Episode 26: How To Care For Your Hair DURING Alopecia

Today’s episode of the podcast is about How To Care For Your Hair DURING Alopecia

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Tips on taking care of your hair
• Things to consider while losing your hair
• Symptoms of Alopecia to watch for
• To do and not to do while having Alopecia
• Possibilities of stopping hair loss in the Hair and Heal Program

HIGHLIGHTS YOU CAN'T SIMPLY MISS

• The first part of hair care 01:37
• If you're experiencing extra dry hair, take heart 02:28
• Less is more when it comes to washing 4:09
• The pulling and the tugging is not benefiting you at all during the alopecia 05:52
• Those extensions in the long run, they hinder your hair 06:05
• You need to follow a strategy, a plan, and that does not include extensions 06:52
• The shampoo and the conditioner are not going to help hair growth 07:22
• In the hair and heal program in two to four weeks, the hair loss stops 09:05
• Less is more is the key to being extra gentle with yourself during this time of alopecia 10:43
• Any pulling any tugging, any extra aggressiveness will make things worse 12:47
• The key is healing from the inside out 14:29

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Transcription

Awaken to hair growth. Awaken to hair growth because there is, possibility to get your hair back. Awaken to hair growth because we're not told that we're able to conquer and overcome alopecia. Awaken to hair growth because I want to be a positive light and beacon for you because I've healed my alopecia and now I help others do the same with different types of alopecia, men, women, children, of all ages, of all races and ethnicities.

Welcome everybody back to the alopecia angel podcast, awaken to hair growth. I'm still under the weather a little bit, still battling with this strep throat soreness. So I apologize in advance if my voice is cumbersome or bothersome, or if maybe you can't understand me or hear me clearly. I'll do my best to project my voice during this time.

But today is all about the hair care episode and a lot of times I get tons of questions regarding haircare and how to move forward because clearly you're losing hair, clearly is coming out in clumps and even at the touch, a lot of it is coming out and I mean, don't even talk about the brush because brushing alone is a traumatic event to see so much hair all in the brush or to see so much hair clogging up the drains.

And I understand this and so I'm going to give you my tips that I've used, that I believe are the best option during this healing time, during this time of you needing to be extra gentle with yourself and extra gentle with your hair. So the first part of hair care that I wanted to tackle is washing your hair and depending on the hair quality or the C bum amount that you get. You know, if you have oily hair, or dry hair, you might be used to washing your hair every other day, maybe three times a week, maybe every day, maybe five times a week.

It just all depends, right? It all depends on the type of hair that we have. I will say during alopecia, my hair went dry to straw. It went so dry, I mean, my whole body went dry - the eyes, the skin, there was not enough amount of water that I could drink or not enough amount of lotion that I could put on or eye drops or anything else that would help this.

And I will say that this is a symptom, this is an ancillary symptom of alopecia. So if you're experiencing extra dry hair, take heart, I understand I can get you through this. Now, in terms of washing, I would say, look at what you are used to, right? If you're used to washing your hair three times a week, or every three days, I would say try to elongate that, try to make it every five days, every four days, every six days instead.

The last you wash, it's almost the more gentle you can be. In one aspect of your hair because you're not pulling on it and also you're not seeing the hair fall out. Now, granted, when the hair is going to fall out, it's going to fall out regardless. It's kind of like the leaves on the tree. There's no way to stop that process. There's no way to stop the process of the leaves coming off the tree when it's fall or autumn, right?

It's that time to have the leaves come off the tree, in the case with alopecia or even hair loss in general, when it's going to come out, regardless of what you do. So understand that first and foremost now, can you help the process?

Can you stop the hair loss? Absolutely. Absolutely. In my program and the hair and heal program in two to four weeks, we stopped the hair and then it goes, bam right into the hair growth process. For those of you who are already bald, you skip that process of stopping the hair loss and you move straight into the hair growth process.

So it's very possible to do that. I give you more techniques and more valuable tools inside the hair and heal program. For this episode, we will go over more of a holistic view, more of an overview, overarching view of what you can do. So in terms of washing do so in less amounts, so less is more when it comes to washing.

So if you're used to washing every day, I'd say try to elongate that maybe every three days. Maybe every four days and the same of, like, let's say if you've had dry hair, like I tend to have because curly hair just tends to be dry in general and it's every three days or every four days now I try to push it every five days, every six days. So once a week, maybe it just depends, right? It depends how often you can manage that without being a mess and I say this because with curly hair in particular, when you let it go for so many days, you start to get lots of knots, lots of, because we can't brush it when it's dry. So the only time you brush your curly hair is when it's wet.

So there's a lot of knots that start to accumulate and start to kind of like matte together all underneath at the base of the neck. And so this is something that when I start to feel this, I know it's time to wash my hair and for you with straight hair for you with maybe curly kinky or another type of wavy hair, then you want to manage that as you see fit, but in terms of washing less is more and so if you can wash less, this will be more gentle for you emotionally and psychologically, but then also for your hair, because you're not again putting it through the ringer

In terms of brushing, let's say you have curly hair and you want to go straight and you do this, you know, you have your blow dry, so to speak, every time you wash I would say, ease up on this and try to embrace your natural curls at this time. Just because the pulling, the tugging is not to your benefit, the pulling and the tugging is not benefiting you at all during the alopecia, which at the same token you want to avoid extensions. You want to avoid extensions during this time.

I have numerous clients who, they've come to me and they've been doing years of extensions, but those extensions in the long run, they hinder your hair. They don't let your hair fully become the strong strength that it needs and plus it's almost like acrylics. Have you ever had acrylic nails and then you take them off? And then all of a sudden you're left with weak, brittle nails. It's the same thing with extensions. Extensions are not your friend, they look good, but it's momentarily.

It's kind of like the doughnut, the doughnut tastes good momentarily, but then you end up paying for it because maybe it produces gas or bloating, or maybe it's too much sugar, or maybe you just feel gross and heavy afterwards, right? It's momentarily that the extensions look like. It's not long-term and so for long-term hair growth, long-term health, long-term everything, long-term results, right? Cause I'm all about results. You need to follow a strategy, a plan, and that does not include extensions.

So going back to hair processes, so the keratin and the perms, if that's still a thing you want to stop that, you want to stop anything that would have chemicals as much as possible to your hair, into your scalp. You want to go as natural as possible and a lot of times I'm asked what shampoo and conditioner do you recommend? I have a full module on that inside the course in reality, though, the shampoo and the conditioner is not going to help hair growth. It's not going to heal your alopecia. It's not going to help your hair loss.

So don't think in terms of topicals, think in terms of what can I do to ease the alopecia? It's almost like me. I have my cold strep throat, sore throat, so what can I do to ease myself during this time? I can drink tea with honey. I can drink ginger shots. I can do steam baths. I can do lots of things to ease the cold and the congestion, right? I can go to sleep earlier. I can take certain medicines to get the congestion out, right? This is all to ease the situation and so with alopecia, these recommendations won't heal your alopecia, but they will ease the symptoms.

So when it comes to washing, be very gentle, less is more. When it comes to processes like color processes, when it comes to perms, keratin, brushing, like full-on like brushing straight all your hair, you want to maybe stop that for now. I would highly recommend that you stop that for now. And if you have curly hair, embrace it.

If you have just wavy hair and you don't like it, embrace it. Like you want to be extra gentle with your hair at this time because it's falling out. With extensions you want to say no to the extensions and I would say the same with wigs and toppers because wigs and toppers are only hiding the situation. They're not making you feel better. They're not doing anything to heal it and really you want to get to the root cause and heal this.

Again, in the hair and heal program in two to four weeks, the hair loss stops and then from there we start to see the hair growth and boom, you're all already on the right path and that's what you want, ideally, right? So in terms of coloring your hair, this is another one I get. Can I color my hair during alopecia? Yes, you can but understand that you're also putting your hair through the ringer. So you go to the salon or maybe you do it at home and you're coloring your hair but then you have to wash it and then it's a process, right?

And it's more chemical and so personally I have my highlights and I love my highlights. Did I highlight my hair during the alopecia? Yes, I did and I did because it was the only thing that made me feel sane and it was the only thing that made me feel normal, so to speak. And so if you need to color it, color it. I know when you get to that point where you have gray hairs and you're like, oh no, no, I need to color this cause it's not going to happen, well then, okay fine color your hair. I get it, I totally get it because again, I've been in your shoes, but maybe try to not color as often.

So I have a friend where she needs to color it every four to six weeks, four to six weeks is a lot. So maybe you can extend it. Maybe you can wear a headband or maybe one of those, yeah like a headband, like a workout headband to maybe hide the grays that are coming in. And so what you can do there is color and elongate. So maybe every eight to nine to 12 weeks, you color your hair instead of every four weeks or every six weeks.

So less is more, right? Less is more is the key to being extra gentle with yourself during this time of alopecia. In terms of styling products, I still styled my hair with products to make sure the phrase wasn't going to go crazy during this time of alopecia. Now, what I will say is that what you will notice is that maybe you're styling products or maybe even your shampoos and conditioners or your serums or anything else that you, that you're using right now for your hair on a normal basis, previous alopecia, maybe still because you're still trying to figure out alopecia, is that your product will stop to work as well.

And it's not because of your product. It's because your hair, your hair, has its own life, so to speak and when I tell you that my hair went from dry to straw, it wasn't because of lack of, I dunno, moisture or lack of conditioner, it was because my hair from the inside out turned this way, it turned this way and this was another symptom of alopecia where your hair is just so strong, like so unruly, so unmanageable that your normal routine will no longer be viable. Will no longer work for you and so you're going to start looking for other products. You're going to start looking or doing more, let's say conditioning treatments or this treatment, or that treatment.

Understand that none of that really will help and if it does, it's momentarily, just like doughnut. It's momentarily, that satisfaction because you're going to go back to having unruly unmanageable hair or hair that just falls out in clumps, or maybe progresses and feeds up the process of losing more hair. So again, be extra gentle with yourself. Be extra gentle with your hair. Don't pull in tug a cornrows and braids are something that I would also encourage you not to use at this time.

I have a client, who's a dancer, a professional dancer, and she wears her hair in a bun and so I would say use a loose bun. Don't go super tight ballerina style because again, any pulling any tugging, any extra aggressiveness will make things worse and there are ways to make it better in less time and the hair and heal program is the key to that. It's the key because I created that to enable you to suffer less because really looking back alopecia is almost like healing any other sickness, it really is. There's a strategy behind it. There's a proven process, all you have to do is just follow the steps.

So in terms of hair care less is more, be extra gentle, embrace your natural type of hair, whether that's curly, wavy, or just stick straight. For those of you who have stick straight hair. I have a friend who has stick straight hair and she always wants to curl. So she'd always put in everyday, she'd wash her hair and she put in curlers before she left the house. That in of itself is a process and I would say, less is more relaxed. Let go of the curlers, let go of anything else that you're doing on a normal basis and just let things go a little bit. 

Now again, with the coloring try to extend that. with the washing try to extend that and be extra gentle. Look at the products that you're using and make sure they're extra gentle for you and for your hair during this time, just like I'm nursing my cold. I need you to nurse yourself in terms of the hair care that we give ourselves for and during alopecia, after alopecia, or even let's say in the first few months or weeks, you'll start to see changes. You'll start to notice that your hair isn't as dry, that your eyes, your skin isn't as dry, that all these ancillary symptoms that you're feeling or experiencing have gone away or diminished completely.

And so this is the key is healing from the inside out because no topical, no serum, no shampoo, no conditioner is going to stop the hair loss. No topical solution will bring you back your hair. That's an inside job so if you want to learn more, visit me with alopeciaangel.com. Look at hair and heal and you have our program there that's about to open within a few weeks. I look forward to hearing your comments and any questions that you may have. Take care. 

Thank you for listening to the alopecia angel podcast, a positive light and healing alopecia. You can do this and we can help. Spread the word that reversing alopecia is possible by telling your friends and family.