Episode 75 -  The Blueprint for Healing Alopecia

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I’ll say some of the mistakes that I've made is allowing others who don't know how to cut curly hair. She has a special technique and it has changed my life. Because just like any service provider, you can be knowledgeable in one type of hair, you can be knowledgeable in or have experience.

Knowledgeable is having read up on a certain topic, let's say, global warming, but the the other thing is actually working in the field and seeing it live. Being deep in the needs so to speak. It's very different to read something and then to also practice it on a daily basis. It’s very very different. So, this is where the questions come in because I'm very hesitant to go with providers who who don't know exactly what they're doing with my hair and I've made this mistake many times.

I had to cut off 2-3 inches because they totally fried my hair in Japan. I went with one lady to get my color done, not to get my hair cut just my color. It was the only lady within a 100 mile radius who was able to apparently show on Instagram, and on our website that she could do blondes. Well, she can do blondes, but she doesn't know this type of blonde with this type of hair.

She's used to, let's say, the dark Asian hair that has a different texture and has a different lifting. This is what they call it in the industry it lifts at a different rate than my hair. My hair lifts really quickly versus asian hair where it takes longer to lift.

So, what happened is they fried it, and I had to cut off 2-3 inches. But you know what? Now it's okay, it feels good, feels really healthy, it's thick and I'm really happy.

For those of you who don't know, I'm really happy about this. I've actually accomplished to grow my hair more than an inch a month and it's been pretty consistent. So, I know that my hair is going to grow back real quick in the next six months and it'll be long again, even though it's curly, even though the curls might shrink up and whatnot depending on climate or humidity levels or whatever's going on.

It is possible even though the “average” online is only like half an inch. You can do more than that. You can always do more, and you can always succeed that.

I'd love to go back to historical times, like the first person who was able to run a mile in
 less than four minutes. It happened sometime in the 60s I read this book I can't remember right now the name of this guy or or the name of the book, but he's actually from Torrance California and they have a big memorial for him. They named streets and stadiums and everything after him because he's so important.

He also went and fought against the Japanese in the war and he did a lot of other great things. Even throughout this tumultuous life that he had, he was always known for being such a track star and such a fast runner. But before he did that, everyone said it was impossible. Everyone said “No, it's not possible, no human on earth can run a mile in less than four minutes” and he was able to attain it, and he was able to beat those records over and over and over again.

This is the type of mindset that you need in terms of healing alopecia. You can't just go by what others say, you have to be like “No, I'm going to make a difference, I'm going to show them that it is possible” I’ll show you that this is possible not just for me not just for my other clients, but for everybody regardless of age, race, ethnicity, how old you are, how long you've had it what type you have.

It's possible I've seen it over and over again, and the only one you need to convince is you, the only one you need to prove this to, is you. The only one who's gonna do this for you, is you. It's not me, it's you. I can give you the blueprint, but guess what? you are the one who has to run it. I can train you how to run that mile in less than four minutes, but you have to run it. I'm not running it for you.

I was telling somebody the other day that in order to really heal alopecia you have to get into the weeds, you can't just read about it, you have to Implement, you have to be in the middle of it. If you were to read about how to swim, you're never going to learn or understand how to swim until you get into the water, until you get wet. Getting wet is a prerequisite to learning how to swim, you can't learn how to swim just by reading about it, you have to actually do it and do the strokes. Anyone can learn how to swim, even animals know how to swim, but you have to get wet for that to happen. You have to be in the weeds because sometimes reading about it is not enough.

I could read about how to cut curly hair but it's not enough for me to do it. I need the practice, I need the experience, I need to understand how to hold the scissors and how to hold the hair, and all these other things.

It's so much more. So, I hope that gives you a little insight into what's needed, but today's topic is actually specifically about when to shave your head, the vicious cycles and also the “uncertainty” with alopecia.

Let's go ahead and just dive in when to shave your head. I get emails about this a lot, and really it's a personal decision. If you feel the need to do it, you can do it, if you feel the need to hold on to the hair, you can as well.

I've seen it in both cases. I’ve also seen where the hair growth comes with both cases, and it doesn't harm or hinder the hair growth. For those of you who may be thinking “Oh well, does this set me back in one way or another?” No, it doesn’t. The shaving of the head is a a preference, it's a personal choice and it's also what makes you feel better. It's not right or wrong, it really isn’t.

So, if you want to shave your head go for it. If you don't want to, and you want to hold on to the hair like I did, you can do that too. It's definitely possible to grow hair on both scenarios and on both situations. It's not going to hinder the hair growth. It’s more of a mental health, emotional health reason as to why you would shave your head.

I personally never felt the need to shave my head. I never wanted to go that far. I wanted to heal this before I had to get to that point and this is why the sense of urgency comes in. This is why I'm actually starting to see more and more people being so so proactive.

I actually just spoke to a client yesterday and by week three, she started seeing hair growth. She’s like 20 something years old, she's really young and in college, and she saw hair growth. She had two big patches, and she found out, she self-diagnosed herself she found out she had these bald spots by touching her hair in the back of her head in class. She then did my program and she didn't want to like mess around with this. She found my podcast, she binged it in a week. By week four she started seeing one full spot come in, and then the other one.

It already started to fill in the first spot which is the biggest one. Is starting to fill in already, which is great because this way she's getting a head start, and on top of it, since she is so young, she's getting the information she needs so that this doesn't have to happen again. You can put a stop to this.

Let's go and dive in a little bit about the uncertainty of alopecia. I see this here and there in forums, I see this here and there within the alopecia community, and I will say it kind of bothers me when people say there's an uncertainty factor to this.

The thing is there isn’t, that's absolute nonsense because those people have not been able to understand themselves. They have not been able to be self-aware enough, they haven't been able to understand and control their alopecia. So, for example, I've healed my alopecia, I know exactly what my triggers are, I know what my blind spots are and I know exactly what to do so that even after covid, even after a pregnancy, even after a hundred moves.

I still don't have hair loss because I know how to keep everything balanced. It’s like juggling a bunch of apples. Let’s say if you're juggling a bunch of apples, then you know exactly how to maneuver to keep juggling. The thing is that at a certain point you don't actually have to juggle anything. For any of you who Garden, for any of you who have a plant, even if it's a cactus, you know exactly how much to water it, you know exactly how much light it needs, etc.

Once you learn how to take care of that plant, then you're good to go, you’re golden. So, once you learn how to take care of yourself, then you're good to go and this is why it's been more than eight years and I'm still happy with my hair, I'm happy with with life, I'm happy with the peace of mind that I have.

I don't think you guys understand the peace of mind of not having to deal with alopecia anymore. That’s priceless. When someone tells you “Oh, it's uncertain, oh, there's so much uncertainty" this isn't the stock market, this is your health. We can control your health. Maybe we can't control the stock market, maybe we can't control the weather, here in California it's been very unpredictable lately. It's been a lot colder, I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt and I have a blanket over my over my lap. it’s been a lot colder than the norm and I can't control outside of me, but I can control everything within me outside and inside of me.

Once you actually understand, then you can move forward and you can say “Okay, alopecia no more, go to sleep” and that's exactly what I've done, and that's exactly what I teach inside the Hair N’ Heal program. So the fact that someone's telling you there's uncertainty to this, it's because that's been their experience, because they haven't gotten ahead of it.

That’s the key, you have to get ahead of it. Most of us maybe are not car mechanics. I’ve owned a car since I was 16 because you need a car in California. So, the thing is that just because I know how to drive doesn't mean I know how to fix my car. I don't know how to change the oil. I know how to put gasoline in it, I know how to see if the tires are are low, I can see when the check light engine comes on, but I still don't know what to look for when the engine light comes on. I have no clue what to look for, this is why I have to go to the expert, I have to go to the mechanic so that they can see what the light is on for, what's going on, what other fluids are needed and so they can run me an overview of what the health of my car is.

This is very similar to that where you are living your life day to day. The engine, which is your hair loss is coming up and you don't know how to fix it, so instead of going to the
 expert you're going to all these different remedies that don't work. These “solutions" that
 aren't solutions. Then now you come to me and this is where we run the diagnostics, this is where we run the check engine light, this is where we see how the fluids are, how everything's running, to see where exactly you need a little help, to ensure that the hair growth comes back and to also ensure that you don't have any more problems.

But as the car gets older, there's gonna be obviously a little more maintenance. The funny thing is like we take care of our cars in our homes better than we take care of ourselves and our bodies. It doesn't matter if you have a masters, a PhD, if you you're in the health and wellness industry, if you are a college student, if you're a baby, it doesn't matter.

We take care of our things more than we take care of ourselves and I'm guilty of this. This is not to throw in shame or guilt to you, this is just to identify with you because I've been there myself. I've given so much of myself to others, I've given my so much of myself to work, to so many other things that it's led to the decrease of my health and it allowed me to have alopecia.

At the time, of course it was awful, but now looking back it's so it's so inspiring because now I have the tools for success, now I know it will never come back, now I know exactly what to do. I know it how to water my my own self, I know how to take care of my own self so that this plant, this life of mine, this body, this hair, this health, this everything, this Johanna doesn't wither and die.

This is key, and it will look different for everybody. There is no such thing as uncertainty in alopecia. If you feel that this is uncertain for you or you identify with that, it's because you haven't learned what you need to learn. It means you haven't taken control of your hair loss like I have. I teach so you can learn more, you can educate yourself you can get to that next level.

This is just the same way as a preschooler saying “Oh, I'm ready for college” no, you're not, you're not ready for college, you're still in preschool and you have a big gap of understanding before you get to that next level. So, in the same way if you feel or if you hear someone say it's uncertain and you don't know when it's going to pop up, this isn't an earthquake this isn't mother nature.

Saying “Hey, an earthquake's coming” “A tsunami is coming” "A hurricane's coming” no no no, we can control our hair loss, we can control our health. So, don't don't take into consideration the uncertainty because that's not a factor. This is the empowering part, that you have full control of yourself. Maybe not on the weather, maybe not of an earthquake, maybe not of the stock market, but you have full control of yourself.

The next thing I want wanted to address is the vicious cycles and it kind of goes hand in hand with that uncertainty. What I've seen in my clients in terms of vicious cycles is that, let's say, you have one spot today and it comes “out of nowhere”. Let's say you have a spot today, and it starts growing and automatically, in the next couple weeks and then you're like “Oh, okay forget about it, I don't need to worry about this anymore”, but then maybe six months from, now maybe a year from now, maybe a couple years from now, you get another spot and it's a little
 more aggressive. Maybe you decide to do a couple of medical treatments, try the creams, the serums, whatever, minoxidil, etc. Then it goes away and then you're like “Okay, I'm clear” and then it comes again and it comes now more aggressive than the last time.

What I've seen is a big pattern with the vicious cycles is that each time it comes back, it's more aggressive because we haven't learned our lesson from the first time. So, for those of you who've just been recently diagnosed, or for those of you who have a diagnosis, since you're a child, you can heal and reverse this, but for those of you who
 are recently diagnosed, get to the root cause, heal this now before it gets worse. In my same situation, I was diagnosed and I read about what that possibility looked like ,and at the same time I didn't want to go bald. I didn't want to lose my lashes, my eyebrows, my everything, and yet I was already heading that way.

For some of us that hair loss Journey can be very abrupt it can be you know I've heard it from moms and from parents about their children where they've lost all their hair in 48 hours, where they've lost all their hair and become alopecia universalis in 2-3 weeks or in one month they've lost 90% of their hair. I even had a doctor who recently did my program and she lost 60% of her hair at the Hair Salon while she was getting it colored

Yesterday when I was getting my hair cu,t Morgan was telling me that everyone's complaint is about hair loss. The thing is that we have so much more control that we are allowed to believe. And granted, there is a lot of noise from the supplements, there's a lot of noise from the serums, the shampoos and this and that.

On top of it there's a bunch of lawsuits surrounding all these different products and this is where it makes it really hard to navigate. But if you're here, you're in the right spot. If you're here, this is the only way to heal, it’s naturally, holistically and in a personalized way for you. So, going back to going back to the vicious cycles, they don't have to happen you can actually put a stop to that so for those of you who were recently diagnosed, get ahead of this.

I’ve seen many many people come into my program recently that we just closed a couple weeks ago. They come in even if they have like a small little spot. They’re coming in because they want to get ahead and I love seeing this proactiveness, because once you're proactive once you have the keys to success, then you don't have to worry about it anymore.

You really don't and this is the biggest takeaway, it’s absolutely Priceless. It's like “Do you want to have to struggle for the rest of your life or do you want to really like be done with this?

It's almost like having a situation where where you can end this quickly. You can put an
 end to this. So, if you've been one of those people who've had these vicious cycles, it's best to get ahead of it as soon as possible, don't wait for another cycle to happen because it will be more aggressive next time. It’s never too late, but at the same time it'll be more aggressive and that just creates more angst, more anxiety, more depression, more pain, suffering and if there was one thing I would love to take away from all of you it's the pain, the suffering, the anxiety and the depression.

I know because I lived it, and I know because it’s probably one of the hardest things to grapple with. It's one of the hardest things to to really have to deal with in every aspect of your life, whether it's work, school, relationships, family, friends etc. It really does penetrate every area of your life. I read it in emails on a daily basis, how many people just give up on life almost and I can see why there is a high number of suicides. I can see why there is a high number of situations because that desperation for healing is eminent, but I'm here to tell you whether you go slow, or whether you go fast healing.

The natural way is the only way, even if you just don't even take my program and you go on your own journey and you want to figure this out on your own. That’s okay too, but healing the natural way is the best way and I say that after healing thousands and thousands of clients ages from 8 months to 75. This is a proven method, so when you're ready, I got you. When you're ready, I’m here for you.

That’s what I wanted to talk about in terms of the vicious cycles. They don't have to be
 there, you can put that away the uncertainty doesn't exist. There is certainty once you have the knowledge, the education and the capacity to understand yourself on a deeper level. When it comes to shaving your head, that’s a personal choice that I thoroughly support you in, and thoroughly accept.

Whether you want to or don't want to, whether you want to do it before the program, after the program, mid program, today, tomorrow, whatever makes you feel better whatever gives you a little bit more of peace, whatever gives you a little bit more of peace. I will say peace is priceless, and even going back through the alopecia, the mental peace, the peace of mind, then it's done. It's almost like having everything done in order, whether that's your inbox, whether that's bills to be paid, whether that's the taxes, whether that's any projects that you're working on.

It’s just a sigh of relief when it's done and it's it's done and that's the beautiful thing this is not like another disease where it can come back like cancer, and I'm sure if you don't put into practice when I'm teaching you, anything can happen. If you put into practice what I teach you in the program, it won't come back. That's the key, can teach you how to run that mile in under four minutes but you have to run It. I hope you understand analogy because I can't do the work for you, you've got to do the work and we're all on our own Journey. We all have the effort that we need to put in and it’s an investment in ourselves. It’s an investment in my health and my hair.

But it's also that peace of mind. I mean, do you think that I’m dealing with depression or anxiety or any of these other feelings or emotional health issues since? No, I haven’t, I'm a better version of Johanna before alopecia and that’s even with the full hair. My hair is better, my mental health is so much better, my emotional health is so much more balanced my physical health so much better, spiritual health so much better. Everything is better because of alopecia, and sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to really be able to restructure and build that new stronger foundation.

I was actually talking to a client the other and I was given the example of the three little pigs and how one house was made of hay, one house was made of brick, and the other house was made of I don't know, something else. But anyways, it was those two comparisons where a lot of times we are taking care of ourselves as the house made of hay, when we need to build a stronger foundation like the one of brick. This is because if something were to come up to us, then the the straw house the hay house would just collapse and succumb to any disease.

This is why many times my clients have not just alopecia but they also have other 2-3 autoimmune diseases. Even if they don't have autoimmune diseases, they have other symptoms they have joint pains, aches, migraines and they have just a whole lot of symptoms going on.

It's not just hair loss it's so much more. Hair loss is the tipping point. Hair loss is what's making you do something about your health, but really you haven’t been living 100% with your body, but it's only now, because on a physical appearance level you don't want to see yourself go bald. You don't want to see yourself with the hair loss and it's driving you nuts. When you build a stronger foundation like the house that's made from brick nothing can just come out and topple you.

Nothing can force you to succumb to another disease and this is what we're doing, we're building a foundation of strong brick and strong bones because this is what we need. We need a strong foundation so that you can thrive, so that nothing can penetrate your house, so that nothing can bother you, so that nothing can force you to create any more imbalances, any more disease, any more situations in life. It’s just the opposite, we're up leveling you to the next step.

I hope this has helped I look forward to your questions, comments and feedback. Please rate and review the Alopecia Angel podcast. This way we can get to more people and reach others in other parts of the world.

Thank you so much and take care.