Episode 136 - How Losing My Hair and Health Forced Me Into Healing

For those of you who are new to me, this would be a great refresh, or maybe you've never heard my story before, so now you get to hear it from the horse's mouth. That's part of the reason why I'm sharing my story, podcast episode #1 with you, because it all started with my story with my own inspiration of being of knowing, that inner knowing, that inner intuition of saying: Yes, I can heal and so can others. It's been such a beautiful journey for me, especially to see and to hear and to be in contact with my clients on a one on one basis and to connect with them, even though we are miles and miles apart, whether that's, you know, when I lived in the Netherlands or when I lived in Japan, or whether they are living in Canada, in Europe or anywhere else. We're all connected by the hair loss, but b) The fight, for the obstacle and also for achieving it, for achieving and overcoming the hair loss to hair growth, to becoming diagnosed to being empowered, from being shocked and seeing all the decisions and all the formalities of what alopecia can lead to in our lives to say: No, I'm going to take a stance and a stand towards my health and my hair.

I've helped numerous, thousands of people in over 66 countries and I love it. I love seeing people from India, from Denmark, from South Africa, from Latin America, Mexico, New Zealand, you name it. People from all over, and that's the beauty of the Hair N' Heal program and that's also the beauty and the gumption of everyone who wants to do the program, because when you do the program you see results. When you join and you take action, you get what you want, that all comes from taking action. You can have anything and everything you want in life, you just need to take action. And really, on the other side of fear, on the other side of discomfort, is exactly what you want.

If you start thinking about it, and I like to see metaphors, I like to see patterns, personally, and if you start thinking about it, you know, maybe sometimes, we women, we want the baby, right? But in order to get the baby, guess what, you also have 9 months of pregnancy, and you also have labor, which, for anyone who's gone through labor, it's not an easy task. It's multiple hours of pushing and pain and, you know, screaming and just discomfort, right? But on the other side of that is a beautiful newborn baby that's all yours. And so, on the other side of the discomfort is exactly what we want, whether that's the hair growth, whether that's the baby, whether that's saving up to buy the house, right? Cause there's this comfort and saving up, right? And trying to budget, right? To get the house or whether it's to lose weight or whether it's to run a marathon or anything else. There's always going to be a little bit of discomfort, but it all requires action, and only you can do that.

So once you take the action, you can get what you want, and in this case, we're talking about your hair growth. So it's all yours, it really is, you just decide when and where. Anyhow, thank you so much for listening. I love, love, love to see new subscribers, new followers, and getting inspired. Get inspired, the podcast has over 130 different types of podcast episodes with interviews from clients, with tips and ways to help, but then also again to bring you back to that inspiration. People with scarring alopecia, people with telogen effluvium, people with diffuse, people with female pattern baldness, people with autoimmune diseases, people with multiple autoimmune diseases who've reversed their grades, their Hashimoto's, all within our podcast interviews, but then also on our website.

So if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us, we're here to help. You can also get links to our free training that's going on [email protected] and I'll let you listen to that podcast episode. #1 Thank you so much. Take care.

Hello everybody and welcome to alopecia Angel podcast, awaken to hair growth. Awaken to hair growth because during my own alopecia experience and journey, no one gave me any clue that it was possible to reverse, no one gave me any hope or any signs of healing, no one gave me any guarantees and really no one gave me any positive feedback at all. No community, no organization, no nothing was ever positive or ever really shown a light that this was possible to reverse. I wanted to welcome you not just to the podcast, but also to the possibility to hair growth, because it is possible.

And it is because a) I'm here as proof, but more than that, all my clients are too. You may be thinking: No, what type of alopecia did you have? What type of alopecia do your clients have? Is this really possible for me? And I'll tell you that I have tons of case studies, I have tons of clients from all over the world, different ethnicities, children, men and women of all ages and races and additionally, different types of alopecia, including totalis, universalis, androgenetic alopecia, areata, telogen effluvium diffuse traction alopecia, and so many more that have all been reversed.

Unfortunately, the medical system, the education there has not allowed us, including myself to heal through that method. This is part of why I started Alopecia Angel. So let's go back a little bit. Who am I? My name is Johanna and I was diagnosed with alopecia more than 6 years ago, and it took me over 3 years to finally see hair growth and granted when I first was diagnosed, which was in the salon of my hairdresser who knows me since I'm 13 years old, it was pretty devastating and very traumatic. It was probably the first time that I cried at the salon in front of everybody. When I started researching what alopecia was, since he was the one who had diagnosed me right then and there. At my healthiest that I thought that I was still diagnosed with alopecia and, in hindsight, now looking back, I realized that it doesn't matter who you are, the alopecia doesn't discriminate.

So my clients range from dietitians to nutritionists or personal trainers, to hairstylists, to pharmaceutical representatives to all different types of people in the health and wellness industry, along with the medical community, along with just regular average children that are in school moms or people who are teachers and health care providers and, every different walk of life, really. What had happened was that I was diagnosed and I went straight to my doctor, just like many of you all have done. I went straight to my doctor, I didn't get the results I wanted. I went to another doctor and another doctor and still no results, all these recommendations and all their medications and all the trials just seem like band aids. There was no results and no guarantees. I was frustrated with the system and I was frustrated with not having answers and not having control.

This is what led me on this journey. I was so driven to get my hair back, I was so driven to get my health back in order because for those dealing with alopecia, let's say the parents of children with alopecia, what you don't know is that alopecia is much more than hair loss, it is an out-of-body experience. There are a gazillion symptoms that go along with it, including insomnia, depression, anxiety, ridges and cracks on the fingernails, digestive issues, dry skin, dry eyes, fatigue headaches, just a numerous varieties of different symptoms. I felt them all, I really did. It's almost like COVID in that sense, where it's not just a regular flu, it's much more than that. For each person, it's a little different and just like alopecia, it's a little different for everybody. this is why they say there's no cure because not one pill or one type of medication will heal and cure everybody. And that's very true, it won't.

And so this is what led me to go the holistic and natural route. Because again, I was fed up with the medical establishment, I was fed up with band aid solutions, I was fed up with products that didn't pull through and didn't show anything for it. This is why I created Alopecia Angel because I don't want anyone else to have to suffer, to have to prolong any results or to struggle with hair loss anymore.

It took me over 3 years and 3 years of full time dedication. And when I say full time dedication, I mean, 16, 14, 18 hour days, weekends included full on dedicated to this. I made it my job to get my hair back because for those of you watching on YouTube, you can see that I have, if I may say beautiful, healthy, curly hair, and I've always had my curly hair and I didn't want to lose it. The type of alopecia that I had started as areata and I also experienced diffuse, and I also was experiencing signs of totalis because yes, you can graduate to the next step, which is totalis, you can graduate to universalis. What I like to say is that alopecia is like a cold and if you let it fester, it will graduate to bronchitis, it can graduate to pneumonia. As anyone knows, you don't want pneumonia, you don't want bronchitis, you don't want a measly cold to get out of hand.

And so when you have alopecia, it's best to address it as soon as possible. Do not let it fester because I've had clients come to me after 10 years, 20 years of it, letting it fester in their vicious cycles, come and go and not do anything. Just assuming thinking and crossing fingers and then lo and behold, it doesn't, it gets worse. So that's your first tip is to not let it fester, but going back to why I started Alopecia A ngel is because again, when you have a proven solution to be able to create the results to get the hair growth in less time to avoid additional and excess suffering, crying, tears.

And so after 3 years of struggling myself, I knew I had to share my story and also share my process with the world. And again, it took me three3 years just to see a little bit of hair growth, but then I dialed in, I wrote a book, I wrote another book, I started coaching people and lo and behold, different types of people with different types of alopecia started healing and starting seeing hair growth in less than 2 months and less than 3 months in less than 4 weeks. This is when I knew that I had to share my knowledge, my information with the world. And Alopecia Angel was born and now here in 2022, the Alopecia Angel podcast is born too, because it's important to get the news out, it's important to decipher and to take away all the misinformation that a search online can give you to what your doctors are telling you, to what is truly possible. Because that's the reality, there are more possibilities for hair growth than what people lead you to believe. There's more possibilities to healing, if you really want it than what your doctors, the medical establishment is leading you to believe.

You can reverse this just like I know of people who've reversed their MS, their Hashimoto's and so many other situations with autoimmune disease. You can reverse it and you can heal it, it's possible. Granted there's work involved, but it's definitely possible. So I was first diagnosed 6 years ago and as I mentioned, it was absolutely devastating. What I've come to learn is that healing it the natural and holistic way. Is far better off for you in the long run a) Because you're upgrading your immune system b) Because you're tackling the root cause of your alopecia c) Because once you understand and learn how to control your health and your alopecia, then it can never come back to haunt you. Let me say that again, it can never come back to haunt you. So for those of you who've had vicious cycles of on and off over years, months, or decades, you can put a stop to all that. You can put the kibosh and say no more to the vicious cycles. You can also say no more to the hair loss, and you can also understand and learn to be more self aware so that you understand what's needed to keep you personally in balance.

I say this because, healing alopecia is not a one size fits all, it's very much customized. Also there's many factors, there's many factors to alopecia, it's not just diet, it's not just this, it's not just that. There are so many factors and all the factors have to be uncovered. It's almost like that game, where you're trying to do matching of let's say the flower with the flower and the Ferris wheel with the Ferris wheel. It's like that card game, if you know what I'm talking about, where you have all the cards and they all face down and then you start uncovering them and you start making the match. It's like that, where you have to uncover every factor and every nook and cranny to really get the full picture of what's needed and what the ingredients are specifically for you.

You're probably asking yourself, so how do I know the factors and how do I know what's needed for me? Because everyone's different. Within my years of working with people and clients from all over the world, I've created a program it's called the Hair N' Heal program. And in this program, we talk about the customization, we also go through all the factors that are needed and it gives you the foundation. This is huge because no one is teaching us this. No one is really giving us the full perspective or the full picture of what health looks like of what, and how to treat naturally, and guess what? Without any side effects, without any risks or negative issues later on down the road. So when I got alopecia, I was in my 30s and I had just met my husband. When you meet that special person in your life, the next step for me was babies and fertility and, growing my family and the unfortunate thing about all this was that during alopecia or when I was diagnosed and dating and going through the emotions of getting together and getting engaged and all this was that, yes, I was looking at the next steps, but at the same time, I was also confronted with:, Do I take medication? Do I not take medications for alopecia? Do I do the steroid shots? Do I do this? Do I do that?

And granted, I did try, I did try a lot of the medication and a lot of it, I said, no, because I started researching more and more about the effects and the side effects and a lot of it affects your fertility. Lo and behold, a lot of the medications also hinder other areas of your health, including kidneys and your liver and there are risks and side effects. If there was anything that I didn't want to hinder was my fertility, but also my health in general, there's no point in trying to obtain hair growth when you're destroying other areas of your health. It just doesn't make sense to me and it also doesn't make sense to me that the cortisone shots or any cortisone type treatments suppress your immune system, that also doesn't make sense to me where the doctor is prescribing medication that suppresses your immune system, it makes you even more vulnerable. So if you are taking this medication, I would highly encourage you to rethink that and reevaluate that because again, suppressing your immune system only makes you more vulnerable to disease. It doesn't upgrade your health at all.

And so that's, first and foremost, I wanted to protect my fertility, I wanted to give myself the option to have kids and luckily, yes, I am now a parent and I love being a mother, but I also love talking about alopecia. It always comes up in every topic and this is probably another reason why I started the podcast because I can't talk enough about it and about the possibilities for you to reverse this. So whether it's been 5 months or 5 years or 50 years, know that it's possible to reverse. This is again, why I created Alopecia Angel because there is no beacon of light, there is no spark of hope anywhere. When I was going through alopecia and through my journey, it was all negative. It was all doom and gloom. It was all depressing, it just worsened probably my mindset, my spirit and just my outlook on what was possible for me.

I know that many times we look up to people, we look up to people who do good in the world we look up to certain people who advocate for other groups of people and for other causes. I want to advocate for you, I want to advocate for those with alopecia who think that there's no possibility to healing, who are confused by all the misguided information that's online or the misinformation that they're given from one doctor to another, to the dermatologist, to the endocrinologist, to here, to there and everywhere else and everything in between. There is a streamlined approach, there is approach that is customized to people, there is a way for you to heal and it doesn't have to include medications, pharmaceuticals of any sort. I made it this way because again, for me, because I wanted to protect myself, I wanted to upgrade my health and I have.

It's been more than 6 years going on to 7 and it's been a beautiful thing, not just for me, but for the hundreds of clients that I've helped already around the world. If this is your first introduction to Alopecia Angel, know that I started with a, with an ebook, it's called the Secrets to Health and Hair Growth. I started this book in English, it's now also in Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch, and. From there, I continued on with a cookbook, and now I have a full fledged course, a 2 month course that is offered periodically. But more importantly, if you really wanted to understand alopecia a little bit more and understand the positive sides to this, but then also maybe other sides that you haven't really considered, I would highly suggest that you grab the free downloads online at the website, www.alopeciaangel.com and you can find free PDFs that include what medications cause hair loss, because yes, certain medications, including birth control create hair loss. You can also learn how the risks and side effects of typical common alopecia medications, those that are strictly for boys and men, and those that are strictly for women. And guess what? A lot of it affects fertility for both genders and it's quite disheartening.

So if you're not aware and you're just taking the Kool Aid, like I like to say from the doctor, without asking questions, with their 10 minute, 7 minute. timeframe, they're not going to have enough time to go over the risks and the ramifications of this medication. So inform yourself, this is why I have these free PDFs online for you. I also have a free PDF about children and how to understand a little bit more about what's going on with children and alopecia, because in children is a little different than alopecia in adults. And so the approach and the programs are all very much tailored, it can't be one size fits all. This is again, why there's quote unquote, no cure because not one pill, not one cream will do it for everybody. It just won't happen, but there is a way to heal and there is a way to reverse alopecia, it's just a holistic way. It's a holistic natural route that essentially the medical community cannot monetize because it's not in the form of a pill or a potion or a serum or a shampoo, right?

So if you want to heal, if you want to reverse and say goodbye to alopecia, I recommend and encourage you to take this podcast and continue the journey with me. I have so much to share, I have so much wisdom and I want to empower you to take back your control and take back your hair growth. I look forward to talking to you and speaking more. Thank you so much and take care.