Episode 117 - 3 Things I Do to Keep my Hair After More Than 9 Years Alopecia Free

 Hi everybody, welcome back to the Alopecia Angel Podcast I am your host, Johanna Dahlman and today we are going to be discussing many things that I do and I have done and I keep doing in order to keep my hair, upgrade my health and be the best I can be. But before I get into that, I just wanted to give a shout out to all my clients who were on the coaching call yesterday because all of them have told me that they're seeing hair growth and tons of progress and it's below and much before the 8th week mark. And so I'm really, really excited and happy for them.

So I wanted to give them a quick shout out because healing and reversing hair loss is definitely possible and it's all in your hands. You just need to join, take action and follow the steps, implement and see the hair growth because I'm not a unicorn and all my other clients are not unicorns either. We're all just normal humans who you see a plan, you see it tailored to you, you take it, you move forward and you see the hair growth, you see the progress. You see the results. Just like anything, right? You follow the manual and the manual has all the information. That's what this is all about. And that's the Hair N' Heal program. If you want to learn more, you can go to my website alopeciaangel.com and you will see all the information there including all the success stories.

So today's podcast is about what I've been doing, all the things, some of all the things, not everything, but some of all the things that I've been doing since being alopecia free in order to keep my hair, in order to keep my health, in order to progress and thrive and be vibrant and brilliant in many ways, but in terms of all aspects of health and all aspects of my life. And I'll tell you that this journey has given me a lot of trial and error, but it's also allowed me to open my eyes and expand my horizons into thoughts and in habits and even in ways of thinking that I never thought that I would actually be turning into or being this way.

I guess when you have a diagnosis of some sort and in this case, it was alopecia areata more than 9 years ago, then you start to think: Okay, well, what can I do to reverse and get my hair back? And then once you overcome that challenge. What's that next step? Okay, how do I keep my hair? How do I keep it for the rest of my life? How do I keep it growing? How do I get it long down to my waist? How do I do this? How do I do that? Because you can grow it down to your waist at any age, you know, age is not a factor.

Many times, it's very important. If you have hair loss, something's off in your body, and we need to get it back in balance, and this is where the Hair N' Heal program comes in to save you. But what I've done in particular, so that a) I don't get those vicious cycles.

b) I never have to have to worry or have any concerns or fear hair loss ever again, and I'm telling you, that's after COVID, and I had COVID multiple times, that's after pregnancy, that's after, you know, moving around and having stressful times because life is going to happen, right?

So it's not about life happening to us. It's about life happening period. And then what we do in order to stab that off, right? And the thing is, it's just like in a sport, right? With basketball, let's say you have your offense and you have your defense, you have the good times, right? When you're there scoring, but then you also have possible bad times and that's life giving you a hurricane and that's life giving you a forest fire and that's life giving you, you know, so many situations that can happen, right? But that's your defense.

So how good is your defense in terms of keeping your hair, in terms of, you know, thriving, in terms of being your best? How good is your defense? Because many of us are on the offense. We like to receive, right? We like to be and receive and sure. We want to grow our hair and we want to do this and want to do that. But at the same time the table's going to turn and we're going to have to be on the defense when life happens, right? Whether we can plan it out or whether it just comes out of nowhere, all of a sudden.

And so these are just a handful of things that I wanted to share that I've been doing in order to not have the vicious cycles, cause I can, you know, swear that I've never had a vicious cycle since I've never had areata since healing it. I've never had to deal with that, I've never had to deal with hair loss ever again. That's the power to the knowledge, that's the power to the implementation, that's the power of understanding and knowing your body, but that's also the power of knowing that my framework works. It's proven and it not just works for me, but it works for everybody. So let's get into it.

What's the first thing that I've been doing throughout this whole time, throughout these 9 years, throughout this time of being alopecia free, of waking up every morning and having gorgeous, amazing hair. It's taking radical responsibility, that's the first thing I've done. In reality, that in of itself started when I was diagnosed. Because many times when we're diagnosed, we're like: Why is this happening to me? Why is this going on? Where did this come from? Oh, it came from my mom.

And then all of a sudden, you know, you want to point fingers to your mom or to your dad or to your aunt or your uncle, your grandmother, whoever else may or may not have an autoimmune disease, or may or may not have hair loss, or may or may not have the female pattern baldness, or may or may not have this, or may or may not have that. You got to put that all aside. Your family members do not play a part in this situation. This is about you, this is about your hair loss and this is about your hair growth.

So, taking the stance on the other side of like: Okay, this is happening, and it's not happening to me, but it's happening for me. This is a nudge from the universe to get better, to heal, and to look underneath the hood of what's going on so that I can get my hair back, get my happiness back, get my life back. And it was a wake up call in my stance. It was a wake up call for me. And it's probably a wake up call for all of you too, right?

I actually just took a poll on my Instagram and many people were telling me that hair loss to them means that they feel ugly, that they feel ashamed, that they feel like, you know, something's wrong, that they're imbalanced, that they can't figure this out, that they have so many other things going on. Well, it is, it's all of that and much more but we can take control of it.

So what is taking radical responsibility? Taking responsibility is taking responsibility for you, for your situation and doing something about it. But understand that not all routes, not all the routes will lead you to success, right? And that's just in anything, right? If you want to, you know, do something, potentially it's not going to lead you to that. If you're studying the violin, well that's not going to necessarily help you with the guitar. It may or may not, but more than likely it won't because you're studying the violin, right? So it's something completely different. Even though it may be a musical instrument, but it's something completely different.

What I really mean about that is that, you know, the medications we already know, they don't work. We already know the steroid injections don't work, we already know the specialty shampoos and serums don't work. So you have to go with a tailored plan, you have to go with something that's specific to you, because your situation, even though you, me, her, him, etc, all have hair loss or all had hair loss, it was all different. It was all different, different reasons why, different types of hair loss potentially, it's all different.

So taking radical responsibility, and that goes with anything, you know, whether you got into a car accident, whether you got a second or a third diagnosis where you got a second or a third autoimmune disease, whether you got fired from your job or laid off, like taking radical responsibility. Okay, this happened, how could I learn from this? And that's the first question that we should be having, right? How can I learn from this? What is this teaching me? Those are the 2 questions that led me to my healing. What is this teaching me? How can I heal this? How can I overcome this? And again, having those questions there hovering over my head all the time allowed me to really be mindful of what was going on and to also clear my direction towards those next steps.

So take responsibility for anything that's going on with you today, whether you're unhappy in your marriage, finances health, hair loss. You name it, taking responsibility for it, owning up to it, and then saying, okay, how can, what can I learn from this? What are my next action steps? Cause once we shift that perspective of like, okay, this is on me, what can I do about it? And how can I proceed in a better way. This is where we lead to success. Instead of focusing on the failure, instead of focusing on like: Oh no, it's their fault, they ran into me. Oh no, it's their fault, I have that gene and because of that, you know, I have alopecia or what have you.

Well, let's just take responsibility. We're all adults, and so that's really our only option is to take responsibility in order for us to see the results, to see the happiness, to thrive, to see the hair growth and so much more. It really is. So radical responsibility is the first thing I, I always do. And I tend to do, you know, it's, we're not playing the blame game. I've stopped that, and I've stopped that probably sometime in my 20s. I've stopped that altogether. It's all about you and what's going on and how you can do better.

And so just a side note to that, sometimes we make and create meanings and stories out of what has happened. So for example, if you were fired from your job, you're like: Oh, it's because my boss hates me. Oh, it's because of this. Oh, it's because of that. And it's because, you know, Shelly said this to my boss and because of that, now I'm fired. Maybe all of that did happen, maybe all of that didn't happen, but it's the meaning against it. that we give it, which allows us to stay in a stuck mode, which allows us to stay stuck in the mud, which allows us to stay in the victim mentality.

And this is what you need to get out of because once you say: Okay, I was fired. This is an opportunity to get a better job, a better paying job, maybe a better, more exciting job that challenges me, etc. etc. You see how there's a shift there versus, you know, staying in the stuck mode of: Okay, I was fired and it's because of this and this and that, and just kind of ruminating on all the details versus just saying, okay, no worries, I'll find a new job and you know, I'll do this and I'll do that. And you know, it'll get better. So this is where, as a side note, we can stop with the stories, switch the perspective, and move forward.

Another thing that I do too in every area of life is give up the excuses, the expectations, and control. And this is a big one, this is a really big one, and I kind of bundled it together, because they all lean on each other just a little bit. When we give up the excuses, we give up the excuses of like: Oh, I'm too tired, I'm not going to go work out. You know, we give up the excuses, but at the same time, you know, I want to lose 10 pounds, so I need to go work out, or I need to go do something, or I need to eat healthy food. And, but I'm eating, you know, cakes and cookies behind the scenes.

So it's just like, which is it? Do you really want to lose those 10 pounds? Or do you want to, you know, keep your excuses? And so we have to put the excuses away for whatever reason in order to get the results we want. You want hair growth? Well, put away all your excuses and move forward. Take action, it's right there for you. Take action. You want your hair growth? Take action. Put away all the excuses because I know, because i've been there, that when there is a true desire to heal, nothing will stand in your way. Nothing will stand in your way.

I know this, this is innate in all of us. Just like it's innate for all of us to breathe without thinking. It's innate. When we truly want something, we'll do anything in our power to make it happen. So for those of you who haven't done anything about your hair loss, it's because you have those excuses and you're holding onto them. Once you let go of the excuses, then you can move forward into action, which will then allow you to move forward into hair growth. That's really the simple equation to that.

In regards to expectations, this is a big one too, especially for women, because many of you have expectations and I I'll be honest, in many times of my life, I've also had many expectations, but what do expectations do to us? They make us suffer, they give us depression, anxiety, they give us maybe maybe some sort of angst and frustration, absolute frustration, but these are all negative feelings. Why do we want to stay around into this negative feeling mode? Because the thing is, it's like when we have these expectations, like: Oh, I need to get married by the time I'm 30, I need to have my 2.5 kids by the time I'm 35, I need to do this, I need to graduate by this age, I need to do this by that age.

Like we're putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. Tons of pressure on ourselves, and we all do this on a daily basis, whether it's in our career, in our lives, with our hair, with our health, with our weight, with anything else that's going on in our life. We are so good at putting on so much pressure. And I'm telling you, I'm one of them too. I put a lot of pressure on myself. And that's one thing too, right? It's the expectations, not maybe from others, but also on your own, on yourself, those expectations. And that's hard, right?

That's hard because at the end of the day, you're going to be disappointed when you don't meet those expectations you yourself, or when others don't meet them as well. And the thing is you have to give some leeway, right? You have to give some leeway for life to unveil for life to happen and for serendipity to also take place. I'm not saying not take action and I'm not saying not have, you know, keep performing metrics as we would like to say in the corporate world, but at the same time, have some grace and have some leeway and understand that you can control only so much.

Sometimes things happen where it's out of your control. You know, if you slept through your alarm, even though you checked it 3 times, even though you have three different alarms to wake you up and you slept through all three of them, well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? I mean, seriously, I mean, you slept through them, but at the same time, potentially you're still not late for whatever appointment you have to get to or whatever situation you need to put your attention to. So the thing is, is like the expectations hold you back. The excuses hold you back and the control also holds you back. And this is another thing that I've seen sometimes in clients that are doing the Hair N' Heal program. They're like: Yeah, I'm going to start growing my hair by week 2 and that's going to be me.

And this actually happened recently with a client and she's all fired up. She's like: Yes, that's going to happen, I'm going to be the week 2 person who sees the hair growth. Well, she didn't see the hair growth in week 2, she saw it in week 5, but she still saw it in less than 8 weeks, and, you know, it's not even a month and a half, and she's seeing hair growth, and she's seeing changes, and so, for the first couple calls, you know, I see her, and she's frowning, and she's disappointed, and she's frustrated. She's like: I'm doing everything and it's not working, and I'm like, it's only been 2 weeks, you got to give yourself some time. And sometimes for others, it works faster and for others, it

doesn't. And it just all depends. We're all so different and on top of it your biology, your body is the one who decides not you and not me, it's your body.

This is truly related to the hair growth. You know, you can be doing it all and you know, it's still going to come, but it's not going to come on your timeline. Just like the boyfriend, just like the marriage, just like the baby, just like anything else. You can have it, but potentially it's not going to come on your timeline. You know what I mean? And so you got to think about that because not everything we want, we're going to get same day. You're not going to have the baby the same day. You're not going to get the marriage the same day or the boyfriend, the promotion or even the hair growth the same day, it doesn't happen that way.

So when you let go of the control and you trust the process, and that's the key word right here: Trust the process. When you go into something. Whether it's the new job, you know, the new marriage, whether it's the new relationship, the new house, the new program for your hair growth, you have to trust the process. Yes, you got to follow the steps. Yes, you got to do your best, right? With the new job, you got to do your best with the new marriage, with the hair growth, with everything, you got to do your best. and do as much as you can, but you also got to trust the process. We can't be controlling every little thing.

It's kind of like the plants and the flowers. They have a cycle, right? It doesn't matter how much you water it. It doesn't matter how much you feed it and fertilize it. Flowers sometimes grow once a year, like the peonies. Right now, daffodils are out and the daffodils come out and then guess what? Then they die and then new flowers come out and they come out only once a year.

So think of it that way. You got to let go of the control, and this goes a lot to the type A's, and I'm telling you, cause I'm one of them. You got to let go of the control and trust the process. And in the beginning of my own healing journey, this was really hard for me, really hard because I struggled for 4 years. In the beginning, this was absolutely difficult, but then, you know, lo and behold, as things progress and as things progress, progress, progress in terms of me taking action, because I always thought, you know, it's a lack of action. And many times it is, I'll tell you, but in my case, it was also the blind spots, it was also, you know, obstacles. It was a lot of things. It's not just ever one thing, it's many things.

So when I released the control, I trusted the process. Boom, then all this hair started coming out. Many times you got to have the release and in yoga, they say you have to surrender, and when you surrender the pain, the frustration, the disappointments, it all kind of falls off, it all goes away. And there's a cartoon that I've seen where it's, a hand holding a rope and it's holding so tight because it's controlling and trying to control the rope. But then when you let go, there's no more pain. When you let go, there's no more redness or soreness from holding on.

And so when you let go, you trust the process, then things happen as they should, right? And thank God I was never one of those females to say: Oh, I need to get married by the time I'm 29 and a half, or by the time I'm 30, I never gave myself those limits and thank God I didn't, because I got to tell you in my 20s, I was not ready to get married not at all, but no judgment to any of you who are married or who've been married since you're 20, but me personally, I was never that type to want to be, you know, married so young. In any case, letting go of the control is key.

Expectations. We got to let go of some of the expectations. Yes, we can expect to lose weight if we're having a good diet and we're exercising and we're doing what our personal trainer says. Absolutely, we can expect it. Is it going to happen in a week? Is it going to happen in 2 weeks? Is it going to happen in 3 weeks? Maybe not, maybe just the opposite, maybe you gain weight. And I tell you also from experience, because when I started losing weight or postpartum, I had 50 pounds to shed 50 and when I started losing weight, I got a personal trainer, I had a good diet, I was exercising 3-4 times a week and in the first couple of weeks, I actually gained weight because your body's actually making muscle.

So that's actually very typical for you to gain weight, gain the muscle before you start losing it before the fat actually starts whittling you down showing that on the scale, showing that you've actually lost weight because muscle mass weighs more than fat, right? And so these are things that you need to consider and take into consideration when you're going through any change, right? The expectation of: I want to lose five pounds next week. Well, yes and no, you can do that by starving yourself, but then you could also trigger hair loss and hormone disruption and so many other things, right? But if you want to do it the healthy way for long term results, well, you may gain weight in the beginning, then lose the weight.

So when we let go of those expectations, then I know in the back of my head, I'll be skinny again. Don't you worry, Johanna, it's all going to happen, but it's not going to happen in a month, it's not going to happen in 2 weeks. It's not going to happen in 3 weeks. Does that make sense? So we have to let go of that expectation. We need to let go of the control, trust the process and for sure, let go of all the excuses, right? Because if I want a goal, if I have a goal and I'll tell you, I'm super, super goal oriented.

So for any of you who are ambitious and super goal oriented, like I'm your person, I'm super ambitious, super goal oriented, and that doesn't mean because I let go of the excuses, because I let go of expectations and control that I'm going to. Not meet my goals, just the opposite. I've met every goal that I've put in front of me. Now, granted the timelines I'll tell you have been a little off, right? You know, me thinking that I was going to grow my hair in one year didn't happen. It was 4 years. Me thinking I was going to get married by a certain time or meet the love of my life by a certain age didn't happen. It happened a little after and that's okay because the right one came.

You know, the same thing with having babies. I never thought that I would have a baby at 40 years old and yet I did. And I'm so happy I did, and I'm so happy it worked out

naturally, mind you naturally and on the first try. This is also the beauty of letting go, of putting the best intention forward and almost manifesting it in many ways. But also letting go of the excuses and being my best, doing my best and taking action, because once we let go of the excuses, we take action. So those are two bundled up things that I do on a consistent basis to get to where I want to get to. Consistency is key. And that leads me to my next bundled item that I wanted to share with you.

I'm consistently upgrading myself. Consistently upgrading my knowledge, my work ethic, my strategy in terms of technology, in terms of next steps. And in terms of that too, I look at my health as an investment. I've never been the type to want the fancy shoes or the fancy purses or the fancy cars, that's never really been me. Never. And I got to tell you, I've always put my money into other things, into other things that I would get a huge ROI. For example, I love to travel and I love experiences. So I put my money when I was way younger and now too, into that.

But right now, a lot of my resources goes to my health as well, because when you have the mindset of investing in your health, of investing in you, whether it's self development, whether it's to play the guitar, whether it's to do this, to hike Kilimanjaro or whatever it is that you want to do. These will make you better, these will create a more well rounded person. And then when you actually invest in your health, then you reap the rewards. And as you get older, because maybe for some of you right now, you're in your 20s and your 30s you're not even thinking about that.

But I will say, if you start now and you start investing in your health, then later on when you're 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, you won't have to worry about a diagnosis, you won't have to worry about disease, you won't have to worry about so many other things that just pop up out of nowhere, just because we're older. And I'll tell you, you know, why people as they get older, have more and more diseases and cancers and heart disease and cardiovascular and this and that and heart issues and so much, and so many other like health concerns it's because we haven't invested in our health at all. Since day one, does this make sense? And it's just like, everything is cumulative.

So just like you invest in your retirement fund and it compounds, well, if you don't invest in your health, it's also going to compound. And there's only so much lack of maintenance that your body can take, just like a house. You buy a house and all of a sudden you do zero maintenance and you've lived in it for 40 years. Well, what's going to happen? It's probably dilapidated. There's probably, you know, issues in the flooring, maybe in the plumbing, maybe in the roof, maybe, you know, in the walls, maybe electricity, you're going to have all these problems, right?

So what are you expecting from your own health, from your own body if you're not investing in it? If you're not maintaining it, if you're not doing the best you can do, Does that make sense? And so I'm constantly looking at ways to upgrade my health and constantly looking at, you know, how do I move the needle? How do I can make my health better? How can I thrive? How can I be more vibrant, more lucid? How can I just do and be better all around inside and out?

Because a lot of times before alopecia, I thought that being healthy was on the outside, right? It was all the physicalness, it was the abs, it was like the lean body fat percentage, it was the having the no cellulite and, and the muscle tone and the, this and that, and that's all good and dandy. It is, but I gotta tell you, the health on the inside is so much more important, so much more important. I'm saying, the physical health is also important, but you don't have to have abs to be super healthy on the inside. Does that make sense? You can have just a little bit of, you know, a cushion, so to speak. You can, and and that's okay.

But at the same time being your best being your healthiest is really only going to prevent disease, prevent medical bills, prevent medical treatment, prevent you having you know, any sort of issue in the future. And so this is where I've created the Eternal Health and Hair program, because this program gives you that next level. And for those of you who have done the Hair N' Heal program, that's the next level. So the Hair N' Heal is where you heal in reverse and you get a foundation of what you need to do in order to do that. The next level, the Eternal Health and Hair program is that next level so that you can upgrade your hair, keep it forever, just like I have, but then also upgrade your health to the extent where your fertility is up, where your hormones are leveled, where you don't have to worry about menopause, where you don't have to worry about all these ancillary situations, including extra diseases that could be coming your way because you Have a bigger defense team around you.

When you're on a basketball team, just like I mentioned earlier, and you're playing defense, it's not just one person, it's 5, they got 5 people, you know, playing 5 defensive tactics and routines in order to not have the other team score. In this case, when you do the Eternal Hair and Health program, you have a huge team of different strategies, tactics, technologies, and so much more to upgrade your health so that you can keep your hair like I have without the vicious cycles, without having to worry about a pregnancy, without having to worry about postpartum hair loss, without having to worry about COVID, without having to worry about anything else that's going on, because the only one who's going to save you is you.

And at the end of the day, we have to be accountable for our actions, for what we do and don't do. We can't be relying on doctors to save us, to do this, to do that. Now granted, if you're, you know, have a broken bone, they're going to put you back together, for sure. But when it comes to hair loss, that's all on you. When it comes to upgrading yourself, that's all on you. When it comes to preventive diseases, that's all on you. No one else is going to do that for you. And being on medication long term is not the answer. It's not the answer, my friends.

On average, you have Americans by the time you're 40, listen to this, these are statistics. By the time you're 40 Americans are at least on one or 2 prescriptions. By the time they're 65, that doubles. That means by the time you're 65, you're already on 4 prescriptions long term. That can be reversed, that doesn't have to be the case. My grandma's 88 and she's on zero medications. My mom how old is she, 66, 67,

something like this? And she's on zero medications. I'm in my 40s, and I'm on zero medications. And guess what? I'm going to keep it that way, because that is the goal. To keep it that way. That is the goal.

So that I can, you know, see my doctor for a routine checkup, routine labs, and make sure everything's great. Because the only one who controls me, my health, my hair, my life, my happiness, is me. And that goes the same for you. You are the only one who controls your health, your happiness, your hair, your hair growth, your hair loss, everything. But you got to understand how, you got to understand how to do that, and you got to take action.

So this is where we loop all the way back to number one, to the radical responsibility, because without it, you're just going to be stuck. Without it, you're going to play the victim, without it, you're going to be like: Oh, nothing can help me. No one can do anything for me. It's not about what others can do for you, it's about what you can do for yourself. Because even when you join the Hair N' Heal program, yes, I'm guiding you, yes, I'm holding your hand, yes, I'm teaching you. But guess what? You also have work to do. So it's a relationship. It's a 2 way street. You know what I mean?

The radical responsibility, the giving up of the excuses, because if you want something, you'll make it happen, guarantee that. You got to take away the expectations, take away the control, trust the process, and of course, consistently upgrade yourself and consistently understand that your health is an investment, that your hair is an investment, that your overall happiness is an investment, and it's something that no one else is going to invest in. You have to, no one else will do that for you.

And also understand that when you do invest in your health, when you do invest in your hair, that you just annihilate disease, you annihilate anything else in your defense system is now not just 5 people, but it's like 10 or more because now you have so many options, strategies, techniques and tools in order to prevent hair loss, in order to prevent disease, in order to prevent anything else coming your way, regardless of what's going on in the world, you can choose better for you because that's what this is all about, it's about choice. And the choices that I've made have led me to where I am today. It's led me to full hair, it's led me to full confidence, it's led me to full control. Yes, I said it, full control.

And so when you're in a process, you can control to a certain extent, but then when you have the choice to make better choices, You keep the full control, and this is how I've kept my hair having those choices by giving up the excuses and by controlling my own environment by controlling me what I can control. When you control you and what you can do and what you can, you know, do for you, this is where the power is because no one else can do for you. So I hope this helps. And if you have any questions, concerns, let me know. Email me [email protected] we have a free training coming up and I will go ahead and put those in the show notes. Thanks so much. Take care.