Jessica-Marie Laurent: Postpartum Hair Loss

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.