I’ve decided to share this as I know there are many other women out there that continue to struggle with hair loss. And I really hope that if you know anyone who is struggling with this issue, you may want to share this with them.
In July 2024, may hair loss was at the very worst I have ever known it to be. Being of a certain age and having gone through the menopause, I thought this was probably as good as it gets and maybe what I would have to accept going forward.
Not getting to the bottom of things is not my usual style , but believe me, I have tried just about everything on the market; changed my diet, pills, potions, laser combs, private blood tests that were inconclusive and bloody ridiculous rituals which when I think back now I can’t believe I went along with . But when you’ve got nothing to lose why not?
The turning point came when I was writing the content for the Auyrva Academy Integrative Hypnotherapy Course. I was trained as a Solution Focused Therapist but more and more over the years I have combined this with other more analytical approaches to get the best outcomes for my clients.
I have fully researched and written the element of the course that focuses on overall wellbeing to include the mind-body connection and how we can utilise the power of the mind to heal. I’m not talking about spiritual healing; I’m talking about scientific evidence about how a healthy mindset supports a healthy body and conversely, where a deep-seated trauma is playing out within you it will affect the whole way in which your body responds and sometimes how we behave.
My hair loss started at the ripe old age of 40 when I was hit with the death of my Mum and a protracted and bitter divorce from a narcissistic man. It was the lowest point of my life. At the same time, I came off of the contraceptive pill; a part of me always believed my hair loss might be hormonal. Blood tests confirmed there was no hormone imbalance. But that primitive part of my mind got me hooked into this idea. WHY?
Because we hate admitting that there might be something playing out in our mindset. It doesn’t mean we need therapy, but we do need to work on self-understanding and self-awareness. We need to drop that part of our ego that tells us we should have everything figured out by now and accept that we will be on this growth and development journey until the day we’re too old to give a damn!
So, in 2023, with all the hype around HRT, I decided to have the conversation with my GP and started taking it. Worst decision ever . Hair loss got SO BAD. I came off HRT after a couple of months, but it took ages for my hair to stop falling out at a seriously alarming rate and return to its normal alarming rate.
The ‘before’ picture above was taken when Andy & I visited Rome in July last year. If you expand that picture you will see clearly, just how bad it was.
During Spetember of 2024, I tried a new shampoo and conditioner. The first thing I have ever tried that actually had an impact on what was by then limp and lifeless hair. It had volume and bounce for the first time in forever.
That shampoo and conditioner is Kitsch – Rice Water Protein soap bars. No doubt you've seen it advertisied on Facebook. They are much cheaper if you buy them on Amazon.
I have to state now that I am in NO WAY sponsored by Kitsch. I haven’t even provided a review for them as they get loads of good reviews anyway and because I’m still on my recovery journey and want to be certain that it will sustain.
Whilst it made a difference and did have a ‘placebo’ effect of helping me to feel better about my hair, it was still falling out significantly. So I began that process of acceptance. That there was still something playing out in me that hadn’t processed the trauma that occurred around me when I hit 40.
I started to do my own therapy, I was brutally honest with myself and had to admit that there was still a trauma response that was impacting me in more areas of my life than I had realised. And I began the work of healing, making a bespoke trance recording for myself and using self-hypnosis to speak to that subconcious part of my brain and tell it to stop being so daft. The trauma was over.
And then, within less than 2 weeks, the hair loss got better and better. It has now completely stopped.
I’ve been to see my amazing hairdresser this month and have been able to change my hairstyle for the first time in years. There is no way I could have considered a new hairstyle as my thin hair would not have coped with all of the layers. But it needed to be done. It would have taken another year for the longer and painfully thinner parts to catch up and thicken up.
I felt it was time to change and move away from the old hairstyle I have been stuck with throughout the worst experience I’ve had with hair loss. Time to celebrate a new way forward.
I’m currently working on a series of videos that explain this journey in more detail, more detail about the science behind it and how the mind-body connection works in relation to helping us to heal. Once its available on YouTube I’ll update the vide series here as a series of blog posts.
I’m also working on a treatment plan for the best way I can work with anyone who feels I can help them. More on that soon coming on the website.
It’s so important that anyone who thinks I may be able to help watches the videos first. There is a HUGE ethical responsibility here. Hypnosis isn’t a ‘silver bullet’. It’s a tool that needs to be utilised to work on the mindset and it takes commitment and a willingness to deal with your demons so to speak.
In addition, it is CRUCIAL that anyone suffering with hair loss gets thoroughly checked out by the medical profession first to ensure it isn’t a physical issue. Iron deficiency, liver problems and thyroid issues can contribute to hair loss.
There are many different types of hair loss. Mine was diagnosed as Chronic Telogen Effluvium. Which basically means that the hair thins all over the head, but you don’t get bald patches as you would with Alopecia.
If your hair loss is diagnosed as being ‘stress related’ I may be able to help. But you need to be committed to making positive changes and ready to accept that this may be a mindset issue upon which we need to work together.
When I had my diagnosis at 42, I was told that when the stress stopped the hair would grow back. If only I had fully accepted that the primitive part of my brain was still running the show back then ……………