Episode 207: Hair Loss Triggers That You May Not Be Aware Of

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel Podcast: Awaken to Hair Growth. I’m your host, Johanna Dahlman. Today we’re gonna be talking about triggers in hair loss. These are generalized aspects, factors that could be triggering your hair loss. However, for many people, it’s never just one thing. In all the 8 years that I’ve been doing this, it’s never just one thing. It’s multiple things that add up to hair loss. It’s multiple things that add up to hair growth.

This is why I say that healing and reversing hair loss alopecia is multiple factors. It’s like a 100 piece puzzle. This is so key to understand because if we’re always looking for the one thing, we’re never gonna find it. It’s a lot of things, and so this is why inside the Hair N’ Heal program that I offer, there’s a 12 page evaluation because it takes that + even conversations outside the evaluation to really get to all the root causes as to why this is happening. It’s never just one thing, and if you think about it too. However old you are, let’s say you’re 30, you have 30 years of a health resume and all these things, all these factors are taken into consideration and it’s needed to.

But here are some triggers that do cause hair loss. And granted, for those of you who don’t know or who are new to me on my website at alopeciaangel.com, you have on our homepage, a free PDF for medications that cause hair loss. You also have the side effects PDF for alopecia meds and what those side effects look like. And you also have hair products that also cause hair loss and who have been in lawsuits for hair loss. And so these are great aspects and resources for you to look into to grab and download today, so that you can also double check to see where you’re at in terms of your medications, in terms of your hair products, and so much more.

So the first thing I wanted to check and to let you know that could be triggering your hair loss is checking your vitamin levels. The thing is that many times we’re not taking supplements or we’re taking supplements that are not addressing our own personal situation. This is actually quite necessary to really look into and to see where we stack against. If you feel sluggish, fatigue at any point, this could be a vitamin deficiency.

It could also be thyroid. It could also be so many other things. And so you always wanna look into this, but checking your vitamin levels, your ferritin levels, iron levels is also very necessary to ensure that we have hair growth. And so vitamin levels are necessary, and even for those of you who you know, eat the rainbow and who think you’re very healthy, or maybe you’re a nutritionist or a personal trainer, as I’ve had many times inside the program, we could still have blind spots.

I talk about blind spots and podcast episode number three. And in other podcast episodes. And so you may wanna look into blind spots. And blind spots are things that hold us back that we don’t know that it’s holding us back. It’s like running uphill with a parachute on. It’s like the harder we try, the less we’re gonna get there.

And the harder it takes and the longer it takes. And so this is why many times people struggle with hair loss for years, months, and decades. And it doesn’t have to be this way. Okay, so the next thing I would say is to quit smoking. And smoking. Sounds obvious, but for many of youth, young people especially, they like to vape.

Vaping also is bad for your hair smoking in general, whether it’s cigars or whether it’s cigarettes, or whether it’s weed or anything else out there. It is gonna hinder your hair growth, the quality of it. And if you look at people who do smoke or who do vape, you will see that their quality of hair is not as healthy, not as shiny, not as beautiful.

And this is a direct reflection of the inside of their body. And so smoking and quitting, smoking is a big thing that you can be doing now to have better hair. Avoiding burnout is also an interesting aspect of, and a huge factor because the thing is sometimes we don’t understand that we’re actually going through a burnout.

A couple podcast episodes prior to this week maybe around three or four weeks ago, I had a podcast episode about the top jobs and work industries, career industries, work environments that have the most stress and cause the most. Hair loss. And so this is also a good episode to review back on because burnout is something that has plagued our society now for the past.

Years for the past 5, 10, 15 years, and it’s not until recently that we’ve actually pointed this finger towards burnout. And burnout can look so different to so many different people. But at the same time, what it is, it’s chronic stress. It’s too many years, too many months, too many decades of having to work work, work in one capacity or another, whether it’s in a corporate job or whether it’s taking care of maybe an elderly parent.

Or kids or both and not taking the time for you. And so avoiding burnout is huge. And the thing is chronic stress can come from so many different avenues and so many different areas. And so this is one area that we need to be very cognizant of. And when you’re in the middle of the hurricane, sometimes we can’t realize, and we don’t know what resources there are or even how to even stop or get out of it.

But this is where we need to pause, take that pause, and then really evaluate and see where we can move forward from here. And many times this is where. Speaking to friends, speaking to family, speaking, and getting a consultation with me can also help because if you’re seeing that it’s affecting your hair then there’s ways that we can go about this, even if you are in the midst of burnout.

So the next thing is to be kind to your hair. And so, be kind to your hair is in essence evaluating your hair care routine, what type of chemicals are you using, what type of products are you using, how many products are you using? Just like in cleaning products, you can have two products that maybe work against each other. You can have two chemicals and then you know your whole head is turning into a science project and maybe these chemicals are not reacting well and doing damage. It’s quite astonishing what you can do when you have all the tools to grow the hair, to grow healthy hair, to have it thick and strong and to be just so amazing. More so now in my mid 40s than it was in my 20s

so looking at your hair curve, looking at your products, looking at the tools that you’re using or the heat styling tools. Do you color your hair? Do you highlight your hair? All these things add wear and tear to your hair, and so it’s really necessary to take a step back and to see how and what it is we can be doing less of or more of to counter produce these results of negative, negative, treatment to our hair.

Because even though we love getting our hair colored, or maybe we love using certain tools or heating or high heat tools, this also can play a part into our hair care regime. And then also how it looks at the end of the day, and then also the wear and tear of it over the years. I can raise my hand and say I’m guilty of that as well because I’ve colored my hair since I was 13, and I love getting my highlights done. But at the same time, it does take a toll on your hair. And so understanding what it is that you need to ensure that it doesn’t happen, and then healing it as you are getting ready for that next color is also part of that plan too.

The next thing is diet. Now, if you’ve been following me, whether it’s today or a few weeks or even months or years, you understand that diet is critical. It’s essential. It’s a building block. It’s the foundation to living a healthy life, to being your bass, but then also to supporting your hair growth, to supporting your lifestyle, to supporting everything that we’re doing inside the Hair N’ Heal program, but even outside. Just having a clean diet is so necessary, and this will look a little different for each person, for every stage of life. But really honing in on those key vitamins and minerals, ensuring that we’re drinking enough water and understanding, how food plays a big part into our every day is huge, especially when it comes to autoimmune, especially when it comes to chronic diseases, especially when it comes to hair loss in general.

Diet is the foundation, and that’s across the board. This is really necessary to understand because I can see where, for example, myself, where I’ve slipped through the cracks over the years, and then how that’s. How that’s given me this platform of going into alopecia areata. So there are many ways where I could have avoided it, but I think that many times when you go through a disease, a diagnosis, or hair loss of any sort, I feel like it’s a lesson. It’s a life lesson that we need to learn, that we need to understand, and it’s a test. The universe is giving you a test. A test to see how well we can heal from it, how well we can overcome it. And then once you do, you’re good to go and then you’re on to the next. Much like life, I feel like it’s somewhat like a video game where you just keep going to the next level, to the next level, to the next level. And

every level is teaching you something and every level is getting you to that next level of being your best.

So looking at hairstyles would be the next tip or trigger that I could say that can cause hair loss: tight braids, cornrows. It could also be buns, like if you wear your hair back in a tight bun, or let’s say as a ballerina or any one of this type of, restriction where it’s being pulled and pulled on a regular basis can cause traction alopecia, which is normally in the front ends. It could also cause hair loss in general all over, not just in the front. And so being weary of this and of the different hairstylist I’ve actually had a different podcast regarding different hairstyles and all the different pros and cons of them, and then which ones to avoid. But yes, definitely braids, tight bonds, slick backed hair, high ponytails all these things can cause hair loss.

The next one, what you might be really unaware about is excessive drinking. And as we go into the holiday season, there is a time to be merry and there is a time to have that drink. I would say that alcohol in general, it does impact hair growth. It impacts hair growth on many levels. It messes with your hormones, it has a lot of sugar, but then also it depletes you from different vitamins which are key for hair growth. And so there is a ripple effect to too much drinking. Just like the smoker, if you’ve seen people who drink too much, you would probably also notice that their hair is probably not the healthiest.

And so, there’s only so much you can do from the outside and really having best healthy hair and hair growth. It all comes from the inside. It doesn’t come necessarily from the outside. This is why in any of my free trainings, if you’ve joined them, you can always find them on my website, alopeciaangel.com, and at the very top, you’ll see free training. You’ll see that in one of the things that I talk about in this free training is that this is why the serums, the lotions, the potions, the minoxidil, all these things don’t work because it’s trying to force a situation from the outside. However, if the inside the foundation isn’t set and isn’t at a level where it needs to guess what? It’s gonna take longer, maybe have zero results or not work for you.

This is the situation that many people go through because you’re not a getting to the root causes and so you’re spinning your wheels trying to try one thing and another thinking from that it’s from the outside in when it’s not. It’s from the inside out. It’s always been that way. So the next thing I would say is to skip heat as much as possible. I know with a lot of times now, especially in winter time, right as we’re going into winter, we like to be indoors, in high heat places. Maybe in saunas. We tend to like being in hot tubs, just being in heat plus on the addition of using a lot of high heat styling tools such as curling irons such as straightening irons or even hair dryers of any sort.

I would say be mindful. There’s actually one hair dryer that I really like that circulates and oscillates through so that you’re never, ever given a big spout of high heat. It oscillates through, through, high, medium, low, high, medium, low. So you’re always getting a very even keeled situation. I don’t know about you, but as a kid, my mom, she

would always burn my scalp with the high heat from the hair dryer while she was drying my hair.

So you wanna be mindful of, how fast we’re going. And just like food, you put it in the oven in high heat and what happens, it burns. So the same thing is happening with our hair, whether you wanna realize it or not. And that’s the thing. We need to be more self- aware of what’s happening and what’s going on, because if not, being in denial or thinking that this isn’t happening to you, it’s gonna take weeks and months for you to start seeing the repercussions of what you’re doing now.

For example, my hair started growing an inch a month over 2 years ago now. And the thing is, this didn’t happen overnight. This happened over the amount of years that I’ve put in into healing my alopecia, into being my best, my healthiest. And it’s like your savings account. It compounds year after year. So the more you do, the better it is, and then the easier it gets. And that’s where you wanna be, right? But guess what? You have to take the stairs up. You can’t take the escalators. There’s no, quick route to get there. You have to have a strong foundation. You have to have the right habits, and then you have to execute and take action. And so that’s what this is all about.

So I hope this has helped you. I would ask that you share with this with a loved one, with a friend, with a family member, so that they can have a wonderful way and start to understanding a little bit more of their blind spots and potentially some of their triggers. Grab those free PDFs on my website and I’ll talk to you next week. Thank you so much. Take care.