Episode 122 - 5 Things That Healing My Alopecia Naturally Has Given Me

Hi everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel podcast. I am your host Johanna Dahlman and I'm so excited to be with you here today. Today's podcast episode is 5 things that healing my alopecia naturally has given me.

The first part of this is that: Yes, it's given me these 5 things, and at the same time, it's also given my clients so much as well. This is a big deal because when we're looking at the end result, when we're looking towards the finish line, we don't realize that everything else that gets fixed and gets checked off is a result of all of this, of all this work, if that makes sense.

So for example, when I see clients, I see them and many just have the hair loss, others have hair loss plus 2, 3, 4 autoimmune diseases, or they have other health concerns, whether it's PCOS or whether it's migraines or whether it's anything else underneath the sun, anything that you can think of from blood pressure to, digestive issues to insomnia to anything else. All these boxes start checking off, start reversing and start healing. This is the beauty of really getting your health back and really getting your hair situation under control and back to hair growth versus hair loss because it can give you so much and it can render so much. So let's go into my top 5.

First, it's given me my hair back in full and it's not just my hair back in full and the end. It's my hair back in full and it's been over 9 years and I've never seen another alopecia areata bald spot and I've never had to deal with. more hair loss and I've never feared hair loss and I've never had that concern moving forward. And that's a beautiful thing because you know that I have that full control and this is what I teach and empower you to do as well inside the Hair N' Heal program. So having my hair back in full is, is big because that's the number one goal to all of this work that I've done for over 4 years.

The second thing that it's giving me is a huge fertility boost. And I say this because I got pregnant on the first try at the age of 40, and this is a big deal because many people struggle with fertility, many women struggle with conceiving, and I've met so many people who are in their 20s, who are in their 30s, and for one reason or another, it's not happening for them, for one reason or another it's just not happening.

My heart goes out to them because when you really want to have a child and it's not happening, this is, this is probably very, very challenging and difficult in its own right. Just like the hair loss. You know, conundrum of going around searching for viable solutions and still not getting anything. It's probably very, very similar in many ways.

And again, because of healing my alopecia before I was able to, you know, get pregnant on the first try at 40. And this is a beautiful thing because not only did I have an amazing pregnancy, which, you know, with no aches and pains, no difficulties, no weird tests, everything was great, everything was so smooth and everything that I would have hoped for. And granted, this was during COVID and I gave birth at home, and I gave birth to nearly a 10 pound baby.

It was all natural with no meds, no medications, no epidural, no need for C section, no need for any intervention. It was a great birth. It all happened in 13 hours. And that's also what I wanted. And so I prepared myself to ensure that I would have a fast delivery, which for many of you who don't have children yet, 13 hours seems like a long time. But for those of you who've had children, you understand that 13 hours is actually pretty quick, especially for your first one.

And so, I say this, only because I know people again in their 20s and 30s, you know, half my age and they're having tons of difficulty, and they're having tons of procedures, and tons of C sections and just a lot of intervention. Not to say that it's not needed, but it's also a very different case to have a very smooth, easy going pregnancy and delivery. And I count my blessings, but I also think that I went into it very prepared, or as prepared as possible, I should say.

And granted, I had my baby abroad in Europe, and I will say that the country that I was in and the people who were around me were not supportive, and I didn't have access to a lot of information. So again, that's where my research skills came in and I was able to do the most possible for myself because no one else was doing it for me. And that's the same approach I took with my hair. I did more for myself because no one else was doing it for me.

That's the same approach that really I encouraged. You got to do for you what you can do for you because no one else is going to do for you like you will for yourself, if that makes sense. So that was big and I think, having such a beautiful pregnancy, being able to conceive on the first try, having a beautiful delivery, all goes to show that when you take care of yourself, that when you take control of your health, that everything is possible, everything. And, and so I think those are 2 big ones, right? The hair, which we all want and then this beautiful fertility boost and then a situation where I didn't have any major complications.

The next thing that healing alopecia naturally has given me is freedom and peace of mind. For many of you, you're maybe asking yourself: What do you mean by freedom? And what do you mean by peace of mind? And when I think about freedom, I think about freedom from any doubt, freedom from the fear, from the worry that it'll come back, awaiting or anticipating another episode.

Peace of mind, where I know I can rest easy that I know I'm the captain of my ship, I'm the CEO of my health and I tell doctors what I want and need and it's not the other way around. They're not telling me nor dictating to me what my choices are. It's the opposite. I'm telling them what I want and need what I don't want and I don't need. And I feel very empowered. That's the next thing too. Number 4 is empowerment and sheer confidence because this way it's giving me and avenue to age the way I want to age to be the best version of myself to create and have the life I want to have without any surprises and granted life happens and life does give you surprises, right? Alopecia was a huge surprise.

But just like in anything else. you want to create a big cake. defense team, right? If we started to look at let's say sports and you have offense and defense and you create a good, strong defense, well then more than likely if your defense is so good that nothing will be able to penetrate and score right on the other side. But in this case, if you create the big defense, then you'll be and live a healthier, happier life with a full head of hair. And I think that's the end goal for all of us, right?

We want to be healthier, we want to be happier, we want to be with a full head of hair by the time we're 100 or 120 or 99 or 80 or whatever it is. But we want to have that full head of hair. I can guarantee you that that's going to happen for me. I know what to do and I know how to follow it and I know how to live and I just know how to take control of my hair. I know how to take control of my health, and that's the big misnomer. A lot of us do not do that, a lot of us do not know how to do that. It's not something that's given to you because think about it, if we all did that, where would the healthcare situation be?

Where would all these other people be? I mean, if you think about it too, and you start looking at healthcare many times, it's not necessarily in your best interest. Like I said, healthcare is great when you have a broken bone, right? Because you're not going to be able to fix that on yourself. Healthcare is great for many instances, but at the same time for the diet and lifestyle diseases, which I believe alopecia is, they're not going to be able to help you because, again, that's not their forte and that's not the, the avenue that they're taking. And it's also not what they're taught.

So how can you expect somebody to teach you something when they're not taught themselves? And not only that, but then like the dieticians and the nutritionists that I get inside my program or the nurses or any healthcare professional, including functional medicine doctors who do my program, they still get it wrong. That also leads me to know that there's a gap in the education system, that there's a gap, and we're being taught, or they're being taught, I should say, to you know, focus more on drugs, to focus more on prescriptions, to focus more on quick fixes. And so they've conditioned society to want quick fixes, they've conditioned society to want this versus, versus the natural route versus having the patience to go through things. I know not everything can be this way, but for sure diet and lifestyle diseases can be 100% I believe so.

The last thing that healing alopecia has given me is a purpose and a platform, because I'll tell you, you know, there's some things that you can do to help your situation, but there's so much misinformation online. For those of you who don't know, I was living in

Europe. I was living in the Netherlands at the time that I got alopecia and those doctors did zero for me, absolutely nothing.

And it was, aggravating and frustrating and just the medical system in general in Europe is not as great as most Americans think it is. And having lived there for 7 years, I can attest to this. Having had my child there, I can attest to this as well. I've lived in other countries, I've lived in Brazil, I've lived in Argentina, I've lived in Spain, I've lived in Japan, I've lived all over in like 5-6 different states in the US. I understand what the healthcare looks like across the board and you know, Australia, Canada, UK, the commonwealth, like, it's not that great either.

This is why I have such robust community of clients from over 66 different countries, because I understand that the healthcare system is not what it should be in any place. It's not perfect anywhere, it really isn't. But even in the US when I flew back to see about what options I had to see about what avenues I had, it was a different scale of, you know, full blown injections every month on, you know, this type of scheduling, or it was just something very light and easy, like creams, minoxidil, or do this or do that, but it was nothing in regards to diet and lifestyle.

And none of these things, including the medications that were offered was going to move the needle or heal me permanently. And so this is, this is part of the end game. Like, do you want the quick fixes for a short term and then have to deal with this again? Or do you want to play for long term results for the rest of your life? Because the average age of person who comes to see me is anywhere in their 30s or 40s some in their 20s and then many children, of course. You have, you know, women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s and even 80s who come to see me.

And again, that 80 year old thinks it's not too late. And of course she's right. It's never too late to heal. It's never too late, it doesn't matter if you've had alopecia for 80 years, you can still heal and reverse this. But it all depends on you on if you want to and you know, are you willing to do the work?

Are you willing to to go all in are you willing to to do this and commit to yourself because this is a commitment to you, to your health, to your hair and just like I've committed to myself, like I'm not going back. I'm not gonna go back to alopecia, that's not an option. Any cobwebs, so to speak, have been all cleared up and that's the beauty of this. It's like, when you clear up all the cobwebs, you've got nothing to fear, you've got the full breath, the full spectrum of your life ahead of you with full hair and you know that nothing is going to bother you. Nothing's going to move you.

And just like that defense, you're going to stand firm on the ground and no one's going to be able to shake you and you become unshakable and you become just absolutely empowered towards your hair, towards your health, towards being the best version and that's also the other side of this too because of this because of my hunger not just to heal the alopecia and reverse it, but it's allowed me to progressively grow, progressively be better, progressively be curious, progressively get better in every area of health.

And this is huge because, you know, many times people think: Oh, once you're 40 or once you hit 40, it's downward spiral. And this is, you know, the midway point. And it doesn't have to be. I hear people in their 60s and 70s, not any of my clients, these are people outside, mind you. Oh, you know, I'm 65, I'm old, or I'm 65 and you know, it's downhill from here, or, you know, I only have 10 years left or this type of thing and that's not the mindset that I have, and that's not the mindset I need to have either. I want you to, to be able to do and thrive at any age.

And again, this comes with our choices. This comes with us choosing us, choosing our hair, choosing our health, choosing our diet and lifestyle in order for that to happen. Because what you choose and do today affects your future, right? Just like savings. If you don't save for a rainy day, then when that rainy day happens, you're not going to have it, right? Or for retirement, if you don't save for retirement, then you'll retire and then you won't have anything to fall back on.

And so it's the same thing. Your health is cumulative, your health will show by the time you're at a certain age. And so this is where, and why most people, I'm generalizing here and statistics show that by the time you're 40, you're already on like 1 or 2 medications. This is statistics for the US, but at the same time you don't have to be a statistic, you don't have to be that average, you don't have to be part of that equation. I'm in my 40s and I'm on zero medications. And that's the way I want it to be until I die.

I want to be on zero medications, I want to be the healthiest version possible. That doesn't mean you have to be running a marathon every weekend, because I don't you know. You choose how to be healthy, you choose what health looks like. And again, it's a tailored approach, it's not going to be one size fits all, we're not all going to be running marathons by the time we're 80. And that's also not the expectation here. The expectation is to be your best in what you do. Is possible for you and what suits you and what you're able to commit to, right?

It's a tailored approach, it's not going to be again, a one size fits all. But that's huge is to have that peace of mind, to understand that you're going to wake up the next day and like: Oh, it's just a bad hair day, or it's just too much humidity and my hair is like a little frizzy today, or the gray hairs are popping out a little bit more. And so those become the concerns, the gray hairs, the bad haircut, or the bad dye job in my case, or maybe somebody not understanding my hair and cut it too short or did this or did that, or what have you. Those become the concerns, not the hair loss, not the what ifs, not the vicious cycles.

And lastly, what I wanted to mention is that, you know, helping other people heal and get them on the right path, saving them the time, the heartache, the money, and the runarounds is priceless to me. And I love helping people beat this, I love seeing their success in just a matter of weeks, I love interacting with them and being their guide, because just like, you know, going to Mount Everest, you can't just buy a ticket and go.

You need a guide, it's impossible to do this without a handy Sherpa, just like you would for Mount Everest, you need a guide.

There's just too much misinformation. And that's one thing that we all have, not enough is time. We don't have enough time. And so when you start thinking about the cost of time of trying to do it yourself, of trying to go with a guide, hands down, I look back and I kick myself a little bit because my 4 year ordeal having to deal with alopecia on my own could have been simplified in less than 2 months and I could have been another success story.

But at the same time, you know, who would have created Alopecia Angel? So I'm grateful for the journey, I'm grateful for my clients. I'm grateful for helping others. But again, it comes with the territory because of the alopecia, because of the healing, I have my baby boy, I have that fertility boost that I got an amazing pregnancy. I also have zero medications, I'm Empowered, I am self confident in my health. It's not about, you know, what type of healthcare you have, it's about what you can do for you.

That'll probably be in my next podcast episode about healthcare systems and what they do and don't do for you with alopecia because I've seen it all and I've heard it all and it's troubling, it's really troubling how little they do for you when you have alopecia when you have hair loss and a lot of it to run around and a lot of it is like the dermatologist just wants to shut you up and give you minoxidil and say like: Look, take it or leave it. Or, you know, here's this cream. No one's there for you trying to investigate further.

I'll leave that for next week, but in the meantime, I hope this has been helpful. I hope this gives you a little insight and know that my clients are also feeling the same peace of mind, the freedom, they're also seeing their other health concerns tick, tick away and go away because that's all part of this, you know, many times you have, people who come to me and it's just hair loss, but other times they come to me and they have multiple, health concerns and sometimes it's like almost cascading.

A lot of times you need a big reset. And so the way you reset one person is is different to the other and the way you you heal in reverse for one is going to be different to the other as well. This is why the personal customized tailored approach is the only way to go.

So I hope this has been helpful. It's been so beautiful for me to be able to give you this knowledge. If you want free resources, you can go to my website on the homepage. You can also download the free PDFs that I have there for you. You have the podcast over 120 episodes, and we also have free trainings that we offer periodically.

Go ahead and email us anytime at [email protected] we're here to serve you. See you next time. Take care, bye bye.