postpartum hair loss happens in the six to eight month range. But for females that breastfeed, this can happen later because you still have that good hormone, if you will, because of the breast milk being produced. So you have a little bit of a longer stretch before you experience that postpartum hair loss. So for me, it was probably about a year after I stopped breastfeeding my son, after a year. And then after a year, I started to notice massive clumps of hair coming out while I was shampooing and conditioning. It was very shocking and very hard to go through because, you know, as a female, I mean, the goal is to wash your hair as often as you need to, which is a couple times a week. So a couple times a week. I’m going through this thinking, should I just stop washing my hair altogether? Like, what should I do to mitigate this? When doing research and going to prenatal and postnatal classes, they do advise you that, you know, it can happen.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:13:54]:
But I think the part that’s like the scariest, if you will, is you. You just don’t know when it’s going to happen. And when it starts to happen, it starts and it kind of doesn’t stop until, I guess, either the hormone is completely out of the body or until the hair has done the cycle that it needs to do.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:15]:
We want to thank our guests Heather, Abby, and Jessica for sharing their personal stories on this special Mother’s Day episode. To hear more from them, check out our show notes where we’ve linked to their individual episodes. We also want to thank the mothers out there who are caring for their kids all while going through their own challenges. We hope wherever you are, you are celebrating yourself and all you do. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out at Harepod on Instagram or search Harepod on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know a mom or mom to be who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if youd share it with her. If youre enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:01]:
We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. Were here to build up people and to share real stories so people experiencing hair loss, feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time.

Download Transcript

Featured Guests

Heather Brooke
Nick Wilkins

New Episodes Weekly

Available Every Tuesday @ 9am

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Come on the Show!

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Self-Esteem After Hair Loss with Debra Heim

Self-Esteem After Hair Loss with Debra Heim

by | May 7, 2024 | Episode

Episode 11

Self-Esteem After Hair Loss with Debra Heim

Self-Esteem After Hair Loss with Debra Heim - episode 11
If you’re on your hair loss journey and you’re ready to make a change, this is your sign to seek the solution that works for you. In this episode of HairPod, our host Kevin Rolston sits down with Debra Heim, host of the Alternative Hair Alchemist podcast and owner of her own wig boutique. But Debra isn’t just a professional in the hair replacement industry – she has experienced hair loss herself. Listen in to hear her story of finding her self-esteem and encouraging others to find theirs as well.

Debra’s Hair Loss Journey

In nursing school, Debra experienced a lot of stress, and her naturally-thin hair began to fall. Later, she received a diagnosis of alopecia areata. She tried to keep things covered, but it was always stressful and uncomfortable for her. She began experimenting with wigs when she went through chemotherapy years later. She loved the alternative hair, but her family members shamed her out of using it.

Dealing With Stress

Stress set off Debra’s hair loss. She had to figure out how to beat stress in order to experience regrowth. She quit her stressful nursing job and left an abusive relationship, which helped her recover some of her natural hair. Using a form of hair replacement helped her find her confidence, which also lifted a lot of stress.

Finding a Solution to Self-Esteem

Many people start with cost-effective wigs, but soon discover that it’s worth it to work with a professional to find a solution meant to be worn every day. As a professional, it’s important to work with clients to help them figure out what they’re really looking for – for many clients, the answer they’re looking for might not be what they expect.

Work With a Professional

When starting your journey, it’s worth working with a professional to help determine what type of hair replacement is right for you. Professionals can also teach how to care for your wig or hairpiece properly. If they can’t help you, it might be time to find someone else to work with!

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Want more information on our guest? Check out Debra’s podcast.

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.11 Transcript

Debra Heim [00:00:09]:
Well, I call it alternative hair alchemist. First of all, I use the words alternative hair. But alternative hair, just simply by using those words kind of takes the stigma, the sting, out of the word wig. I mean, when you say the word wig, people think of the bad wigs that they see on people. They think of the weatherman’s toupee flying up. I thought the words alternative hair was a nice change. And then alchemist, simply because the magic that feeling good about yourself will do.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:02]:
Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Raulston, and each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whose lives have been touched by hair loss in some form or fashion. Many of our guests have experienced hair loss themselves and found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. This week’s guest is Deborah Heim. She’s a certified confidence and happiness coach alternative hair specialist, and the host of the alternative hair Alchemist podcast. As a specialist in alternative hair, Deborah empowers her clients to put themselves and their self esteem first because she’s experienced firsthand the ripple effect that can have in your life. She understands what it’s like for her clients going through hair loss because she has been there herself.

Debra Heim [00:01:55]:
It started all the way back in nursing school, which would have been about 1981, probably before a lot of your listeners were born. But I started to, you know, I guess it was, I didn’t see a dermatologist then, but it was definitely stress related, and I would lose patches, and it was very visible. And back then, there were not a lot of alternative hair solutions. So basically, I would just try and make the best of it with hairspray and covering it up. Oh, wow. Yeah. And it really does affect your well being. I mean, yeah.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:35]:
About what age were you when you were noticing this hair loss?

Debra Heim [00:02:38]:
Probably about 2021.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:41]:
Okay. All right, so that’s at an age where typically, that’s young to be experiencing hair loss and something where I imagine you were very self conscious about at the time.

Debra Heim [00:02:51]:
Yes. Well, I found that as a child, I always had very thin and fine hair, and it never really grew. I always wanted long hair. It never would get past my shoulders. And later on in life, when I had testing done, I got the diagnosis of alopecia areata. But until then, you know, there’s at least there’s a way to find out now.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:16]:
So we have you in nursing school. Stress related hair loss. You are losing patches. You’re doing your best to cover up. Does your hair loss get worse from there. And what did you notice? What was the next phase of your hair loss journey?

Debra Heim [00:03:30]:
Well, the next phase actually happened in 2003 when I was going through a situation with chemo. So I. That’s when I first started to venture into wigs, and I felt great. You know, the hair was much prettier than mine ever was, and I enjoyed wearing them. But at the end of my chemo journey, my family kind of shamed me out of wearing them. Like, oh, you know, you’re not in treatment anymore. You don’t need to wear a wig. And I let you know, that’s why I’m very passionate now about following what you want to do for yourself.

Debra Heim [00:04:09]:
So again, I went through. That’s when I started to see the dermatologist. I tried, you know, every supplement out there, everything to if there was a remedy on tv or that I heard about, I was trying it, and it just really very minimal success. And at that time, they told me that it was definitely stress related. But I’m like, how am I going to get a hold on that? Because at the time, I was a very busy registered nurse. But now, as I’ve made those changes, I do find that when you can eliminate stress from your life, I’ve had a great deal of regrowth, but I still have patches, but it’s still a lot of regrowth just by lifestyle changes.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:56]:
Can you tell me a little bit more about those lifestyle changes? And I think for a lot of people, because we all kind of deal with stress, how were you able to finally get to a point where seemed like stress was beating you and then you finally beat stress? So how did you make those kind of adjustments?

Debra Heim [00:05:12]:
Well, a lot of major changes. I decided to leave nursing, and that’s when I opened my boutique for wigs and hair pieces. But also I left an abusive relationship, which I had a long time pattern of choosing people that were not right for me. And then I had to learn to express my emotions. So, you know, I went to therapy after leaving the abusive situation. But since then, you know, just learning how to honor yourself first and don’t stuff feelings, now, that is not an easy thing to tell somebody to do, but if you’re able to do even a little bit at a time, it just, you know, it has a ripple effect.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:58]:
How long was the course of this journey in your life? Because this doesn’t sound like something where you snap your fingers and it’s 48 hours later and you’ve cured it. So how long did it take for you and what were those stages like, as you were noticing a difference and improvement, and then how did that affect your hair health?

Debra Heim [00:06:15]:
Well, really, the major changes that I was able to implement were only, you know, within ten years. Like I said, I left nursing behind, but a lot of that was just me, not, you know, knowing how to manage my own stress. So my hair started to come back probably over a period of five years. And I think also that was instrumental was the fact that when I got okay with the fact that alternative hair is okay, whether you grew it or you bought it, if the hair makes you feel good. And when I allowed myself to not feel any guilt or stigma about hair replacement, that’s when I feel the stress really let up, because when you look in the mirror and you’re okay with how you look, it seems like, you know, it just also has a ripple effect through your life.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:10]:
To an outsider, it may seem like choosing a hair loss solution that made her feel happy in confidence should be a total no brainer for Debra. But for people who go through hair loss, they know it’s not always that simple, because it’s the stigma that holds you back or the fear of the unknown. Most of us have an emotional hurdle to get over before we can actually seek a hair loss solution. For Deborah, that hurdle had everything to do with the people around her, not exactly supporting her desire to wear a wig.

Debra Heim [00:07:43]:
It began by slowly deciding that I was going to honor myself in one small assertion at a time. Like I said, I had to change a lot of the people I was hanging around with, and, you know, who I was choosing to spend time with. And the things like meditation in the morning, anything that you can do to reframe how you believe about yourself. And it was slow, but gradual. But again, I have to say that even I would still probably. I just like hair, so I would be okay with wearing a wig, even if I did have hair. And I find women that come to me are still have, like, some type of guilt that they feel like they’re not allowed to get hair replacement. Whether it’s, you know, whatever route they’re going to.

Debra Heim [00:08:36]:
They want the diagnosis from the dermatologist, it seems like. And then I’ve heard so often, well, I’m going to wait to either get a wig, get a topper, get extensions, until I find out why, and then I’m going to try XYz. Well, I say throw everything at it, try XYz. Continue trying to find that, but don’t stop yourself if you want to take action, to make yourself feel about better, about how you look. Don’t let anything stop you.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:10]:
I think that’s one of the reasons why we really wanted to do the hairpod, was to talk about the stigmas and how I think it’s radically changing from where it used to be about people who were wearing wigs or hair pieces or things like that. That today, whatever you need to do to feel good in your own space.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:26]:
And people do feel a lot better.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:28]:
When they have a full head of hair.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:29]:
Their confidence, it just changes, and it’s just a lot easier for people to.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:34]:
Go through this thing we call life, when you have very good self esteem and hair does that for so many people.

Debra Heim [00:09:39]:
Yeah, there’s. I have a sign in my shop that, you know, hair is the crown you wear every day. So whatever you need to do to make that feel better. And you’re right, the stigma has decreased markedly since I first opened my shop. And I think a lot of what has to do with that is the quality of hair replacement. Now, you know, you cannot detect it, whether it’s my client or, I’m sure any of your clients. Nobody knows and nobody has to know.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:08]:
So, yeah, now tell me, for somebody that’s listening right now and they’re wanting to know, okay, am I ready for a wig or any kind of hair piece, what would you say to them? How would you know? And when is that time to invest in a wig or look into that?

Debra Heim [00:10:24]:
I really find that anytime that you find, if you’re staying at home, if you’re looking in the mirror and you don’t want to go to a family event or out to dinner because you just don’t like how you look, well, then now is the time. And then I find sometimes women will say, oh, but, you know, it might grow back. Well, yes, absolutely, it might. But if you’re staying at home now, why delay? And that’s like a huge. It really, when you get okay with how you look, everything turns around for the better.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:59]:
Now, if you got a wig, would that damage the hair that you have? So if you were hoping that maybe your regular hair would grow back to a place where you feel confident with it, are you doing damage by wearing a wig?

Debra Heim [00:11:09]:
Absolutely not. If you get a properly fitting wig, we call it cranial prosthesis. There’s. What I have in my store is definitely made to be worn every day without damage to your hair. And how the wig fits your head is immensely related to how good it looks or how realistic it looks. So fit is very important. If anything, ive had people have their hair grow back just simply because that stress of looking in the mirror and worrying about it, or when you brush your hair and you empty your brush and theres all this hair. So once thats over with, it seems like, you know, when the attention is away from the hair loss, it seems to improve.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:55]:
Evan, that’s a crazy concept, that a wig could actually help your real hair grow back.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:00]:
That’s pretty amazing.

Debra Heim [00:12:01]:
It sounds crazy.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:02]:
It does, but I think it’s really cool. So tell me, if you want to start this process, how do you find somebody, and then where do you go from there? What are we talking about with the market for wigs?

Debra Heim [00:12:15]:
Well, hopefully there is a qualified wig shop near the person. I say qualified because most of wigs are available at, like, beauty supply stores, where it tends to be. But any place you want to start is fine. So most people start on the Internet or a beauty supply store simply because the cost is less. And every single hairpiece or wig you get, you will learn from, and it’s a progression through it. Now, somebody new comes to my store, and I see them in person. I can cut through a lot of the trial and error, because simply by looking at them and talking to them, I know what manufacturers make what and what color and what styles going to work on them. So, you know, then I start the try on process, and absolutely everybody leaves my shop with something they didn’t expect.

Debra Heim [00:13:09]:
They come in with pictures, or they think they want something that looks a certain way, but they leave with something totally different. Usually.

Kevin Rolston [00:13:23]:
Making the decision to prioritize your mental health by pursuing some sort of hair loss solution can be a really liberating moment for some folks. But once you’ve made that decision, suddenly you got to figure out what kind of hair loss solution you want to try. And the amount of options can sometimes be a little overwhelming. Finding the right professional to guide you and doing your research about all the available options is a great next step to take.

Debra Heim [00:13:52]:
A good synthetic, at least, and I live in Pennsylvania, which is kind of a rural part of the country. I would say it’s not unheard of to start at $250. Some of the top of the line, heat friendly synthetics that are hand tied go all the way up to, like, 750. So, you know, it’s quite a chunk of change for most women who don’t want to begin to spend on themselves. But, you know, that’s when they start trying to find a cheaper way to go, and then that ends up costing more in the long run. And also the disappointment of trying something and trying something. So if you’re going to do it, go to a provider you trust, go to the best and treat yourself like you would treat anybody else in your family.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:39]:
What is the maintenance like for a wig?

Debra Heim [00:14:42]:
Human hair? It’s quite extensive care. It’s a lot more than what you would do just for the own hair on your head. But for synthetics, it’s very minimal. If you get a good moisturizing shampoo, because it’s a synthetic fiber, not hair. So as you wash it, if you use products heat style it, it’s gonna dry the fibers out. So you wanna keep them moist. So simply a shampoo and a conditioner. And, you know, most of the synthetics, as soon as you wash them, the style snaps right back.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:16]:
And when you get a wig, they’ll run down exactly how to maintain it and keep it looking ideal.

Debra Heim [00:15:21]:
They should. When I. That’s one of the reasons I opened my store when I first ventured into it. I even went to wig shops and they couldn’t tell me. I would say, well, how do I take care of this? Well, I don’t know, but we sell a lot of this and then point to a certain shampoo. So there’s so many wonderful video in hair influencers now that you can easily find how to care for it on the website. I even have my own video for my shop that’s just available for anybody in the public can click. I have somebody take you through shampoo condition, and she addresses a lot of the concerns, the anxieties that someone may have about, you know, the care for it.

Debra Heim [00:16:06]:
So it’s really not too hard to find somebody to help you with that.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:10]:
Do you find that you’re able to replace some of the other hair products that you were using on your natural hair and you can offset some of the costs that way?

Debra Heim [00:16:18]:
Absolutely. I find that most women will want to continue with the Rogains, the nioxins, but if they have, you know, once they become okay with the alternative hair, sometimes it seems like it’s less of a decision to continue with an expensive product that really isn’t helping in the long run. That’s one of my biggest advices, that some of the money you save on that you could get an excellent wig and be feeling good about yourself.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:50]:
Now, when you do a wig, how secure is it? Are there certain moments or things that you need to be aware of when you’re out in public that could affect your wig? Could they come off? Could they move? How hard is that?

Debra Heim [00:17:03]:
If it fits your head properly, it shouldn’t come off. I’ve been on a motorcycle without a helmet. I simply use one piece of wig tape. Yeah, I use a piece of double sided tape in the front. And, yeah, it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s like it fits to your head, if completely. There are also a number of ways they make, like a spray adhesive. Some women will use, like, there’s a body adhesive glue.

Debra Heim [00:17:31]:
But generally, if it’s well made, it’s not a challenge to keep it on.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:37]:
Now that you’ve been in this for a while, do you have multiple wigs? Do you just stick with one that gives you that style every single day? What is your own personal choices with your wigs?

Debra Heim [00:17:47]:
I think it’s such an individual thing. I personally switch it up all the time, and I recommend this to clients. If you find a color and length you like, get a straight one and get a wavy one. And then when you alternate them, it looks like you just did your hair different. And, you know, it saves so much time, and it really opens up the whole world. It’s like alternative hair can be a whole nother form of self expression.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:18]:
Debras commitment to helping people whose self esteem has been negatively affected by their hair loss is truly amazing. Not only does she help clients in her shop find wigs that suit their style and needs, she also hosts a podcast for those listeners who may not be comfortable reaching out for help. Podcasts like Hairpot and Debras podcast, alternative hair alchemist, help break down the isolation that the stigma surrounding hair loss causes for so many people.

Debra Heim [00:18:51]:
Well, I call it alternative hair alchemist. First of all, I used the words alternative hair specifically when I opened my shop in 2017. And I had to do a lot of explaining as to what that actually meant when I was referring to really realistically made wigs and hair pieces. But alternative hair, just simply by using those words, kind of takes the stigma, the sting out of the word wig. I mean, when you say the word wig, people think of the bad wigs that they see on people. They think of the weatherman’s toupee flying up. So I thought the words alternative hair was a nice change. And then alchemist, simply because the magic that feeling good about yourself will do.

Debra Heim [00:19:40]:
I heard that word, and I thought, that’s what it is. It’s alternative hair alchemy.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:44]:
One of the really big motivations for us doing our podcast here with the hairpod is to let people know that this is a whole new era of hair. It’s not what it used to be. And there’s a whole new attitude around it, which you embody so well. And your story is just amazing with where the attitudes were even within your own family, and the shame and the guilt that they put on you to how you overcame that to where you are now. And now you’re trying to let other people know that, hey, alternative hair, it is something that is here, and it is life changing when you do it right.

Debra Heim [00:20:17]:
It’s life changing, and it’s here to stay. And I also thank the celebrities that are very open about their wig use that look fantastic, like, you know, anybody on the red carpet. And I tell women all the time that most of the time, when you’re looking at a celebrity on a red carpet situation, that’s a wig. I mean, nine times out of ten, you are looking at a wig, and you just think, somebody has fantastic hair, and only as a matter of convenience sometimes. So, Jeff.

Kevin Rolston [00:20:48]:
Yeah. I had an amazing conversation with my own hairstylist at hair club this last week, and she was running down all the celebrities that she could tell as she looked, only because she has that trained eye to be like, okay, they have hair. And she would look at another photo, and she would see hair loss in certain ways, and she’d be like, yeah, but I had no, I was blown away with every celebrity that she named. Most of them were guys, but with the women as well. I had no idea that there were so many celebrities wearing alternative hair. And until you do, you don’t know. And that’s really the point, that you, too, could be just like any of those celebrities walk around in life, and people are not going to know that you are not wearing your own natural hair.

Debra Heim [00:21:27]:
True. And, in fact, I prepare my clients when they leave, I say, now people are going to come up to you and ask you, who colors your hair? Who cuts your hair? Who does your hair? And I tell them, you know, you can tell them whatever you want, but be prepared, because alternative hair is the type of hair that turns heads. It’s the hair that everybody wants. I have family members that will, like, be slightly envious of the client because they have the hair that they always, the other person, always wanted.

Kevin Rolston [00:22:02]:
We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with Debra as a professional alternative hair specialist, she brings a lot of knowledge and compassionate support for her clients. But beyond that, Deborah is also somebody who’s been through hair loss herself and knows just how devastating it can be. And now shes devoted her time and her energy to helping others regain their confidence and self esteem. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpot. Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search Hairpot on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if youd share it with them. If youre enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. We also have a website.

Kevin Rolston [00:22:50]:
Just check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. We’re here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone. And when you share, review, and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you. Until next time. It.

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An Overview of Trichology with Kate Holohan

An Overview of Trichology with Kate Holohan

by | Apr 30, 2024 | Episode

Episode 10

An Overview of Trichology by Kate Holohan

An Overview of Trichology by Kate Holohan
If this is your first time hearing about trichology, you’re not alone. On this episode of HairPod, our host Kevin Rolston speaks with trichologist, hair stylist, and educator Kate Holohan on the subject of trichology. They discuss the causes of scalp and hair disorders, treatment trends, and simple, everyday actions you can start taking today to improve the health of your hair.

What is Trichology?

Trichology, originating from the Greek word “Trikhos” for hair, focuses on studying and treating hair and scalp issues. Trichologists, specialists in this field, offer personalized solutions to boost confidence and hair health. Kate, a seasoned hairdresser, transitioned into trichology in 2019, driven by her passion for understanding hair intricacies, a trend observed among many from the hairstyling industry.

Trichologists play a vital role in bridging the gap between cosmetic advice and medical expertise. Utilizing advanced tools and a deep understanding of hair biology, they effectively tackle concerns like hair loss and scalp conditions. Their holistic approach empowers individuals to address hair challenges with tailored care and support, promoting overall hair well-being.

Causes of Hair & Scalp Disorders

Trichology unveils a fascinating insight into hair health, shedding light on the multifaceted nature of hair issues. While stress or depression can act as catalysts, triggering or exacerbating these concerns, trichology reveals that the root causes often extend beyond surface-level explanations.

Delving into the realm of trichology unveils factors contributing to hair woes, from autoimmune disorders to nutritional imbalances and beyond. This holistic perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of physical and emotional well-being, urging individuals to embark on a journey towards optimal hair health.

Intriguingly, trichology challenges conventional notions by unraveling the influences shaping hair conditions. By embracing this multidimensional approach, individuals can unlock new insights and strategies to nurture their hair and scalp, creating a vibrant and resilient mane.

Easy Ways to Treat Scalp Issues

Scalp issues can be troublesome, but adopting simple habits can yield significant improvements. Rather than making drastic lifestyle changes, focus on small, sustainable adjustments.

One effective practice is staying hydrated, as it supports various bodily functions, including hair growth. Additionally, using silk pillowcases can reduce friction, minimizing the risk of hair breakage while sleeping.

In terms of nutrition, incorporating dates into your diet can provide hair-boosting benefits, as they are rich in vitamins B and C. However, moderation is crucial—aim for approximately three dates daily to maximize their nutritional advantages without overconsumption.

By incorporating these easy strategies into your daily routine, you can address scalp issues and enhance overall hair wellness with minimal effort.

Exploring Hair Treatment Trends and Solutions

In the quest for a healthier scalp, many individuals turn to products designed to exfoliate, aiming for a deeper cleanse. However, it’s crucial to approach scalp exfoliation with caution, as excessive scrubbing can inadvertently lead to breakage and damage. While Minoxidil presents a promising solution for hair regrowth, its efficacy varies, working effectively for approximately 70% of users. Consider undergoing a genetic test to assess your likelihood of responding positively to Minoxidil. Keep in mind, though, that these tests may come with a hefty price tag. Before embarking on any treatment regimen, it’s essential to explore all available options. Some professionals may lean towards medication without discussing alternative solutions first, so it’s vital to be well-informed and advocate for your preferences. While genetic hair loss may not have a cure, proactive measures can help slow down its progression, offering hope and options for managing this common concern.

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Want more information on our guest? Follow Kate Holohan on the Hair Therapy Podcast.

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.10 Transcript
Kate Holohan [00:00:09]:
Don’t believe every label you read that says this will cure your hair loss. It probably won’t. Minoxidil is obviously an ingredient that is in quite a lot of different products, so it would depend on the strength. We kind of look around kind of two to 5% with minoxidil. It can be very effective, but it will only work for about 70% of people. So it does work, but it won’t work for everyone. And unfortunately, you don’t know that until you’ve used it for three to six months, whether you’re going to see any results or not.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:07]:
Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. I’m your host, Kevin Ralston, and every episode I talk with a guest about all things hair loss. All of our guests so far have experienced hair loss and found a solution.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:21]:
That works for them.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:22]:
This week, we’re doing something a little bit different. I got to interview somebody with a lot of knowledge about scalp and hair health who is on a mission to share her wisdom so that people with hair issues can get their hair health and confidence back on track. Our guest today is Kate Holohan, a uk based trichologist, hairstylist and co host of the Hair Therapy podcast. Kate works with clients to help them understand and treat their hair and scalp issues. She also educates hairstylists about the science of trichology so that they can support their own clients in finding the right kinds of solutions. If you’re wondering what a trichologist is.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:00]:
And how they help people with hair.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:01]:
Loss, you’re in the right place. She helped me understand a little bit more about her field and how she first learned what it was.

Kate Holohan [00:02:13]:
You’re not the only one, Kevin, that is not aware of what a trichologist does, by any means. Yeah, unfortunately, we’re a kind of a lesser known breed of people, but basically, I deal with hair and scalp issues. So I spent two and a half years with the Institute of Trichology in London in Harley street learning about hair loss, hair and scalp conditions, hair health, and all the science that goes behind that. And funnily enough, before 2019, even though I’d been hairdressing for 20 years and been in education for about 1518 years, I’d never heard of a trackologist either.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:57]:
Huh. Okay.

Kate Holohan [00:02:58]:
That’s why I’m on this mission.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:00]:
And how do you find out what this is? How do you get an interest from being a hairdresser to wanting to learn more about the scalp? Was there something that you saw in your day to day, what drove you in this direction?

Kate Holohan [00:03:11]:
So, funnily enough, I do find that most hairdressers who take an interest in trichology because you can become a trekologist with no hairdressing background whatsoever, and people do. But I’m noticing that there is a trend now for people to be interested in this area. It’s normally people that have been in the hair industry or had people in their chair. It’s people that have been in the industry for a while, normally. So people that are experienced hairdressers.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:40]:
Right, okay. Well, I would imagine, you know, you had been a hairdresser for a very long time. How many years had you been doing dressing hair?

Kate Holohan [00:03:50]:
I’d been in hairdressing for about 20 years when I found out about the profession of trichology. And I actually went to a hair health evening, which was hosted by the Fellowship of British Hairdressing. Because where I’d been in education for kind of 15 years or so, any new technique that came out, I had to know it because I was teaching it.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:14]:
Right.

Kate Holohan [00:04:14]:
So for me to learn something that was really, really new was actually quite a challenge. So I’m not by any means saying that I know everything about hair. However, if there was a new Balayage technique or a new colour product or a new haircut, I would be kept up to date with that because it was my job. So for me to find something on a personal development level, when I saw this hair health evening being advertised by the Fellowship of british hairdressing, and it was actually being run by Robert Eaton, who is a trichologist as well. But he’s also won British Hairdresser of the year, I think, at least twice. And he’s an amazing hairdresser. Yeah, he’s great. So I went along because I thought, you know what, hair health and things like hair loss, hair and scalp problems is probably the one area that I know the least about.

Kate Holohan [00:05:05]:
And so I went along and I had two hour session with them and they told us all about trichology, all about the different aspects of hair loss and hair health, and just being able to really help clients from a completely focused angle. And I was literally on the train on the way home, emailing the Institute of Trichology saying, sign me up, I need to know more about this.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:30]:
It piqued your interest.

Kate Holohan [00:05:32]:
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m a bit of a geek, really, when it comes to education.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:38]:
So you’re a geek of the scalp, is what you are.

Kate Holohan [00:05:41]:
I am.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:45]:
Kate is so passionate about the subject of scalp and hair health that I just had to know a little bit more. While some people start trying to find solutions, as soon as they start losing their hair, others may feel like theres nothing they can do about it. Knowledgeable, compassionate experts like Kate can help people understand that there are options out there.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:09]:
As a hairdresser, do you notice what is a healthy scalp, what is not from your clients even before you took an interest in trichology?

Kate Holohan [00:06:17]:
I think to a certain extent, yes. And obviously clients would come and say, oh, you know, I’ve got issues here, or I’ve got psoriasis, or I’ve got a condition, which is great, but I didn’t really have a huge understanding of what a lot of those problems really were, and I certainly couldn’t have really given them deep advice on what to do. I kind of had to hope that whatever they were telling me they had was correctly diagnosed and that’s what they had. And also that they had a kind of management program in place. So although I could recommend them cosmetic products from the different hair brands that told us in the salon, oh, this is for scalps or this is for hair loss. Obviously now I’ve got trichological products, so they’re that much more effective, they’re that much more targeted. So I did see it before. And again, I think recently, over the last few years, hair and scalp health has become a lot more of a focus.

Kate Holohan [00:07:25]:
And I think that’s amazing because I feel like there was always this kind of belief held almost by a lot of my clients. Well, I’ve got psoriasis, I just have to live with it. There’s nothing I can do or I’ve tried ABC, it didn’t work. So this is just my life now.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:41]:
How much does scalp health contribute to hair loss?

Kate Holohan [00:07:45]:
I think there’s a lot of different aspects to that because although a lot of scalp condition affect at all any scalp condition, if it escalates to the point where the scaling on the scalp is blocking the hair follicles and making it difficult for hair to grow, then you’ve got an issue. You want to keep your scalp as best as possible so that it’s providing an optimum environment for hair to grow. But you also have to look at it on the other aspect, that sometimes scalp conditions can be a lot more debilitating than hair loss. If someone has really, really bad psoriasis or even dandruff, if it’s really visible and they’re really self conscious of it, they may not go out, they may not socialize. They may be depressed, they may be anxiety, you know, depression, all those kind of things. Especially, I think we’ve seen that over the last few years since COVID the amount of pressure that people have been under and their mental health and wellbeing, you know, stress, if you’re in that heightened state of anxiety or kind of fight or flight all the time, then of course, that’s going to drain your system if you’re not in what we call homeostasis. So if your whole body’s not running on a good, healthy level, it will affect your hair growth just from that as well.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:11]:
So could your mental disposition, whether you’re stressed, depressed, can that affect you losing hair?

Kate Holohan [00:09:19]:
Yes and no. Obviously, I’m not saying, you know, I mean, everybody’s stressed, right? So we’d all have no hair, wouldn’t we? We’d all be walking around with. Literally. I would. Absolutely, I would. I have no hair loss. However, what you often find with things like stress for most triggers with hair loss or most things when someone gets certain hair loss conditions, it’s never normally one thing. It’s a compound of a lot of things that that person is having to deal with.

Kate Holohan [00:09:45]:
So it might be stress, it might be deficiencies, maybe it might be autoimmune, but stress is going to compound that and it is going to have an effect. So it’s certainly not going to help when your body’s already under pressure to try and make hair. And the problem with stresses is bi directional. So stress could be a trigger or a cause for hair loss, but hair loss is also a trigger and a cause for anxiety and stress and depression. So they almost kind of feed off each other.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:19]:
Yeah, absolutely. Tell me about other things that you could be doing best practices when it comes to scalp health, because I’ve heard possibly drinking more water, your skin is more hydrated, you’re getting better sleep, you’re eating healthier food. Does all that contribute to scalp health as well?

Kate Holohan [00:10:36]:
Yeah, definitely. And to be honest with you, Kevin, it’s one of the things that I always recommend to people, because when I make recommendations for people, although everything you said is true, you kind of don’t want to get someone come in and see me and maybe like, right. We need a complete 360 overall on your whole life. You need to change your bed, you need to change your diet, you need to change your exercise regime. Drinking water is a small, achievable, sustainable change that you can make.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:03]:
Okay. All right.

Kate Holohan [00:11:04]:
Another thing I like to recommend, silk or satin pillowcases.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:09]:
Why is that?

Kate Holohan [00:11:11]:
So it not only has less kind of tension and effect on your hair, but also on your face as well. So everybody wants to have smooth, youthful looking skin, right? And look as good as they can possibly get. So with a silk or satin pillowcase, because it’s smoother, it can reduce the amount of friction that you might have on your hair and your skin during the night. No, it’s not going to make your hair grow ten inches in two days. But all these small changes, apparently another one that can be quite good is eating. Dates.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:46]:
No, really?

Kevin Rolston [00:11:47]:
Dates?

Kate Holohan [00:11:48]:
Yeah. So apparently three dates a day. I mean, I wouldn’t go crazy. Probably too many might affect you in other ways, so that might not be a good idea. But apparently three dates a day can contribute to hair loss. Again, quite easy and achievable in relation to some of the other things that you might feel that you need to try.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:13]:
Those of us who have been through hair loss or are going through it now, know that not all treatments are created equal. There are countless products, remedies and trends available to us, and it can be hard to know just which one is right for your unique situation. Trichologists help their clients learn what products to use to solve their particular issues and help them measure just how successful the treatment is. There are countless products, remedies and trends available to us, and it can be kind of hard to know which one’s right for your unique situation. Trichologists help their clients learn what products to use to solve their particular issues and help them measure how successful the treatment is. They also work with people on how to use the products correctly, so they’re not doing more harm than good.

Kate Holohan [00:13:02]:
I think I’ve noticed the increase in people using the scalp kind of scrub devices and also scalp scrubs themselves. So it is actually really important to effectively cleanse the hair and shampoo it. So ideally, we would recommend to shampoo the hair twice, which I don’t think a lot of people know about that, really. So especially if you’ve got a lot of hair and it’s very thick or curly, sometimes washing the hair twice in one session can be beneficial. Using a scalp kind of the scrub, I can’t think what they’re called, the tools. They can be really useful, but it needs to be gentle. So you do then get these people that go completely the other way and they think, right, okay, well, if my scalp is actually skin two and I need to exfoliate that, then I need to buy a really high strength scrub and I need to attack my scalp and they can end up, scrubbing it too hard, which could then cause breakage or other problems. So it’s about considering that, I think, as well, to make sure that whatever products you’re using, there are obviously better products, there are not so great products, but whatever you’re using to just make sure that you’re really taking the time to look at your hair care routine and making sure that it’s actually effective for you.

Kate Holohan [00:14:28]:
And like you say, people will try anything. So it’s very upsetting to me when I get a patient come in and they’ve got a whole carrier bag full of hundreds of pounds worth of stuff, so.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:39]:
Right.

Kate Holohan [00:14:39]:
You know, don’t believe every label you read that says this will cure your hair loss. It probably won’t.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:46]:
Can you tell me your thoughts on the minoxidils and some of those topical ointments that people are trying? Have you found some that are more effective than others and ones that maybe are not effective at all that people are wasting their money on?

Kate Holohan [00:14:59]:
Minoxidil is obviously a ingredient that is in quite a lot of different products, so it would depend on the strength. So we kind of look around kind of two to 5% with minoxidil, it can be very effective, but it will only work for about 70% of people.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:20]:
Oh, wow.

Kate Holohan [00:15:20]:
So it won’t work for everyone? So it does work, but it won’t work for everyone. And unfortunately, you don’t know that until you’ve used it for three to six months. Whether you’re going to see any results or not, there are tests that you can actually do where it will tell you whether you’re genetically predisposed to likely for it to work.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:45]:
Wow.

Kate Holohan [00:15:46]:
But they’re not really cheap either. They are available. So you might use it for six months and not see a result at all. You don’t know until you use it how well you’re going to respond to it. It can take a bit of adjustment sometimes. I do think it’s a very valid treatment. However, I find that especially some medical professionals are very keen to just very quickly jump to drugs, you know?

Kevin Rolston [00:16:14]:
Yeah.

Kate Holohan [00:16:15]:
And I have a lot of patients that don’t want that as an option.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:19]:
I think that there are a lot of people, as they’re losing their hair and they have issues that they’ll throw any amount of money at it. And then after a while, when you’ve tried so many different procedures and nothing has worked for you, you do feel like there are some people out here trying to take advantage of me, and you’re trying to figure out who that is. And that’s why for me, you know, going to hair club, I had somebody I knew was in my corner, and they were giving me good guidance. So how do you know, being in this industry, how do you find somebody that you know is a good trichologist or somebody that’s going to give you good advice and is not just going to try to flee knowing that you’re desperate to find your remedy?

Kate Holohan [00:16:56]:
For me, I give my patients all the options and I will speak to them about stuff and I will make sure that they know. So for a treatment like minoxidil is a huge commitment. So, like I say, some people will readily say they absolutely love it and they wouldn’t have the hair they had today had they not used it, but you have to use it for as long as you want hair.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:19]:
So you’re talking about if you ever gave up using minoxidil, then you’re going to start seeing immediate hair loss again. And so you’ve bought into, I am now a lifetime user of minoxidil.

Kate Holohan [00:17:30]:
Yeah, pretty much. Which is one of the reasons why I make sure people are really aware of all the different options and maybe try a few other things as well before that. I think if you’re looking for a trichologist, especially in the US, it’s not as tightly regulated profession. So it’s definitely a good idea to look for someone who would be state registered or board certified for us. In the UK, obviously, I trained with the Institute of Trichologists, which is the longest standing kind of highest rated education provider. On their website, they have finder service. So you can put your postcode in and you can have a look and see someone near you that is actually qualified by them and recommended. Because we do see a lot of this as well, where we see people do training in maybe hair systems or wigs, or they do a couple of days online and they market themselves as a hair loss specialist, salon or expert.

Kate Holohan [00:18:34]:
And so you just do really need to make sure that you are in good hands. But it’s very easy to find if you know who to look through to find people that are properly qualified.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:48]:
Now, being a trichologist, do you know anything about the hormonal effects on hair loss? And do you see it in the scalp, for instance? I’ve heard about, you know, sometimes you have a testosterone, it creates the DHT. The DHT goes in there and just kind of squeezes off the hair follicle. And that’s when you start getting the hair loss as a trichologist do you see that? And is there any way that you can kind of offset some of those hormonal issues to slow your hair loss?

Kate Holohan [00:19:10]:
Yeah, absolutely. So you’re talking really about genetic hair loss, which can affect men and women, and it is normally due to the DHT. So there are other treatments that have what’s called a five alpha reductase inhibitor in the product. So I don’t know if you’ve heard of finasteride or propecia.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:31]:
Yes, I used finasteride for about ten years myself. I found it to be very effective. I mean, it radically slowed my hair loss for an entire decade. So I would call it very successful for me.

Kate Holohan [00:19:42]:
But that’s what that does. So it prevents the testosterone converting into DHT. So I have a similar product. It’s not finasteride, but it’s a scalp cream that you put on every night, and it has a five alpha reductase inhibitor in it, so it just stops that conversion happening. So you’re absolutely right. Unfortunately, especially genetic hair loss, we can’t cure it, but we can slow it right down and we can try and hold it off for as long as possible, which for some people is still a huge result.

Kevin Rolston [00:20:18]:
It is liberating to hear that there are options out there for anyone who’s looking to improve the health of their hair and scalp, but it can be tricky to navigate them on your own. Working with a trusted professional can be very comforting for some people, but for others, reaching out for help is the hardest part. Many people wait until theyve exhausted their options and their wallets before reaching out to somebody like Kate who can help set them on the right path. I asked Kate what treatments she recommends people look into or attempt before reaching out to a trichologist.

Kate Holohan [00:20:56]:
I wouldn’t try anything, Kevin, the two senior trichologist. Personally, I would want to be the first. Port of corn. Yes. Just think of us. You don’t even need to have a real, real issue to come and see a trachologist. You can come and just have what we would call in the UK a kind of an mot, a hair and scalp mother. So if you had any kind of issues, or even if you were just curious about, you know, your hair and scalp health and condition, there are tests that we can do to even check hair condition, look for any disorders that might be there.

Kate Holohan [00:21:32]:
We can microscopically look at your scalp to see how healthy it is. My real kind of big thing is prevention is better than cure. So for you, Kevin, if you’d have left your hair loss, the longer you’d have left it, the less hair you would have been able to retain. So just having a diagnosis and that initial consultation, I’m not saying sign up for years of treatment, but going to someone who can actually give you an accurate, because if you don’t get that accurate diagnosis and consultation at the start, if you went to, say, a barber and they said, oh, it’s just genetic thinning, it’s fine. And you actually had, say, a scarring condition or something that’s really serious and permanent. The longer you leave a condition before it’s treated, the worse your prognosis is. So I think early detection and early help is key, and we might turn around and say to you, actually, you’re doing great.

Kevin Rolston [00:22:28]:
Yeah, right. But it’s good to know, my first five years that I was dealing with my hair loss, I was on my own, and I spent so much money on so many things. I’m one of those people that the minoxidil doesn’t work for. I’m that, you know, that percentage, and I did it for a year. I wasted a ton of money in a year on a product that did not work for me. And so knowing that, step one, if your thing is, in fact, if you’re listening right now, trichologist is something you need to have a number for. If you don’t already have a trichologist, that’s valuable information.

Kate Holohan [00:23:02]:
That would really be my dream, to be honest, for everyone to just come and give us a little visit every now and then and just make sure, because like you say, if you don’t have the right advice and help you, there’s no support there. If you go to the Internet, you can find someone who will take that money.

Kevin Rolston [00:23:20]:
Yeah, well, man, I’m telling you, the hair loss field, so many people take your money, man. It’s crazy.

Kate Holohan [00:23:27]:
And I think that’s worse as well.

Kevin Rolston [00:23:30]:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah.

Kate Holohan [00:23:32]:
The more you try, the more hopeless you feel. And even if you went to a trichologist and they said, look, it’s genetic, hair thinning, we can’t cure it, these are your options. Maybe we tested you and found that minoxidil wouldn’t have worked for you. You wouldn’t have had that whole year of kind of despondency and deflatedness, really. And the money, then, it’s just nice. Or you could have gone back and after three months, they could have measured whether you had any success or not accurately, and gone. Do you know what we’re not seeing what we would like to see here. Let’s maybe look at something else that’s so valuable.

Kevin Rolston [00:24:09]:
Kate, there are some people that do have hesitations about this. They drag their feet. They’re worried about being embarrassed. Going to a trichologist. How tough is it? Can you say anything that might comfort them, that would get them in the door to a person they need to see today about their hair loss?

Kate Holohan [00:24:27]:
Yeah. I personally feel that I’m really quite approachable. My salon, my clinic is very, very discreet. I have access to my clinic 24 hours a day. So if someone wanted to come at 08:00 p.m. On a Friday when there was no one else around, no one would even know. I also, myself, have a podcast, the hair therapy podcast, where I have lots and lots of real life stories. So even if someone wanted to just get that kind of reassurance of the fact that they’re not alone and there might be something to do, they could even start just by listening to a podcast in the car on their own.

Kate Holohan [00:25:04]:
I’m not forcing people to come and visit me, but I do just think we in this profession because we want to help people. We’ve seen everything before. We’re never going to judge you. Your scalp could be, for you, the most horrific thing you’ve ever seen in your life. Trust me, I’ve probably seen worse. So we don’t judge. We just want to help you.

Kevin Rolston [00:25:26]:
Yeah. Kate, you are a wealth of information. I appreciate you taking some time to share that information with our audience today.

Kate Holohan [00:25:34]:
It’s been a pleasure. It’s been lovely to talk to you.

Kevin Rolston [00:25:37]:
Absolutely. And you too. Take care and enjoy yourself.

Kate Holohan [00:25:40]:
Thank you.

Kevin Rolston [00:25:45]:
It was great speaking to Kate about her work. Her approach is scientific in nature, but she never loses her empathy for what people are going through. And because she’s an educator, she’s also helping the hairdressers she works with to learn to do the same. Her podcast and guest appearances like this one also help spread the word that there are so many small things we can do as individuals to help our hair health, to staying hydrated, to managing our stress. If you’re kind of feeling like we barely scratched the surface, look, I’m right there with you.

Kevin Rolston [00:26:14]:
And if you’d like to learn more.

Kevin Rolston [00:26:15]:
About Kate and her podcast, make sure to check out the resources section of our show notes for a link to her show, hair therapy. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out at Hair Club on Instagram or search Hairpod on Facebook to continue the conversation. And if you know somebody who could benefit from hearing this episode, wed really love it if youd share it with them. And if youre enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and review on your favorite podcast app. We also have a website. Check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. Were here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone.

Kevin Rolston [00:26:54]:
And when you share, review, and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thank you.

Kevin Rolston [00:27:00]:
Until next time.

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Men’s Hair Loss with Christopher Erstner

Men’s Hair Loss with Christopher Erstner

by | Apr 23, 2024 | Episode

Episode 09

Men’s Hair Loss with Christopher Erstner

Christopher Erstner - Men and Hair Loss

When men notice their hair thinning or receding, it often feels like they’re navigating uncharted territory. In this insightful episode of HairPod, your host Kevin Rolston joins forces with cosmetics and beauty expert Christopher Erstner to unravel the intricate impact of our cultural norms on men’s hair loss journeys. Prepare to delve into Christopher’s personal narrative, as he candidly shares his own experience with men’s hair loss and how it meshes with the broader conversation surrounding self-image.

Confronting Early Hair Loss

Christopher’s journey with hair loss began in his twenties, a pivotal period where he grappled with the reality of his receding hairline. Opting to shave his head became a defining choice, but relying solely on hats for style versatility proved limiting—especially when attending significant events like his sister’s wedding. The traditional solutions of hair plugs or toupees held little appeal; they often fell short of providing a convincing solution and risked becoming objects of mockery.

Perceptions of Men’s Hair Loss

There isn’t much space for men to say things like, “I don’t like something about my appearance. I’d like to change that.” Women have always been expected to be “well-kept” – making changes to their appearance has been relatively common in our culture for many decades. Now, more hair loss solutions are available to men, and those options are of higher quality than those from decades ago. In the realm of men’s grooming, there’s historically been little room for open dialogue about appearance insecurities. While women have long been encouraged to address any dissatisfaction with their appearance, men have typically faced societal pressures to maintain an unyielding facade of confidence. However, recent years have seen a shift, with a broader array of high-quality hair loss solutions becoming available to men, offering a newfound sense of empowerment and choice.

Sharing His Hair Loss Experience

Christopher is always aware of his system. While most people don’t think much about their hair system once they’re used to it, Christopher’s experience fitting wigs makes him really conscious of how his system looks. He doesn’t come out and tell everyone about his system, but he is open with people who see his appearance and comment on how perfect he looks. He wants people to understand that his appearance is something he has worked on and developed. While Christopher is open about his system, he understands why many men feel like they can’t be. Men don’t often have space to discuss their hair issues. In the cosmetics industry, Christopher works with many female clients, and occasionally, their husbands feel comfortable speaking to him about hair loss because they know he has experienced it himself.

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.09 Transcript

Christopher [00:00:09]:
I think it’s a natural part of who I am, but I’m always aware. Let’s be clear, I’m very image conscious, and I know that that’s probably not the thing I should be saying. I worked in the entertainment field for a long time, too, and so I know that it’s the inappropriate way to say, but, like, I worked with wigs and stuff like that. There were such things as wig lines, and you don’t want that hard line. And if you do it, be what we used to call clocked. Like you could see it.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:57]:
Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. Hair loss happens to people at different times and for different reasons, so each story is just as unique as the next.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:09]:
Im your host, Kevin Ralston.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:10]:
And each week I get to interview people from different walks of life who have all been through hair loss in some form or fashion and have found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. Our guest today is Christopher Ersner. He knows firsthand just how important it is to like what you see in the mirror. And he makes his living helping his own clients do just that. Christopher works in the beauty industry, manufacturing fragrances, makeup, and skincare to help people look and feel their best. But before he became the knowledgeable professional that he is now, he was just a kid at the end of high school starting to notice his own hair loss.

Christopher [00:01:52]:
I would say probably like high school, right? So, like towards the end of, like senior year, maybe even day junior, but you don’t really notice it until the somebody points it out.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:02]:
And what was that first moment for you? Because I remember my very first moment where I realized I was losing my hair. Was there kind of a signature moment where you said, oh, wait, that doesn’t look right.

Christopher [00:02:12]:
I’d probably say probably more mid twenties. I’d say like 25, 26 years old. That was more of a issue for me because, you know, you can stand in front of the mirror, but you don’t actually see what everybody else sees. Yeah, kind of. Same way with, like, losing weight. I always find that by seeing pictures of yourself is really when you get to analyze it in a different way than when you’re standing in front of a mirror. And so I think I can’t remember a specific moment, but I’m almost certain it would have been probably in a picture.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:40]:
Okay, so it started to creep in.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:42]:
You started to realize in your mid twenties, maybe around the age of 26, that you had some issues. Where were you then? What did you first consider that you were going to do about your hair loss and how you’re going to deal with it.

Christopher [00:02:55]:
Honestly, I did not really have any ideas of what to do. Of course, you’re in a much different financial position in your mid twenties than you are at 40. And technology has made things a little bit better in terms of spreading the message. And if there was, I didn’t see it. Anything that would have suggested or even algorithms me into putting me into a category of being able to see what options were there. I mean, of course, you always heard about, like, hair plugs. You also, like, heard a lot of people, you know, with, like, the toupees, and there was always, like, this joke that was associated with it in movies or in shows or something like that. So I don’t think that that was ever something that I would have even suggested for myself because, of course, the last thing you want to be is the joke.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:43]:
Yeah, well, especially with you’re in a field of, you know, your image is everything, and you talk about the hair plugs and. Yeah, my perception, you know, growing up with the hair plugs was it. Would we call it Barbie doll hair, you know, where you would have what would look like big old chunks of hair just coming out of holes in your head?

Christopher [00:04:00]:
And it was so obvious, so specific. Yeah, yeah, right.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:03]:
And everybody seemed to know that you had something done to your hair except for you. You were the one that you thought you were, you know, pulling the wool over the world’s eyes and they could completely see through it. And that’s a really tough thing when you’re saying, okay, I don’t want to be a joke. I don’t want to go down that path. So where do you even start?

Kevin Rolston [00:04:21]:
When you realized in your mid twenties.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:23]:
That you’re starting to lose some hair and you needed a solution, the solutions that you thought you knew didn’t sound very attractive to you at the time. So where did you even go to start off? And what was the first hair loss treatment you ever did?

Christopher [00:04:35]:
Oh, geez, I would say probably Bosley, like, back in the day, like, they have you convinced that you put this solution on your head and it’s like, miraculous. Like it’s gonna be like, was it miracle growth? And it doesn’t, especially in the business that, you know, I’m in with when it comes to beauty and creating shampoos and stuff are meant to wash off, right? So they don’t really have a chance to penetrate. But you’re not really thinking that unless you understand the science. And of course, back then that was not something that I even understood, but, yeah, like, so I think the first thing I did was, like, I didn’t want to be that guy that was like, bozo, honestly, where it was just like, hair. And then, you know, so I just shaved it off and then I got rid of wearing hats. Yeah.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:18]:
Okay, so you had. You went with no hair at all, then you decided to take the whole thing off?

Christopher [00:05:23]:
Yeah, absolutely. I figured that if I wasn’t gonna be able to do it right or look right, I was just gonna just kind of get rid of it. And so I own probably every single coach hat that they’ve ever made, and I just kind of went along with that. Yeah.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:38]:
How do you think that made you feel? Because I was almost there. That was the last step before I walked into hair club and got my system was I thought I was going to shave the whole thing. But then I started to realize, to me, I look 15 to 20 years older when I don’t have hair. How do you feel like you looked without hair?

Christopher [00:05:56]:
Same. I mean, of course, you. You keep it together with the hat, right? So you want to try to, you know, keep it cool and fun with the hat, but there’s only so much like you could do, like, you know, like my sister’s wedding. Like, I’m not going to wear a hat, you know, walking her down the aisle, but, like, I’m not gonna lie, I would have totally done so if she would have let me. I’m not go. I sincerely would have done it. She wasn’t for that, huh? No, she wasn’t about that life. But, you know, you do what you gotta do.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:25]:
It’s interesting just how something like not.

Christopher [00:06:27]:
Being able to wear a hat to.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:28]:
A wedding can lead us to bigger questions about how we want to be seen by others, and how we can make our vision into a reality. Historically, its been socially acceptable, even expected for women to explore ways to change or to enhance their looks, while men dont have as many socially acceptable options. Its not just about a hat or a hairline, but about how society views men and their relationship with their appearance. So I asked Christopher for his perspective on this.

Christopher [00:07:04]:
Men do not have that space in the beauty world, to have the ability to say, I don’t like this, and I’d like to change it without having some type of, like, Joan Rivers complex, like, you know, with, like, the plastic surgery. Well, maybe she went a little too far, but that’s what she did for herself. We should let people alone. Men are just. And even she gets let off the hook and let it, you know, you got Kenny Rogers situation where it’s like, oh, my God, it’s a little too much, and then you get talked about forever. And your legacy is, you know, to be an aunt, you know what I mean? So you kind of have to be cognizant of that. But I think that it’s getting better, obviously, social media, and there’s so many forms of social media now that you really can’t get away from the algorithm. And so at some point you’re going to come across it if it’s something that you’re looking for.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:53]:
Yeah, tell me a little bit about.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:54]:
Because, you know, I think that is.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:55]:
A big hang up for a lot of guys. It seems like in our society it’s much more acceptable, or at least it was, that women would go out and seek beauty type treatments, but, man, we just, we take whatever life gives us and we don’t really do that kind of stuff. And you talk about your own struggles.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:11]:
With that because I think it is.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:13]:
You have to come to a place where you get comfortable. And now I have no problem talking about anything that I’ve done with hair club. Very open about it, but it probably was something that either happened in society or my age. What do you think it was for you? Is it something that you get more comfortable with as you get older?

Kevin Rolston [00:08:32]:
Or do you think the societal perceptions.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:35]:
About men and hair loss and the treatments that they have are different?

Christopher [00:08:38]:
I don’t think that the society has changed on hair loss in regards to, like, the sexual capability or compatibility, really, of what men are to women. Right. So, like, it’s just so I think that’s part of the issues that men have is, like, I want to be, you know, attractive and I want people attracted to me, and then, you know, we make the world go around. Right. But in terms of, like, society changing their ideas about that, it really hasn’t changed because at least from my perspective, you have, you know, our parents and then their parents, men were just, they kind of have the world on a string, right? And women were meant or supposed to be, like, very well kept, and you got to wait for your husband to come home. So you have that very chauvinistic kind of attitude that they don’t realize was chauvinistic until years later. But those things have changed since the women’s movement in the seventies. And then the eighties were just one big party.

Christopher [00:09:38]:
And then the nineties is, I think, what people started understanding. Like, I’d like to look a certain way and given the room to do so. And then you got to two thousands where things are just not the same anymore. And then pre COVID, or what is it post COVID now? I think that the world completely changed in a different way. And people are just like, you know what? I’m just going to live life the way I want to live. And if that. That means that I have to admit to one or two things. I am going to seek help for hair loss, or I’m not.

Christopher [00:10:11]:
It’s one or the other. I gotta be me. And I think that more younger men are certainly happier with the options than I think that we were when we were kids, for sure.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:22]:
Yeah, no doubt. I think you touched on something brilliant, and it probably really has been. Since COVID there’s been a new focus on your mental health and just how important and how you really have to prioritize that, speak to your own mental health, you know, when you have hair and when you don’t. Because I can tell you, for me, with confidence in the way that I feel when I have my unit with hair club, I feel so much better with hair than I do without. How would you speak to your own mental health and how you are with them without hair?

Christopher [00:10:53]:
Same. I would probably, uh, agree with you almost 100% on that. Absolutely. It’s the one thing I will not compromise on. If everything failed around me, it would be one of those things that I would absolutely get a second job for, because it has everything to do with my self confidence. It’s the. When I can look in the mirror and feel good about myself, when I’m out and about, I can feel good of myself. But I will say, in the beginning, it was kind of tough, right? It was like this weird transition of, like, of having to learn how to style again and.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:23]:
Yeah, right.

Christopher [00:11:23]:
Those were like. It was a little bit more difficult than I would have had given it credit for, for sure. But, you know, and that’s still kind of fun. I still really enjoy doing that because I don’t take it for granted.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:39]:
For Christopher, having the right hair loss.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:41]:
Solution is definitely a must.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:43]:
It just goes to show you that the transformation people experience when they get their hair back is more than just physical. A mental shift happens when people feel like their appearance matches the vision they have for how they want other people to see them. But getting to that point can sometimes take a little trial and error. So I want to know more about the journey Christopher took to find his solution. With hair club.

Christopher [00:12:10]:
I was doing PRP treatments.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:13]:
Tell me about the PRP for people that don’t know what is the PRP?

Christopher [00:12:17]:
It’s hell on earth. I think that’s what it stands for. Awful. I don’t know what it actually stands for, but it’s a fairly new procedure that they came out with a few years ago. And what they essentially, the science behind it is stem cell regrowth. And so they would pull blood, and then they would get stem cells, and then they would inject it into your skull, essentially. And that was hor. It was horrifying.

Christopher [00:12:47]:
I would rather be bald. That’s how bad, really, it was just pain.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:52]:
It was time. It was cost. It was all the above.

Christopher [00:12:54]:
Well, it’s very expensive, but people forget how many nerve endings you have in your head, and there isn’t a lot of fatty tissue between your skull and the skin. So it was awful. That’s all I could say. I think it was. That was like, okay, well, obviously I’m on this. Like, I’m clearly trying to find something. Yeah. And so, Erp just wasn’t work.

Christopher [00:13:18]:
It just was not doing it for me. I mean, I’m sure if I had kept up on it, it may have, but I wasn’t willing to try to figure it out. So I think. I honestly. I think I just started googling. Honest to God. Yeah. And it’s what came up.

Christopher [00:13:33]:
And then, you know, obviously, like, Facebook and all the rest of them kind of figure out what you’re up to in terms of the Google algorithm and stuff. And so then you started seeing, like, the ads. And honestly, it was one of the very first things that I wanted to know. Like, okay, I’ve seen this before because I had seen it, and not specifically with hair club, but just, you know, online or whatever. And I think that what I wanted to know, my first question was always about money. Let’s be clear. Like, I’m in business, so, like, it’s always about what that bottom line looks like. And honestly, I didn’t know, like, how often is it swapped out? Like, I didn’t know any of that.

Christopher [00:14:08]:
In fact, I figured, you know, why not just sew it in, you know, like, what are you gonna do, right?

Kevin Rolston [00:14:12]:
It’s permanent. Yeah. Mm hmm.

Christopher [00:14:13]:
Yeah. And so I think that’s how it came about. And then I just made an appointment.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:23]:
Years later, Christopher is still rocking his hair system. Now, I’ve had my system for about six years now, and it’s just become a part of me. It’s not even something I ever think about now.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:33]:
And I couldn’t imagine looking at the.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:34]:
Mirror without it, it would not be good. So I was interested to hear whether his experience was anything like mine.

Christopher [00:14:43]:
I think it’s a natural part of who I am, but I’m always aware. Let’s be clear. I’m very image conscious, and I know that that’s probably not the thing I should be saying.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:52]:
No, I want honesty.

Christopher [00:14:54]:
I worked in the entertainment field for a long time, too, and so I know that it’s the inappropriate, appropriate way to say, but, like, I worked with wigs and stuff like that, and so, like, there were such things as wig lines, and you don’t want that hard line. And if you do, it could be what we used to call clocks. Like, you could see it, you know? And so I think that was always and is and is always going to be one of the things that I will watch out for. But, like, I don’t know if I’m the normal person, right. In that regard, I think that I would say 99.99% of people would never know.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:31]:
How often do you tell people that you do have a hair system and how do you deal with that? Are you still self conscious about it?

Christopher [00:15:38]:
I don’t know if I’m self conscious. Well, you know, I take that back. I think that’s. Yeah, for sure. I certainly self conscious about it. Why is that? Because I would rather not have to. Right. So, like, I would rather have my own, like, head of hair.

Christopher [00:15:52]:
I’m bitter at my mother still for being in a family with bald head guys. Like, what can I say? But, like, you know, of course I would love to have, like, my own. However, that’s not what’s up. And so I do tell people, but I don’t tell people. Be like, hey, by the way, I’m not going to. And unless it be was to become a question because I was photographed a lot before, and there’s videos online of me without hair. Like, I had to be, you know, honest with it. I’ve had, like, some work done to my face, for example.

Christopher [00:16:24]:
Right? So I’ve had, like, botox and fillers and the whole nine yards. And I would have women that would come see me and they would say, well, you look extraordinary and this and that. And I immediately with squash that. Because what I did want people to think that this was natural. Okay? So, like, I didn’t want to be this, like, weird standard of, like, this is the magazine and you have to look like that. And so I wanted to be clear. Like, this is what makes me happy. I only do it for myself.

Christopher [00:16:49]:
But just know that all this took work, you know, like, I didn’t wake up like this, you know? And so I feel the same way when it came to guys. So it’s weird because I would see a lot of husbands with wives, right. And the beauty with makeup and so on and so forth. And it also gave me a great opportunity to talk to men about that. And men are so self conscious way more than I think they’re ever going to be given credit for. And when you have somebody that’s going to be, like, super chill and just honest, I think it breaks down a lot of walls with men, and then they’d be willing to open up a little bit more. Because I would almost guarantee you, if you ask ten men that were bald or balding, if they would like to have their hair back, I would say that all ten men would want it back. Right, right.

Christopher [00:17:38]:
I haven’t met one that was like, oh, yay, bald. Like, can’t be bald. I think there’s a lot of men that are like, okay, I’m okay with this, and this is the way it is, but if they were given the option, it would not be. Yeah.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:50]:
And to your point, I think it’s hard for men to find a safe space to have that conversation. And so it’s probably refreshing when they get to talk to somebody like you who’s so open about it, because, I don’t know, a lot of guys that are at the bar sitting there having a beer, and they’re talking about how they feel about their hair, and they feel like they can really say much about it. And so I think the guys are kind of hung out there. And that’s why I’m hoping that conversations with people like you are going to open people’s eyes, and people can find a safe space to hear some conversation about, you know, what it’s like having hair and how their friends react to it. How did your friends and family react to it? Was it all positive or did you get teasing? Did you get any kind of issues with anybody?

Christopher [00:18:25]:
Nobody teases me. It would not work. Yeah, no, it was all positive. It was very positive. And truth be told is your friends and family, they could be weirded out by it at first, but because of the. What we’ve seen in the media, you know, growing up, you know, it’s all that mindset. But ultimately what it really boils down to is, are you happy? It’s cool. And then it’s not an issue.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:54]:
Christer’s message is a powerful one because it comes from a place of empathy in his line of work, he often creates space for men and women to be vulnerable about their insecurities because he understands what it feels like to want to change your life for the better, even if there’s a cultural stigma that stands in the way.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:13]:
I really appreciate the way that he acknowledges that it’s not always easy for.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:17]:
Men to find people to talk to about their appearance, and it can seem like there aren’t many options out there. Hopefully, thanks to people like Christopher and conversations like this one, more men and women will feel empowered to reach out to somebody who can help them onto a path towards better confidence and self esteem. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out on hairpod on Instagram or search hairpod on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know somebody who could benefit from hearing this episode, we’d love it if you’d share it with them. And if you’re enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. We also have a website and you can check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. We are here to build people up and share real stories so people experiencing hair loss feel a little bit less alone.

Kevin Rolston [00:20:08]:
And when you share, review and subscribe, it helps us do just that. So thanks.

Kevin Rolston [00:20:13]:
Until next time.

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Chemotherapy and Hair Loss with Carol Combs

Chemotherapy and Hair Loss with Carol Combs

by | Apr 16, 2024 | Episode

Episode 08

Chemotherapy and Hair Loss with Carol Combs

Chemotherapy hair loss Carol Combs

Chemotherapy affects the body in numerous ways, with hair loss being one of the most common side effects. In this episode of HairPod, Kevin Rolston, our host, welcomes Carol Combs, a cancer survivor, to share her story. Carol’s journey through hair loss was about more than just her appearance; it deeply impacted her sense of self. Tune in to discover how Carol rebuilt her confidence and reclaimed her life.

Carol’s Diagnosis

When Carol was diagnosed with cancer, doctors gave her three weeks to three months to live. She immediately started treatment, which included chemotherapy. The chemotherapy was able to help Carol survive, but it wreaked havoc on her body, causing fatigue and hair loss. She took a step back from working at her job due to fatigue, but losing her hair caused her to retreat in a completely different way.

The Impacts of Hair Loss

While Carol is typically an extrovert, her hair loss impacted her confidence so much that she just wanted to hide from everyone. When Carol was given speaking opportunities at work, she would offer those opportunities to others because she didn’t want to be in front of people. Carol says that during this time, she felt “less than,” as her hair loss took away her desire to work with people, one of the great joys in her life.

Getting Her Hair Back After Chemo

Carol attended a meeting at a support group called “I’m Too Young for Cancer.” She met a young woman there who had a system from HairClub. She was so impressed with the hair system that she made an appointment to visit HairClub. Carol clearly remembers the first time she wore her hair system. She was working a large event for her job and felt like it was the first time she had her old self back.

Carol has been going to HairClub for almost 30 years. She describes the staff as empathetic and caring. Carol has been to a few HairClub locations throughout the United States and found that connecting with a new Club is smooth and easy.

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.08 Transcript

Carol Combs [00:00:09]:
I mean, I’ve been a client for almost 30 years now, and it’s like I’m a monk’s family. I mean, they know about me. And the people that they hire at hair club are caring people. I mean, they genuinely care about you. They want you to look your best. If ever I had a problem, I never worried about talking about it or asking it. Someone that’s just invaluable.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:53]:
Welcome to HairPot, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. Hair loss happens to people at different times and for different reasons, so each story is as unique as the next. Im your host, Kevin Ralston. And each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whove all been through hair loss in some form or fashion and have found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. Our guest today is Carol Combs. Her journey with hair loss began quite a while before she actually started to even lose her hair. When she was diagnosed with cancer in 1992, doctors gave her three weeks to three months to live. And now, 30 years later, she is still here to tell the tale.

Carol Combs [00:01:40]:
I actually had to go to the doctor because I had a lump that popped up on my neck. And I remember 1000 people coming in to town because I was putting on this huge thing for the company I worked for. And so I ran to the doctors at 08:00 a.m. In the morning, only to find out that I had to go immediately to the hospital because he said it was possible to cancel. Within that day that I found out I had three weeks to three months to live. And, I mean, I went straight to the hospital. They admitted me and spent two years.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:15]:
Getting, what a gut punch. I can only imagine, you know, when you sit down and you get that diagnosis that you have cancer. Now, how serious was it? Was it something that you’re going to be able to shake off? Or was it the kind of cancer where you better get your life in order?

Carol Combs [00:02:30]:
Well, at that point, that’s how they were talking to me. And I thought, wow, I mean, what can we do? What do we need to do? Let’s do it. And it wasn’t until like the fifth treatment that they thought, wow, you really get a chance to live.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:46]:
Wow.

Carol Combs [00:02:47]:
But, you know, I don’t know what it was, but I just took on an attitude like, I got way more life to live here. So, yeah, I’m not going out like this.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:58]:
And here you are 30 years later, and you are still going, Carol.

Carol Combs [00:03:01]:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:03]:
Now tell me what it was like, with your treatments for your cancer, did you go through chemo?

Carol Combs [00:03:08]:
I did. I went through a year and a half of chemo and then 54 consecutive treatments of radiation.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:18]:
Okay. And I’ve only heard the stories about chemotherapy. But it wrecks your body, right?

Carol Combs [00:03:24]:
Yeah. Well, I was very present in my work, and I took a lot of joy out of my work, and come to find out that, you know, I wasn’t going to be able to work, who was going to step into that role really kind of threw me.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:39]:
What kind of work were you doing at the time?

Carol Combs [00:03:41]:
I was an information technology manager at the time.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:47]:
Okay.

Carol Combs [00:03:47]:
And I was overseeing, like, company wide projects where we revamped the whole system from the computers all the way up to networking. I had about 300 people reporting to me, so it was pretty crazy.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:01]:
This sounds like the kind of job where you need a lot of energy for.

Carol Combs [00:04:04]:
You do. You absolutely do. And when you go through chemo, it’s like I just insisted on going to work, and after about the third treatment, I felt like somebody ran over me with a Mack truck.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:19]:
Despite the draining chemotherapy appointments, Carol insisted on going into work. But as her treatment progressed, it became harder and harder just to make it into the office. So she decided to take a step back and focus on her healing.

Carol Combs [00:04:35]:
I said, you know what? I need to take about six months off, concentrate on getting. It’s just full speed ahead. And I guess the best news was five treatments in when they said, wow, really working. And it looks like we’re gonna have a different conversation.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:50]:
Wow. How about that? I mean, obviously, priority wise, the first thing is extending your life and getting the most out of it. But, you know, after you get to that point and you’re now looking down the road and you’re looking at your life, what was the chemotherapy doing to your body? I assume you had hair loss issues, like a lot of people do when they go through chemotherapy.

Carol Combs [00:05:09]:
Yes. Which, you know, I know people talk about it, but, I mean, it was so devastating to me because I’m just such an extrovert. I love to be around people. I love working with people, and I get a lot of personal joy out of that. And to think that now I have to, like, hide and not be myself, that was more devastating than dealing with the disease itself.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:36]:
What did your hair loss do to your confidence?

Carol Combs [00:05:39]:
Well, like I said, I wanted to hide. I mean, anytime I had to speak, I’d groom somebody else to do the job. I just couldn’t bring myself to be that person. I felt like less of a person, actually.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:53]:
How were people treating you, and how did you feel like they treated you? Did you feel like as soon as people saw me and identified me, they first saw me as somebody who was trying to survive cancer? Did you feel like you kind of lost who you had been before you started chemo?

Carol Combs [00:06:08]:
Absolutely. I used to say I used to be this vibrant, go getter type of person, and now I was less than. And for me, internally, personally, that was the big struggle for me. Cause I thought, you know, I worked so hard to get where I was in my job, and now life’s just different. And I had just been married a year, so that was. Consider that. And, yeah, it was not a fun time.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:37]:
So tell me, you went to a meeting that really kind of started to turn things around back in May of 1995. It was a support group that you went to, and this was something where you were getting with other people who were at a younger age, who were battling cancer. Tell me about this meeting. And the person that you met that.

Carol Combs [00:06:55]:
Night certainly found out that there was a group called I’m too young for cancer, and it was a support group for people that were either living with terminal cancer or were in some kind of cancer treatment at the time. And I met a girl there who was going through brain cancer, and one day she came in with a head of. She had no hair. One day she comes in with a head of hair, and I was just blown away. And she said, my sister insisted on taking me to this place called hair club. And, I mean, I couldn’t quit touching it and just to see the change in her. Like, she was just, like, she just lit up, and I was like, wow, wow. Take me.

Carol Combs [00:07:38]:
Take me.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:46]:
Carol didn’t waste any time. When the young woman and her support group showed up with a full head of hair, Carol saw firsthand the change in her energy, and she knew she had to try it for herself.

Carol Combs [00:08:02]:
I’ll never forget the day. It was May 25, 1995, and I had a big retirement party that I had put on from somebody who had worked for the company for 40, and there were going to be over 300 people there, so. And I went with my new hair, and I was like my old self. Nobody looked at me differently. People were like, oh, did you get a perm? Your hair looks so great. And, I mean, in that moment, I just was so much joy. I mean, I thought, wow.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:36]:
It’S life changing.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:37]:
That’s amazing to feel like that, to feel like yourself again. Did you feel like this was kind of the moment where you felt the victory over cancer? You felt like the old Carol was back and that you had nothing but life to live.

Carol Combs [00:08:49]:
Absolutely. I mean, I was done with treatments at that point and wasn’t real sure, you know, how was it going to navigate back into my social life and all that and, you know, meeting that girl and one to hair club, seeing that it’s all now possible, that was huge. Just huge for me.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:09]:
So we’re talking about a good bit of time that has passed that you first went into the hair club to right now. So tell me about what that feeling is like today. Has it faded? Do you feel like you take your hair for granted or how do you still look at yourself in the mirror?

Carol Combs [00:09:23]:
Absolutely not. I do not take any of it for granted. And I say this all the time. Whenever I go and I have a service, it’s like the first time all over again. It’s like I get done and I’m just like, you know, it’s an aha moment. So I never take it for granted. I mean, I’m beyond blessed that I get to. I’m able to do.

Carol Combs [00:09:45]:
And the other person I want to thank really is my husband. You know, he’s just always been on board, regardless of what it would take to make that happen. The change in me was just so huge.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:58]:
It’s really powerful just to hear what having hair meant to Carol. I can’t imagine just how difficult it was for her. She went through all of that chemo and radiation, and when she finally started to get better, she still didn’t feel ready to go back out into the world. It’s almost like having Harrigan open up a door for Carole to step back into living her life. Carol has been a client with Hairclub for almost 30 years. I was really interested to know what kept her coming back to Hairclub after all this time. And I was surprised to find out. It had a lot to do with Hairclub’s team of professionals and the supportive space they create for their clients.

Carol Combs [00:10:40]:
That’s one of the things that I think keeps me going. I mean, I’ve been a client for almost 30 years now, and, you know, it’s like I’m a monk’s family. I mean, they know about me. And the people that they hire at hair club are caring people. I mean, they genuinely care about you. They want you to look your best. If ever I had a problem, I never worried about talking about it or asking someone. Yeah, that’s just invaluable.

Carol Combs [00:11:08]:
I mean, really, to have a group of people behind you and rooting for you. I’ve been fortunate to go to a handful of clubs around the United States.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:20]:
Okay.

Carol Combs [00:11:20]:
No matter where I go and when I go in there, I mean, it’s. You’re just taken care of, and that’s. That’s a wonderful feeling.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:28]:
Tell me a little bit about what it is like, because people probably would have that question that don’t know anything about this. And what is the maintenance like for your hair? And if you do find yourself in a situation where you’re traveling and you’re in a different place, how easy is it to find a hair club? What kind of supplies do you have to take with you? Do you find it to be a big hassle? Carol, what is it like?

Carol Combs [00:11:49]:
You know, I don’t, and I really. Maybe I’m fortunate, but my system really doesn’t require a whole lot for me. It pretty much stays in place until it’s time to go again. But, I mean, of course, I take some tape with me or things that I might need as far as, like, reaching out to another club, wherever I’m at. That’s been so simple and so easy. I mean, it’s just one phone call, and then they make the arrangements and tell me where to be, and that’s just invaluable. You know, regardless of where I go, I know I can have my hair needs or met.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:25]:
Tell me a little bit about the styles. Have you ever changed the style of your hair throughout these almost 30 years as a hair club client?

Carol Combs [00:12:31]:
Oh, absolutely. Like, the blonde is new for me just in the last five years.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:37]:
It looks great.

Carol Combs [00:12:38]:
And I just like to say blondes do have a little more fun.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:43]:
Yes, they do.

Carol Combs [00:12:44]:
But, yeah, so. And that’s been fun. Like, you can mix it up and do whatever you want.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:55]:
I think what really blows me away about what Carol just said is that she gets to enjoy something as normal as changing her hairstyle and color, just like anybody else would. Now, while that may not seem like a huge deal to some, for Carol, I know it means the world. Spending this time with her, talking about her story reminded me just how important it is to be grateful for the little things, like changing up your look or even just having a great hair day. So thank you, Carol, for coming on and sharing your story. Thank you for listening to another episode of Hairpaw. Check us out on Hair Club on Instagram or search us on Facebook to continue the conversation. And if you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, please consider sending it to them. If you’re enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating or a review on your favorite podcast app.

Kevin Rolston [00:13:47]:
If you haven’t been over to our website yet, check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. Until next time.

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Stress and Hair Loss with Dan Medeiros

Stress and Hair Loss with Dan Medeiros

by | Apr 9, 2024 | Episode

Episode 07

Dan Medeiros: Stress and Hair Loss

Stress and Hair Loss with Dan Medeiros
In this episode of HairPod, we delve into the often-overlooked link between stress and hair loss through the personal journey of our guest, Dan Mederios. Sharing his experience with our host Kevin, Dan opens up about his challenges, the emotional toll, and the steps he took towards recovery and acceptance. Join us as we explore the impact of finding yourself again after hair loss, and how showing up for yourself and getting the care you need can ultimately have a ripple effect on those around you.

Hair Loss Journey

Being a rock star and performing has always been Dan’s dream. From a young age, he was encouraged to use music as a way to express himself and overcome his shyness. Now, Dan is a musician, actor, and model. He also participates in the Iowa League of Heroes, a group that dresses as superheroes to visit kids in need. Dan’s hair loss journey began with stress. Going to university and working took a toll on Dan, and he struggled to maintain healthy habits. Stress and hair loss was the main contributor.

Early Hair Loss

Dan’s hair loss started around his temples and then began happening on the middle of his forehead. Dan tried styling his hair differently and using shorter haircuts/hats to cover the parts of his scalp where the hair was thinning. As he continued to lose his hair, he felt less and less like going out and performing. Looking in the mirror was devastating.

Finding the Right Hair Loss Solutions

Initially, treating Dan’s health and scalp did help him see some regrowth. He followed instructions religiously and enjoyed some success. He eventually sought a hair system and finally felt like he saw himself again. His wife, who encouraged him to seek a comprehensive solution like this, was overjoyed to see him look the way he did when they met. So don’t give up! There is a solution from stress and hair loss.

Stress and Hair Loss Tips

Learn about shampoo, conditioner, and hair products and their impact your overall hair health. Diet and stress management are crucial in helping maintain your overall wellness. It’s never to early, and it’s never too late to seek the solutions that are right for you.

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.07 Transcript

Dan Medeiros [00:00:09]:
If I stick to the plan, I stick to the procedure, it’s gonna work for me. And I’m very OCD and HD, so it’s like I found the like as soon as I got on that regimen, I’m like, you know, to a t. That is my pattern. And I worked with it. And I started cleaning up my scalp. You know, within months, I was having much cleaner scalp. I started growing some hair back. Some, like, more follicles were coming through.

Dan Medeiros [00:00:32]:
I was actually able to start growing my hair again. I was starting to get some thickness. I started working on my stress. I completely changed my diet. I started getting back into everything, and I started actually caring about what I was internally and externally.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:07]:
Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. Hair loss happens to people at different times and for different reasons. So each story is as unique as the next. Im your host, Kevin Ralston. And each week I get to interview people from different walks of life whove all been through hair loss in some form or fashion and have found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. Our guest today is Dan Medaris. Hes been passionate about music for his whole life and he began playing guitar at just nine years old. And now hes a professional musician, model, and actor, and he is no stranger to the spotlight.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:44]:
So I was surprised to learn that Dan was actually a pretty shy kid. And it was through performance and music that he was able to overcome his social anxiety.

Dan Medeiros [00:01:56]:
Yeah, incredibly shy. I found it hard to talk to people, look people in the eye, and I only kind of responded when talk to. And most of my talking was with, you know, friends. I found close, I was close enough with, but just socially awkward. And music had been in the family for a long time. It’s something that I fell deeply into even before I started playing guitar. I used to create my own guitars and stuff like that, using wood and fish string and all that stuff. And would, you know, I’d have like the top 20 countdown going on, on, you know, MTV and I’d be just rocking out, pretending I was a rock star and hoping one day I could actually do that for real.

Dan Medeiros [00:02:38]:
Yeah. And then by the time I turned nine, I started, I was finally able to start playing guitar. My parents got me an acoustic and I went into lessons with the Ontario Conservatory for the next seven years.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:51]:
Okay.

Dan Medeiros [00:02:52]:
Yeah. And it just, I said music was in the family, so I was always able to hear things and just learn really quickly when it came to music. And it’s been my. My way of sort of expressing myself over the years, all of my art, all my writing and everything has been based around music and what it’s done for me.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:13]:
How do you go from being a shy kid, flipping that switch, and then all of a sudden, now you’re okay with being in the spotlight because you’ve done some acting as well, right?

Dan Medeiros [00:03:20]:
Oh, yeah. I do everything these days. Professional musician. I do acting. I do model work. Pretty much everything. Anything I can get my hands on. I also work with a group in Iowa called the Iowa League of heroes.

Dan Medeiros [00:03:33]:
We’re a select group of people who dress up as superheroes. We go visit the kids in the hospitals and stuff like that, visit at their homes. We do all sorts of events. And, I mean, we are, we live and breathe the characters. So, I mean, our suits are movie quality. I dress up as Superman, so, I mean, my suit is from Batman versus Superman. It’s like two, $3,000 that I wear.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:57]:
I’ve seen that stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dan Medeiros [00:03:59]:
So when we portray it, we portray it. We do not break character. You know, these kids, you know, we want to give them hope and give them, you know, the ability to see their heroes in real life. And it’s an incredible experience, not just for them, but for us as well. It’s worth every moment. I drove out to Lincoln, Nebraska one year. I met with this kid whose favorite superhero is Superman. Everything was Superman.

Dan Medeiros [00:04:24]:
He wore his cape in his Superman shirt all day. He was, you know, dealing with lymphoma and spent, I don’t know how many hours just hanging out with him that day. And we know that about a year later, he went into remission. And, you know, every once in a while, the parents will reach out to me and just kind of give me updates on him. And it’s amazing.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:46]:
Just hearing what Dan’s been able to do for those kids will blow you away. As hosts of the KBJ show in South Florida, we have partnered with the children’s charity that’s been around now for 25 years that helps kids in area hospitals and shelters. So seeing what a performance can do to brighten a child’s life, I just know what kind of contribution Dan is making. And look, on Dan’s part, it’s going to take a lot of strength just to show up like that and give these kids and their families the hope and confidence they need. And the kids we deal with with little smiles. Many of them are going through chemotherapy, so they, too, have their own hair struggles. And hair loss works with kids just like them. So they can also get their confidence back.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:24]:
So I’ve seen directly the kind of impact that people like Dan can have. And just like adults, kids get a smile on their face. You can tell they have more confidence. So if you can feel it, why wouldnt they feel it? And thats why this episode is so special to me. While confidence is one thing, stress, on the other hand, can be totally debilitating. And Dan started to experience some hair loss as he was just coming into adulthood. He was under tremendous stress, which caused a decline in his overall health and the health of his hair.

Dan Medeiros [00:05:58]:
I’d say when I really started to notice it was after high school, early college. You know, I was working myself to the bone between school and work, trying to afford college and trying to keep my car from overheating on a daily basis to and from, you know, if I found $5 worth of cash, I was like, oh, my gosh, I have gas money. I can actually make it home from school today. You know, running yourself ragged in the stress. And stress doesn’t work out too well for me as I came to realize as I started getting older, I wasn’t invincible anymore. And stress started taking over out of control with fast food and just an unhealthy lifestyle, because essentially, I just wasn’t happy anymore. And the stress of my full time job, which I saw people break down and cry and go on stress sleep for six months within a year of doing the job, it gutted half my head. I was freaking out, wasn’t sure what to do anymore.

Dan Medeiros [00:06:57]:
I went from luscious hair when I first started to, you know, barely anything left. I was gaining weight, all sorts of stuff. My scalp. And when stress comes out physically on me, so it came out on my scalp. It was like a minefield up there. Like it was constantly on fire and pain, itchy. It was. Oh, it was a mess.

Dan Medeiros [00:07:18]:
I remember breaking down, crying with my doctor, and I’m like, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I’ve completely lost myself, who I am, how I am, and I don’t know what to do anymore. And it took some, you know, trying different things until eventually, you know, I remember staying up really late one night, and again, I saw the hair club infomercials, and I’m like, you know, I’ve been seeing these for years, and I think it’s time I go check it out. So I checked it out, and I got an appointment consultation. And I will never forget what the consultant said to me the very first thing. They’re like, you know what? You have landed in the BMW of hair care and all that. And I was like, I hope so.

Dan Medeiros [00:07:59]:
I hope so because I really need some help here.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:01]:
What was your hair loss looking like? Because everybody seems to have their own patterns. There’s different patterns for hair loss. Some people lose to the front. Sometimes it’s in the back. Were you losing patches of hair? What was your hair loss looking like and how severe was it?

Dan Medeiros [00:08:14]:
It was just, you know, it started with the temples and then right in the middle of the forehead, and it just started thinning and it got thinner and thinner. So, you know, styling my hair, it’s like, oh, my gosh, the thickness is gone. It’s scalp now. So I’m having to, like, completely change up how I style my hair to try and hide it and cutting it short, keeping it short, and it, again just wasn’t me anymore. I couldn’t grow my hair out long anymore. I had to. I had to essentially hide it constantly and find ways to hide it. And if, God forbid, there was some wind and.

Dan Medeiros [00:08:48]:
Right, Saba is just like, oh, my gosh, it’s like I can’t even bring myself to go to work right now because I’m just, like, embarrassed to be out in public.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:57]:
Yeah, we’re talking about your confidence takes a massive hit, and for somebody like you, you’re used to being a performer. You’re somebody that’s used to being on stage, acting, doing all that kind of stuff. And I do something relatively similar. I got to tell you, when you dont have confidence, one of the hardest things to do is to grab a microphone, to be on a camera, to be in front of a bunch of kids, whatever it is. And it is kind of weird how just your hair can affect overall that attitude. Did you have some of the same feelings? Was it harder for you to perform and do some of the things you love to do when you were having your hair struggles?

Dan Medeiros [00:09:31]:
Oh, it was extremely difficult. I mean, it takes a crazy emotional toll on you. And it absolutely did with me. I couldn’t look in the mirror anymore without just wanting to just break down crying in my hands, you know, I could no longer look people in the eye. I wore a hat anytime I performed because I’m under lights, I’m in the middle of the spotlight. It’s just me on stage. I don’t have a band hiding me or anything like that. I’m right out front and center, and it’s found it hard to do that anymore.

Dan Medeiros [00:10:04]:
I found it hard to even wanna leave the house and go to a show. There was a lot of times I didn’t even wanna go. I just wanted to stay home and not perform. Yeah.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:14]:
Do you remember any kind of moment where you said, enough’s enough? Cause you wound up at the hair club and you round up at the right place? But what was that moment that just said, okay, I gotta make this happen? What did it for you?

Dan Medeiros [00:10:26]:
When I first joined with hair club back in, it was 2009, going into 2010.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:31]:
Was it the commercial that woke you up? Was that it? You knew you had a problem, and it just. That, that opened your eyes?

Dan Medeiros [00:10:36]:
I mean, I had no, I known I’d had problems for a while. I just, you know, it was, I just so badly wanted it to just be a scalp issue. So I tried dermatologists, I tried everything. And it just, when none of that helped, and when I wasn’t gaining any hair back, I was just losing it. I. It was just, yeah, like I’d known, always known about hair club, it was just taking that leap, you know, making that phone call. And honestly, I think that’s probably one of the hardest things to do, is to make that initial call, set up that initial consultation. That is the hardest thing to get over.

Dan Medeiros [00:11:10]:
And once you get over that hurdle, you realize just what you’ve been missing. And I wish I started earlier. I wish I allowed myself to take that step, but I didn’t.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:23]:
Hey, I know there’s a lot of people out there that can relate to this. No matter what type of solution you’re seeking, those first steps tend to be the hardest ones. I know I’ve talked about this on the podcast before with my own first steps, but the first time I tried to go to the hair club, I didn’t even go in the door.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:40]:
I turned right around.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:41]:
I went home weeks later, as I looked back in the mirror and I said, hey, this isn’t going to fix itself. I finally went back, and I’m so glad I did. That’s why I want to talk to so many people about their own hair loss struggles, because I know first hand what its all about. And I also know what a relief it is when youve got a full head of hair that gives you that confidence. So as hard as it can be to take that leap, for Dan, it was even harder just to keep going with the way things were. Hair loss can come with a real emotional toll. And like so many people out there, Dan tried a few treatments before settling on something that actually worked for him.

Dan Medeiros [00:12:17]:
I started off with the Ext program, which is a lot of scalp care and hair care. I was going in for appointments to have my under the lasers, scalp massages and all sorts of stuff going on the minoxidil and, you know, taking the vitamins to help increase hair growth and a healthy scalp. And I went on the regimen because I just, I’m like, if I stick to the plan, I stick to the procedure process, it’s going to work for me. And I, I’m very OCD and HD, so it’s like, I found that, like, as soon as I got on that regimen, I’m like, you know, to a t, that is my pattern and I worked with it and I started cleaning up my scalp. You know, within months, I was having much cleaner scalp. I started growing some hair back. Some, like, more follicles are coming through. I wasn’t losing as fast anymore.

Dan Medeiros [00:13:09]:
You know, I wasn’t taking a shower and having a clump in my hand or anything. That worked great. That for me, like, I was actually able to start growing my hair again. I was starting to get some thickness, and it was just essentially all around a great candidate for the ext, for regrowth. I started working on my stress. I completely changed my diet. Diet is a huge thing as well. I started going for walks again, and then eventually I started playing hockey again.

Dan Medeiros [00:13:33]:
I’m canadian, so, I mean, for me not to play hockey for a long time, I was like, yeah, I started getting back into everything and I started actually caring about what I was internally and externally. You know, I had friends who helped with that, especially getting me out, getting into fitness and playing hockey again. And between everything, you know, every avenue, I wanted to make sure that in any way, shape or form, I could help and benefit me. My growth, my stress levels, everything. I did it, and it worked so well. 2010 through to 2012, I did that. And then I moved down to Iowa in the US, and so the Des Moines center became my new home center. I continued with that process for years, and then it was 2014.

Dan Medeiros [00:14:16]:
I finally, I was like, you know, I’ve gone as far as I can go. I need more. I want more. Not just for me, but also my wife. You know, she met me back in the early days of social media.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:28]:
About what year did you meet your wife? So we can kind of follow the progress here.

Dan Medeiros [00:14:33]:
We were both in high school at the time, so it was like the very early days. Like, I think just the early days of MySpace, pre MySpace, when online dating was still pretty new.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:44]:
Maybe like 2004. Somewhere around there is that what we’re.

Dan Medeiros [00:14:47]:
Talking about, it was around like, 20 00 20 00 20 01 20 02.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:53]:
Okay, so we’re talking about ten years in the process of this. So your wife knows you for a good ten to twelve years before, you know, you’re like, okay, I want to reintroduce you to the guy that you once knew.

Dan Medeiros [00:15:05]:
Exactly. And, you know, she, despite where I was with everything, and she, you know, she still married me, thankfully.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:13]:
Yeah. It’s love.

Dan Medeiros [00:15:14]:
Yeah. So 2012 through 2014, I was still just doing the ext and, you know, I just, she would see how just sad I would get and still breaking down crying in front of the, in front of the mirror and just, I don’t know what else to do anymore. I just have reached my limit, I think. I’ve kind of, I can’t get any more out of this. So she actually pushed me into, you know, looking into alternatives with Hairclub maybe taking the next step. What they call the X transplus is actually called the Matrix system. I still love calling it the Matrix system just because Matrix is cool.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:43]:
Sounds cool.

Dan Medeiros [00:15:44]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was like, well, maybe she’s like, we’ll take a look and see what the options are. So I met at my center, with the center manager at the time, talked about, you know, whether surgery or the matrix system.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:55]:
And what is that consultation like when you sit down with somebody there and you talk to them, do you show them what the loss is? Do they talk to you about what you want to look like? How does that process go down and how did you decide on the treatment that they walked you towards?

Dan Medeiros [00:16:09]:
Oh, it’s incredible. You know, they essentially let you kind of, you lead and they support you.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:16]:
Okay.

Dan Medeiros [00:16:16]:
So, you know, they let you ask you about yourself, what you do when you start, sort of a lot of the questions you asked when you started noticing that you were losing it, what factors do you think came in with it and what you’re looking for? You know, so I even found, like, pictures of myself back when I had the early days of selfies, before they were called selfies. It was just a webcam. And, you know, I’m just like, this is what I used to have. I had wonderful hair, thick hair. I had amazing hair. You know, my mom, she was a hairstylist, but for years back when I was a kid, before she stopped doing that. And so I was just always, you know, I loved what I could do with my hair and the different styles, and the eighties and nineties were fantastic for that. So, yeah, so it just, you know, that was a big thing for me.

Dan Medeiros [00:16:59]:
And then it. Not being able to do that anymore, it’s just. It’s absolutely crazy. But, yeah, my. My wife pushed me into asking the next questions and what I could get. And so I showed them what I wanted to be again, what I wanted, who I saw myself as. The last time I looked in the mirror, I looked at this picture and said, that is me beginning to end. And they were like, yeah, we can make that happen.

Dan Medeiros [00:17:22]:
So I moved over to the system, and within, like, a month or so, it came in. And I will never forget, it was a weekday night. I went to the center. They ran me through the whole process. It was very personalized, you know, because, again, it’s a very scary, tough decision, making these leaps. It is. And especially, you know, I’m giving up what I’ve grown, what I’ve worked on, and I got the system on. They style it, they cut it.

Dan Medeiros [00:17:49]:
And I was just like, is insane just to see yourself again and go, oh, my God, I still exist.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:55]:
Yeah, right? It’s kind of like you just take off this veil and bam, there you are. To me, what was amazing is how many years you roll back when you just have a system on. To me, it was really crazy. I immediately was like, I look ten to 15 years younger immediately. I don’t know if you had that same feeling.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:14]:
It’s just.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:14]:
It’s crazy what the hair does.

Dan Medeiros [00:18:16]:
I remember seeing a picture of myself on a night out. It was like Saturday night out downtown Des Moines. We were drinking. The friends and I saw the picture, they stay. And it was with me and my wife. And I was like, oh, my God. How old am I?

Kevin Rolston [00:18:28]:
Yeah.

Dan Medeiros [00:18:28]:
I’m like, wow. Oh, my gosh. That is awful. And then just coming home, wearing hair that first night, I got it into the parking lot, and then my wife pulled in, like, five minutes later, and it was kind of perfect timing at night. It was one of those, like, kind of out of a movie moment where I got in my car and I started walking down the parking lot, and she got out of her car, saw me and started like, oh, my God. Hands on her mouth, ran towards me, and just. We were both just in tears. And it was incredible.

Dan Medeiros [00:18:59]:
As I said, not just for me, but for her. And to see her look at me that way. And that very night, I took my very first selfie in years. And the first thing my friends see is when they look at it, they’re like, oh, my God, my friend is Clark Kentucky. So I was like, maybe there’s something to that. Maybe there’s something to that.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:23]:
And those of us who have struggled with hair loss know just how isolating it can be. Like, it can be tough to reach out to somebody for help, especially if you don’t know anybody else who’s going through the same thing, or at least think, you know, somebody’s going through the same thing. So I asked Dan if he had any words of wisdom for somebody in the same position as he was so many years ago dealing with the vicious cycle of stress and hair loss.

Dan Medeiros [00:19:48]:
Oh, gosh, I’ve thought about this a lot over the years. So, you know, you know, at first thing I tell myself, my younger self before I started losing it would be one understand shampoos and conditioners a lot better and what’s good for you. And what’s not good for you. Hair products, again, same deal. Don’t think that you can eat as much fast food as you want and not see the repercussions. It’s never too early. It’s also never too late. But, you know, I wish I started earlier.

Dan Medeiros [00:20:16]:
I wish I started when I started noticing it. I could have salvaged a lot more, and I could have probably gotten myself back on track. You know, who knows? Again, it’s all a bunch of who knows and maybes, but those were definitely a lot of the factors. My favorite thing is talking to people about this and helping others, and I being, you know, not just a salesperson. I’ve been able to bring in friends, people who know me. I’ve been able to reach out to me and be like, oh, my gosh, you know, I didn’t know you were. You were with hair club, and it’s amazing. Give me the scoop.

Dan Medeiros [00:20:46]:
And I talked to them about it as someone who’s a client, giving them a full understanding of what it’s like and not trying to just give them a sales pitch. And I’ve helped bring friends into centers and get. And have. And now they’re just happier than they’ve ever been. And it’s just like, it’s the stigma that came along with what hair club used to be, you know, again, it’s not the eighties. It’s not the nineties anymore. This is. I mean, we’re 2024 with it.

Dan Medeiros [00:21:14]:
This is normal. This is. I feel like the stigma is just really, really out the door. It’s a lot more accepted, and I love just how open and easy it is to talk to people about this stuff.

Kevin Rolston [00:21:25]:
Yeah. And you want to share the joy. I mean, you got the joy your journey is filled with a lot of pain that didn’t need to happen. And if you can spare anybody that same kind of feeling to get them right to the joy phase, it’s a great thing that you’re doing. And I think it’s so fantastic. Everything you’re doing, from your performances to your acting, especially what you’re doing for those kids in the hospital, man, that’s just one of the best things. It really was a pleasure talking to you, Dan, and I appreciate you sharing your story today.

Dan Medeiros [00:21:51]:
Thank you so much. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Kevin Rolston [00:21:58]:
Look, I think Dan’s a great example of what can happen when you get the help that you need. I’m sure it’s hard for people to understand just how devastating hair loss could be unless they’ve been going through it themselves. But one thing anyone can learn from Dan’s story is how much becomes possible when you take care of yourself and find your confidence. Like so many of our other guests, Dan’s hair journey has inspired him to help others through their hair loss. So if you know somebody who can relate to Dan’s story, consider sharing this episode with them, and hopefully they’ll feel a little bit less alone with what they’re going through. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpods. Check us out at Hairclub on Instagram or search us on Facebook and continue the conversation and let us know if this episode struck a chord with you. And if you’re enjoying the show, consider leaving us a rating or review on your favorite podcast app.

Kevin Rolston [00:22:50]:
And if you haven’t been over to our website yet, check it out by going to podcast dot hairclub.com. Until next time.

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Amniotic Band Syndrome with Abby Jensen

Amniotic Band Syndrome with Abby Jensen

by | Apr 2, 2024 | Episode

Episode 06

Amniotic Band Syndrome: It’s Okay to Be Different

Amniotic band syndrome - Abby Jensen
Amniotic band syndrome is a rare condition that affects 1 in 1,200 to 15,000 kids. Abby Jensen grew up with this condition, and in this episode, our host Kevin interviews her to ask her what it was like for her as a kid and how having a hair system was able to help her confidence. At 24 years old, Abby is sharing her story to help kids and their families who are going through challenges similar to what she faced.

What is Amniotic Band Syndrome?

Amniotic band syndrome happens to a baby in utero when the amniotic sac rips and the mother’s body tries to repair it. It can lead to scarring on the baby’s skin. What makes Abby’s case so unique is that her head was affected by the amniotic band as opposed to her limbs or extremities. Because of the scarring on her scalp, Abby has never had hair on the top of her head. She has some natural hair around the back and sides of her head.

What Was it Like for Abby?

Because Abby’s scalp looked different, she got lots of stares as a little kid. Before using her hair system, Abby wore hats and a wig to protect her from onlookers and the sun! Her parents were very committed to ensuring that she had hair by the time she went to school, so they started working with HairClub when Abby was just four years old. Abby’s new hair stayed in place throughout all of her activities—she could swim, dance, and play like any other kid. HairClub was the solution they had been looking!

Abby’s Hair Solution

Abby has worked with the same stylist for all 20 years that she’s been with HairClub. They have a great routine – the stylist knows exactly what Abby likes. Her stylist have customized the routine and care to meet Abby’s needs. Recently, they stopped using glue to help hold the system on and are just using tape. This way, Abby can remove the system as needed. There is no real difference in time or maintenance when it comes to daily styling or care for her hair system. Abby likes to spend a lot of time styling her hair, and with her system, she can do pretty much anything any young woman with natural hair can do.

Sharing Her Story and Strength

When she was young, she hid the fact that she had a system. Although having hair helped her confidence, she wasn’t ready to talk about her journey. By sharing her story now, Abby wants to help kids with amniotic band syndrome and their parents see that things will be okay. Abby wants kids to know that it’s okay to be different from other kids, and she wants parents to be strong for their kids and know that their kids will grow up to be strong, too.

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.06 Transcript

Abby Jensen [00:00:08]:
Sometimes I get really emotional about it still. Sometimes I just accept it. I’m like, this is what it is, what it looks like. The scar is never going to go anywhere. But then sometimes I’m like, I wish it was different. Like, I always sometimes wonder what my hair would look like if I had the full head of it. But I think for the most part, it’s a part of me. And I love the fact that I can have the option to put my hair on.

Abby Jensen [00:00:29]:
I’m very fortunate, and I have the option. Some people don’t.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:51]:
Welcome to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people talk about their hair journeys. Hair loss happens to people at different times for different reasons, so each story is as unique as the next. I’m your host, Kevin Ralston. And each week I get to interview people from different walks of life who’ve all been through hair loss in some form or fashion and have found a way to get their confidence and their hair back. Our guest today is Abby Jensen. Her hair journey began in the womb. Abby was born with a rare condition called amniotic band syndrome, which caused scarring on her scalp. I’d never heard of this condition before, so Abby gave me a little bit of a background on how it occurs and just how it set her hair journey into.

Abby Jensen [00:01:38]:
A it’s extremely rare. Usually it affects the limbs, like either your arms or your legs. So mine was rare in itself, but extremely rare that it happened to my head versus anywhere else. It’s essentially when your mom is pregnant with you, you’re in this amniotic sac. And when my mom was pregnant with me, it ripped and her body tried to fix it, and a bunch of blood vessels came together and they created this band, which is where the name comes from. And when I was born, this band was like wrapped all the way around my head. And when the doctors were like, this is causing an infection, like, she’s really sick, they ended up just ripping it off. And when they did that, all my hair went with it.

Abby Jensen [00:02:20]:
I’m actually not wearing any hair right now, so my scar kind of goes all the way around. So I have some hair in the back here, but I have nothing up top at all.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:29]:
Wow. And that’s something from birth. So right away. Wow.

Abby Jensen [00:02:35]:
Right away. And afterwards, I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks because I was also a preemie. So my parents had to learn very quickly how to get care together. So my head offered I needed a bunch of care, but my head needed to be changed every couple of hours with new dressings and stuff to cover it up and keep the infection away, per se.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:57]:
Now, after you were born, how long was this something that you had to pay so much attention to? Does it have a healing process? And when it does, what do you look like at that point?

Abby Jensen [00:03:08]:
It healed, and so I’m just left with, like, a big scar, per se. So I have some growth up top, but it’s very minimal.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:16]:
I’ve never heard of a condition like this. Have you ever heard from anyone else? Have you ever talked to someone else.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:22]:
That has had this?

Kevin Rolston [00:03:23]:
You are one in a million. I think it’s so unique. Your story.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:35]:
According to the NIH amnic band syndrome, affects approximately one in every 15,000 babies. But as Abby said, most children only experience scarring on their arms, hands, legs, or feet. So I asked Abby what it was like growing up with a condition as rare as abs.

Abby Jensen [00:03:56]:
Kids are mean. So I would get a bunch of looks and stares and pointing the finger. So hats were a big thing when I was younger.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:04]:
Do you remember how that made you feel? How did your parents react, too? That’s got to be tough for them to see other kids acting that way.

Abby Jensen [00:04:12]:
It was definitely tough. I think my mom took it harder than my dad, but my dad, they both. I mean, it’s their kid and something that’s not normal about them. And so I don’t remember before I started with hair club, but I remember kind of after I got a wig on, and kids in elementary school kind of, like, started to figure it out because I would go different lengths or colors or whatnot. And no fourth grader dyes their hair, so it was very a big topic when I came into school with, like, brown hair versus blonde hair. Kind of a big conversation. I was four years old when I started a hair club, so my mom was very on the ball of, like, I don’t want her to go to school without hair.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:49]:
Right. Wow.

Abby Jensen [00:04:50]:
So we started with, I forget the organization, but there was one that wouldn’t help me because I didn’t have cancer. And then my mom found hair club for men, because back then, it was just club for men. There was really nothing else.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:02]:
Right.

Abby Jensen [00:05:03]:
And I would have to ask my mom who the directors or the people in charge were, but she found them, and they kind of were like, okay, let’s meet with her. Let’s see what we can do. So they met with me and my parents, and I’ve been a client now for 20 years. I remember my first wig was one I could put on and take off. So my parents had like a little head that we would put my hair on. We would go out in public and then I’d go home and they would take it off and I’d be without it. And then my mom slowly realized that this was not sustainable for, I mean, a kid, like running around like swimming and dancing and stuff. So, okay, they came up.

Abby Jensen [00:05:39]:
Well, I’m sure I was not the first person to do this, but they had me start using a hair piece that I could glue onto my head. So they used like a polyfuse kind of solution in the back of my head because it’s less sensitive. So I had tape in the front and glue in the back for a long time. And I was able to swim. I could dance, I could run, I could shower, I could straighten it if I wanted to, add heat products and stuff. That was huge. It allowed me to be normal, like my friends and my parents and everyone else I knew. So that was just huge in itself.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:12]:
Was it something that you thought a lot about? Were you always aware that you had on some hair? Were you nervous if you went swimming or were doing anything too active as a kid?

Abby Jensen [00:06:21]:
Oh, yeah. It was very like, the chlorine doesn’t like my hair. So I would come out. The pool was a big thing. I’d go with extra leavein conditioner spray and a brush and I’d always be sure who I was with, be able to help me, especially if my mom wasn’t with me. Okay, so it was very like, brush your hair after you swim, put conditioner on it before you go. Just be careful. I remember one time we were going, I think it was the 4 July and it was right around the age, I think I was like ten or eleven, where I was finally like, mom, I can put the tape on myself and do it myself.

Abby Jensen [00:06:54]:
So I remember it flips up. So obviously I’m taping it, so I’m pulling it down and I remember I was taping it and I pulled it down and I ripped it and I was like, oh, my God, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. So I put it back on and my mom put like a headband around so you couldn’t see where it was ripped. But she was like, yeah, never again. We’re going to go to hair club and they can teach you how to do it so you can learn yourself.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:20]:
It’s so interesting to hear Abby talking about her experience. She’s been using her current hair loss solution for long enough that she’s really figured out what works for her and made adjustments for that, but she didn’t figure it out all on her own. Abby has been working with the same stylist for all 20 years that she’s been at hair club.

Abby Jensen [00:07:42]:
Her name’s Lori. I’ve been with her since I was four. She’s been the first person I’ve let touch my head. I mean, kind of do anything, and I’ve stuck with her, and I’ve gone to her every month since. My appointments are four weeks apart. Obviously, the scheduling issues here and there. I’ve had, like, other people, but she’s been my rock. I mean, she’s helped me with even dances for school.

Abby Jensen [00:08:03]:
She would do my hair. She helped me learn the colors that I wanted, the styles that I wanted. I love longer hair, so I buy the 18 inch hair. So she helps me kind of what I want to do, what I want to look like, per se. I mean, I have a brown hair, so she helps me color match it and get what I need on order and everything. I mean, she’s been just absolutely phenomenal. I couldn’t ask for a better stylist.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:26]:
Yeah, there’s just something about that, right. When you have that kind of connection with somebody and somebody is there defending you and they’ve got that ability.

Abby Jensen [00:08:33]:
Oh, yeah. And she knows everything. She knows what I like, what I don’t. I mean, how I like the hair put on, how I like it taken off. I mean, she’s got it down. We have a whole system now. When I go in, I know what I’m doing. She knows what she’s doing.

Abby Jensen [00:08:45]:
It’s phenomenal.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:46]:
Tell me a little bit about, because over 20 years, I am kind of curious just how it’s gone. I know how hair club and the technologies have advanced and where you were then to where you are now, how much has it changed? And just what is the difference in the way that it feels and the way that it looks, the texture, even, of the hair that you have now compared to when you were four?

Abby Jensen [00:09:08]:
Oh, yeah, I know. I have better hair, obviously, as technology has moved on.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:13]:
Yeah.

Abby Jensen [00:09:14]:
I don’t have alopecia or anything, obviously. So my hair has kind of been. I order the same thing every month. I get the same thing in, just obviously new versus old. So it’s a system that goes directly on the top of my head, and it goes literally just the circle around. So I don’t have the full hair because I know some wigs can go down to the way back to show the hair on the back. So I just have it strictly up top. It’s definitely been.

Abby Jensen [00:09:38]:
I remember I was blonde for a couple of years. I don’t remember the ages. I would say five to nine. And then I switched to brown hair, like my normal color. I mean, it’s phenomenal. Just the way the hair has evolved. I mean, I used to get really thin hair, and then sometimes the hair wouldn’t be curly enough or it would just be really hard to deal with, like, really tangly per se. Now it’s really thick, it’s long.

Abby Jensen [00:10:02]:
I can color it any way I want to. So that’s really cool. And still now I can still use the heat products. I can still swim, I can still dance. I mean, it’s phenomenal what they’ve really come up with for people like me who can’t. And it’s amazing.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:18]:
Speak a little bit to somebody that doesn’t know. Just how involved is it? How much of a burden is it for somebody that’s used to maybe having their own full head of hair? How much additional work is it? You’re going to the hairdresser, you said every four weeks. But what does it look like in between that time? How much time does it take for you every day to get your hair ready so that it looks the way you want it to look?

Abby Jensen [00:10:39]:
Well, I spend a lot of time on my hair.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:42]:
Do you think more than you need to? Because some people, they would just spend a ton of time. And some people are like, yeah, that’s good enough. I go, to what level do you go?

Abby Jensen [00:10:50]:
It definitely depends. Sometimes I get out of the shower and I’m like, I’ll just braid it and I’ll just let it do its thing. But then sometimes I’m like, I’ll blow dry it, I’ll straighten it, I’ll style it. So it’s okay for a few days. And I think it just depends, honestly, dealing from a full head of hair. And I live with one of my good friends now, so I think kind of comparing someone to full head of hair, and me with, like, half a head of hair, plus the hair piece, I don’t really think it’s any different. I can wash it like normal. I can do normal things that any young adult woman would do.

Abby Jensen [00:11:22]:
I can straighten it and style it. And I don’t think it takes much additional time. I mean, you have to be careful. You have to use some heat protectant and some different products. But no, it’s human hair, so it does everything you want it to do.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:36]:
How aware are you of it? Does it make your head hot. Are there any issues like that, or is it something that just feels like it’s a part of you now?

Abby Jensen [00:11:46]:
I feel like it’s something that’s a part of me. But I know lately I’ve always itched here and there, so usually it gets really itchy about the time that I’m supposed to go. So now my stylist and I have come up with the solution of no more glue. We’re just doing tape, so now I can take it off whenever I want to, which has been fantastic.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:04]:
Right? Wow. Okay.

Abby Jensen [00:12:06]:
So it helps with my itching. I can wash my own head in the shower now, and I used to just wait once a month for her to do it, so that was huge for me. But, no, I think it’s. I mean, being able to take it on and off was a big thing.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:22]:
Listening to Abby now, you can hear just how confident she is when she talks about her situation. But like most people I’ve spoken to about their hair loss, there’s a lot of emotions tied up in hair, whether we have it or we don’t.

Abby Jensen [00:12:39]:
It was very tough to grow up with, and I didn’t want to be different. I didn’t want to have special treatment, per se. I didn’t want to have to brush my hair extra when I went to the pool with my friends. I didn’t want to worry about dance competitions of my hair in different styles and everybody else. And to be able to have the hair piece, I mean, it saved me, honestly. I can be normal. I can look normal. And you wouldn’t know that I wear a wig unless you asked.

Abby Jensen [00:13:02]:
And I used to be so hidden about it if people would tell me, oh, I heard this, whatever, and I was just like, no, that’s not true. My hair is real. I used to hide it, actually, and now I’ve gotten to the point. I’m 24 now, so I’ve gotten to the point where I can share it. I tell my friends, I mean, I’ve only just recently started taking my hair off every so often, so I can kind of get used to washing my head on my own, because that was something I could never do. To be able to share with my friends and family was a big thing for me. I even come to work now with a scarf on, and that’s pretty big, too.

Kevin Rolston [00:13:34]:
What are the reactions you get? What do people say?

Abby Jensen [00:13:39]:
Yeah, I tell people now, and they’re like, wow, I can’t believe you go through that. I can’t believe you deal with this. I can’t believe you can talk about it so freely. I mean, it’s huge to be able to say to people like, oh, this is what I deal with. This is what I have. And to show people, I think when I was younger, I wanted someone to look up to, and I didn’t have that. I didn’t have somebody that looked like me or that had something similar to me. So it was hard.

Abby Jensen [00:14:05]:
I mean, honestly, it was very tough. But now I can be like, this is who I am. It’s not going anywhere. I can’t change it. I can just embrace it. And I think that’s kind of where I’m at is too. I can show my friends, I can show my family. I can be open to strangers about my hair situation and everything.

Abby Jensen [00:14:21]:
So I think it’s a big growth mindset, but also, just, like, an acceptance factor is it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to have something different than other people. And that’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned, is it’s okay.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:34]:
Would those be the words that you would say to the four year old you?

Abby Jensen [00:14:37]:
Absolutely.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:38]:
Now speak to the parents, because I’m sure it was emotionally challenging for your parents as well.

Abby Jensen [00:14:45]:
I mean, it still is for sure.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:47]:
I bet. And so if you were speaking to parents out there, because we deal with a charity that has a lot of kids that have cancer treatments and things like that where they’re losing their hair and it’s tough, and we always focus on the kids and making sure that they’re emotionally right. But I see the same kind of struggles going on with their parents. They want to help, and they feel so lost and so desperate. So what would you say to a parent that has a child that at the age of four, is dealing with hair issues like what you were, I.

Abby Jensen [00:15:19]:
Think I would just say, just be there for them. I mean, let them complain. Let them be sad about it. Let them kind of embrace it. I mean, it’s okay. And I needed to hear that when I was younger that it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to have something wrong or something not 100%, and just be there and that it’s okay. And my mom, the whole line, she still tells me to this day, is, if I could trade places with you, I would.

Abby Jensen [00:15:47]:
And now that I’m older, I wouldn’t want her to trade places with me. So your kid is. I mean, they’re strong as all hell, and they can get through this, and I’m here to talk to little kids like that. When I was younger, I definitely wanted someone, so I can just kind of spread my knowledge is like, I can talk to your kid. I can talk to you. I can help kind of give them a perspective, but just kind of, it’s okay. And essentially, that’s what I think my parents needed to hear, too, was that it’s okay that she’s going through this. She is going to handle it, and she’s going to grow and be strong.

Abby Jensen [00:16:19]:
And that’s what I needed to hear when I was four. And I think that’s what my parents needed to hear, too. Sometimes I get really emotional about it still. Sometimes I just accept it. I’m like, this is what it is, what it looks like. The scar is never going to go anywhere. But then sometimes I’m like, I wish it was different. I always sometimes wonder what my hair would look like if I had the full head of it.

Abby Jensen [00:16:42]:
But I think for the most part, it’s a part of me. And I love the fact that I can have the option to put my hair on. I’m very fortunate and I have the option. Some people don’t. It’s huge.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:54]:
You said when you were younger that kids would know just because your hairstyles would change. How do you feel about now? Do you think that a lot of people realize that you have something, or would most people not?

Abby Jensen [00:17:04]:
No. Because I think now, even when I tell new people I meet and I talk about it, they’re like, oh, no, you don’t. I don’t believe you. I promise. I mean, it’s human hair, but it’s fake. New people that I tell are very surprised when I tell them that my hair is not real.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:21]:
Abby, you have such an inspirational story just from what you’ve been through and where you are and what you’ve done and how amazing it is, I really appreciate your courage to come on here and share that, because there are so many people right now that are going to feel so much better just hearing your story and your conversation and knowing that there is hope out there for them, that if they’re feeling self conscious about it, that they could go out and find hair club, they could find a stylist that could be with them and take care of them just like what you found. So thank you so much, Abby.

Abby Jensen [00:17:50]:
Yeah, thank you so much for listening and spreading my story. And it’s okay to be different. That’s my main message here.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:02]:
Abby’s story is really unique. Very few people have amniotic band syndrome, and even fewer are affected by the way that Abby is. But that’s not the only thing that makes Abby’s journey so special. She has come so far in the 20 years she has been with hair club, not just in how she does her hair routine, but also in her courage and self acceptance. She’s learned not to be afraid of being different, and now she is sharing her story in hopes that a child or parent dealing with childhood hair loss can feel a little bit less alone. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpot. If you think this story would resonate with somebody you know, share this episode with them or have them visit our website podcast, hairclub.com. We’d also love it if you’d follow at Hairclub on Instagram or find us on Facebook.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:50]:
Until next time.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:10]:
Thank you.

Download Transcript

Featured Guests

Heather Brooke
Nick Wilkins

New Episodes Weekly

Available Every Tuesday @ 9am

Want to Be a Guest?

Come on the Show!

Related Episodes

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Breaking the Stigma of Hair Loss with Jordan Pryor

Breaking the Stigma of Hair Loss with Jordan Pryor

by | Mar 26, 2024 | Episode

Episode 05

Breaking the Stigma of Hair Loss with Jordan Pryor

Breaking the Stigma of Hair Loss with Jordan Pryor
Whether you know someone who has experienced hair loss or are going through it yourself, you’ve probably seen or experienced the stigma that comes with it. Thanks to people like Jordan, that stigma is starting to break down. Never one to shy away from the spotlight, Jordan has taken his hair journey in stride and shares it with others every step of the way.

Genetic Hair Loss

Many of Jordan’s male family members lost their hair in their early twenties, so Jordan knew he was genetically predisposed to losing his as well. Jordan was only 17 when he noticed his hair loss. He was a college student when he first started shaving his head. While he thought he looked good with a shaved head, he looked significantly older than his age. In his early twenties, he felt self-conscious about looking much older than his girlfriend.

Seeking Solutions

Early in his hair journey, he tried many solutions before getting his first hairpiece.

Jordan doesn’t shy away from the spotlight. When he got his first hairpiece, his TikTok followers commented about how great his hair looked, and he didn’t hesitate to show them that it was fake!

Many men worry about showing up one day with a full head of hair after being fully or partially bald. Jordan was able to take it in stride, but if you’re concerned about this, Jordan recommends starting the process of finding your hair solution early.

Impacts of Finding His Hair Solution

Jordan likes to cut his own hair and enjoys going to the barbershop for a fresh fade. His hair solution means these experiences are still a part of his life.

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Want more info on our guest? Follow Jordan Pryor on TikTok.

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.05 Transcript
Jordan Pryor [00:00:09]:
Definitely boosts my confidence. And, you know, I love also being able to cut my own hair on the sides, too. Like, I love fading my hair. And so, and even as a kid, like, there was no better feeling than coming home after the barber shop and, you know, you got a fresh fade going and all your friends are like, oh, dude, you look crispy. And so, yeah, it’s nice to still be able to do that and to still experience that’s.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:51]:
Welcome back to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people share stories about their hair loss and how they got their hair back. Each journey is as unique as the next. Some may find their hair thinning earlier than others, but it’s an experience that touches all of us eventually. Whether we experience hair loss ourselves or it happens to somebody close to us, to all our listeners out there grappling with hair loss, remember, you’re not alone. Hair loss can start at any age. And even when you can see it coming, it can still be a bit of a shock. Today’s guest is Jordan Pryor, a TikTok influencer who has been sharing his hair loss experience online for years. Jordan knew that he was definitely going to lose his hair at some point.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:31]:
Hair loss has affected many men in his family. What he didn’t know was he would be only 17 years old when it started thinning out.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:40]:
Um.

Jordan Pryor [00:01:45]:
Pretty much every man in my family is bald, and most of them started balding at a very young age, you know, early to mid twenty s. I don’t think that any man in my family has had their hair make it to 30. So definitely a genetics thing on my end.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:00]:
When was it that you started noticing that this was probably going to be something that you were going to have to face?

Jordan Pryor [00:02:05]:
So, unfortunately for me, I started really early. It was my senior year of high school. I was 17. Whenever I started to notice the corners of my hair starting to recede.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:15]:
Okay, and how bad was it and at what point did you feel like you need to step in and do something about it?

Jordan Pryor [00:02:22]:
For the most part, growing up, I always kept my hair super short, always had kind of like a buz cut. And so I was able to hold off for a couple of years, but probably around 20, it started getting really bad. And so for about a year after that, I started shaving my head, but I looked significantly older than I actually was because I had a clean, shaved head and then a beard. So I looked like I was in my early thirty s and not my early twenty s. And then probably around 22, I believe, was whenever I started looking at getting a men’s hair piece.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:54]:
Now, was there a certain moment that you started to realize that you were looking older with that? I believe you had somebody in your life that was about the same age as you, and they looked a little bit younger in comparison to you, you looked a little bit older, and that kind of made you self conscious.

Jordan Pryor [00:03:10]:
Yeah. So it was always whenever I was shaving my head, it was whenever I’d go out on dates with my wife because she has kind of a baby face. We both do. But whenever I was bald and was kind of rocking it that way, I thought it looked good, but we would get some weird looks because she was about 20, I was, like, 21, but I looked like I was 31, and she looked like she was 18. And so we’d get a lot of weird looks in public just because people were like, oh, my gosh, that age gap. And I’m like, we’re literally a year apart.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:42]:
Right. That’s a terrible feeling. So that was the point that really kind of drove you.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:47]:
Now, for a lot of people, too.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:49]:
That start to lose their hair. I was about the age of 25, and I saw a photo, and I noticed that I had a bald spot. I hated the look. It was something that made me very self conscious, but for me, I didn’t really know where to go, and it took quite some time before I was able to find hair club for you. Where did you turn when you started to lose this? Because it’s not typically something, especially when you were your age at 22, that you’re hanging out with your budies saying, hey, man, where do I go for hair loss? Where did you even start to look to try to resolve your problem?

Jordan Pryor [00:04:18]:
Yeah, that’s definitely not a conversation I was having with my friends at that time. It was more my friends giving me a hard time about looking like a grandpa, was their exact words. But early on, I tried some of the early remedy stuff. What is that? Finasteride, minoxidil. I did, you know, I tried everything early on to catch it before it got bad. And then I was scrolling on, I want to say, it was like Facebook, and I saw a video of a barber in my area who was doing men’s hair units. And so I reached out to him, got it done there a couple of times, and then shortly afterwards, I moved to Colorado. And it was once I was up in Colorado that I started going to hair club.

Jordan Pryor [00:04:59]:
And honestly, the quality even took up an extra step, and it was incredible.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:08]:
Now, one of the things I noticed immediately when I started talking to Jordan was how confident he is. There’s a stigma around hair loss in our culture, and because of people like Jordan, that stigma is starting to break down. More and more people are feeling comfortable talking about hair loss with their friends and with their family members, and people like Jordan are leading the way.

Jordan Pryor [00:05:33]:
I had a video that went viral on TikTok where I was doing, like, a q a thing, and someone had commented about how my hairline was super crispy and in the follow.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:44]:
Crispy?

Jordan Pryor [00:05:45]:
Yeah, super crispy. It was, like, nice and straight on the sides.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:49]:
Okay.

Jordan Pryor [00:05:50]:
My fate was a lot better than it is right now, and I flipped it up. Flipped up. The hairpiece was. You know, that’s funny that you say, like, it’s. I’ve never. I’ve never been one to shy away from making people laugh or anything. Like. Like, I don’t care that people know, know I don’t have real hair, so to speak.

Jordan Pryor [00:06:08]:
But then shortly after that, once it went viral, hair club reached out to me, and they’re like, hey, we love your vibe. We love your attitude. Would you like to come in and take a look at our product? And so I did, and I was just blown away.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:20]:
What was it that you noticed? I mean, what was the difference between stepping up, going to hair club as to what you had before?

Jordan Pryor [00:06:27]:
It was definitely the color matching. There’s a little bit of a reddish tint in my hair that I feel like a lot of the smaller barber shops didn’t quite have, whereas whenever I went into hair club, they have this system where they match your hair to a t. And so, especially, like, during the summer, my hair does get a little bit lighter, and so they were able to accommodate for that, which was really cool, and so it blended perfectly.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:56]:
Now, many guys I’ve talked to are pretty sensitive about their hair loss. Going from a completely shaped head to a full head of hair draws this attention that most people don’t want to talk about or they don’t want people to notice. Jordan’s ability to embrace the situation and his new look made that transition easy for him.

Jordan Pryor [00:07:17]:
Yeah. So, I mean, that was kind of the unfortunate route that I had to go, but there’s not a ton of bald pictures of me out there, thankfully.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:26]:
Okay.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:26]:
All right.

Jordan Pryor [00:07:27]:
But, yeah, I really did just show up one day and just had all of my hair back. And my friends were like, how? Because I didn’t tell them what I was doing, where I was going, they were just like. Because they’d given me such a hard time for years about it, and just like, one day they’re like, wow, your hair looks better than mine. I was like, yeah, it does. I do just want to say real quick with what you were talking about. Part of the reason why I think I’m so open with it is I do have an individual in my family who has had a too pay or a men’s hair piece, rather, since he was 25. And so it’s never really been a taboo thing in my family. But, yeah, for folks who might be listening, I would definitely suggest starting off young.

Jordan Pryor [00:08:09]:
And while you’re early into the hair loss process, if that’s the route that you’re wanting to go, because it is easier to show up, like you were saying, just a little bit more hair at a time versus what I did, going bald and then full out of hair.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:28]:
Jordan isn’t the kind of guy to let his hair loss slow him down. And wearing his hair system doesn’t stop him from living his life either.

Jordan Pryor [00:08:40]:
Honestly, I forget that I’m wearing it a lot of the time. It’s normally not until about because I do my own. Part of my TikTok channel is doing, like, my own maintenance at home, under the hood, so to speak. And really, until it’s time for me to do that, I don’t even notice that I’m wearing one, because, yeah, it breathes great. I work out very frequently. I’m currently in the process of doing p 90 x. Oh, no way.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:04]:
Okay, that’s a challenge.

Jordan Pryor [00:09:05]:
Yeah, it’s been a throwback. It’s weird seeing those old DVDs, but it’s been great. I dripping in sweat after these workouts, and my hair is still on top of my head. It’s not sliding off. It doesn’t fly off in the wind or anything like that. In May, we were at a pool party in New Mexico, and I jumped into the pool, like 30 times and was swimming around and splashing with people and everything. And there was never a moment where I thought that it was going to fall off. I mean, anytime you come out of the water, your hair is always all messed up, and you just shake it off, throw it to the side a little bit, and you’re good to go.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:43]:
For most of us, hair loss and finding a solution that works for us is about more than just hair. It’s a journey of self esteem and confidence. For Jordan, it’s also about the experiences that are still a part of his life.

Jordan Pryor [00:10:01]:
It definitely boosts my confidence, and I love also being able to cut my own hair on the sides, too. I love fading my hair. And even as a kid, there was no better feeling than coming home after the barbershop. You got a fresh fade going, and all your friends are like, oh, dude, you look crispy. So, yeah, it’s nice to still be able to do that and to still experience that. And I do a lot of presentations and stuff for work, and so I’m constantly in front of people and I oftentimes get compliments on how nice my hair is.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:32]:
Right?

Jordan Pryor [00:10:33]:
This makes me laugh whenever I hear it.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:36]:
It’s a great feeling, though, right?

Jordan Pryor [00:10:37]:
Oh, yeah, thousand percent.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:44]:
It was so great. Talking to Jordan about his experience with hair loss, his confidence and his willingness to share his story is helping to break down the stigma of how hair loss is treated in our society. I just hope that in the future, we’re all going to feel just as self assured as Jordan, tackling a difficult topic with our friends, families, and communities. Thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. If you think Jordan’s story would resonate with somebody you know, share this episode with them and check out our show notes if you’d like to connect with us or Jordan on social media video. Until next time.

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Postpartum Hair Loss with Jessica-Marie Laurent

Postpartum Hair Loss with Jessica-Marie Laurent

by | Mar 19, 2024 | Episode

Episode 04

Jessica-Marie Laurent: Postpartum Hair Loss

Jessica-Marie Laurent - Postpartum Hair Loss

Postpartum hair loss is an issue that many mothers face, but few talk about openly. In this episode of HairPod, we sit down with Jessica-Marie Laurent, a professional in the hair replacement industry for over ten years and a mother who experienced postpartum hair loss. She shares not only her unique story but also some amazing information on how to maximize regrowth.

The Start of Postpartum Hair Loss

Most women who have children experience some postpartum hair loss. Jessica’s hair loss began after she stopped breastfeeding her son. She discovered her hair loss when she began to shed a lot of hair in the shower and it gave her a feeling of panic, even though her pediatrician had warned her it could happen! Jessica works in customer service, so her image is important to her. She found ways to conceal her hair loss, but it still affected her emotionally.

Coming to Terms With Postpartum Hair Loss

Even though she works in the hair solutions industry, it still took Jessica-Marie two months to decide to seek treatment. Acting quickly makes all the difference. To regain as much of her hair as possible, Jessica knew she had to start the process quickly and overcome her denial with postpartum hair loss.

Postpartum Hair Loss Regrowth

Regrowing hair due to postpartum hair loss has become part of her hair care routine. She shares how she bounced back and what helped get her hair back!

  • Clean and cleanse: shampoo and conditioner formulated to support her current situation helped her keep her scalp clean and healthy.
  • Low-level Laser Therapy: Infrared light penetrating the first few layers of skin at the hair follicle helps reduce stress on the follicle. This helps hair follicles grow new hairs.
  • Multivitamin: Just like people take pre-natal vitamins during their pregnancy, a “post-natal” vitamin is helpful in maintaining healthy hair, skin, and nails. Consult with your doctor before starting or ending a vitamin regimen!

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios. Our theme music is from SoundStripe.

Episode.04 Transcript
Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:00:09]:
The best thing that I can recommend for any female in any situation is do your research. So, of course, if you’re, you know, becoming pregnant or if you notice something is happening throughout or during your pregnancy, do a little bit of research. Make somebody aware, whether it be a hair loss expert or a doc actor, don’t sit in silence and think that you’re alone or that nobody else has ever experienced it, because you’re not alone.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:53]:
Welcome back to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people share stories about their hair journey. I’m your host, Kevin Ralston. Each journey is as unique as the next. Some may find their hair thinning earlier than others, but it’s a universal experience we all go through to all our listeners out there grappling with hair loss. Remember, you’ve got a community right here with you. And today we have a truly inspiring and informative story to share with you. Our guest, Jessica Marie Laurent, faced a common, but often emotionally challenging issue, postpartum hair loss. Today, we’re going to explore how this natural occurrence impacted her self confidence and more importantly, how she found confidence.

Kevin Rolston [00:01:36]:
Again, when it comes to the subject of hair loss, and especially postpartum hair loss, Jessica’s lived experience and knowledge about how the condition works helped me to understand this condition a little bit better. Postpartum hair loss affects many women, yet the impacts of it are not often discussed openly. Today, we’re going to be shining a light on this experience, and we want you to know that when you are as well informed as Jessica, a world of hope and transformation opens up for you. So without further ado, let’s dive right into Jessica’s story.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:02:15]:
For most women, I would say postpartum hair loss happens in the six to eight month range. But for females that breastfeed, this can happen later because you still have that good hormone, if you will, because of the breast milk being produced. So you have a little bit of a longer stretch before you experience that postpartum hair loss. So for me, it was probably about a year after I stopped BreAStFeedIng my son. After a year. And then after a year, I started to notice massive clumps of hair coming out while I was shampooing and conditioning. Yes.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:47]:
Now, when you say massive clumps, how would you put that in terms of size? What’s your definition of massive?

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:02:53]:
If I had to put it in terms of size, because I have curly hair, I could say probably bigger than a golf ball.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:00]:
Oh, wow.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:03:01]:
It was quite a bit of Hair Loss. It was VeRY shocking and very hard to go through, because as a Female, the goal is to wash your hair as often as you need to, which is a couple of times a week. So a couple of times a week, I’m going through this thinking, should I just stop washing my Hair altogether? What should I do to mitigate this?

Kevin Rolston [00:03:21]:
Wow. That’s got to be, like, a panicked type feeling when you see something like this. Now, was this something you got a warning from, from your pediatrician that this could be a possibility? Or you just one day in the shower, holding onto clumps of your hair, not knowing what’s going on?

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:03:35]:
You get warnings, Kevin, they tell you, and in doing research and going to prenatal and postnatal classes, they do advise you that it can happen. But I think the part that’s, like, the scariest, if you will, is you just don’t know when it’s going to happen. And when it starts to happen, it starts, and it kind of doesn’t stop until, I guess, either the hormone is completely out of the body or until the hair has done the cycle that it needs to do.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:00]:
So is This a permanent kind of Hair Loss?

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:04:03]:
No, it’s not permaNent, KEvin. In a lot of cases, as long as we’re doing things to ensure that the Hair health is good, you can gain back almost all of the Hair that you’ve lost during postpartum. In SOMe CaSes, not EvERY FEmale is that LUCky.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:18]:
Now, how long would it take for you before you got back to exactly where you had been before?

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:04:24]:
I’m still not back. My son is two years old. I went through postpartum hair loss for probably, let’s say, four to six months that I had that aggressive shedding in the shower. The aggressive shedding has stopped, but the growth is still happening. Like, I see that I’m getting back to where I was, but I’m still not 100% there. Six months later.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:47]:
As we continue exploring Jessica’s personal journey, it’s important to bring up the courage that it takes to discuss hair loss, especially for women. The stigma that surrounds hair loss can cause people to shy away from speaking out. Confidence can still be a big issue, even for people whose hair loss isn’t immediately obvious. Kind of like Jessica. How bad did it get?

Kevin Rolston [00:05:13]:
Was it noticeable, or is it something.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:05:14]:
That just, you noticed so not noticeable to friends and family? Like, friends and family? I don’t want to close friends and family that know me may have noticed because I got a few comments like, hey, Jess, did you cut your hair? And it’s like, no, I didn’t cut my hair, it’s actually just the density that’s not there. But, I mean, for close friends and family that know me very well, yes, it was noticeable. But for people on the outside looking in, nobody ever could tell that I had a hair loss issue. I think that I was also very good at concealing it so that I didn’t have those additional ass or that additional stress of people noticing it.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:49]:
What did your hair look like before the pregnancy and before the hair loss? How thick was it? Was it something that you took a lot of pride in your hair? How would you view yourself and your self esteem based on your hair that you.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:06:01]:
Kevin, you know, I work in customer service, so for me, my overall image is very important to me. Working at hair club, basically selling hair and recommending hair to people, it’s very important for me to look and feel the way that I want my clients to look and feel. Right. So I would have to say, honestly, how can I put it into words? My hair was so full and so voluminous and so curly and just moves in the wind the way that you want it to move. Not that it didn’t do that during my hair loss, but there was significantly less of it. Like, I’m just used to having a fuller head of hair. My clients are used to me having a fuller head of hair. So I did get the od question here and there.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:49]:
The postpartum period brings a roller coaster of emotions for new mothers. The emotional impact of Jessica’s hair loss was pretty significant, intertwining with the joys and challenges of motherhood. But one thing makes Jessica’s journey unique. She is a professional in the hair loss replacement industry. Armed with expert knowledge, she was able to take action soon after noticing her hair loss.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:07:16]:
It took me honestly, surprisingly, having worked in the hair restoration industry for over ten years now, it took me probably two months before I acted. Let me explain that now. Two months. The first month was, oh, my God, why me? And then the second month was again, oh, my God, why me? But, hey, Jess, if you don’t do something, you might not be able to get back all of the hair that you lost. So I literally heard myself almost having a consultation with myself, as I would with a client, letting myself know that there is something that can be done. But I need to act quickly in order to ensure that I get the volume and density that I had four months or five months before that. So one month of denial, the second month of coming to a realization, and as soon as I came to that realization, I acted extremely quickly, I started to do my laser, I started to take my vitamins, and I started to cleanse and clean on a regular basis to ensure maximum growth, maximum result, if you will.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:18]:
Okay, take some time and unpack everything that you just said there, because somebody who’s not an expert in the field is probably like, wait a minute, what’s the laser? What’s the vitamins? What’s the cleanse? Explain each and every single one of those steps clearly so somebody could understand that.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:08:32]:
All right, Kevin, so being an expert in the hair loss industry, being an expert in the field, if you will, the number one thing that we have to do in order to ensure that we have healthy growing hair is we need to clean and cleanse. The way that we clean and cleanse is by shampooing and conditioning. That sounds so simple. Just saying it, shampooing and conditioning. But it’s not that simple, Kevin. We need to find the correct shampoo and the correct conditioner that works for our current situation. So for me, my current situation was that I had weak, damaged, and fragile hair. So I had to find a product that worked for the weak, fragile, and damaged hair.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:09:06]:
That was step one.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:07]:
Are there different styles of shampoo, or is there really just kind of one style of shampoo?

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:09:11]:
There’s different styles of shampoo. Shampoos are geared to do different things. So we have shampoos that are going to do deep cleaning. We have shampoos that can do a light clean. We have shampoos for dry dandruff scalp. There are various different products associated or out there, let’s say, if you will, on the market to help you with whatever it is that your hair needs are, whatever your scalp needs are.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:33]:
So you talk about you had to do the shampooing. That was one step. You threw the word laser in there, which a lot of people are probably like, what do you mean, laser? What is this all about?

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:09:43]:
The average person knows about laser hair removal, but we are talking about low level laser therapy. Low level laser therapy is an infrared light that penetrates through a few levels and layers of your skin. It basically reduces inflammation at the hair follicle. So when women or men are losing hair, what generally will happen is we have inflammation underneath the scalp, at the follicle, which is causing the hair or the hair follicle to get less blood, less oxygen, and less nutrients. It’s stressed. So by reducing the stress at the hair follicle, which is what I did, by using my low level laser, I was able to reduce that inflammation, allowing my hair to stay in the growing stage for longer. So what happens is, again, in layman’s terms, our hair rests, sheds and grows. But when you’re going through massive shedding, postpartum hair loss, stress hair loss, hormonal hair loss, your hair stays in that shedding phase for a longer period of time.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:10:44]:
What the laser does is it basically shortens the shed phase and it increases the grow phase. That’s what I wanted to do.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:51]:
And how noticeable is using the laser treatment? How long does it take before you notice something? How frequently do you have to use it? What is it like? Is it something you can do at home? Do you have to go into a place to use it?

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:11:02]:
So it is something that you do at home? Kevin, it’s low level laser therapy for 6 minutes a day, every single day is recommended. There are different level laser strengths so associated to like. So for example, if you use the base model, you’ll probably see results in six months to a year. If you use the mid grade model, you would see results probably anywhere from six months to nine months. And if you were to use the higher grade level, which is called an RX, the surgical, medical grade device, you would see results in as short as three to six months. So really, all of the lasers, there’s not one that’s better than the other. There are just different strengths. I started off with a lower grade laser because I didn’t have any prominent bald spots.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:11:45]:
I didn’t have any prominent visible loss, if you will, to the average person, but the loss was definitely there. So in order to stimulate those follicles, I started with a capillis 82 is what it’s called.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:57]:
Now. You talk about you had to do the right cleansing. You talked about having to do the laser thing.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:02]:
The thing I’m kind of curious about.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:03]:
Because you had talked earlier, I’m sure the hormones, and that’s what you were saying, was causing the hair loss. Is there anything you can do to get your hormones in check? Any kind of hormonal balances or anything that you did in regards to that, to try to help out hair loss?

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:12:16]:
No, really, the only thing are vitamins. It’s a multivitamin. So during pregnancy, we take a prenatal vitamin that has a lot of folate in it, a lot of folic acid. And I think that that’s probably what helps promote and stimulate hair growth. So after you’re done taking your prenatal vitamin, if you continue on a hair, skin and nails vitamin that has either an equivalent or close to that amount of folate in it. I believe that that could really bridge the gap, if you will. And I think I just didn’t do that. I didn’t know enough about it at the time to do that, so I just didn’t.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:12:50]:
But definitely a recommendation for women that are either thinking about having children or already having children. Before you stop your prenatal vitamin, consult with a medical professional and absolutely replace that prenatal with something so that your body never goes without the booster, if you will.

Kevin Rolston [00:13:13]:
Jessica’s expertise in this field is undeniable. Her journey has not only been about finding solutions for herself, but also about empowering others facing similar challenges. So when it comes to offering advice to any women grappling with hair loss, Jessica speaks from a place of both professional authority and personal empathy.

Jessica-Marie Laurent [00:13:33]:
The best thing that I can recommend for any female in any situation is do your research. So, of course, if you’re becoming pregnant or if you notice something is happening throughout or during your pregnancy, do a little bit of research. Make somebody aware, whether it be a hair loss expert or a doctor. Don’t sit in silence and think that you’re alone or that nobody else has ever experienced it because you’re not alone. The likelihood is that one person in the millions of people in the world have experienced the problem that you’re going through. And there is always, in most cases, especially if we’re talking about hair loss, there is always a solution. There’s always something that can be done in order to bridge the gap.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:16]:
It was awesome getting to talk to Jessica. She’s got this amazing way of bringing positivity into her challenging situation while always being really down to earth. Focusing on solutions can help bring people who are facing similar struggles right here to the help they need. So if you or somebody you know is dealing with hair loss and you think some of Jessica’s knowledge might help them, please consider sharing with them this episode. And if you’d like to connect with Jessica Marie Laurent, just check out our show notes for her contact info. Thanks for listening to Hairpod. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to see Nick’s before and after pictures and hear about future episodes, just check us out at Hairclub on Instagram or visit our website w dot hairpodpodcast.com. Until next time.

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Nick Wilkins: High School Hair Loss

Nick Wilkins: High School Hair Loss

by | Mar 12, 2024 | Episode

Episode 03

Nick Wilkins:

High School Hair Loss

Nick-Wilkins
High school hair loss is a reality for many young people. In this episode of HairPod, Nick Wilkins, a content creator and influencer, shares how hair loss affected his confidence, lifestyle, and career. His story highlights the emotional challenges of hair loss and the hope HairClub provides.

High School Hair Loss

  • Nick knew male pattern baldness ran in his family, but he didn’t expect it to start in high school.
  • During his senior year, he noticed significant hair thinning, causing his hairline to shift noticeably.
  • Initially in denial, Nick struggled to accept the changes to his appearance.

Early Hair Loss Struggles

  • Nick’s hair was a vital part of his self-image, and losing it affected his confidence deeply.
  • He tried hiding his thinning hair with headbands but eventually avoided creating content altogether.
  • The fear of judgment and comments about his appearance caused him to step back from his public persona.

Exploring Solutions

Nick wanted to find a solution and prove that hair loss didn’t have to define him. After talking to his hairdresser, who believed nothing could be done, Nick decided to explore other options. His first consultation at HairClub gave him hope, and he brought a trusted friend for support. HairClub’s personalized solutions led to visible regrowth and restored his confidence to return to content creation.

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a complimentary consultation with HairClub today!

Want more information on our guest? Follow Nick @n1ckwilkins on Instagram.

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios.

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For an in-depth look at Nick Wilkins’ journey, watch the full episode below:

Episode.03 Transcript

Nick Wilkins [00:00:09]: Man, I went through a lot this past year. Like, gosh, if you look at photos me just one year ago, that was like my worst time was around this time. So I’ve only been on this stuff for like a year and I’ve already seen all these changes and I think it’s because I hopped on it so fast. You.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:43]: Welcome back to Hairpod, the podcast where you get to hear real people share stories about their hair. Each journey is as unique as the next. Some may find their hair thinning easier than others, but it’s a universal experience we all go through at some point. And to all of our listeners out there grappling with their hair loss, remember, you’ve got a community right here with you. Can you imagine Navigating High school while your hairs decided to, well, graduate early, we’ve got Nick Wilkins joining us, a bright young guy in his 20s who’s been there, done that, and is now here to share his unique journey. When you look at him now, you’d never know that Nick had at one point lost a lot of his hair. So whether you’re holding on to every strand or simply curious about the human experience, stick around. We promise it’s a story worth hearing.

Nick Wilkins [00:01:36]: So when I started to hit my teenage year, like 1213, I started to focus on hair because I really liked my hair back then and I thought it was all cool and it was like super blonde. But I was looking at my dad and his brother and my grandpa, and there was just a lot of balding going on. I’m like, one day I might bald. It’s like, oh, man, I got to get a wife before that. I was like, thinking of all this stuff. I was like, overthinking it back then.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:02]: But yeah, you’re on a timetable.

Nick Wilkins [00:02:04]: Yeah, exactly. I was like, overthinking. I’m like, man, maybe when I’m 30 or something, it will start to happen. So I was like, dang, I got to get my life in check before then because, man, I was really afraid of it. It was like one of my biggest fears, which is funny, no doubt.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:19]: It’s legit.

Nick Wilkins [00:02:20]: Yeah.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:20]: So you have exactly what I was going through. I had that whole thing where I had this photo of my grandpa that was right there in the hallway every single day. And I do remember just like you, I was back in my teenage years. I was really worried about hair loss, and I started to see mine at about the age of 25. What was the first mark? What did you see and how early in your life did you notice that, okay, I am starting to lose my hair?

Nick Wilkins [00:02:45]: Yeah. So just like you, I would look at pictures of my dad when he was, like, starting to hit 20 and stuff, and he had still good hair. So I was like, all right, it’s not going to happen. When I’m 20 or 18. It’s not going to happen for a while. But when I started to hit 17, I started to look at photos of me that I was posting on my Instagram, and then I was comparing it to the year before. Then I was like, man, it looks a little bit more thin. It wasn’t like, crazy, but it just looks a little different. It’s harder to do, it’s harder to put up more. It was just like laying flat and kind of matted. But it wasn’t until I turned, like, 18 when it really all started just falling out. It was in my combs. It was on my collar of my shirt. There’s kids in my class saying, like, man, you got a lot of hair all over your shirt. Do you have a dog? And I’m like, no, this might be mine. But I was thrown off because they say you lose like, a hundred hairs a day.

Nick Wilkins [00:03:42]: So I was, Ah, this is just like my hundred hairs a day. That like it’s normal still. Yeah, but then it was starting to happen a lot more, and it was a lot more in the shower. My shower drain was getting clogged. It was all that stuff.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:56]: Now, Nick wasn’t just any kid struggling with a little shedding. He’s a full time content creator, and he started making videos long before his hair journey began. As his hairline shifted, so did his passion for the limelight, and he lost his creative drive.

Nick Wilkins [00:04:12]: I stopped posting. My whole job was to post online, and I just stopped. I couldn’t do it anymore because I was so afraid of people commenting about it. Because before then, they all compared me to all these famous people. They’re like, oh, you have such good hair. So it was part of my image was my hair. That was my top thing to be posting. That was kind of the reason why I was posting. I was excited to just put myself out there. But then it started to go, and I just completely stopped working and posting. I was like, Man, I got to get a different job. That’s where it was coming to. Yeah.

Kevin Rolston [00:04:43]: Now, did you try to do any. Kind of other cover up, wearing a hat or anything like that? Because that was one thing in my life where I would wear hats, but then you just get those certain social circumstances where a hat is just not going to cut it. Was there anything like you did with that? What was your process on trying to remedy your hair loss other than just dropping out of society?

Nick Wilkins [00:05:01]: I did this thing where I bought tons of hairbands, like hair bands, like workout hairbands, or just kind of like, I still have so many in my closet, but it was kind of like the style at my school. Like, a kid started wearing all these hairbands and everyone else was doing it. So I was like, okay, this is how I can cover it up. This is how I can do it. And I knew hats would also, I thought, hurt the hair even more. So I was trying to avoid wearing hats all the time. So hairbands was my big thing, and I would wear hats, but I never wasn’t wearing something on my head. I was always somehow covering it up, like Photos and everything. And I remember prom was, like, my worst day ever because I couldn’t wear a hat on prom, and there were so many photos of me everywhere. I hated being there. I wanted to go home. I couldn’t wear a hat. My hair was all sweaty. It wasn’t good.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:54]: Everyone who’s been through hair loss has moments like these etched into their minds. They happen to all of us at different times, and it can be tough if you feel like you’re going through it alone. And since none of Nick’s friends at the time were losing their hair, he really didn’t have anybody to confide in.

Nick Wilkins [00:06:10]: No, man, I was comparing myself to my friends all the time, like, they had such good hair. And I started to just watch a lot of YouTube videos, and I was doing a lot of searching just about hair loss, like, how it’s caused, and it gives you a million different answers. There was nothing that I could say, okay, this is me, because I was watching 30 to 40 year olds talking about it. I’m like, man, but I’m 18, so what am I going through right now? And I started to doubt that it was, like, genetics. I started to think it was like, maybe I was eating bad, maybe I was doing this or that. So I was trying to avoid the fact that I was just losing hair genetically. But, yeah, I was watching a lot of videos. And then it got to a point where my hair was just, like, dying. Like, the whole front of it, you could just tell I couldn’t cover it up anymore with my standing hair. And I went to, like, a hairdresser, and I remember talking to her about it. I’m like, do you know anything about hair loss? And she goes, no, she didn’t know too much. And she was like, everyone who I do hair for, they tell me that there’s no way to fix it. So I don’t think if you are going through hair loss, you can fix it. You can get different haircuts to help it out, to make it look more full. And I was like, man, you know what? I want to prove this wrong. I want to see if you actually can.

Nick Wilkins [00:07:22]: So, like, that day, I got home and I searched online, like, hair loss solution places, and the first link that came up was Hair Club. And I clicked it, and I signed the link, and I got on and, like, had my appointment the next week.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:42]: Stumbling upon a possible solution was the easy part. For many, including Nick, taking that leap to book and attend that initial appointment is a lot harder. I remember freezing up in the parking lot the very first time I tried to go in for a consultation. Yet for Nick, the nudge of a supportive friend was what he needed to step through those doors.

Nick Wilkins [00:08:03]: I had to bring my brother’s girlfriend with me. I had to bring someone with me. I couldn’t do it alone. I had to have someone come in with me because, man, I was embarrassed and I was just so scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen or what we were going to talk about. I compare it sometimes this sounds kind of weird, but I compare it to if you’re going to the doctors to find out that you have really bad cancer or something, you have to bring someone with you to come in for the appointment. It’s too hard to go by yourself, so you have to bring someone. So she came with me and that definitely helped. That pushed me to actually go.

Nick Wilkins [00:08:36]: I never backed out. Yeah. Glad.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:38]: That’s good. That’s awesome. Yeah. You’re braver than I am. Honestly, if I could just go back and if I could say one thing to myself, I’d be like, dude, just walk in the door. It’s a lot easier than you would think. I don’t know what I was expecting, why I thought it was going to be so traumatic.

Nick Wilkins [00:08:56]: I walked in, they set me up with someone who kind of told me what I’m possibly going through, and they gave me, like, two routes on what I could do to try to fix my hair. And it was so easy. I went home the next day and then I told them I want to do it. I thought about it for a little bit and then they got me in contact with another person and they signed me up for everything and they started sending me all the products. And it was like, I’d say, after, like, two months of doing it, I started to see changes already. It was just exciting to see, but it wasn’t, like, crazy yet. I was still going through a lot of shedding when I was starting everything, and it was still kind of like a lot of doubt, but I still had a little bit of hope coming in because I lost my hair really quickly. So I was like, maybe I could fix this.

Nick Wilkins [00:09:40]: But my one thing I wish I did was going in even earlier because there’s like, parts of my hair where I’m like, oh, man, if I went like two months earlier, stopped overthinking it, maybe I could have fixed that part of my hair, you know what I mean?

Kevin Rolston [00:09:56]: Now I hope your content is getting created and you’ve gotten back out into your social life and that you’re feeling confident. Because honestly, man, I look at you right now because I can see you. You got an amazing head of hair. And I would never, ever in my life suspect that you ever for 1 second doubted yourself and had any kind of hair issues.

Nick Wilkins [00:10:15]: Oh, thank you so much. That means so much. That’s like, one of the biggest compliments you can give me. But yeah, man, I went through a lot this past year. Like, gosh, if you look at Photos me just one year ago, that was like my worst time was around this time. So I’ve only been on this stuff for like a year, and I’ve already seen all these changes, and I think it’s because I hopped on it so fast.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:35]: Absolutely. And tell me about your confidence now compared to then and what a difference it is.

Nick Wilkins [00:10:41]: My life resumed once I got the hair back. The little gap where I had a lot of hair loss, that’s kind of a blur, and I kind of reconnected over it kind of like a mountain. Like, I reconnected it and it kind of resumed my life. So I’m posting now. It’s still my job. I don’t go to college because of my social media and stuff. So, yeah, it all worked out for me. I’m able to post and confidence is fully back.

Nick Wilkins [00:11:05]: And so that’s awesome, man.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:08]: Well, Nick, if you want people to find you and see what you’re producing, where would people be able to find and see what kind of content you’re creating?

Nick Wilkins [00:11:15]: I would say Instagram. Instagram is the best for me. My handle. It’s Nick Wilkins. But the I in the Nick is just the one, and that’s just Nick Wilkins on Instagram.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:25]: Very cool, man. Well, I am so happy that you were back in the game. You were living the life that you intended to live, and I’m glad Hair Club could be there for you, man. Thanks for taking the time, Nick.

Nick Wilkins [00:11:35]: Of course. Yeah. Thanks for having me. This was great.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:42]: You know, Nick’s story really resonated with me because I had my own issues with hair loss. It started with a photo and then a dome camera we had in our studio. And trust me, our audience noticed as well, and they would always make comments, and it really affected my confidence. And we’re so glad that Nick has gained back his confidence to be out there posting online again. It just goes to show that there is hope after hair loss. And if you know anyone who needs to hear this message, think about sending them this episode. Thanks for listening to Hairpod. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to see Nick’s before and after pictures and hear about future episodes, check us out at HairClub on Instagram or visit our website, podcast.hairclub.com.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:27]: Until next time.

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Heather Brooke: Overcoming Trichotillomania

Heather Brooke: Overcoming Trichotillomania

by | Mar 5, 2024 | Episode

Episode 02

Heather Brooke: Overcoming Trichotillomania

Trichotillomania is a hair loss problem that many face, most have never heard of. It may not be well-known but this hair loss issue transcends age and gender. It is a hair-pulling disorder, and involves frequent and irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body. At just nine years old, our guest, Heather, began experiencing the overwhelming urge to pull out her hair.

Join host Kevin Rolston as he engages in an enlightening conversation with Heather Brooke – a licensed professional counselor, beauty pageant champion, and the mind behind the children’s book, “Where’s My Hair? A Trichotillomania Story for Children.”

Effects of Trichotillomania

After experiencing a traumatic event at 9, Heather’s coping mechanism manifested as pulling out hairs—starting from her eyelashes, moving to eyebrows, and eventually her scalp. Because she had naturally long eyelashes and voluminous hair, the impact remained concealed from her family for a while. When her family began to take notice, Heather hid the truth – that she was pulling her hair out. A discernible bald patch on Heather’s head was the turning point, prompting her family to explore possible remedies.

Opening Up About Trichotillomania

Unfazed by her hair loss challenges, Heather Brooke courageously participated in beauty pageants throughout her life, from childhood and into her adult years. As a young contestant, wigs and clip-in extensions became her trusted companions to help cover the bald areas. In 2017, Heather competed in the Ms. Woman Colorado United States pageant. Her association with HairClub provided her with optimal hair solutions and she ended up taking home the crown!

Looking for Trichotillomania Solutions

Throughout her life, Heather has explored various treatments. It is an ongoing process, as she still struggles with trichotillomania today. Not much research has been done on Trichotillomania, though it is a recognized mental health disorder. Her hair system from Hair Club covers the “trigger points” caused by her Trichotillomania which reduces her urge to pull her hair out.

Where is My Hair? A Trichotillomania Story for Children

Heather is now a licensed professional counselor and has worked with kids who also have Trichotillomania! One of her young clients inspired her to write a children’s book that could help them understand Trichotillomania better.

Empowering Resources

As the episode draws to a close, HairPod extends a generous offer of a complimentary hair loss consultation, providing a tangible step towards reclaiming confidence and control over one’s appearance. Book a Free consultation with HairClub Today!

Connect with Us

We appreciate your interest in this episode of HairPod. To stay updated on future episodes and share your stories, follow us on Instagram: @HairClub.

For more information on Heather Brooke and her work, visit her official website: Heather Brooke, LPC.

Watch the Episode

For a more in-depth understanding of Heather’s journey, watch the full episode below:

Want more information on our guest? Pick up a copy of Heather’s book, “Where Is My Hair? A Trichotillomania Story for Children” on Amazon

Thanks for listening to HairPod. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to connect with us on social media to share your story, check us out on Instagram @HairClub. HairPod is a production of TSE Studios.

Episode.02 Transcript

Heather [00:00:05]: When I was a kid. I was probably about five-years-old when I started competing in pageants. But when I was around nine- or ten-years-old, I was sexually abused by an older cousin. And it wasn’t long after that I started developing a disorder called trichotillomania. So the person who has the disorder actually pulls out their own hair. And the best way that I can describe it is as a coping mechanism for all the trauma that I was going through and experiencing.

Kevin Rolston [00:00:57]: Welcome back to HairPod, the podcast where we dive deep into the personal stories, the struggles and the ultimate transformations of those facing hair loss. I’m your host, Kevin Rolston, and we’re here to shed light on this experience so many people share and most importantly, the solutions that have brought confidence back into their lives. If you’re dealing with hair loss, remember, you’ve got a community right here. Follow us on Instagram, and if this is your first time listening, please subscribe to get notified whenever we have new, inspiring stories to share. Our guest for this episode is a beacon of hope for people facing hair loss due to trichotillomania, a disorder that causes individuals to pull out their own hair. Heather Brooke is a therapist, beauty pageant competitor, and children’s book author. So whether you’re going through your own hair loss journey or simply here to understand and support, we know you’re going to find Heather’s journey inspiring. Hello, Heather.

Heather [00:01:58]: Hi, how are you?

Kevin Rolston [00:02:00]: I am doing great. Tell me a little bit about your… Hair journey, because you’re started in a different place than what most people do. You were doing beauty pageants as a child and you started having hair loss issues. Why was that?

Heather [00:02:18]: Yeah, so actually, when I was a kid, I was probably about five-years-old when I started competing in pageants. But when I was around nine- or ten-years-old, I experienced some trauma. I was sexually abused by an older cousin, and it wasn’t long after that that I started developing a disorder called trichotillomania. So unlike a lot of people with hair issues, hair loss issues, theirs are usually natural or medical or something. Trichotillomania is actually a hair-pulling disorder. So the person who has the disorder actually pulls out their own hair. And the best way that I can describe it is as a coping mechanism for all the trauma that I was going through and experiencing.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:06]: What did that look like? How noticeable was it? How did your parents deal with this situation?

Heather [00:03:12]: Yeah, so my journey, it started out it wasn’t super noticeable, super quick. I could actually remember the first time that I pulled, and my trichotillomania began with my eyelashes, not from my head. And I was in the hallway at our house, and I had an eyelash that kept poking me in the eye. And I went to a mirror in our hall and was just trying to straighten out the lash and as I was pulling on it to try to straighten it out, it came out. And when it came out, there was like this release. I’m a therapist as well, and so the one thing that I can compare it to is for people who do self harming and cut. There’s that release that people get when that happens. And that was kind of what that felt like for me when I pulled that lash on accident.

Heather [00:04:06]: That wasn’t even intentional, but that sudden release that came, it was like, for a brief moment, all of the stress and anxiety that I had been holding inside was gone. And it almost creates, like, endorphins, like a high, but like any high, you have to continue the behavior to continue to get it. And so for me, that started with my lashes, and it took probably months before anybody ever noticed that. When that became noticeable, I moved to my eyebrows thinking, oh, if I pull from somewhere else, then maybe I’ll stop pulling from there. That didn’t work. So my parents thought that I was shaving my eyebrows. And it probably wasn’t until three or four years after I actually started pulling that I developed enough bald patches on my head, because at that point, I had started pulling from my head that I had developed enough bald patches that it was noticeable.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:04]: About what age were you at this time?

Heather [00:05:07]: 13 or 14.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:09]: And was it your parents that stepped in and said something? Did you hear anything from kids in your school? How was it that it really kind of first came to light to them?

Heather [00:05:18]: Yeah. So my grandmother, I believe, was actually the first person who noticed. I always had really long eyelashes, and I had, like, Brooke Shields eyebrows as a kid. And so when my grandmother was looking at me one day, and she was like, what happened to your eyelashes? And I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know why I was doing it and why I couldn’t stop. So I was just like, oh, I was trying to curl them with one of those eyelash things. So I lied about what I was doing. And then when I moved to my eyebrows and my parents thought that I was shaving my eyebrows, I just allowed that to continue because I didn’t know what I was doing.

Heather [00:05:56]: I felt so weird that I was doing this, and I couldn’t stop, and I didn’t know why. And so it was when I was 13 or 14, I was up really late one night watching a, it was like an infomercial or something that was on television, and it was about wigs. And as I was sitting there watching this infomercial, there was a woman on there who started talking about pulling her hair, and then she started talking about these fake eyelashes and different things. But as she was talking, she said, trichotillomania. And a couple of days after that, my mom noticed a bald patch on my head in the pool. We had been swimming, and I wore at that point, I was wearing I had always had super thick hair, and I think that’s one of the reasons that other reasons that it took so long to notice. But I’d always had super thick hair, and so I just got to the point where I was always wearing my hair in a ponytail. But this one specific day, she was coming out of the pool behind me, and my ponytail had moved enough that she could see the bald spot.

Heather [00:07:09]: And so when she said something to me about it, I was like, okay, I saw this commercial. I think this is what I have. And I told her, and she said, okay. And so she scheduled an appointment with me to see the doctor that she worked for. And so I went in, he diagnosed me, and then he made a referral to a psychiatrist and put me on some medications, and that was kind of where the treatment for it started.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:41]: Even though the trichotillomania was causing some bald patches on Heather’s scalp, she never let that stop her from competing in beauty pageants.

Heather [00:07:50]: I competed off and on throughout high school, even with my trichotillomania. I competed some years with a wig, some years with glue-in extensions or clip-in extensions.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:05]: In between pageants and trying to be a normal kid, Heather started to receive different treatments for trichotillomania. Trichotillomania isn’t one of those things you treat once and just move on from. It’s a chronic issue that Heather still deals with to this day.

Heather [00:08:18]: Yeah, it was a lot. It’s still a lot because it’s still something that I struggle with, because there’s so little research done on trichotillomania, so there’s still a lot to be learned about it. And I’ve actually been part of a couple of different studies that are looking at how genetics can be involved, how other mental health issues can play into it, but there’s just so little known about it. So when I was diagnosed, I was put on an antidepressant that didn’t help, just made me sick. Then there was points where when I was under really high levels of stress, I would pull more. There would be times where I would pull subconsciously or unconsciously, like I would be pulling and not even be aware until after I had already been doing it, that I had done it. Sometimes it was conscious, so there was a mixture of those, but I tried everything that I could to hide it. By the time I was a junior in high school, I was almost completely bald.

Heather [00:09:12]: I had to wear a wig, I’m wearing a wig in my senior pictures. But by the Christmas of my senior year, I was able to let my hair grow out enough that I had this short, cute pixie cut. And it’s been more manageable since that point. I still struggle with it, it’s still something I struggle with on a daily basis. And I’ve tried covering it up, like I said, with ponytails, doing ponytails, doing wigs, wearing extensions, all different kinds of things. And when I got ready to compete for Ms. Woman Colorado, United States, I was looking for alternatives to help hide some of the spots that I had at the time. And I found HairClub.

Heather [00:09:53]: And HairClub was actually one of my sponsors, and so that kind of helped a lot with my journey.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:59]: Oh, wow, that’s so cool. Tell me a little bit about that. How did you exactly find them? Just the name popped up and you decided to go. And how did that all come about?

Heather [00:10:08]: I was just Googling hair salons that did extensions and looking for sponsors and HairClub popped up. At the time, I’d only heard of HairClub for Men, so I thought that it was just for men. But I did a little bit of research and found out that women used HairClub as well. And so I just emailed them. The manager at the Denver location messaged me back, emailed me back. We set up an appointment. I went in for a consultation, and then the next thing I knew, I was a HairClub client, and they were one of my pageant sponsors. And it was awesome because once I won the pageant, right, I was going to compete for Ms. Woman Colorado whenever I got HairClub as a sponsor. And when I actually won the title for the state, I jokingly, with my stylist, was like, I wish I could take you with me to nationals for you to do my hair at nationals. And so they were like, yeah, we’ll send her out there with you. So they actually sent her to Florida with me for nationals, and she did my hair for the competition.

Kevin Rolston [00:11:31]: Now tell me, with the Xtrands, how does that work with your trichotillomania that you still are trying to recover from? Do you pull out the Xtrands? Is there a desire to do that?

Heather [00:11:41]: Yeah. No, actually it’s really interesting because I have what I call trigger spots. So there’s specific areas that when I’m stressed or bored or not even paying attention, that I pull from. And so what Xtrands does is it covers the areas that are lacking hair, and then my own hair is still used in addition to that. So all of the edges I pull from the sides and the crown of my head. So all of the edges is my hair, and just the crown and the sides is a system that is glued to my scalp. And so I shave underneath the system so that the system fits snug on my scalp. That’s just a personal preference. Some people don’t do that, but I choose to do that. But it covers those trigger spots for me. So I don’t typically have the desire to pull anymore.

Kevin Rolston [00:12:38]: How about that? And tell me how do you feel with your system when you look in the mirror and you see that you’ve got a full head of hair and you don’t have those bald spots that you had had before? What is that like for you?

Heather [00:12:52]: It’s amazing. I wanted to cry when I saw myself in the mirror for the first time when they did the reveal, because it had been so long since I had seen myself with a full head of hair. Right. So when I look at myself, like, I don’t see the clips from the extensions, and I don’t see it’s really hard to tell where your hairline is at and where the Xtrands is at. And so it just gives me so much confidence to know that I can do whatever I want to with it. If I want to curl it, I can curl it. If I want to straighten it, I can straighten it. If I want to cut it, dye it, like, whatever I want to do to it, I have those options again. And I’m not just stuck with one hairstyle or fixing it just a certain way, because I have to worry about hiding the clips or the different things from the extensions. And so it really gave me back a lot of my confidence.

Kevin Rolston [00:14:02]: Listening to Heather today, it’s hard to imagine her lifelong battle with trichotillomania stemming from childhood trauma. Now, as a licensed professional counselor, Heather commits herself to assisting those grappling with mental health challenges. She’s even authored a children’s book on trichotillomania to help young clients facing the same struggle.

Heather [00:14:22]: Yeah. So I wrote, “Where’s my Hair? A Trichotillomania Story for Children” in 2018. And actually, I wrote it because where I was living at the time, people got to know me as a therapist who worked with people with trichotillomania because of my own personal experience. And so I would get a lot of kids. And so I had this young girl come in, she was 13 or 14, and she was on the autism spectrum, and she was nonverbal, and she started pulling her hair, and her stepmom brought her into me, and she said her occupational therapist says that she has trichotillomania. And she started giving me all of this information that the OT had given her about trichotillomania. And I looked at her, and I was like, the only thing that’s accurate about any of that is the name of the disorder.

Heather [00:15:18]: And so I use, with kids a lot, books, to help them understand what they’re going through, what they’re experiencing, that they’re not alone. And so I went online and started looking for a book that I could share with her in session, and I couldn’t find anything. There was stuff for professionals, there was stuff for adults, there was stuff for parents, but there was nothing specifically for children. So I sat down and wrote my book loosely based off of my own personal experience, and then I sent it to my mom and was like, I’m going to write a book. I’m writing this children’s book. Here it is. And my mom likes to draw. And so I was like, will you illustrate it for me? So my mom grabbed some pictures of my oldest daughter and some friends and she sat down and she illustrated the story for me.

Kevin Rolston [00:16:13]: Wow. That is so cool. What a great full circle story that you have to share with so many people. What an inspiration. And I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. If you had to talk to any other women out there for whatever reason, because hair loss, your story is unique. I don’t know how many other people are going to say that they have what you do, but hair loss is something that so many men and believe it or not, so many women are going through. And it’s hard to probably hear from another woman that’s got hair loss and is open about it. What would you say to them if they just feel kind of lost and they’re listening to this conversation saying, okay, what are my next steps? What do I do? How should I feel about this?

Heather [00:16:53]: Yeah, I would definitely say that you are not alone, first of all. We all experience hair loss in some form or fashion and are going to at some point, whether it’s from hormone issues, medical issues, mental health issues, medications, all of these different things that we experience and deal with in life can create hair loss at some point. Doesn’t mean that you won’t get it back. But we all struggle with something. And so the first thing would be that you’re not alone. The second thing would be that there is options and whether that is a treatment that HairClub has that will help your hair regrow or you’re doing something like I am with like Xtrands+. There are options out there and you just have to seek them out. 

Kevin Rolston [00:17:55]: We’re so lucky to have Heather on the show. Her resilience in the face of her own struggles and trauma and her commitment to supporting kids experiencing mental health issues is such an inspiring story for all of us here at HairPod. If you know a young person struggling with trichotillomania and you want to pick up a copy of Heather’s book, you can find a link to it in our show notes or search for “Where’s my Hair? A Trichotillomania Story for Children” on Amazon. Thanks so much for listening to Hairpod. If this episode made you think of someone you know who needs to hear this story, consider sharing it, for before and after photos of our guests and other announcements, check us out on Instagram. Until next time.

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My Hair Loss Journey with Kevin Rolston

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In this episode of HairPod, our host Kevin Rolston shares his own journey with hair loss, offering guidance for those facing the same challenges. Listen in to hear what he struggled with and how he found the right solution for him.

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