Episode 102 - Mother’s Unwavering Faith Led to Hair Growth for Her 12-Year-Old Daughter

In this heartwarming episode, you’ll hear about Michele's journey with alopecia and her triumphant path to regaining her hair. From discussions on faith and resilience to the power of taking ownership of one's healing.

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Transcriptions

In this heartwarming episode, you’ll hear about Michele's journey with alopecia and her triumphant path to regaining her hair. From discussions on faith and resilience to the power of taking ownership of one's healing.

Hi, everybody, welcome back to the Alopecia Angel podcast, I'm your host, Johanna Dahlman. Today I have a tear jerker for you, so get your Kleenex, get your bathroom tissue, because you will probably be feeling the emotion from this next podcast interview. It's the triumph of a mother, of a mother's love and how she went the extra mile for her daughter who had alopecia, who's now on the road to recovery. This podcast was recorded probably like a month ago already. So now is beginning of December, as I'm recording this podcast, we're in November still, and this was recorded a month ago. Probably by the end of this year, for sure, she's fully, fully healed. Her hair is growing in rapidly and it's fabulous.

The struggle sometimes is an emotional rollercoaster and this mom's faith never wavered and the example that she led by in order to empower her daughter in order for her daughter to make the best decisions and also for her daughter to heal has helped her, you know, shine a light on the importance of faith and the importance of consistency and the importance of empowering our children to do the right thing, point blank, empowering your children to do the right thing.

It's such a beautiful thing that it comes full circle. And now this little girl is seeing all the health benefits, all the hair growth, and, you know, is just a changed brand new person. So I'll let you listen to that right now.

Take care.

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Johanna: How's your daughter doing? Michele: Come here. Amazing. Amazing. Johanna: Hi there. How are you, Michele? Michele (Daughter): Good.

Michele: Show her your hair. Show her the sides.

Johanna: Happy that it's growing back?

Michele (Daughter): Yeah.

Johanna: You have such beautiful hair, look at you.

Michele: Doesn’t she?

Johanna: It's growing in so well. Look at that.

Michele: It's amazing. It's growing off. So it started all around the perimeter and it just seems like it's just filling in.

Johanna: It looks like carpet. It's just like seeping in.

Michele: Yeah. It's just seeping it like, and the, the, the spots on the back like some of the, the little spots, they're just like disappearing, like I can't even... This is the, the back, the picture that I showed you, but look how it's like growing so quickly, like, and then it starts, there's like a little patch here and a little patch here, and it's just like, it's like it's closing in.

Johanna: That's fantastic!

Michele: Yeah! Some of the other ones are just closing. It's amazing.

Johanna: Did your faith ever waver during this process, during this time?

Michele: Never. That's what I told my girlfriend. She was like, you were on a mission. I said, it wasn't a matter of if it was a matter of when I knew it, I knew it was going to come, I just had to be patient.

Johanna: You did. You did. And so how is her performance now in school and soccer and all her activities that she does?

Michele: So, I mean, she's a different kid. She's a completely different child and she knows that, which is why it was so easy for her to keep going. Around 4 weeks, Michele came to me and she said: I feel the difference in my body. And I said: What do you mean? And she said: I feel like all the sugar is out of me. And I'm like: Oh, I mean, I noticed a difference in her in 2 weeks, but you know, she still had like the belly pain just from eating food.

I mean, you know, she didn't have any diet at all and she was never hungry. So her body was just so deprived, but I mean, slowly, like she doesn't have the headaches the ups, the downs, the mood swings, she's more even keeled. She always had a lot of energy, like I have a lot of energy, my husband has a lot of energy, so it's just like our genes, but she did not, she didn't realize that she felt bad. You know, until she felt good.

Johanna: Exactly. That's exactly how it is for adults, too. Imagine that. Like, we can't even put or pinpoint exactly what it is because that's our normal. And then all of a sudden we feel great, we're like, whoa, what's this? So she felt it 4 weeks later, but you noticed it 2 weeks in that she was already changing.

Michele: I did. I noticed it. It was already changing, but you're sick.

Johanna: What certain things besides the mood swings that you noticed as a mom, as the parent who's always with her that you noticed right away?

Michele: Well, she was actually hungry. She was never hungry before. She was actually like, I mean, she ate breakfast. I couldn't believe it when we did it, my mother, she had just eaten here and then she went over to my mom's house to play a game with her. My mom lives right out back from me. And when I went over to go get her, she was like: how was your steak, Michele?

And I'm like, what I said, she just ate before she came over here. When does she eat a steak? She's like, she had a steak when she was here. I'm like: there's no way she ate. There's no way she ate a steak. Like after eating, you know, she had like a big Patty over here and I just never seen the kid. I feel like she should have gained like 10 pounds. She's still super, she's very thin. She's very slender, but I mean, her body looks healthy. Like her stomach isn't like sunken in.

Right before we found the bald spot. I felt like something was wrong with her. She had dark circles under her eyes and she didn't look well, but the only thing that was going to get Michele on this track was alopecia, the only thing and that that's what I'm so thankful for and it does make me emotional because nobody wants it, right? And I, when we were praying last week, I said: I'm so thankful for alopecia to get you healthy. And she said: I'm so thankful for finding Alopecia Angel because my sister is the one who really started us all on.

You know, more healthy being a nurse. Like it really took her two years to crack me with believing in homeopathy and, you know, all the natural things that you can do and the vaccines and all that stuff, like it did, it took her two, two years and we laugh about it. Like who knew 10 years later that I was going to be, which I already ate very healthy, she just didn't. And it was like, what are you going to do? Like, I can't shove food in her mouth, and it was just like, you know, it's not a problem until it's a problem.

I'm like: You know, I can't fight, like, I work. I have all these, like, I'm just constantly running and I'm just spent and it was just like, if, if you would have told me before alopecia that I would have had to do what I was doing, I would have told you it was impossible because I mean, I said it to myself, like, I would never be able to do that with my work schedule. Like, it's impossible, you know what I mean? But it didn't matter what I had to do.

And I think it like two weeks when she saw, when she got really worried, I think we had already started the program and she started the she cried that night and she was like: I don't want to go bald. And I said: Michele before this program, I would have been worried, but now that we have Alopecia Angel, it's going to be okay. And she looked at me and I said, do you trust God? And she said, yeah, he said, then trust me, and she just like, we just continue to walk the journey together and just pray and declare healing every single night, declaring that she's happy, she's healthy, she is healed.

And, you know, like I told my husband and my mom, I'm like, no one, no one's in it except us. Like, I have the greatest support system. I have the greatest knowledge, but I see her alopecia, you know, like no one else. My husband comes home from work and her hair is the way you just saw it, like her hair is down.

Johanna: You got me crying, you got me crying. Oh, Michele, your tears are infectious.

Michele: Yeah, I just, you know, so it's just like, and then my mom took a shower with her down the shore and then she saw all her baldness and then, cause at first you got offended when I said that I'm like, mom, it's not to offend you. Like, but you, you are, you're some great support system and everybody's in it with me, but you're not seeing what I see every day. And then when she took a shower with her down the shore, she got very upset. And I'm like, that's what I was talking about. When you're seeing Michele and you're seeing alopecia and you're, you know, it's just, it hits different.

I just got back from San Diego for my one of my best friend's 50th birthdays. And I'm like: let me just check your hair: I pull it back and I see this growth and I'm like, I go to my phone and I just wanted to make sure, because I've been waiting for this. I always take a picture of whatever I see. I put my phone down, Michele picks it up and then she looks at it and she puts it down and even when the spots are bigger, because we're on the program, she's feeling good, she's doing what she's supposed to be do, she's not concerned either. She puts the phone down, that's it.

So this time she picks up the phone and I was just standing there and she's like, what? And I'm like: nothing. And she picks up the phone and she looks at it. And then she turns to my husband and she said, she's going to cry now. And I just started hysterical crying and I FaceTime my sister and I'm like, hold on a second and I show her and she's like, is that her? We're screaming, same thing with my mom, we're screaming. And then it's just coming, it's just coming, it's unbelievable.

Like I know I can do anything I want to do. I, I just needed to get a system. It just so happened that the day that I took her for the followup for the derm, I I said to her, because the doctor came in, said the same thing that, you know, that he told, they tell everybody, steroid injections, oral steroids. Oh, this medication showed side effects in a 51 year old, but there's no documentation on kids. I'm like what?

Johanna: Of course not, because it's illegal to test on children just like it is to test on pregnant ladies.

Michele: Exactly. So I said, can I just have a, can I just have a word with my daughter for a minute? Can you just step out for a minute? He said, sure. I said: Michele, I brought you here, I paid $80 copay just to bring you here so that you can hear what every single doctor is going to tell you. They want to give you drugs that are going to hurt your immune system when you have an autoimmune condition. This drug is going to make you sicker, I said, so this is what every doctor's going to tell you because she had to want to do your program, not me.

And we already knew we talked about your program already, and I said, I brought you here so that you can know what your choices were and you can make the decision. And she's like: I want to do the program.

Johanna: It goes by fast, doesn't it?

Michele: Yeah, every time I look at her hair, it's like: Oh my God. And people at work would be like: how's Michele? Good. Any hair yet? Nope, not yet, but it's coming, it's coming. And they laugh, you know

Johanna: That's exactly the energy and the belief that everyone should have because it is possible and, you know, your story with Michele is a, just another testament to this because it is possible and you said it best better than me, probably, in terms of it's not about if, it's when.

Michele: I'm like: Michele, we are on the path to recovery. We're going to heal. Now your body's primed and I'm ready. And then look at that 3 weeks later. But my husband was like: you were right, good job babe. I'm like, I knew it. I knew it. Don't ever mess with a mother's intuition.

Johanna: Damn straight. Damn straight. And you know, I would go so far as to say a woman's intuition because I mean us women we really do know when something's off, whether someone's lying to us whether someone is trying to like scam us whether something's like wrong whether it's one thing or another like a woman's intuition is so like... just like a radar. We have it in us more, so I would say than men.

So now she's growing hair like a carpet and it's incredible. She feels amazing, she looks just so like glowing and healthy and I love to hear about her performance now, not just in soccer, but then in all her other activities. I mean, you said earlier in the beginning, like, she's a totally different kid.

Michele: Yeah.

Johanna: So, you know, she was hesitant at first with the program, but then she embraced it. And now that she's a different kid, what is it that you have seen her, like, become, blossom into? You know, because she's at right at that stage, isn't she? She's like 11-12 years old where she's like about to hit puberty or maybe just hit it, it's a different special time of your life.

Michele: She's going to be 13 December.

Johanna: Okay. There you go.

Michele: Yeah, so I feel like the best thing I did with Michele a week and a half into the program, we were at my son's baseball game and they were selling salt pretzels and she was like: 'Mom, I want a soft pretzel mom, I want a soft pretzel' And I'm like Michele you know you can't have a soft pretzel, like stop asking. 'But mom I want one' And I'm

like: No you can't have it and I said, you listen to me right now. I am not in control of your healing, you are in control of your healing.

So if you want that soft pretzel, then you go over there and you get it and you undo everything that you've been working on. You are the one who has to say no to the soft pretzel and everything else. Not me, you're in control, not me. So do whatever you want. And I felt like that was given her the power and she never asked again, she never thought about cheating, she never like, she would make jokes. It's like when we went on the boardwalk, she was like: 'I want Auntie Anne's, I want Curly's fries' like that, but just like that.

There was never even a thought to cheat. And I felt like when I look back and I reflect on that moment, it was really profound because I feel like that day I gave her the power to make her own choice. And for her, she's, she's mature in certain ways. She's, she's silly and you know, but I mean. Some people measure that as maturity of whether they bring in goofy or not. I'm like, well, then my husband's immature and this whole family's immature, but cause everybody likes to have a lot of fun, but I think she really got it and. She was always focused and we had a talk a couple of weeks ago about faith. And I said to her: God has called on you at a very early age to find your faith, and sometimes this doesn't happen to people until they're older and it's harder for them to find their faith at an older age, but you're special.

It happened to me when I was a young child, I went through a lot, my dad was a drug addict and just a lot of different things I needed to find my faith at a very young age and God is doing it for you so that he's equipping you, he's giving you all the tools that you need to be able to face any obstacle that comes your way during your life. He is making you stronger for your adulthood and stronger for everything that comes your way so that you can fight everything with your faith. Because when God is with you, no one can be against you. When you walk with God, no one could be against you.

I think that conversation started with... She had her hair down and she's starting to wear her hair down. She changed schools, she's now in school with my sister's daughter who she grew up like a sister with. They were on the birthing table together, the two of them. But in her school, like things were starting to change and a lot of her friends left. So she didn't care what she looked like, but now she's like wanting to wear her hair down and she had her pictures, so she wanted me to straighten her hair.

And she said to me: Sometimes when I move, you can see my bald spot. And I said: Listen, you need to know who you are and who you belong to. And I said: Do you know what that means? And she's like: Be who I am and not care what people think? And I said: Well, kind of, I said, but when you belong to the Lord, when you are the child of the God, most high, you are the child of the God who sits on the throne.

I said, you are. special. And when you are his child, and he's with you, no one can be against you. So you own your alopecia. And if someone says something about your bald spot, you say: I have alopecia, so what? Or whatever. Like, if someone says anything, you own who you are, you have alopecia, it doesn't define you, it's not who you are.

You're not alopecia, you're healing yourself. But if someone says something about your bald spot, don't ever feel bad about yourself because you know who you are. You're the child of the God most high and you walk in faith.

And no one can hurt you, Michele, when you know who you are and that you belong to the Lord. And, you know, and that's when I started talking to her about her faith. And I said: you're going to be stronger for it, I said. Alopecia is the best thing that ever happened to us, even though, you know, it was hard. And she knows it, she knows it, like it's crazy. She says that she is thankful, you know, like she is thankful that my sister found you, you know what I mean? And I said: You should feel good, you're amazing. What you're doing is amazing.

Johanna: When we're given a challenge and we overcome it, it does empower us. It does, you know, build our self esteem or self confidence. It does build resiliency, which, you know, as a 13 year old, almost 13, she's going to need to be resilient for the rest of her life, whether in the job search, whether in schools, there's always going to be challenges, this is not the first one, but this is a great, great, great starting point so that at least in one area of her life, in her health, she won't have to worry about any ever again.

Michele: That's what I tell people when they're like: Oh, you know, she used a steroid cream, her hair grew back. Oh, what's her name, has alopecia, her hair grew back. And I said, you know what the difference is? Michele's not going to lose her hair ever again. Michele is going to be healed from the inside, they're just band aids.

Johanna: So the, the program has infiltrated into the family and the family's healthier due to it.

Michele: Yes, yes.

Johanna: That's great to hear. Is there anything that you'd like to share? Any other like comments, feedback, anything else that you'd like to share?

Michele: I mean, I feel like the coaching calls were great. I know that, you know, it's only 8 weeks, I wanted a coaching call like twice a week. Well, I mean, it was just like so annoying because I literally could not, every time I was like: All right, I'm going to, I'm going to be okay. And then I just, I couldn't hold it together. It was just so emotional, like the whole journey. The whole journey was so I can't believe that tomorrow is 6 months and I can't say enough about you and your heart and how just genuine and caring you are for so many people.

Again, it just felt like you are a godsend and I know so many other people have to feel that way because it feels like you're for me only like I'm the only person in this program. It's a one on one, you know, and that's how it felt. It was great with the emails and like, you know, you'd read back and just being able to just keep going into the program. And even meeting a friend through the coaching call was humongous.

I mean, when that first coaching call when I sat down and Lindsay and her daughter were in that box. I just, again, of course, got emotional. I was like: Oh my God, look, Michele, just like you. And then Lindsay reached out to me through the chat and gave me her phone number. And I was like, it just felt like every day God was giving me a sign. Even those days that I was like, I remember on Memorial day, I woke up and we were down the shore and I had things together, but I had to go to work 3 to 11. And I just, that morning was just overwhelmed with getting home, the wash, getting things together, going to work and getting home at midnight.

And I was just like, and my sister's like... What can I do? And I was like, nothing, nothing. I just got to get it together. And my husband's like, you know, they don't understand. He's like: why are you getting yourself all worked up? I'm like: I don't want to get myself worked up. Do you think I want to feel this way? I don't, I don't want to feel this way. I want to be calm and I want to feel God's peace. I just have to get in my space again and pray. And I know God's going to cover me. I just, I have to feel my emotions and let them out.

It's hard. It's frustrating and I just need to let it out, I need a release sometimes. But all my daughter sees is strength and faith. That's all I show her, and that's what she's walking in. And you know, it was just, God, I just don't know. This program was just the greatest thing. And even just like you in front of me right now, like it's just, my heart is just so full of love and admiration for you sharing your story and helping so many people.

I mean, it's horrible for yourself, and then, you know, as a mother, like to watch your child, you want to take her pain away, like: God, make me bald, make me go through it, you know? And it's just, you feel everything they feel 100 times more. I love this part of it. Right? That you go through it and she's got to trust and she's got to have faith and she does, and now she gets to see the results. Like her saint, she's making her confirmation this year and she picked St. Grace because her best friend is Grace, so she's like, I picked St. Grace. And here's St. Grace is the saint of of faith and Michele wrote all about her alopecia and how she had to find her faith and how she was like St. Grace by never letting anyone sway what she believed in, never let them change her.

And she wrote, the struggle was real when I had to stop eating sugar and candy and all this stuff. I'm like, but Michele, right now you can finish it, you can write about how your faith carried you, and now you're seeing results and all this good stuff.

Johanna: You guys are so triumphant, both of you. And I'm so proud of both of you because, you know, in many ways, it is a team effort. You know, Michele wouldn't have gotten to nearly to where she is today if it hadn't been for the fighter of her mom, you know what I mean? And so it takes one to know one. And so it's just like, she can emulate you because you've done more than your job. You're a huge example to her, of course, and to the rest of the family. But Also to everyone else who meets you and comes across you.

This is huge because you know that strength of and the power of within of, you know, even with a young person such as Michele at 12 years old and being able to conquer this and being able to achieve it and overcome it. Yes, with a little help, yes, with support, but she's still able to do it because she's still doing all the work. And this is a huge like pat on the back, but I mean, talk about gold stars, this is humongous.

If this were the Olympics, you know, she would have the gold right away and this is important because you take these skills, these learning lessons with you for the rest of your life. But then also when another obstacle comes and you can also troubleshoot it and problem solve it in in a more meaningful way in less time and understand that let's say doctors and medications is not always going to be the safe solution or that, you know, maybe something down the line, you know, you start looking at things differently.

Alopecia has changed me significantly for the better and I was actually just talking to to somebody yesterday about this too, and he's actually 50 years old, he did my program. He had alopecia areata, lost like a third of his hair. As a man, you know, having business calls and sales and, you know, having to be in public, having to wear makeup on his head. As you know, guys can't really hide that because they have short hair, right? You have to look professional in a suit.

And so he's telling me that this was the most difficult aspect of his time because he's 50 years old. He's a dad, a grandfather, a husband, you know, he's got his extracurricular activities like boating and he didn't even want to go in the water for 2 years because of this. He did the program and in 6 months, all those, he had like 19 spots, all the 19 spots went away in 6 months. And so he healed quickly, but he wishes that this had happened to him earlier in life. Like this happened to him when he was like 20 or 15 so that he would have had like the learning lessons from then on instead of having to deal with it now as an adult.

But I mean, it's a big accomplishment for you and of course, for, for little Michele. She took ownership. And that's, that's exactly what you have to do, you have to take ownership. You can't just sit and wait for the healing to come because it's not going to come. You got to do something about it, you chose to do something about it, she chose to do something about it. She followed the program, you follow the program and this is where you see the triumph. This is where you see that the champion, because this is exactly what both of you are. You guys are champions.

Michele: Thank you.

Johanna: I'm so blessed to see your journey. I'm so blessed to be a part of your journey, and I'm so happy that I've had this opportunity to get to know you and Michele on a more intimate level and to see, you know, the progress. But, you know, in 6 months, you've come so far and It's nothing but up. She'll be starting 2024 more than likely with a full head of hair.

Michele: I mean, I'm telling you, I just can't. I'm like, I just can't believe it every time. And today she was like, normally I'm like, because we have to put some oil on today.

We're gonna do that, she doesn't really love the oil, but she's like: let's look at the hair, and she, she must've knew it already. And her eyebrows, did you see the, the picture in the email with the eyebrows, like that was the only thing that she was upset about was losing hair for eyebrows and I'm like: I looked at her, I'm like: Oh my God, Michele, you have eyebrows, like that is like pretty significant with those eyebrows.

She really went from alopecia areata to alopecia universalis very, very quickly. She had no hair on her arms, no hair on her legs. She would have been bald in no time. And I was literally like: Please let this start. Like, please let this seize right before.

Cause it was starting to really come. There was like just a tiny piece of hair on this side before it opened up, you know, before we were like. It was going to be harder to cover and up here. I mean, it was just, I can't believe that the hair was falling out the way it was without seeing clumps of it. I don't know how those spots got so big and we weren't seeing clumps of hair.

Johanna: More than likely, it's in the drain, it's in the shower drain. For me, it was in the shower drain. I was living in an apartment at the time and I had to get it snaked, like snaked and cleaned out like twice, twice within like 3 months because that's a drastic amount of hair that I lost. So I would say look into your drains because it might be there.

Michele: Yeah, yeah.

Johanna: It just comes out in the shower and you don't even realize it. You know, you're shampooing, you're like looking somewhere else, you're not looking down on the floor, you know?

Michele: Yeah, yeah.

Johanna: Does Michele have anything that she'd like to say? Is there anything that she'd like to share?

Michele: Thank you.

Johanna: No. Thank you. Thank you, lovely. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be in your journey, to be a part of your story because now I'm getting emotional because when you're a grandma, you'll be thinking of me at some point, you know?

Michele: Oh, we'll always be thinking of you. We'll always be thinking of you. Even when you're not in front of us, you are always going to be in our hearts, always.

Johanna: Thank you, likewise. Likewise, I love being able to help people and you know, this is definitely my, my calling and I love this, you know, seeing the happy endings. I love it. Absolutely love it.

Michele: We love it too. Thank you. Thank you for all the people that you help and thank you for helping us.

Johanna: Oh, my pleasure, my pleasure. You guys have a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas, happy Thanksgiving. God bless you both and your whole family because it's a wonderful time to be grateful. All right, Johanna, we're really gonna go into the end.

You're, you're contagious. This is so contagious, all this is all the crying and happy tears. Thank you, Michele.

Michele:That's what I told my husband, that's why I'm a good nurse. Because I'm compassionate and empathetic, and this is why you are who you are. This is, I said, listen, I know I get emotional, but wouldn't you rather be this way than any other way?

Johanna: 100%, 100%, I wear my emotions on my sleeve, and I don't, yeah, I don't regret that at all. What would you say to anyone on the fence of doing the program?

Michele: Oh my god. Anyone on the fence. If you want to live a happy, healthy life and have your hair, do the program, just do it. It's like, just do it. I didn't have the money. I didn't have the time. Guess what? When you want to heal and you want to be healthy and you want your hair, you will do anything and God always provides and you'll make it work, but you'll never be sorry that you did it.

Johanna: Amen, sister. Amen. Thank you so much. You guys, I wish you the best. Please keep in touch, I want to see the final results. I want to see her full hair just going rockstar.

Michele: Don't you worry, don't you worry.

Johanna: Lots of love to you both.

Michele: Thank you.

Michele (Daughter): Thank you.

Johanna: Take care. Bye.