There is an old saying… you don’t know what you got til its gone. Back in the day, Cinderella sang a song all about that… You can check it out here if you are curious. That was the case for me when suddenly my hair started falling out in handfuls. At the time, I had no idea what was causing the hair loss and I was more than freaked out about the amount I was losing. I was afraid I would have to be wearing a wig in less than a month.
I did start wearing a hairpiece within a few weeks because when I put my hair up in a bun it was about the size of a quarter. When my hair was healthy an thick it was about 4 inches in diameter and very full and rounded. The hairpiece fit around the bun and made it look like there was more hair volume. I have no pictures to share from this time other than the handful of hair. I was too discouraged to take a picture.
I never realized how important hair was for self identity until this happened. Most women I discussed this with understood this importance more than I had. One woman even told me that our hair is like our crown. She is 100% correct.
I had a local hairdresser help me try to find the root cause of this issue. I thought maybe it was due to doing a well water treatment on my hair followed by coloring it a week later. I am fully aware that coloring the hair is toxic; however, once I talked about it with my hairdresser, we realized it was due to Covid. She had a client a month back who lost most of her hair 3 months after having Covid. I was on the same 3 month timeline with my hair loss.
I did some research and realized that it may not be due to the Covid virus directly; but rather the longstanding fever caused from the Covid. I had a fever for more than 7 days. I was on a strong supplements regimen and using my Tennant Biomodulator frequency machine to optimize my body for healing, so I did not have any long lasting symptoms and my fatigue resolved after about a month and a half. Since I had seemingly full resolution, I was not giving Covid any thought when I had hair loss.
However, I discovered that any longstanding fever causes all the hair follicles to go into shedding phase. It is the body’s way of conserving energy. Usually the hair follicles are all staggered in their phases of shedding, but with a fever or high stress the body tries to conserve as much energy as possible and stops feeding the hair follicles. It takes about 3 months for the deepest part of the hair shaft to be pushed out to the surface and then shed.
Now that I was informed, I realized it was necessary to give my body what it needed to grow more healthy hair. I talked with a hairdresser friend who talked with a few colleagues and gave me some recommendations on scalp serums to use to facilitate hair regrowth. I settled on GrandeHAIR enhancing Serum. It came highly recommended, though with a hefty price tag. Hair can be expensive! Sheesh! I was also told to STOP coloring my hair so I guess the savings in coloring my hair went into growing my hair. But OMG the grey hair was getting to be too much so I did get some temporary wash out hair color. It was a hassle but it helped support my hair follicles in regrowth by minimizing toxins.
I also needed to support the hair growth from the inside out. I love Natures Sunshine due to their commitment to quality control with a not so scary / hefty price tag. Check out the top of this page link here for a video on Natures Sunshine Quality Control. I remain loyal to this company on their quality and the results. I knew from past experience that collagen is an important part of hair strength so I decided to supplement with Collagen. I also found that there is a product called HSN-W that contains herbs traditionally used to enhance skin tone and help strengthen hair, skin and nails. These botanicals, including wild crafted Horsetail stems, also offer antioxidant benefits. I decided to use both of these products to strengthen my hair regrowth from the inside out.
Deficits in thyroid function can also negatively affect hair growth. In fact, depressed thyroid function is a common cause of hair loss when it occurs in the absence of a significant stressor such as a high fever. The thyroid hormones regulate many body functions including oxygen use, basal metabolic rate, cellular metabolism, growth and development and body temperature. It is no surprise the thyroid would be affected when the body needs to conserve energy in the event of a high fever from an illness.
I decided to support my thyroid as much as possible with two supplements through Natures Sunshine including Thyroid Support and Adaptamax. Both of these supplements contain Kelp; which has iodine and is necessary for proper thryoid function. Functional thyroid hormones cannot be produced without iodine. Thyroid support provides amino acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, glandular extracts and phytonutrients to support thyroid function. Adaptamax has a proprietary blend of many non-GMO adaptogenic botanicals, including ginseng, rhodiola, ashwagandha and astralagus. These herbs allow the body to adapt to changes and fluctuations internally with more ease. It also contains ginkgo, kelp and some other herbs used to support energy production, thyroid function and the nervous system.
I stayed on this regimen for over 7 months and had thick hair regrowth that came back about an inch a month. I was told by several hairdressers that hair typically regrows about 1/2 inch a month so I was exceeding expectations!!! It has been over 10 months and I still take the thyroid support and adaptamax but have stopped the HSN-W because my nails were growing too fast and It was too much to keep up with. I still take the collagen and have scaled it down to every 2-3 days rather than daily in my smoothies. I did not repurchase the GrandeHAIR serum after I ran out because I felt I was doing enough to support my hair from the inside out.
I love how my hair looks now and I get tons of compliments. I even started dying my hair every 2 months once I felt like it had grown back about 4-5 inches, but was extra careful to get as little on the scalp as possible. I still use the wash out hair color to minimize the toxins on my scalp and stretch out the time between color treatments.
It is very unsettling to have significant hair loss but YOU can turn it around with the right tools. If you are uncertain if any of these recommendations would be beneficial for you with the challenges you are facing or you are concerned about your stress levels and how that is affecting your hair growth please contact me for a consultation. We can discuss your best options moving forward. There are A LOT of options to reduce stress levels, and we can go through all those options together. I would love the opportunity to help you find more balance and calm in your body.
In Abundant Health,
lisamariekeller 