Episode 30: What To Do When You Are Diagnosed With Alopecia

Today’s episode of the podcast is about What To Do When You Are Diagnosed With Alopecia

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Approached you should follow in healing hair loss

• The key ingredient to healing Alopecia faster

• Where to focus on during the time of Alopecia

• Unveiling the blindspots to surpass Alopecia

HIGHLIGHTS YOU CAN'T SIMPLY MISS

• Seeking and searching for the wisdom and the nuggets of wisdom so that they can improve their situation. 01:03

• It's possible for me to have already healed and it's possible for you too. 01:13

• Don't think that throwing money at the problem is going to solve the problem. 01:27

• Pause and survey the landscape. 02:02

• Save your money, do the research. 02:47

• Look at the pros and cons to everything. 03:41

• You probably have blind spots and until you're okay with having those revealed, that's when the magic happens. 04:03

• Unveiling the blind spots so that you can rectify them. 04:13

• The blind spots hold us back. 04:19

• Growing hair is not the same for somebody with alopecia. 06:43

• You can't expect to graduate from college with the same strategy and the same approach that you did from kindergarten. 07:07

• Desire drives our goals. 07:39

• If our goal is hair growth, our actions will propel forward. 07:42

• Going the extra mile is needed. 07:53

• You have the choice to prolong the situation and you have the choice to shorten the situation. 08:40

• Healing in less time is possible for everybody, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, or type of hair that you have. 09:03

• The quicker you approach healing alopecia, the better it is. 09:15

• Focus on what you can do now. Focus on what's available to you now. 10:32

• A lot of the stress comes from living in the future and living in the past. 11:57

• Embrace change because without change, nothing changes. 12:34

• Even though sometimes change is hard, more than likely, it's a blessing in disguise. 12:40

• Be compassionate. Forgive yourself. 13:31

• Have compassion and grace for ourselves and do the best we can each and every day. 13:48

• Get somebody who's done it. 14:54

• Anyone who is great has had a mentor. 15:28

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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.

Hi everybody and welcome back to the alopecia angel podcast. I am your host, Johanna Dahlman and today we are talking about “What to do when you are diagnosed with alopecia”. And I'm going to present the information here as if you were my sister, as if you were my brother, as if you were a close friend, as if you were someone just very close to me. Just exactly how I would want to be treated because at the same time I know that when people come to me, they come to me seeking and searching for true information. Seeking and searching for the wisdom and the nuggets of wisdom so that they can improve their situation. So they can heal faster and in less time. I know that it's possible for you, just like it's possible for me to have already healed and it's possible for you too.

And so if you were my brother's sister, friend, cousin, I would say that there's a couple things that you need to do when you're diagnosed. First, don't think that throwing money at the problem is going to solve the problem. Many times you think that grabbing the P R P grabbing biotin, grabbing a bunch of other things, you know, a hair transplant or going to the medical doctor and, you know, getting all the medications that they have to offer, all the injections, all the trials, all the Jack inhibitors, et cetera, throwing all this money onto your situation is going to help it. 

So the first thing I would say is that once you're diagnosed is to pause, to pause and survey the landscape. Because as you know, changes happen and things change. So for example, today, as of today, there are no medications out there that will give you long-term results without risks or side effects. Without hindering your health. Without hindering your fertility. This is why I took the natural approach. So I would say pause because potentially when you're listening to this podcast episode, it's December and maybe in December, something else changes and options change, right? So first, pause and survey the landscape, what's out there, what's not out there. 

Number two. I would say, Save your money, do the research, do the research in terms of the risks and pros and cons of each treatment because maybe for you at 60 years old, you can care less about your kidneys and liver, maybe? but maybe if you're a parent for your five year old, you absolutely care about livers, kidneys, fertility, and all these other things.

So it just depends. Everyone has a different stage of life, and so, we all, also, care about certain things more than other things. However, if you're listening to me and you want the natural approach more than likely, it's because you want to follow a natural approach where you will be in intact health and more than likely upgraded optimal health, cuz that's what we're striving for. Better health than we were yesterday, Right? Always better health than what, than where we were yesterday. 

So pause, survey the landscape, look at the pros and cons to everything, and then also understand that without change, change won't happen. Without changing certain things, change won't happen.

Another tip I would give you is that you may think that you've done it all. You may think that you know it all, you may think that you already live a super healthy diet and lifestyle. And I would say that you probably have blind spots and until you're okay with having those revealed, that's when the magic happens.

Unveiling the blind spots so that you can rectify them and move on and surpass alopecia. Because the blind spots hold us back. This is why I took more than three years because there was foods, there was things, there was habits, there was et cetera that were holding me back. And I was in denial. I was in denial the whole time. I was in denial because maybe I didn't wanna let it go.

Maybe, cuz I didn't want to really believe like, “oh my gosh, this is hindering me”. And it was. It was holding me back. It was my narrow mindedness. It was not, I wasn't open to really believing, because everyone said that these things were healthy because everyone touted these things as healthy. But for me, with alopecia, it was not healthy.

And let me give you an analogy. You've seen the beautiful lawns and the beautiful grass at golf courses, right? It's almost like different shades of green, it's manicured, it's all like the same level. It's like a buzz cut on a kid. It's all at the same level. It's beautiful. Right? Well, that grass is gorgeous and grows a certain way, but what about your neighbor's lawn or the lawn or from across the street where there's dogs and cats that do their bathroom duties on the grass and leave marks, leave burnt marks essentially on the grass.

You've seen it, you know, it's like those big yellow spots and stains on someone's lawn and that grass is very different from the grass at the golf course, right? Very different. It grows differently. It recuperates differently. It heals differently. And so if you have alopecia, think of your situation, being like the grass with the spots on it, the grass with the stains on it, and that needs much more TLC than the grass from the golf course and understanding this, that just cuz it's hair, it should grow. And just cuz it's hair, it should be like this. No, it's not. It's very different. And so the grass with the spots and the stains from the ammonia and from the feces and from the urine, from the cats and dogs and any other animal that goes by is very very different than the golf course grass.

The treatment is different. The treatment is different. The way to heal the one with stains is different. The way to protect it, the way to like bring it up to the level of the golf course is also different. It's different. Be mindful of that. Growing hair is not the same for somebody with alopecia. It's not the same, it's biological, but it's not the same. There's a different strategy. There's a different approach. There's a different method and you have to adhere to it. Graduating from kindergarten is not the same as graduating from college, right? There's a different strategy, different requirements, different approach. And that's just the way it is. 

And so you can't expect to graduate from college with the same strategy and the same approach that you did from kindergarten, right. Or even eighth grade or even high school, it's still very different. And so just understand that, that there's a difference. This is why the serums don't work, the P R P doesn't work, the acupuncture doesn't work, the specialty shampoos, et cetera, et cetera, don't work. You're wasting your money. Don't do it.

The other thing I would say is once you're ready, once you've done the pros and cons to all the treatments, once you've reevaluated what you really want, because the thing is, desire drives our goals, right? If our goal is hair growth, our actions will propel forward. It just depends how much you value your hair.

It depends how much you value your health, is how far you're gonna go because going the extra mile is needed. And when I say this, I mean it, because for example, if it was so easy to grow back your hair, then the biotin and everything else that you've tried in the past, would've worked, but it hasn't. And so this is why you need to go to the extra mile. It needs to be in a different way, in a different manner with a different strategy. The other thing what I would say is that you can do so in less than eight weeks. And so for example, high school for me was four years, eighth grade was eight years and my master's was like another two years.

And imagine if somebody could said, could say to me, you can do all that education in two months and graduate with master's degree. Sign me up! I'd do it tomorrow. But this is your choice. You have the choice to prolong the situation and you have the choice to shorten the situation. Just like you have the choice to pay off debt and less time, or you can choose to pay it off in longer installments.

You have that choice. You have that option. There are options out there. Healing in less time is possible for everybody, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, or type of hair that you have. The other thing that I would say when you're firstly diagnosed, is that the quicker you approach healing alopecia, the better it is. Because 25% of people go on to acquire a second or a third autoimmune disease and those are statistics. Those are facts. And I didn't want to wait around to acquire a second or a third autoimmune disease. And I know you don't either. Alopecia is already debilitating as it is in multiple senses and on various levels. But I can even fathom the idea of having a second or a third autoimmune disease.

That's probably, I mean, I haven't experienced it myself. So I can't speak, but I can imagine that it probably would feel like, like everything has been hijacked. I mean, I already felt that way with alopecia that my body has been hijacked. So I can only imagine that it would compound the severity of the symptoms. It would compound the severity of my feelings. It would compound the severity of everything else. So if you already do have a second or a third autoimmune disease, you can reverse them as well. And you can also lessen the symptoms and it's a day by day approach. Cause that's all we have, It's day by day. 

And focus on the now, that's another thing I'd say is to focus on the now focus on what you can do now. Focus on what's available to you now versus thinking eight months, 10 months down the road, focus on now. Because now is what we all have, is right now. That's all we have. There's a great book by Eckhart Tolle, It's “The Power of Now” is what it's called. And once I read that all the anxiety, a lot of the depression and a huge portion of my stress went away. Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now”. 

“The Power of Now” encourages, recommends, and forces you to look at the now. To look at what's going on right now and to live within that realm of right now. Many times we think and ruminate about the past. Many times we live in fear or we live in this uncertainty about the future.

And I mean, I've done it myself. So yeah, I've been there, done that. but I remind myself with this book, with the teachings of that book, to focus on the now, focus on today, what's going on today and what can I do today to be a better version of myself. What can I do today to improve my health? What can I do today to move the needle towards my healing, towards my hair growth, towards, you know, all these other goals that I have towards health in general, what can I do today? And the power of now really just wipes away a lot of that stress because a lot of the stress comes from living in the future and living in the past. It really does when you are just 24/7 in your mind, thinking, thinking, thinking about what if, what if, what if, or even in the past you could be thinking about the, “what ifs” and the, what could have been, should have been.

And all that just leads to more stress, more anxiety, more depression. And the thing is, about the past, is you can't do anything about it. It's done. Thing about the future is, it's not even here. You don't know. There could be, you know, a last minute situation where things change. That's another topic.

Embrace change, embrace change because without change, nothing changes. Embrace change, because even though sometimes change is hard, more than likely, it's a blessing in disguise. More than likely it's taking you to the right path. More than likely it's getting you on the right journey. More than likely it's helping you grow.

Change is good. And sometimes, you know, personally, I've never seen an aspect in life where change has been bad. I've always seen like silver linings through it all. Even with a death with a loved one, I've always seen a silver lining. And so this is why today is so important because we can't predict the future.

And so make today the best possible and do your best today. If today you can only give 20% of energy of thought, of effort into your healing, into alopecia, into your journey. Then 20% is it! That's okay. Be compassionate. Forgive yourself. If tomorrow you can do 50%? Fantastic! Do 50. If the next day it goes down to 40% that's okay. If the next day it jumps to 80, do 80. We can only do as much as we can do. And so we have to have compassion and grace for ourselves and do the best we can each and every day and just be okay with that. 

That's also something that I learned with my alopecia situation because I was living off of my savings and I didn't have a job and I took out my savings to get to where I am in terms of my health, my hair. I wanted a solution and I stopped at nothing to do so. The last thing I would say for someone who was recently diagnosed is to be mindful. And this kind of goes hand in hand with throwing money at it, with throwing money at the problem and thinking that throwing money at the problem is gonna help.

But when you're mindful, you start to evaluate like, what's good for you, what's not good for you. You know, intuitively a lot of times what's good for you, what's not good for you. And many times we're in denial or we just don't want to, and you know what you need to do. And so I would say for anyone going through alopecia, get a guide. 

Get somebody to hold your hand. Get somebody to help you. Get somebody who's done it. Who's done the Trek. Who's seen the results. Who's gotten the results and who's kept the results and who can take you to that next level. This is why we all have coaches. This is why Olympians have coaches. This is why basketball players have coaches, football players have coaches, you know, any sport has a coach, even tiger woods being so amazing significant player in golf. He has a coach. He has guides. He has mentors. Anyone who is great has had a mentor. I have mentors. I have lots of mentors. And so just like you have tons of teachers in school, you know, there's always someone being able to teach you more, always. There's always more to learn. 

And so grab somebody's hand, who's been there, done that, and walk with them and they will be able to show you the way. And I think this is imperative because now I actually see service providers in that same vein. You know? If I want to, I don't know, plant the garden. Who am I gonna go to? I'm gonna go to somebody who's done so with immense success for my area, because potentially planting a garden in the desert is very different than planting a garden in the mountain or planting the garden in the snow or planting a garden in Florida where it's very humid and wet and rainy and et cetera. You gotta look at the environment as well. 

So look for someone who's been there, done that. Look at all your options. Do a pros and cons list. Don't throw money at the situation because getting more supplements, biotin and topicals and serums and injections and this, and that. They don't work. 

I have free PDFs on my website that you can download. I have the link in the show notes where you can grab free PDFs on children, on medications that cause hair loss, on the side effects of common alopecia medicines and their risks along with it. There's a lot of information that I provide on my website and then of course here on the podcast. 

So inform yourself before you make that next step, but take that next step because in the back of your mind, you know, that one out of three will acquire a second or a third autoimmune disease. And even taking baby steps is okay. Even taking small steps, as long as you keep moving forward, that's all that matters. That's all that matters. 

So those would be my top tips for any friend, relative, or you know, family member that is getting, or has a new diagnosed alopecia diagnosis. Lastly, I would say is that better heal now than later. Because the common denominator in my clients is that they waited. They waited too long.

They waited too many months, too many years and it never gets better with all those other gimmicks that I've already mentioned, the serums, the shampoos, the injections, the creams, the square acid, et cetera. None of that helps. None of that gives you results. And so what happens? They've tried it all, supposedly, and they've never seen results. They come to me at a breaking point. They come to me when it's absolutely severe and dire. Absolutely, you know, unbearable and that's okay. I'm happy to help you even when the situation's unbearable, but it probably would've been better for your emotional state, for your physical state, for your spiritual state, for your mental health, emotional health had you done something sooner. 

And I only say this because when we're feeling under the weather, when we're feeling mentally exhausted, emotionally exhausted, physically exhausted that percolates into our family, into our relationships, into our career, into our jobs, into our wellbeing, into our livelihood.

And if you have children. They're feeding off your energy as well. They really are. And so imagine all this, all these things that you can avoid, if you just nip it in the butt, if you just go straight into healing and having this all go away and just be a life lesson, a learning lesson of the past. I hope these tips have helped you feel free to add any more and share them with me.

You can always email us @helloatalopeciaangel.com and you can always visit our website for those free PDFs. alopeciaangel.com/free, F R E E. I look forward to speaking to you in the next time. Take care. 

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