Episode 203: What I Wish I Had Known About Alopecia When I Was Going Through It

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel Podcast. I’m your host, Johanna Dahlman. Today we’re gonna be talking about what I wish I knew about healing alopecia. And before we get into that, I did want to remind everybody that we are coming up close to the deadline to submit your application for the scholarship for the Hair N’ Heal program. This scholarship has been happening for over 8 years. Every year I choose a couple of scholarship applications so that these people, women or children around the world men as well, are more than happy to apply for the scholarship, and this is where they get a free entrance into the Hair N’ Heal program.

Last year we had Priya from India do our program and she saw hair growth in 6 weeks. She also stopped the hair loss shedding in less than 5 weeks. And her emotional state, her physical state, and her mental health have all improved. This is what I look to do. I know that finding financial aspects to heal alopecia can be challenging. In my own journey, it was also very challenging. I was living off my savings and had very little to help myself with. This is where I always love giving back. If you’re interested, go ahead and email us to get all the instructions and all the application information. You can do this at hello@alopeciaangel.com and the deadline to submit all the information and your application is November 30th. So you have a couple more weeks left.

And today again, I was gonna say that we are gonna be talking about some things that I wish I knew about healing alopecia that in hindsight, I wish everyone can know. This is why I do the podcast, and this is why I bring experts to speak. But then also I like to speak from experience and then also from guiding thousands of people in over 67 countries heal and reverse their alopecia naturally. And just so you know, if you have hair loss, you have alopecia. Alopecia is the medical term for hair loss. And so under this umbrella that we see as alopecia, there’s many different types. There’s postpartum, there’s telogen effluvium, there’s diffuse, there’s androgenic, there’s female pattern baldness. There’s hormone and thyroid, menopause. There’s different types of hair loss, of course including autoimmune, which is alopecia, areata, totalis, and universalis.

The thing about hair loss is that whatever type you have, more than likely, you can heal and reverse it. I say this because even with my scarring alopecia, clients, they’ve also seen hair growth, they’ve also seen healing. It’s many factors that play into this. And each factor is unique to you. Not all the factors are going to be placed for you. However when you do the program, you see results, you see the hair growth, and you see the shedding stop in less than 8 weeks, which is incredible. I wish I would’ve had this program going through my own alopecia journey years ago. So let’s get to it.

What are some of the things that I wish you knew and I knew about alopecia health? So first off is that root cause and root causes is never just one thing. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s like a mountain made up of many sized rocks and you may have two big boulders, but then you also have medium sized rocks and smaller size rocks, but these all contribute to your hair growth, to your hair health, and to your healing. And so all these factors need to be incorporated. It’s never just one thing. And out of the 8+ years that I’ve been doing this, out of the thousands of clients and all over the world that I’ve been seeing, it’s never just one thing. So many different ingredients and factors that go into healing. This is, I think the key misnomer is that we all think it’s just one thing. It’s just this. It’s just that, and it’s never just one thing.

Also if you think that just diet alone is going to heal your hair, you’re wrong because diet alone doesn’t do it. Diet alone will not get you to that finish line. Now, does diet help? Absolutely, diet helps. Diet helps in everything. However, it’s not the one thing. It’s never the one thing you can ask bodybuilders that you can ask professional athletes, that you can ask anyone who is at a top tier performance level. It’s never just one thing, it’s never just died alone. There’s more to it. This is one thing that I really want to hone in because if you are contemplating a program or a situation where you think it’s just a diet, it’s not gonna get you there. And even in my own situation, it’s so comprehensive. The Hair N’ Heal program where diet yes, is one factor, one ingredient, part of it, but it’s not the end all be all. There’s again, many more puzzle pieces to this, and this is what we do inside the Hair N’ Heal program.

Next in line I wish that everyone knew: Not everyone can help you. I say this also from experience of having gone through the runaround of talking to multiple doctors, seeing practitioners of all sorts, from Ayurveda to acupuncture, to chiropractors to this, to that naturopaths, you name it. I’ve been there, done that, and this is why so many people resonate with me, because they’ve also gone through the runaround. I’ve seen functional medicine doctors. I’ve seen numerous doctors, not just here in the US but also in Europe. They failed me. They failed me because either they did too little, nothing at all, or they also gave me a banquet of pharmaceuticals, which is also not the option, which is also not the healing, which is also not the cure that I’m looking for, which is also not the sustainability for healthy hair, which is also not gonna get me to the next level of hair growth and health, which is also only going to hinder my health and at the time, my fertility.

I’m gonna do another podcast in conjunction of this topic of fertility and autoimmune. Because lo and behold, my story also resonates with many people. I actually have many clients who are in their 30s or even in their 20s or even in their 40s wanting to get pregnant. They do the program and they have to stop it because they got pregnant. Or then we modify it to adjust to their new situation, which is pregnancy or breastfeeding or anything else. So the program can be done while you’re breastfeeding, it can be done while you’re pregnant. It can be done on many levels. It just depends on your situation, and then we tailor it to you.

However, I know for a fact that I got pregnant on the first try at 40 years old because I healed my alopecia, because everything was in balance. Because the orchestra, that is our body, our biology, everything was in harmony. I think that many times we think: Oh, getting pregnant should be really easy. It’s just sperming and egg. And it’s much more than just a sperm and an egg. As you all know, there’s timing and there’s of course the health of the male and health of the female, and there’s also all the other factors biologically that go into this. I wish it was so easy as just a sperm and an egg, and maybe at 18 that’s the situation, but as we get older, it’s not. And even when you look at autoimmune diseases, it’s not just about age.

I’ve seen clients as young as 8 months old, six years old with 2 and 3 autoimmune diseases. So it’s not an age thing, it’s a health thing. This is where it’s truly necessary to work with somebody who can really understand you and get you to that finish line because not everyone helps me. Maybe you’re feeling that right now, seeing one doctor to another, seeing the endocrinologist, the rheumatologist, the this, the that, the dermatologist. All these runarounds and no answers. All these lab tests and everything comes back normal. I was in that same boat. I was at my peak fitness , all my labs were normal. Everything was fantastic and still I had alopecia, and I still had massive shedding, and I still had a tsunami of symptoms and I still didn’t feel like the Johanna from before. I knew something was off, and it was much more than just alopecia. It was much more than just hair loss. It was much more than just what the medical textbook says. It’s much more .

Now to work with somebody who understands you is totally different. To work with somebody who’s focused only on alopecia, only on hair loss is totally different than working with somebody who’s generalized than working with somebody who, wears many hats or somebody who’s only going by the book. Because in reality I go off of experience. I go off of what I’ve lived and how I’ve lived and how this has helped not only me, but thousands of others. And that’s, I think the biggest takeaway is that I wish just because somebody is wearing a lab coat that they can help me. And that was my naivete , that was my stupidity in many ways, thinking that just because they were a medical doctor that they could help me. When in reality they couldn’t. They couldn’t ’cause their only option in their toolkit was pharmaceuticals and that wasn’t the option I wanted, and that’s more than likely the option that you don’t want as well.

If you want to know more about the harmful ramifications of medications for alopecia, for hair loss, feel free to visit my website, alopeciaangel.com You can grab the free download there on the homepage. And as well, there are medications that do cause hair loss , and I also have a free PDF for that too. So there could be different types of medications that you’re taking currently. It could be blood pressure, it could be an SSRI, it could be birth control, all different types of medications. And guess what their side effect is? Hair loss. So also something to look at.

I also wish back in the day that I had asked better questions, not just assuming there was a guarantee, not just thinking that this was my solution, not just hoping that this was gonna be the one thing that helps me, but start asking, what are your results? Do you

have before and after pictures? What are your case studies? What type of alopecia have you healed long term? What type of alopecia have you cured long term? Have gone into remission? I know sometimes people say cure and it like triggers them, and I’m not about triggering people, but at the same time, I totally know I healed my alopecia is in remission. I may have the genetic component for it, but that doesn’t mean I have to have it.

As you can see now, I just colored my hair, so it’s a little darker than normal, but at almost 45 my hair is lush and thick, grows an inch a month, and this is my reality. At the end of the day, we all create our own reality, you create your future If you want to continue with alopecia, you can , it’s a choice. If you want to heal, you can, and that’s also a choice. If you want to grow an inch of hair a month, you can. If you want to have nice, thick hair, you can. It’s all a choice, it really is. It’s all about what you want in life and how you move forward to it. And so I would ask better questions. Do they have results? Does this person have results to show, to demonstrate that they can prove? Do they offer testing? What type of testing?

And that’s another thing because a lot of times you may be working with a practitioner who offers testing, but the testing itself is subpar, it’s not comprehensive, it’s not looking at everything or just the opposite. Maybe their testing is pretty good or standard or, maybe even above average a little bit. But then what about the next steps protocol? Are they giving you the correct protocol? I say this only because I’ve had clients who are working with naturopaths or other practitioners in their own country, Canada, Australia, UK and the access to the testing that we offer at Alopecia Angel is not what their practitioners have , that’s first and foremost.

Second of all, the protocol is completely different. Second of all, they still haven’t seen results with their original practitioner. And so when they start seeing results with us, it’s a game changer because they’ve been wasting their time and their money with people who can’t get them to the finish line, who are just, testing to test, but not really going beyond what’s needed. And so it’s much more than just a test. Sometimes testing is needed and I will say I like to test on a regular basis for myself just because I wanna be on top of things and I wanna be proactive. Having alopecia was a wake up call. It was a wake up call of not thinking that just because I’m physically fit from the outside that something could be a ray, something could be not completely healthy.

And so this is where I’m more proactive now. So getting the right testing is crucial. Getting the right next steps protocol is even more critical to your success. It really is because you could be like my customer from Canada, Ali, who was working with somebody for 6 years, and then all of a sudden, he started thinking: This person’s not getting me results. I’ve been working with them for 6 years and nothing’s happening , nothing’s getting better. In less than 8 weeks, he already started seeing hair growth, he started already seeing progress in his other health concerns and we eradicated anything and everything that was happening within him.

And so this is the situation when it comes to working with somebody. Because again, not everyone can help you, cause not everyone knows how to, and they try because they have a big heart, but they may not have the expertise or the experience, and that’s a big difference. And so you have to be very cognizant of this, it’s so important. Understanding that once healed, the healing journey doesn’t stop. It just continues, and it may even magnify even more. In all my choices, in my fertility, in all aspects of aging and future health goals, it just continues to grow. Just because I’m healed and my hair loss is, complete and even better than when I was in my twenties, it doesn’t mean that I don’t live and breathe the Hair N’ Heal program, it doesn’t mean that I just stop and go back to my old ways nonsense. It’s just the opposite. I continue to compound learnings and I continue to be obsessive really with my health and I continue to do better each and every day.

And yeah, some days I have relaxed days, cheat days, vacation days, this and that. Of course, we’re all human, but at the same time, if you’re doing 80 to 90% of the work, then you’re good to go. And that’s just like going to the gym. A lot of times people think that you go to the gym January 1st and maybe you go all month in January and then you stop. What happens? You go back into your old routine, into your old habits, and maybe that weight that you started to lose January 1st through the 30th it comes back. It may be even double, and that’s just it. Anything that you want to improve on, you need to make a priority, and you also need to be consistent with, right? If you start to think about your education, let’s say elementary and high school, that’s a consistency of almost 12 years, if not more, of education. And then you go on to college, that’s another 4 years. And then you also have a master’s or a PhD or maybe another degree of some sort, maybe a law degree, and that’s another 2, 3, 4 years, right?

And so, education is consistent. In the same manner, whether we want health hair, whether we want, to lose weight, whether we want to obtain our PhD, whether we want to grow and become a better person , it takes consistency and practice. Just like anything, it takes consistency and practice. And so that’s something that you should be knowing if you’re gonna go down this route of healing, because healing is the key to unlocking not just your hair growth, but your happiness, your health, your wellbeing, and so much more beyond. And now, in my mid 40s, as I mentioned, approaching fifties and sixties and seventies, I don’t wanna be worried about a diagnosis. I want to be proactive in my health and in many ways be bulletproof to avoiding disease, to avoiding a diagnosis, to avoiding cognitive decline, to avoiding anything else because it is possible.

More and more research has come out where anything from Alzheimer’s can be reduced, can be avoided. Should we take certain precautions? Should we take certain measures? And the thing is, it’s like research is now showing more and more because it’s become more and more available. Now it’s not being hidden anymore. And so once we start learning that once you get back to. The true foundation of health, then you will be able to thrive, and I think that’s the best part of learning and even being sick, because autoimmune disease is a sickness, right? It’s a disease of being sick and then coming out of it. And just like I have just like my clients have, you can also come out of it. And for those of you already in the program, you’re already seeing the progress,

you’re already seeing the hair growth. And you can come out and you already know the steps, and I would say is that knowing the steps also gives you a lot of clarity, takes away the misinformation, takes away any confusion, and allows you the straight path of understanding what your next step is, what you need to do next.

And then also having the full support of me, of my whole team of Alopecia Angel, you have our full support at any point. And so that’s a big takeaway. That’s a big takeaway because again, I’ve been through the gamut of different practitioners, doctors, naturopaths, et cetera, and not everyone can help me. Not everyone could help me, and it wasn’t just one person. It was, again, a multiple situation of multiple puzzle pieces, ingredients that needed to happen.

The other thing I wanted to showcase that I wish I would’ve known, that I wish you know now is that investing in my health and all the things I do to be healthy is cheaper. So much cheaper than being sick, bald, disabled, incapacitated, handicapped either mentally, emotionally, or physically losing my hair, losing my self-esteem, self-worth and confidence, and being emotionally, physically, and mentally handicapped or at my worst being alopecia free is priceless, absolutely priceless. Waking up every morning with tons of energy is priceless. Being my carefree, happy self is priceless. Knowing that I have my health, I truly do have everything just with that alone. It is nothing but up from here.

Getting alopecia in my 30s set the tone for my future self, for my 40s for my 50s, for my 60s for when I’m 90 years old, not to mention one full of health and hair. I wish that I had known that you can’t help people see what they don’t want to see. If someone is so attached to medications and that’s all they want, it doesn’t matter the long list of side effects, they still want it and won’t deter from it. Only life setbacks and worse conditions will make them evaluate other options. Lesson learned is to be open-minded.

Lastly, I wish I would’ve known that this journey of healing is more than just hair. It is transformative on a cellular level, on a mental, emotional, physical, spiritual level and beyond. It’s made me such a better person for it in the long run. It’s made me such a better person for it. It’s inexplainable, it really is. Because of alopecia, I’m a better person on all levels. Because of alopecia, i’m a better mother, I’m a better wife. I’m a better friend. I’m a better community member. I’m a better support system for people going through alopecia. I’m a better human. I think it’s when we go through these tough times and when we overcome them, that the confidence not only builds, but that you feel unstoppable.

See, in my 20s, I always felt unstoppable. When I was 18, I felt unstoppable that the world was my oyster. And really you don’t realize things until you’re older. And now that I am older, I realize now that really you can be unstoppable just with having your full health, just with waking up with no aches and pains, just with being really in tune with your body, and understanding what’s going on. Because I’ve gone through this situation of alopecia, I can easily help my son with anything that he needs. I’m more attuned to his body, to his wants, to, his needs, to his health, to any little thing that could be

happening. And it’s made me more attuned, I don’t know how to explain it, just attuned to anything that could be happening to, my family, to, to our health while we travel, while we don’t travel. And it’s completely changed my life and.

I think understanding really, that you have the power to decide whether or not you want to heal is really in your hands. No one can do this for you. No one can. This is why seeing doctors is almost not to your benefit. Because just like losing weight, who can lose weight for you? You can be guided, you can be coached, you can be, shown the path. But guess who has to do the pushups? Guess who has to run? Guess who has to lift the weights? Guess who has to get up in the morning and do this? That’s you. If you wanna lose weight. And that’s also you if you want to get your hair back, you have to do the work. No doctor can do that for you. This is why those medications don’t work. This is why they have so many side effects and ramifications. It just doesn’t work. It’s not there for you to quote unquote heal you. They’re all band-aids and this is part of the problem. But at the same time, only you can decide what’s best for you.

So I hope this has helped you and I hope this helps you gain more clarity, because at the end of the day, it’s you, it’s your effort, it’s your work. You gotta do this, and even as a mom, there’s only so much that we can do for our children. Any mom would know this, right? You can’t force feed your child if they don’t want to eat. You can’t force them to do things that they don’t want to do. But there are ways to help them and support them in any journey that they have. But if you have a rebellious teenager or child who doesn’t want to do X, Y, Z, then you’re gonna have to wait until they decide.

Many times it’s that, it’s giving them the space to understand like how painful is the situation for you so that you can move into healing. And really that’s the key. How painful is this for you until you decide to heal? Until you decide that this is what you want? Until you decide that you are ready? Until you decide that you are better off with full health? Because Beyond the hair, there could be a second or a third autoimmune disease, there could be more other diagnoses, coming down the pipeline that you have no wherewithal of no, no knowledge of, and yet it could be there or it’s probably already there and you just are hesitant to see this.

So the thing is our health is all connected, and many times people think that maybe this is a vanity issue and it’s not. It’s not a vanity issue. Having healed my alopecia, I saved myself from acquiring a second and a third autoimmune disease from being. Incapacitated on several levels. I’ve saved myself from being a tormented, depressed, anxious individual. I’ve saved myself from living in a dark space. I’ve saved myself from so many things, right? So many things that would’ve been the opposite of where I am today, and this is my goal for everyone is for all of you to heal, for all of you, to thrive, for all of you, to live your best life.

Doesn’t matter where you live, this is possible for you. It’s just having the choice to do this. If you’d like more information, visit our website, alopecia angel.com. You can learn more about the Hair N’ Heal program. You can grab my free downloads, you can schedule a call with me and so much more. I look forward to seeing you next time. Thanks so much. Take care.