TRANSCRIPT

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Hello everybody and welcome back to the Alopecia Angel Podcast, I'm your host, Johanna Dahlman. Today we're gonna be talking about the 7 things that you should do when you feel as if you are going through hair loss or if you're recently diagnosed with. A type of hair loss, or better yet if you're diagnosed with alopecia areata abruptly and suddenly in the saloon chair like I was.

So these are some of things that you should do before taking your next action. And before I get into today's podcast episode, I wanted to go ahead and congratulate Christy who has a type of scarring alopecia, and she was told by multiple doctors and multiple practitioners that there's nothing to do, there's no help, and, sent her on her way. She's tried it all the minoxidil, all the, medications and none of it was working. She came to me and in 5 weeks she started seeing hair growth. And so she has hair growth all over and it's coming through.

So I'm really excited to share the news with you, but then also showcase her story here soon in one of my future podcasts. So congratulations to Christy because this is a big achievement, and whether you are diagnosed with scarring, alopecia, autoimmune alopecia, or a different type of hair loss, know and believe that you can heal because it is possible. I think we're gonna go ahead and start with that one. That one, I was actually leaving it towards the end, but I'm gonna go ahead and start with that one, that believing and knowing that you can heal is part of the process, is part of the recipe, because if you don't believe you can. Then that also negates anything else that you may choose to do or not do. And so that's a big part of it too. You have to believe in your goals, you have to believe in yourself, you have to believe in that next step so that you can see the results.

As one person told me here recently, it takes confidence to heal alopecia, but we don't garner confidence out of nowhere. We garner it from taking first the courage. And so first you need the courage and then you can take and get the confidence. So for example, we'll put this in a very simple terms of let's say when a baby's learning how to walk first, they have the courage, the curiosity and the courage to pull themselves up to start taking their first steps, and then they wanna do it by themselves, right? They're no more holding someone's pinky or holding onto a toy or to a railing. Now they're doing it on their own, but it takes courage in order to do that.

And not only that, but to get up over and over again. So let's learn back to how failure and success. Is brought about. It's brought about from taking the steps, taking the actions, and perfecting that action. So in this case, the baby perfects the action with more and more steps that they choose to do. Every time they fall, they keep getting back up. It's a resilience. It's a inner tenacity that we all have. We just need to cultivate it just a little bit more. And so, I understand if maybe you've tried it all, done it all, or maybe are frustrated with the process of actually getting from A to Z, I get that. But here I'm telling you that the first step really is believing that you can do this and knowing and having that inner knowing and moving forward towards that, having the curiosity, having the courage, and then from there you garner the confidence.

So just like in the baby, after so many steps after walking perfectly, they start to run. Is that not right? They start to run because now they have confidence, not just in walking, but now in running as well. That's where the steps happen in terms of curiosity to courage, then to confidence. We gain the confidence by doing things that we haven't done before. The baby's never run before, it's never done a marathon. But at the same time, each step, each baby step takes them in the direction of running, of perfecting the walk, of putting one foot in front of the other. And that's how this happens. So I would say here with these 7 things that you need to know when you have hair loss.

The first one would be to believe and know that you can do this, to believe and know that you can heal naturally because naturally is the way to do it. You can't heal with medications and really even if you were to have hair growth with medications, it's not necessarily going to be long term. At some point that medication is going to backfire on you. We're not meant to be on medications or on minoxidil or Rogaine or anything else long term. It's not meant for us to do that from a chemical level, from a toxicity level to how our body functions. We're supposed to be functioning naturally and be able to be resilient in times of hair loss and other diagnosis. But at the same time, we also need to learn how to support the body. And this is part of the situation is that we haven't done so and therefore we're seeing this issue.

So the next thing I would say, so this is number #2 of the 7 things that you should do when you have hair loss, is to evaluate your medications. And lo and behold, many times there are hidden ingredients and hidden side effects to many medications, and I actually have a list of them on my website. It's a free PDF that you can download. There's medications that cause hair loss directly, and these are probably things that haven't been spoken about from your provider to you. These are probably not candid conversations, they've probably just left you on your own to figure this out. So that's one thing.

The other thing is I also have a free PDF about alopecia medication specifically for men and for women and how this affects men and women differently, and also the side effects to these alopecia meds. So something that you should be aware of and know of because again, these medications are not the answer. It's not a solution, and it's only gonna set you back even further. The next thing you should also do is beyond evaluating your medications, is to also evaluate your supplements. There's many of these one size fits all type supplements, whether it's for hair, skin, and nails, or whether it's for multivitamins or a just a bunch of herbs all together, or a bunch of ingredients all together.

And many times what I find is that a lot of these ingredients are actually hindering you. And what I also find is that if I were to go through and look at these products myself, I'm able to pinpoint exactly what it is that is. Either not working for you or working against you or both. And so this is part of the situation. We think that just because it's quote unquote marketed as a health product and it's good and it's on the shelf and you can fi nd it at the, at any retailer, that it should be good for you. But many times this is not the case. And so reevaluating your supplements and seeing exactly what you truly need and what you don't need is important to know, because many times we just fall into the trap of taking one supplement and 2 and 3 and 4, especially when we start with maybe just a little bit of hair loss and we, you just start thinking: Okay, let me just try them all.

That's actually as well a waste of time and money. So the next thing I would say too is to get on the wait list for my free training. I have these free trainings periodically, whether it's for hormone and thyroid, or whether it is for healing hair loss and naturally, and how to do so and I would highly recommend that you get on this wait list. I will enter the link on the show note so that you have that and you can be notified for the next one. And so this is really imperative so that you can also see and understand what it takes to heal care loss naturally, what this all entails, and how to go about it in a strategic way so that you are not, blindsided with other marketing glitter that's out there. Because many times that's what happens. We fall into the marketing trap of thinking that one product or another product or something else is gonna help us. And in reality it doesn't.

And so, this is part of the misinformation and part of the frustration and the longevity of trying to heal is that it's not ever going to be so black and white. This is much more than just a regular internet search, and it requires in-depth approach. And so this is what I offer many times. So get on the wait list and I'm happy to have you inside the free trainings that I have periodically. 

Another thing to consider is to evaluate who you plan to work with. In order to get your hair back, and many times I will say that it's so valuable to work with somebody because there could be an underlying cause. If this was so simple, there wouldn't be millions of people suffering from it. If this was such an easy solution, there wouldn't be millions. And when I say millions, there's over 6 million people in the US alone that are dealing with alopecia, the autoimmune hair loss in the US. In the UK you have another 3 to 5 million. In Australia, you have another couple million in Canada, you also have another hefty, Maybe 5 to 10 million. And so it's not a small number, it's not a small percentage of people who are dealing with autoimmune alopecia, but beyond autoimmune alopecia, you have other types of hair loss too, where people are absolutely distraught, absolutely devastated with their situation. And if it was so simple with one pill or one serum, or one extra supplement. Then we wouldn't be here because in reality it takes more than that.

This is what I go into and I decipher inside the free training, but really evaluate of who you plan to work with or if you even do plan to work with somebody, if you're trying to do this on your own, good luck because it's gonna take a lot of time, a lot of energy. And probably years, it took me over 3-4 years to figure this all out. And that was just for me. I wasn't even planning on doing this. But then when I felt the calling to help others. Then this came about and then Alopecia Angel was born. But had I known what I know now, I would've questioned more and evaluated more the doctors, the dermatologists, and the practitioners and everyone else that I was calling to make an appointment with or calling to see because had I evaluated them, I would've seen that a) They don't have results. b) They can do nothing for me. And c) That their treatments and therapies would only lead me to dead ends.

And so I think that's part of this process too, is understanding how to better interview people and see them as people versus as the end all be all, because many times everyone wants to raise their hand and help you, but not everyone can. And that's a true reality. This is why I had seen more than 4, 5, 6 doctors, 10 doctors just for my alopecia. And even when I was pregnant and going through my first pregnancy at 40, I had seen multiple midwives and interviewed multiple midwives to make sure I felt comfortable and confident with the midwife because in the Netherlands where I was having my baby, I didn't have access to a doctor, so I needed to feel very confident and comfortable with the midwife. And lo and behold, thankfully it all worked out.

But at the same time, this is your opportunity to do your due diligence and start asking those heavy questions like: Do they have results? Do they have testimonials? Do they have before and after pictures? Just as the same. If you were gonna go in for surgery, if you were gonna go in for. Breast implants or plastic surgery of any sort or even a liposuction. You wanna see before and after pictures. You don't wanna go into a doctor thinking that they can do the job and not have seen their work. And just the same way, like if you're gonna get your car detailed or if your house painted or anything else, you wanna be able to see before and after pictures of other properties or of other cars that they've worked on so that you can see. The quality of their work and that yes, they are capable and competent to do this service.

And like I said, everyone wants to help, but not everyone can. It's not just in healthcare, but it's in everything else. And so at the level and at the caliber that you want that help, this is where we need to start asking better questions and really evaluate, can this, dermatologist, doctor practitioner, health coach, et cetera, get us to the finish line? Can they, and do they have the results? Do they have the strategy? Do they have the wherewithal and the knowledge and the expertise and the experience? Because if not, this is a red flag.

What I've seen too. Most recently especially, is that many of my clients many of them have been dealing with a lot of people, doctors, practitioners, health coaches, et cetera, where they've gone in to see them for their alopecia, for their hair loss, regardless of hair loss type, and it's been months and years that they're working with this practitioner and no results. A lot of times it's because of the lack of experience, lack of expertise, and the lack of the toolkit. And when I say about the toolkit, it's really understanding like what's next, what needs to happen and how to truly evaluate the person so that you can get them the speedy results that they're looking for, because that's what they're paying you for.

And so, this is part of the problem. If you're working with somebody and it's been months and years and you still have zero results, that's a problem and that's a red flag, and you should be evaluating who you're working with. Because if they can't get you to the end game, then there's a problem with that too, right? You're just wasting your time and your money. And so whether it's pregnancy, plastic, surgery, painting a house or anything else, or in this case hair loss, you wanna make sure that the person you're working with has results to show you, has results that you can see, and see the before and after pictures because I think that's very key.

That also gives you a sense of comfort and understanding that yes, they can help you  and it's really not about the type of hair loss, but rather working with you on a personal basis to make sure you can get and succeed, because that's what we want.

The next thing I would say is to take action. The longer you wait. The worst it tends to get. The thing is waiting is not a strategy. And so, the longer you take to take that action, that next step, the worse it does get. Whether that's a vicious cycle with autoimmune alopecia or whether that's, just continuous hair fall, which can lead to more and more baldness, bald patches or let's say more balding in the crown. Regardless of the hair loss and the hair loss type. It will only get worse if nothing changes, if nothing happens, and if you're not on the right situation and strategic path towards your healing. 

The other thing I would also say is that get inspired. Get inspired with what is possible. There's a lot of negativity online, there's a lot of negativity in general when it comes to a diagnosis, when it comes to what medical textbooks say, when it comes to what even doctors say, and their limiting beliefs. And I would say that a lot of times their limiting beliefs are being imposed on you. For example, when I saw my doctor in the Netherlands first for my hair loss, she said. She shrugged her shoulder, she's: Johanna, I've got nothing for you. Just stop wearing your hair in a ponytail. This is with a very clear bald patch in the back of my head. And what happened? Another bald patch. And then what happened? Another bald patch. I was trying to figure out what to do next.

But the thing is like, time doesn't wait. And as I mentioned, things kept progressing, things were getting worse. And this doctor said: Sorry, I got nothing for you. And so many times when. Let's say a doctor, a dermatologist, or anyone else say they can't do anything for you. They can't help you believe them and pivot, believe them and move on. And when they say that nothing can be done and that let's say diet and lifestyle is not gonna help them or help you, don't believe them and move on, because many times we're not all on the same path. And many times our own limitations, in their case, their own limitations of experience, expertise, protocols, and what they can and cannot offer is part of this situation.

So I would say always align with somebody who shows you the positivity and the positive side and aspects of healing because healing is possible. I healed myself and now I help others heal. And yes, I do have before and after pictures from various clients, from children all the way through their 80s, all on my website. But then I also have numerous testimonials, client interviews on my podcast and so much more. And so, always align yourself with the positive aspect of things when you think it's not possible. Look for resources, look for things out there that says and shows you that it is, because sometimes we're just lacking a little confidence. We're just lacking the courage to go and move forward and take that next step. We all have the curiosity, right? For the most part, it's just we need the courage to take the next step from the courage, then we gain the confidence, and then it just becomes second nature.

Look at me and look at all my other clients. It's just like hair growth, abundance, and thriving health. This is what I want for you. I know it's possible, and it's just about taking that next step in terms of getting your healing and knowing exactly what you need to do in order to do so. I hope these seven things of what to do with your hair loss situation helps you now because.

Had I known, how to evaluate the practitioners in my life, had I known to ask better questions, I would've saved myself a lot of time and money, and I just would've had, those candid conversations over the phone with a receptionist, because that's an easy yes or no answer. Do you have, results to show for it? Yes or no? Do you have before and after pictures yes or no? If you don't, okay, move on. Boom. Just would've simplified the trajectory and it would've allowed me more time to refocus time, money, and energy and resources into another area of healing, versus trying to work with people that didn't have answers, that didn't have the expertise, that didn't have the experience.

That even if they were medical doctors, didn't have that next step for me. And when someone doesn't have the opportunity or that next step, then this is where it also limits us and it limits our progress. My grandma used to say to me: You can't ask from a fig tree, lemons, you can't ask lemons from a fig tree. And so this is what I'm trying to say is that many times. The person that you are looking to work with or have worked with in the past, they can only give you so much, and if you start to think about it, that also goes into relationships of any sort or any friendships. They can only give you so much that they're able to give you because either their cup is half full or not full at all, or maybe, maybe less than empty.

And so this is part of the situation. We need to be a little more wide-eyed and open and not just expect. That they're gonna have all the answers just because they're wearing a lab coat or expect that they have all the answers, just because, they have a couple initials after their name.

And so this is something where I started taking a step back and evaluating the person for who they are versus of what they have to offer or what their, society says that they should be knowledgeable about. Because many times I would say I've seen over over 6-7 doctors for my alopecia, and yet none of them were able to give me answers and none of them were able to give me the next steps. None of them helped me on the healing process except for seeing that none of them were helping. And then you just keep pivoting, you just keep moving, you just keep forward. But that forward momentum is exhausting. It is challenging, and it does, take a hold of your time and money and the expenses that incur with that, especially if it's out of pocket like it was for me.

So had I known these seven things, I would've done things a lot more seamlessly. So I hope they help you. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to us anytime. You can email us and also and subscribe to our podcast and write a review and help us to get more news out there. So share this with your friends and your family and anyone in your community because I know everyone knows somebody with hair loss. Thank you so much. Take care.