Oscar Camargo [00:00:02]:
You know, being Latino, especially for latino men, recognizing or acknowledging that something is missing or something is wrong with you or that you feel that something's off about you, you know? Cause image is everything to us. To not be afraid. Look, there are solutions to the problem. There are solutions to hair loss problems, and hair club was one of those solutions for me, and it gave me my hair back.

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 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. This week is special because I had the opportunity to interview one of the members of the hair pod team today. Oscar Camargo is joining us to talk about his own personal hair loss journey and to share his experience with the stigma surrounding hair loss. In this episode, he brought up an interesting aspect of his hair loss that hasn't been brought up in any of our other guest episodes, but that a lot of people can relate to. For him, the culture he was raised in played a large role in how his self image changed when he started to experience his hair a thinning.

Oscar Camargo [00:01:40]:
I'm colombian. I was born in Bogota, Columbia, way back when and come from a very large family as well, looking at, you know, twelve aunts and uncles from both sides of my family. So we're looking at 24 aunts and uncles and all these cousins. And then, so it's a large family, and, you know, with that comes a lot of the culture. The colombian culture is very much, you know, ingrained in, you have to look your best. You have to feel your best, you know, and present yourself. Something that my mom always instilled in me was, hey, before you go out, make sure you look good and look the part. Yeah.

Oscar Camargo [00:02:16]:
And walk with that confidence. Now, growing up, I did have, you know, a lot of hair. I did have that, you know, big, puffy hair that the latino men have and the little wave that comes in that suave look. And unfortunately, because hair loss is hereditary, and it starts to, you know, trickle down through the different family members, I started to see my older cousins lose their hair, and then I started seeing my father lose his or his hair start thinning out. And then I was like, well, hopefully it'll skip me and it'll just continue down the line.

Kevin Rolston [00:02:55]:
Right?

Oscar Camargo [00:02:56]:
Yeah. Fortunately, that's not what happened. You know, I got the bad gene. And unfortunately, I started losing my hair pretty, you know, severely up until the last, I would say about ten years or so.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:12]:
Okay.

Oscar Camargo [00:03:12]:
Started in and out pretty good. But me being Latino and, you know, the culture having, you know, such a big, important part of my life, I just didn't even think about it until I started looking in the mirror more. And as years went by and I started, you know, seeing, you know, the receding hairline, I started seeing the widow's peaks become more witty or. Yeah, yeah, I started seeing more skin and I started getting sunburned more. And my face. Oh, man. Okay, something's going on again. You know, I didn't think too much of it up until, like, the last couple years where it got really progressively worse.

Oscar Camargo [00:03:52]:
And I just had to do something about it.

Kevin Rolston [00:03:55]:
Was there a moment that sounded the alarm bells for you? Because I think that for a lot of guys that do lose their hair, there's a certain level of tolerance that you take. And there's just that prayer that it's not going to get any worse. You're like, okay, as long as I don't lose anymore and I just stay here, I'll be okay. And realistically, that's not the case, unfortunately, with men. And we're in denial because we just think it can't happen to me. What was your final point where you said, okay, today's the day I need to act and I need to do something about it.

Oscar Camargo [00:04:24]:
It's a funny story with that. And the reason why I say it's funny is because I've been, you know, working with a hairpod team in hair club for about seven years now. When I first came on board with them, and, you know, I was all happy. I was going to be working for a great company, you know, well known, and I thought to myself, man, I'm never going to need their products right again because I myself felt confident enough to where I thought I felt. I mean, I felt good, looked good, and then enter in my biggest critic, which was my youngest daughter.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:01]:
Oh, wow.

Oscar Camargo [00:05:03]:
Wow.

Kevin Rolston [00:05:04]:
Okay.

Oscar Camargo [00:05:05]:
You know, when we were talking, we would just be joking around. She's like, why don't you get hair? Why don't you work? You work there, why don't you get your hair back? Why don't you do that? And I started playing it off like, ah, you know, you're just being a kid or whatever, but part of my job with the company is to take photographs and to video. And so when we were, I was looking through the behind the scenes photos that were taking of taken of me taking photos. I began to see the crown on my head just get wider and wider as the year, you know, as the years went by. Fast forward to what I would say about two years now, about a year and a half, almost two years. I took one look in the mirror and I said, wow, my hair, where has my hair gone? And that's when I decided to say, you know, I need to do something about it.

Kevin Rolston [00:06:03]:
Its important to hear people talk about this, because I know Oscar is not the only one who has ever been through it. Oscar was brought up in a culture that emphasizes presenting yourself well when you walk out the door. And I think a lot of us can relate to that. Whether its something we learned from our parents or family members or society at large, its important to acknowledge that the way people perceive us matters. And its up to each one of us to decide how we want to be seen by others. Not presenting ourselves to the world can have a big impact on self esteem and can impact not only how others treat us, but how we perceive ourselves. Insecurity can be a heavy burden to carry, and most people try to carry it alone. For a lot of men and women, feeling like your self image is changing in a way you can't control, can be overwhelming.

Oscar Camargo [00:06:56]:
And you have started to become more self conscious about how I looked in front of other people, how I presented myself again. You know, you have that culture that lingers in your mind that's always saying, you always look your, you know, if you look your best, you're gonna feel your best, and you're gonna feel confident. You're gonna go attack the world and do what you want. But that strong voice of self doubt started to creep in because I started to look at myself a little bit more critical. And then I started to see the different features. I needed to lose weight. I needed to, you know, so you begin to self at yourself. And one of those things was just, unfortunately, my hair, it was not coming back.

Oscar Camargo [00:07:37]:
I tried different treatments, I tried minoxidil. It worked for a little bit, but then unfortunately, you know, it just, my hair just kept falling out.

Kevin Rolston [00:07:46]:
So about what age were you when you finally started seeking a treatment?

Oscar Camargo [00:07:50]:
So I would probably say around 20. No, what am I, 20? I wish I was in my twenties.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:03]:
Now you're just losing your mind.

Oscar Camargo [00:08:07]:
My hair stood, and so is my memory. Forget how to count. I would say about two years ago is when I started, really started looking at different options that I could, you know, really entertain that were feasible for me, for my lifestyle, and making sure that I kept up with it. Minoxidil was an option, you know, started becoming really popular and. Yeah, I mean, of course you want to grow your own hair. You want to grow whatever you have. You know, you want to. Whatever I read about it, whatever I learned about it, it seemed like a good, feasible option.

Oscar Camargo [00:08:42]:
But unfortunately, my hair just kept getting progressively worse. And that's when I turned to the solutions that I found, which was with hair club.

Kevin Rolston [00:08:50]:
Now, were you using hair club as a consultant to talk to when you were in there, when you went with the minoxidil and things like that? Or are you just going on your own? Where were you getting the information to try to cure your hair loss issues?

Oscar Camargo [00:09:04]:
I started reading on my own because I didn't want to alert anybody here at the office to let them think about that. You know, I was worried. You know, I was. Yeah, because I carried myself well in the office, and, well, at least I thought I.

Kevin Rolston [00:09:20]:
Tell your daughter set you right.

Oscar Camargo [00:09:22]:
Yeah, tell my daughter, put me right. And then I knew that there was options available at hair club. And I really sat down with the consultants, and they. They looked at me. In the end, you know, the different stylists, I used to get my hair cut there all the time, and they would tell me, like, hey, you know, you really ought to do something about it. I thought they were just joking, you know, just because that's kind of my nature. It's just a joke around. But there was this one stylist, you know, Tina.

Oscar Camargo [00:09:52]:
She really sat me down and said, look, you're getting progressively worse, and, you know, it's not looking good. So you could either do something about it now or just wait till there's really nothing left to do except for you to shave it off or, you know, find other options. So I started investigating it. I looked at the different options. I read about it, you know, the consultants that I knew, they informed me about what was going to happen, how it worked and all that. And, yeah, I mean, I was happy. I was like, oh, cool, all right, this is an option. But then I saw that, you know, after four or five months, after the six month, I saw a little bit of progressiveness, and then it just wasn't working out.

Oscar Camargo [00:10:35]:
So then, back to square one.

Kevin Rolston [00:10:41]:
Every hair loss journey is unique. Just like Oscar, I went through different options before setting on one that was just right for me. Now, many people choose to start with a regrowth option, like minoxidil or finasteride. And for some people, the journey ends there. Others use these options for a while, and then they may switch to something else down the road. It's a matter of looking at all of the possible options and figuring out what is going to give you the results you want. One of the main concerns people have when looking for a hair loss solution is they want it to look both good and they want it to feel real. Now, most people want to achieve a natural look with their hair replacement, and that can be tough when you take into account how unique each person's hair textures and color patterns are.

Oscar Camargo [00:11:31]:
So it's interesting, right? So I've always had just, you know, push because of my hair, my thinning hair. I just always pushed it back and brushed it off to the side. And, you know, hopefully with enough gel, it would just stay put and sort of look sort of thin or thicked out of, filled out. But, you know, I let my hair grow out long, as long as it could grow. And then I said, look, my hair is wavy, of course, you know, I got salt and pepper patches everywhere. So my hair, natural hair is also, you know, salty in some areas, and, you know, just peppered her out throughout. And my worry was, and one of the things that I was worried so apprehensive about it was, I'm just going to get this jet black thing put on my head, the system on my head, and it's going to look so different. And when they spun me around in that chair and they looked at, I looked at myself in the mirror because of the conversations I had with the stylist and the image consultant and everybody, the team there, they took the wave pattern of my hair in consideration.

Oscar Camargo [00:12:40]:
You know, my hair is not completely 100% black. They match the hair color. They match the white spots and areas that look natural. You know, even the way I brush my hair, you know, they formed it so that I, you know, it just became something so secondary to me because it, or so natural to me because it's just, it's my hair, right. You know, I turned around and looked in the mirror and I said, holy smokes, I haven't seen this guy in a long time.

Kevin Rolston [00:13:09]:
And I often say that with my hair system, it takes ten to 15 years off. You look that much younger, and it's radical. Would you say about the same for you?

Oscar Camargo [00:13:20]:
Same thing. Same thing. And funny story I should tell. Well, one of the funny things that happened to me when I reintroduced myself to my family, because it's sort of a reintroduction to your family, right. I was especially to my mom when I went to go see her after I got my system on my hair back, and she looked at me and she just smiled, and you could see, like, you know, her getting teary eyed. It's like, oh, you look like you were back when you were, you know, in your twenties, still living at the house, you know, went off to college. And so the most interesting part also is, you know, my biggest critic, when I went back to her and I, and I showed my family my hair, and they just sort of just, you know, we're at home in the dining room table. I came up to them, you know, walked into the door.

Oscar Camargo [00:14:08]:
They knew I was getting something done. They didn't have idea what to expect. And they all looked at me with big smiles, and I was so happy. And they were happy. But my youngest, who is my Achilles heel, she came up and she ran her fingers through it, and she was like, that just looks amazing. And I myself felt so much younger, so much happier. I mean, you begin to slouch down because of your posture of self doubt and lack of confidence. You felt yourself walking straight up again.

Oscar Camargo [00:14:40]:
I mean, I was walking head on, looking people in the eye again, and not worrying about, are they looking at my hair? Are they looking at my hairline? Are they looking at my troubled areas? That all got washed away, and you could focus on what you wanted to do.

Kevin Rolston [00:15:00]:
It is heartwarming to hear just how Oscar's family embraced his new look and how that allowed him to go forward with confidence. The idea of that moment when the people, you know, see you for the first time with hair again seems daunting because you dont know what people are going to think or say. Its important to make decisions like this for yourself, because at the end of the day, the people in your life who matter most will just want you to be happy and do whatever makes you feel great. And just like so many of our guests, these are things Oscar wishes he could have done differently earlier in his hair loss journey. His message is powerful. Don't be afraid to seek solutions and take that first step towards change.

Oscar Camargo [00:15:46]:
That's something I thought a lot about. And, you know, being latino, especially for latino men, recognizing or acknowledging that something is missing or something is wrong with you or that you feel that something's off about you, you know? Cause image is everything to us. To not be afraid and to everybody to not be afraid. Look, there are solutions to the problem. There are solutions to hair loss problems. And hair club was one of those solutions for me, and it gave me my hair back. And, you know, this has been said numerous times, you know, in the many shoots and conversations I've had with different clients and members of hair club and I and even other people, it's just, I wish I would have done this sooner. I wish I would have taken the steps, you know, to prevent hair loss or to prevent the progressiveness of the hair loss, or at least to have enough information to make an educated guess or an educated decision what the best plan of action is for you.

Oscar Camargo [00:16:49]:
It was this. And, yeah, to not wait, you know, if I've lived it, you know, hair loss is progressive. It's true. I lived at 100%. And as the years went by, you could totally tell I was in denial. So you got to sort of snap yourself out of it and take a moment and really realize this is something that you can do for yourself. This is something I did for me to bring me back to where I was before. And it's not so much where I was before, but it's just to give me a new level of pushing forward.

Oscar Camargo [00:17:20]:
I don't have to worry about my hair missing from my thought process. It's right there. It's so I could focus on what I need to do and go for it. And, yeah, my confidence came back. You know, it came back 100%.

Kevin Rolston [00:17:33]:
What's fascinating is that you talked about how you were hesitant, even though you worked with the hair club team. And my first consultation I had at hair club, I skipped. I just didn't go in. And then I booked it again. And the second time, I convinced myself to go in, and thats what I would tell anybody. I think it was self doubt. It was thinking that this is something that I couldnt afford, that I couldnt do. But knowing that youre going to walk in there and youre going to have nothing but love and support, and youre going to come out with solutions and remedies that fit your budget, you would race in there for me telling myself, dont skip that first appointment.

Kevin Rolston [00:18:10]:
The sooner you get in there, the sooner you get the solution, and the sooner you get your self confidence back. It's kind of odd that you are even in there working with that team, and you're a little hesitant yourself. So I think everybody probably is, for.

Oscar Camargo [00:18:22]:
Whatever reason, no, 100%. You know, you get the the stigmas, you know, surrounding, you know, having a hair system. You go back to the commercials, whatever, and, yeah, you know, you have people, you know, saying things in your ear. My brother in law, you know, he would make fun. If you ever get hair, you know, I'm just gonna laugh at you, you know, different things like that. So you would hear people just drop those little bits and pieces of self doubt. But at one point you're just like, you know what, I need to do this. I need to.

Oscar Camargo [00:18:52]:
What will be the biggest change if I go in there and the biggest change is, you know, myself, me, it's getting myself back. There's nothing else that, that I could say is just get in there, sit down, get yourself educated. I mean, we have the best of the best people that understand. I mean, we've been doing this for 40 some odd years, almost 50 years. So there's knowledge to be had, there's knowledge to be learned. And yeah, there's a solution for what all types of hair losses that we have.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:24]:
Absolutely. Well, I love your story and it's interesting that it took a daughter. I know what a daughter's opinion can do to a dad. So I get the power of that and I'm glad that you where you are. And what a testament to hair club. Thank you very much for joining us today, Oscar, it was great talking to you.

Oscar Camargo [00:19:42]:
Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

Kevin Rolston [00:19:48]:
I love this conversation with Oscar because I know it's going to resonate with people who have faced similar challenges. His story is all about seeking solutions that work for his unique needs, which is a great reminder that hair loss restoration isn't just about aesthetics, its about regaining confidence and embracing ones true self. For more inspirational stories and words of wisdom from people who have been through 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 Hairpot on Facebook to continue the conversation. If you know someone who could benefit from hearing this episode, we would love it for you to 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 [00:20:41]:
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.