Dr. Angela Phipps [00:00:02]:
If you don’t have an oily scalp, you can go two or three days before you need to wash your scalp. So it just depends upon how oily or dry your scalp is. Everybody’s gonna be different. There is no one hair care regimen that’s gonna work for every single person because you’ve got different textures of hair, you’ve got different oil productions of scalps, you’ve got different treatments that have been applied to certain people’s hairs that you’re gonna want. And a good hair company like HairClub’s gonna be able to look at, evaluate the texture and the color, damage or non damage that’s there and going to be able to recommend products that are going to be the best thing for you.
Kevin Rolston [00:00:52]:
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. It’s April Fool’s Day, but instead of pulling a prank on you, we’re just going to set the record straight. Because when it comes to hair loss, there’s no shortage of myths, misinformation, and flat out nonsense floating around. From miracle shampoos to old wives tales about hair and hair gel, too many people are getting fooled. That’s why we brought back one of our favorite truth tellers, amazing hair loss expert, Dr. Angie Phipps.
Kevin Rolston [00:01:38]:
She’s a licensed transplant surgeon, the star of the TLC show Bad Hair Day, and someone who doesn’t buy into hype or gimmicks. Dr. Phipps is here to break down the biggest myths about hair loss, explain what’s actually happening to your scalp, and help us all separate fact from fiction. So if you’ve ever wondered whether stress alone can make your hair fall out, or if that magical oil that your cousin swears by is really doing anything at all, this is the episode for you. Let’s cut through the confusion, bust some myths, and make sure you don’t get fooled.
Kevin Rolston [00:02:17]:
My question is somebody who’s starting to lose their hair, and I remember when I realized I was losing mine, there were some things I thought maybe I was doing in life that was contributing to that. And I’m just kind of curious if you could myth bust some of these things. I was always a hat guy before I went to HairClub all the time. I love this myth okay, Was it true? Was I accelerating my hair loss with all the times I wore baseball caps?
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:02:46]:
No, absolutely not. Hair loss has nothing to do with you wearing a hat or not wearing a hat. Because if you think about it, if that were true, every NFL and major league baseball player in the world, you know, would be bald. Right. All they do is wear hats all day long. They sweat, they practice in them, they play in them. Yeah. And they’re not.
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:03:05]:
And so wearing a hat has absolutely nothing to do with it. You’re wearing a hat because you’re losing your hair. You’re not losing your hair because you’re wearing a hat.
Kevin Rolston [00:03:13]:
That’s a good way of putting it. You’re right.
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:03:14]:
I have, I have mothers dragging their 18 year old sons in my office all the time and saying, tell him this hat’s wear, you know, making him lose his hair. And I’m like, mommy, you’re wrong. It’s not, you know, it’s genetic. You either have the, you know, the number one cause of hair loss in both men and women is genetic. So you either have the genetics to having hair follicles that have receptors in them that are sensitive to hormones the body produces, or you don’t. Wearing a hat’s not going to change that hormonal genetic composition.
Kevin Rolston [00:03:42]:
Maybe the same version for women would be clips, scrunchies, things they’re using to put up their hair. Is that causing breakage or issues with the hair strength or could that even be leading to them with thinning hair?
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:03:57]:
Now this is the flip side. Those can cause hair loss in women. Oh, because pulling the hair. I actually did a hair transplant on a 16 year old ballerina who always wore her hair, you know, pulled back super, super tight, you know, in that bun. And she had started at the age of three. So you know, all the time she was pulling that hair and slicking it up into that bun, making it as tight as possible and it looked fantastic. But years of doing that to the hair follicles does cause what we call traction alopecia, traction hair loss. You’re constantly have a low grade tugging and pulling on that hair follicle that underneath the surface of the skin is producing inflammation from chronicity and that inflammation is pressing on the roots of the hair follicles.
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:04:46]:
And over years of doing that, it does kill the hair follicles and make the hair fall out. So in certain ethnicities, their hair styling practices can contribute to permanent hair loss. From traction from braiding the hair too tight over long periods of time, to putting in weaves extensions and then even just the tightness of how tight you wear your ponytails or your buns or slick backs in, you know, even in Caucasian patients.
Kevin Rolston [00:05:15]:
So tell me, is there a limit to that? If you are somebody that you do wear weaves or things along those lines, you do put your hair back. How do you know when you’re doing it too much to damage? Is it when you see the signs or is there damage that’s being done that you’re not seeing that you need to probably not do it that often?
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:05:33]:
Well, you’re not going to see the resultant hair loss from that for years, typically, okay. Because it takes that long of time for that chronicity of the inflammation that’s being caused underneath the surface of the skin from that chronic pulling to actually kill the hair follicle. So but I just know just education of knowing this will more than likely cause hair loss. So any time that you’re not like for, if you do it because of sports or activities, anytime you’re, you don’t have to have your hair, let it breathe, let it down. You know, if you’re a ballerina and your hair has to be up for practice, as soon as you get down, you take it down and on your off days or whatever, you’re not pulling it back, you’re not doing anything to it. You’re just letting it hang loose and free and give it it a break from that chronic pulling. And then for, you know, certain ethnicities, that’s their culture, that’s how they wear their hair. But the, you know, the old adage, if it ain’t tight, it ain’t right has got to be re educated in those communities because that tightness is going to cause hair loss over time.
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:06:33]:
Now there’s a reason that you want it tight because the tighter it is, the longer that hairstyle will last. And you get more for your money for having paid to have that done. So it was an economical issue, sometimes a financial issue that you want be done as tight as possible because it lasted longer. And so what I tell patients is if you want to wear your hair in those ways, you can, but just start out with it being looser and do it less frequently and give your hair a holiday or a break from that style and do a natural style for a while and then go back to it. But don’t do it tightly now, it won’t last as long. But you’re trying to preserve your hair.
Kevin Rolston [00:07:15]:
So hats may not cause your hair loss and thank goodness for that. But not all styling habits are so innocent. Something like traction alopecia doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a slow kind of damage, the kind we don’t always notice until it’s already taken a toll. But here’s the good news. If you’ve been rocking tight styles and you’re starting to notice thinning around your edges or your crown, it’s not too late to shift gears. You can take steps to protect your thinning hair and give your scalp the break it needs. So what should you do if you actually think your styling habits have been a little too harsh? Dr.
Kevin Rolston [00:07:50]:
Phipps has some solid advice, and not just on prevention, but on how you can recover your hair health.
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:08:02]:
Anytime patients have traction, you know, like that, I’ll always put them, you know, on usually topical minoxidil because it’s a vasodilator. It increases blood flow to the area. So you want to get that circulation going back to those stressed, you know, roots and hair follicles as well as especially low level light therapy would be fantastic because that light wavelength will penetrate the skin and photobiochemically stimulate those hair follicle cells to revive themselves and to get back up and functioning at a stronger capacity at a much faster rate than just naturally, you know, giving your hair a break. Okay, so those are treatments that you can do in between your styles. And if you just are, you know, you’re just somebody who’s going to wear your hair that way or you have to wear your hair that way. You need to give your hair some, you know, your scalp some love. Yes, scalp massages are good. Rosemary oil on your scalp is good, low level light therapy and even minoxidil.
Kevin Rolston [00:08:59]:
Okay? Now, I’ve heard people selling these pillowcases that they say are going to be better for your hair than the ones you’re using. That’s ripping your hair out in your sleep. Is there any truth to that or is that just a sales hoax that they’re trying to get more money out of me for?
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:09:13]:
That’s just a sales hoax. Now, you know, cotton does have some abrasion to it, you know, so when you’re sleeping and you’re rubbing your hair, you know, against those cotton pillow cases, you know, the pillowcases I think they’re talking about is more of a, a silky, you know, your hair or your, you know, even your face, you know, my grandma always said sleep on a, on a satin pillowcase because it won’t squish your face skin together and you won’t, you’ll get less wrinkles. But that’s a really a myth about you use a certain pillowcase for your hair because I mean, people for centuries have slept on non silk pillowcases and they’re not, you know, didn’t go bald.
Kevin Rolston [00:09:52]:
Right. Tell me about hair care routines. What are the ones that might be damaging to people and what are the ones that are good? Because I know people will use not only in their hair care routines, different kinds of soaps, shampoos, things like that. There might be hair dyes, there might be bleaches, things of that nature. What are things that seem to be the most damaging that unless you have to use it or maybe you shouldn’t ever use it at all, that can be that damaging to your hair?
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:10:18]:
Well, typically topical products aren’t going to cause hair loss. Topical products will cause damage and cause hair breakage. And so you want to have healthy, you know, the hair shafts that you’re producing, you want to be as thick and as full and as healthy as possible. And you know, a lot of, you know, women complain that they can’t grow their hair long. And it’s not that it’s coming from a scalp or cellular hair issue, it’s coming from an ends issue because it just keeps breaking off at the ends that it can’t get to the length that they want it to. So you want to make sure that you’re using good shampoos and conditioners that don’t have sulfates and parabens in it that can be damaging to the hair shafts. A lot of times people will say the big thing right now on TikTok and Facebook and everything right now is hair oil training. You can train your hair.
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:11:09]:
That’s a load of malarkey. You are born with sebaceous glands, which are oil producing glands in your hair that you can’t change. You can’t change the genetics of your hair follicle. You can’t make it produce less oil or more oil by doing hair training or hair oiling externally at all. That’s a big myth, you know, and I’m somebody who is a naturally dark brunette and I’ve got blonde hair. So thank goodness for being able to color your hair. But you just need to make sure that you treat your hair shafts with love, condition them, use bond repair treatments on them. You want to use a heat protectant on it if you’re styling your hair every single day.
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:11:49]:
So just give the love to the hair shaft. But external products and things aren’t going to cause you to your hair to fall out from the root it’s going to affect the shaft and cause breakage and damage and make your hair look thinner and weaker and unhealthy.
Kevin Rolston [00:12:11]:
So even though the treatments you don’t put on your hair won’t cause it to fall out, they can definitely affect the health, strength, and length of your hair. The real key to growing your hair long is how you treat the hair shaft itself. And if you want to improve your scalp health, you can use something like topical minoxidil or rosemary oil. But even if you’re using all the right treatments, so many people are still out there who don’t really know what’s in their shampoo bottle. Even if the front of the bottle says all the right things, if you flip it over and look at the ingredients list, it can be totally indecipherable. So what shampoo you really be looking out for when you read that long list of ingredients? Dr. Phipps is about to break down the biggest shampoo red flags. And trust us, some of the things are hiding in plain sight.
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:13:01]:
Usually, sulfates and parabens are the two things that are most damaging to the hairs. And a lot of times people want the sulfate in the hair shampoo because that’s what gives the lather. But the lather isn’t what’s cleaning, you know, the hair. And so the shampoo is, you know, it doesn’t have to have a lather to be cleaning.
Kevin Rolston [00:13:22]:
Do you have a good, affordable shampoo that you would recommend? I know people swear on that horsey shampoo and things like that. Is there something that you’ve seen that you think is really good that is not super expensive? Because I know sometimes they sell something like what you’ll see on TikTok, but of course, it’s very expensive on top of it. What do you think is a really good shampoo or something you can get that is still at a really good price?
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:13:46]:
Both Hair Club and Bosley have their own hair line, and I highly recommend both of those because those are coming from hair companies. Right. We know how to take care of your hair, and we’ve worked with chemists and formulate these products with botanicals and natural things that we know help the hair from the level of the layers of the hair and to nourish the scalp and using things that can make both your scalp and your hair shaft as healthy as possible.
Kevin Rolston [00:14:20]:
What about brushes, combs, anything like that that you might be using to style your hair? Are there certain styles of brushes or combs you should stay away from? Does it matter?
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:14:30]:
I don’t think it matters because I am an 80s girl and I’ve got long, long hair and I like it big. And so the Tease comb is my best friend. And so the higher the hair, the closer to Jesus. So I put my hair through the wringer and I love me a Tease comb and so I’m not going to tell anybody not to have big hair. So again, just when you just take care of your hair, wash it, condition it, you know, hair masks are good to be used once a week to really let it sit in and soak and penetrate. You don’t have to spend that much money. If you take the ingredient list of those expensive ones, there’s always going to be a drugstore version that has almost the same ingredients that you’re going to be able to get. You’re just paying for their marketing and their tik tok influencing, right?
Kevin Rolston [00:15:20]:
And how often do you know you should be washing your hair?
Dr. Angela Phipps [00:15:24]:
You wash your hair as much as you need to. And I know that sounds flippant or silly, but if you’ve got an oily scalp, you might need to wash your hair every day. So if you got to wash your hair every day, wash your hair every day, washing your hair too much is not going to make your hair fall out. If you don’t have an oily scalp, you can go two or three days before you need to wash your scalp. So it just depends upon how oily or dry you know your scalp is. Everybody’s going to be different. There is no one hair care regimen that’s going to work for every single person because you’ve got different textures of hair, you’ve got different oil productions of scalps, you’ve got different treatments that have been applied to certain people’s hairs that you’re going to want. And a good hair company like Bosley and HairClub is going to be able to look at your hair and evaluate the texture and the color damage or non damage that’s there and going to be able to recommend products that are going to be the best thing for you.
Kevin Rolston [00:16:19]:
A big thanks to Dr. Angie Phipps for coming back on the HairPod and helping us separate from fact from fiction. Now you know you can keep your hat and your regular cotton pillowcases and toss out those snake oil remedies. No matter how many influencers are out there telling you to go buy the next trending product, there are plenty of experts with knowledge and passion to get you looking and feeling amazing. For more inspirational stories and words of wisdom from people like Dr. Phipps, make sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast. Apple thanks for listening to another episode of Hairpod. Check us out at Harepod on Instagram or search Harepod on Facebook to continue the conversation.
Kevin Rolston [00:16:59]:
If you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it if you would 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 podcasts.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.
