Reversing Hair Loss At Midlife: How To Make It Fully Vital

Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, hosted by Dr. Kyrin Dunston! In this informative and engaging episode, Dr. Kyrin Dunston talks to renowned guest Faraz Khan about reversing hair loss and regaining hair vitality at midlife. Faraz is an expert in the field of hair loss in women, founder of FullyVital, and host of the Anti-Aging Hacks Podcast.
  
Faraz's innovative thinking and empathetic approach towards hair health have made him a highly sought-after voice in the field. In this conversation, he delves into the molecular level of how testosterone and DHT, specifically around menopause, can affect hair follicle health, ultimately contributing to a broader understanding of hair loss patterns in women.

Some highlights of the episode include:

- Understanding the role of testosterone and DHT in hair health
- Strategies to reverse hair loss during midlife
- The complex interplay of hormones, diet, and lifestyle that impact hair health
- Faraz's unique perspective and empathetic approach to hair health
  
It's an episode that you won't want to miss if you want to understand the root cause of hair loss and learn how to regain your hair's vitality at midlife. So, don't miss out on the valuable insights Faraz shares and the helpful knowledge he imparts.
  
Make sure to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast to stay updated on all the latest episodes and be a part of our community of listeners working towards better hormonal health.

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review!** Your positive feedback helps others discover our podcast and benefit from the insightful conversations we have with experts like Faraz Khan. Together, we can help more people gain control of their hormonal health and enjoy fuller, more vital lives.

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Our bodies are magical and they know exactly how to heal. We just have to give them time so they can kickstart the process. Stay tuned to learn how to heal your hair and reverse hair loss at midlife.

Speaker 2 (00:15):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:08):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into reversing hair loss at midlife. How to make it fully vital with my guest today, Faraz Khan. Hair loss is a huge problem for women at midlife and beyond, and it's not only a cosmetic issue. Sure, our identity is very tied up in our hair and we want our hair to look its best 'cause it is tied to our identity, and we feel our best when our hair looks good, but it's about so much more. Your hair is part of the trilogy of what I call the canary in the coal mine, and that's hair, skin, and nails. These three aspects of your body will out picture what's going on inside. So if your health is not optimized inside, if you're in hormonal poverty, for instance, which occurs for most women after 40, then your hair is not going to be as thick as it should, as long as it should, as vital as it should, as healthy as it should, and your identity is gonna suffer as a result.

Speaker 1 (02:22):

So just like erectile dysfunction in men is very often a harbinger of cardiac issues, right? It's not just about erectile dysfunction in women. Hair problems are not just about the hair, it's about your metabolism, your physiology, your biochemistry, what's happening inside the body. And so the hair is one of the places that will out picture this. So I really want you to pay attention. If you've got hair problems, it could be a sign of something deeper. And we're gonna dive in today into what are the deeper causes of hair loss. Yes, it's about hormones, but it's not only about hormones. So there are other dysfunctions and disruptions that can be going on that you need to pay attention to. And we're gonna dive into that and we're gonna talk about the quote that Farad shared that I shared with you and the teaser. And we're gonna give you some solutions.

Speaker 1 (03:13):

Best of all, what do you do about it? There's testing that can be done, there are treatments that are available to you. There's further diagnosis, more than your doctors and dermatologist's office. There are specialists in this. So we're gonna dive into all of this and really give you a good understanding. First, I'll tell you a little bit about for us Khan, and then we'll get started. He's the founder of Fully Vital and the host of the Anti-Aging Hacks podcast. He's a leading expert in the field of hair loss in women and has dedicated his career to understanding the complex interplay of hormones, diet, and lifestyle on hair health. His work focuses on the molecular level of how testosterone and D H T affect hair follicles, as well as the other factors that go into hair loss. He has innovative thinking and an empathetic approach. This has made him a sought after voice in the field. He's helped countless individuals regain confidence and control over their hair health. His insights into hormonal imbalances, particularly around menopause, perimenopause, hormonal poverty, have contributed to a broader understanding of hair loss patterns in women. So please help me welcome Rascon to the show. Thank

Speaker 3 (04:23):

You so much, Dr. Kyron. I'm a big fan and I'm glad to be here. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (04:26):

I'm super excited to talk about hair loss. Back over a decade ago when I weighed 243 pounds and had fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and all the health problems that I had, and I looked and felt 20 years older than I was, hair loss was a huge component of my dysfunction. I would wash my hair and it would look like there was a small dog in the drain. It would just come out. It was diffuse hair loss. I didn't have any bald patches, and it wasn't growing like it should. It was dry and brittle, it was falling out. And of course, all that reversed when I did all the things that we're gonna talk about. But it's near and dear to my heart. I, I don't think that a lot of women understand something that you said to me before we started recording, that really, hair loss is not just a cosmetic issue.

Speaker 1 (05:21):

It's about so much more. And it, it really is an indicator that your longevity is being affected and your overall health is being affected. So if you're listening, I really want you to pay attention if you're having hair loss because it's a sign that something bigger is going on. I used to call it, I still call it the canary in the coal mine, hair, skin and nails. If you're having a problem with your hair, skin and nails, these are the canary in the coal mine. You just chalk it up as a cosmetic issue. You might not even address it, but I say it's kind of like erectile dysfunction in men could be an indicator of cardiac disease that if you've got this as a woman, you really need to pay attention. Right?

Speaker 3 (06:05):

Yeah, totally. It's very important. Thank you for bringing that up. And I'm a big fan of your message as well. What happens is that as women, especially after the age of 35, hormones start changing. And Dr. Karen, you talk about, you know, the other things that come with that. Hormonal changes, especially as women get closer to menopause and all of those factors can play a part in hair thinning and hair loss. And it's very, very tied to the health of your overall system, the stress levels. Because when you're, when you're losing hair, your stress levels go up, and when your stress levels go up, you lose more hair. So that's also challenging. You've gotta take that into consideration. In addition, women tell us that they stop going out, they start, they stop communicating as much. And so this leads to self isolating, which again, is very bad for longevity and very bad for a long life and a healthy life.

Speaker 1 (06:53):

Yeah, it's so true. So let's dive into what causes it. And I know there are a lot of women out there with hair loss. They're looking for the one quick fix. What's the one thing that I have to do? You know, it's really how we're trained to look at our health problems. I have a symptom. How do I fix that symptom when I fix that symptom? We claim victory, we think we're done. But what I wanna encourage everybody listening to understand is that symptoms are not the problem. They are the sign post, post pointing to the problem, and it's incumbent upon us to investigate, to figure out the cause. And usually there isn't one cause of a symptom. It's usually multifactorial. And I think this is no better illustrated than with hair loss. So let's dive into the factors that go into contributing to hair loss. Totally.

Speaker 3 (07:45):

And if I may, let me explain the hair cycle really, really quickly. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:49):

So

Speaker 3 (07:49):

There's context behind everything we're talking about in this interview. The hair cycle has three different distinct phases. The first one is the growth phase or the antigen phase that it's called. About 85 to 90% of your hair is in the growth phase at a particular time, which is why there's so much hair in your head. And then there's the second phase, which is very, very short. It's about 10 days, it's called kagen. That's just a transition phase from the growth phase to the third phase, which is called telogen, which is where your hair follicle is just resting for two to three months. And in those two to three months, it'll fall out at some point. And so at this, in this stage, it's not growing at all. And sometimes the hair may not grow back out of the stage back into the growth phase. So I'll come back to that in a second.

Speaker 3 (08:32):

So what can we do in terms of goals? The, there's three goals that we have for hair follicles, especially as we get after, get over the age of 35 or 40. Number one, you want to keep the hair follicle in the hair growth phase as much as possible. And there's ways to do that because the longer it's in the hair growth phase, the longer it's gonna grow and the thicker your hair is gonna gonna look. Number two, we wanna make sure your hair is healthy, it's thick, the scalp is healthy so that there's a very good environment for this to keep growing. And then thirdly, what we wanna do is if your hair follicle does go into the shedding or the transition phase, which normally they will do after three to seven years of growing, then we wanna make sure all of those hair follicles are able to grow back and a bunch of them don't decide not to come back, which will lead to a much thinner looking scalp, which is very bad.

Speaker 3 (09:23):

So those are the three phases that we talk about. Now when it comes back to the question that you asked me is what are the reasons for hair thinning? The number one reason is something that you talk about Dr. Kyron all the time is due to hormones. So again, after the age of 35, and especially after the age of 40, estrogen and progesterone in women start to fall. And this causes a relative imbalance with testosterone. And this testosterone converts to dihydrotestosterone or D H t and d h t goes to your hair follicles and it starts to shrink them, makes them smaller and smaller and starve them. So your hair goes from nice thick hair to a wisser and wisser and wisser hair until it can't even grow anymore. So that's what it does. The other thing, d h t does that, it keeps your hair in the resting phase for a much longer period.

Speaker 3 (10:11):

So it appears that you have less hair on your scalp. So both of those are bad, but D H T can also prevent your hair from growing back out after the hair cycle is done. So we wanna be very careful with, especially this one, because it's a progressive condition and if you don't address it, it will keep going. Just like you see with men. The same thing happens to men, but happens to younger men 'cause they have high testosterone levels in their late teens, early twenties. And so testosterone is converting to D H T, which is causing progressive thinning of the hair follicle. And eventually for men there's baldness. But luckily for women it's more diffused. It's not completely gone from every single area. But of course this causes a lot of anxiety and shame in women. So that's the number one reason.

Speaker 1 (10:54):

Yeah. And do you wanna talk a little bit about the different patterns of hair loss that women can experience and what that might tell you, whether it's diffuse or you could have male pattern or female pat pattern. Talk a little bit about that. Totally

Speaker 3 (11:07):

Love that. So the number one reason, like I said, is due to hormones or D H D. And that directly corresponds or correlates to what is known as female pattern hair loss or androgenetic alopecia. It's the same as male, male pattern hair loss. 'cause The hormone behind it is the same. And so what happens is women will experience hair loss right in their crowns. Their Christmas or their tree, or their part, I should say, is gonna get wider and wider and wider. And they'll notice it first over there, but they can also see loss on the temples or in the front as well. And for men, again, same thing happens because it starts in the crown or in the front or the temples. And for men it completely meets in the middle and it's all of it's gone. But for women, thankfully, they don't lose all their hair, but they will notice it first in the part area.

Speaker 3 (11:53):

So that is the female pattern. Hair loss. The other way to tell is I had a client call me or a customer call me and say, Hey, I don't know what type of hair loss I have. And I asked her to just do a simple exercise in the shower. So next time you're washing your hair to take a few hair strands that you have in your hand, because of course we all lose hair in the shower, especially when we're washing it. And then stick 'em on the TILs. And when you see a difference, when you see some hairs that are thicker and some hairs that are thinner, this is a telltale sign that this is hormonal or female pattern hair loss. And that D h C is causing your hair to thin progressively. So that's number one. This is the most common hair loss pattern in women.

Speaker 3 (12:31):

The next is called diffuse hair loss. And this happens all over the scalp, even in the back areas, which are pretty much immune to the hormonal aspects. So hair above the ears and hair on the back of your scalp is pretty immune to hormonal imbalances, which is why men, you see them, they lose the top of their scalp, but not the sides in the back, similar for women. But in the diffuse hair loss, what happens is that you lose hair everywhere, all over your scalp. And this is typically the causes are multifold for this, but it could be because of a nutritional deficiency. This could be because of chronic ongoing stress. This could be due to a big stressor that has happened in your life, like the virus or giving birth or you know, even moving to a different city or a breakup, divorce, for example, psychological or physical stressor, a big one.

Speaker 3 (13:23):

Then there's a medications that you might be taking that can cause hair thinning. Also, there's thyroid, especially low thyroid conditions, they seem to be becoming a little bit more common in the women as opposed to men. And so a lot of these factors can cause diffuse hair thinning. And then lastly, there's the, this type of hair thinning or hair loss, which is very rare, but it's autoimmune related, where you will see, you know, complete loss of hair, you'll see shiny bald patches in your scalp, that's an autoimmune condition. Anywhere from two to 5% of women will get that. So will experience that at some point in their life. And typically that's managed by going to a dermatologist and getting either steroid shots or something else to kind of calm down the immune system.

Speaker 1 (14:09):

Yes, thank you for going through that. You know, I remembered a patient as you were talking who actually had different bald spots on her head and ends up she had a rain worm infection, <laugh> in her scalp. Yeah. Which is fungal, which is very unusual, but then it was causing the hair loss. And then of course when she treated the rain worm, the hair grew back, it wasn't a problem. Mm-Hmm. And I know that you mentioned also that you thank your mother for did you, were you thanking her for your baldness or tell me about your mother's involvement and you, your interest in, in hair.

Speaker 3 (14:45):

Totally. What a great question. So I, this, this is going back to me in college. I was a soccer athlete. I thought I was, you know, I was the man and I was pretty confident at that time. But one day in the shower I was washing my hair and I looked down on my hands and they're full of my beautiful hair. And my stress levels went from a four to an 11 in that moment. I'll never forget that moment. And so I started seeking help, but I also started asking the right questions of where is this coming from and how do I fight this? And so I looked through my dad's, you know, the, my dad's side of the family, and I said, all of them have gorgeous hair. My grandfather had more hair than me at the age of 90. So I go, that's not the problem.

Speaker 3 (15:25):

What about my mom's side? And all three uncles, my mom's brothers, all of them were balding or bald. And I go, oh my God, this is coming from my mother's side of the family. I'm screwed. And so that's what started off as a, what I thought was a genetic condition that was coming from my parents. And it turns out that that's a big reason for Hairing as well. And it come, it can come from both sides. So my mother also, over the years, while I was doing nothing about it, trying to solve my own hair loss, kept complaining that her part was getting wider. She was seeing more and more hair loss. And interestingly, right now she's visiting me, my parents are. And so every three or four days were microneedling her scalp and we're putting all the serums and we're trying to help her grow back her hair as well. So it, the reason I went down this path is not only to solve this for myself, but also help my mother and see what I can do for her <laugh>.

Speaker 1 (16:18):

Yeah. And you know, she's lucky to have your help, but it brings me to a larger philosophical question about why are we so attached emotionally to our hair?

Speaker 3 (16:30):

Yeah. This goes back thousands of years, Dr. Karin. It's like, at least for women, it is their identity. And it is so I guess the media kind of celebrates big hair. If you see Marilyn Monroe back in the sixties or whatever, it was like big hair, right? Barbie dolls, big hair. It's just all over the media for generations and for thousands and thousands of years across cultures, Cleopatra beautiful, gorgeous hair. And so it's just ingrained in her culture that that is a woman's power. It's her identity. And for men, it's not the case because men, unfortunately, most of us experience hair thinning starting in our twenties and beyond. And so we just kind of lose that, lose the crown. And so it's not so, so much a part of our identity as much as it's for women. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Speaker 1 (17:16):

Yeah, I, I think I've read that for women it's actually a sign of fertility. So the sexual kind of appeal of women often historically, has come from signs of good fertility, like wide hips, long thick hair. And it, these are really signs of vitality. And so I think it gets back to what we were talking about earlier, that hair loss is, it should be like a level three alarm in your mind when you have it. Because it's not just, oh, I'm afraid that I'm not going to look the way that I want to look. It's, oh my God, what is happening inside my body that's so off that my hair is falling off? Because that's affecting your heart and contributing to heart disease. It's affecting your brain and contributing to potential future dementia, affecting your bones, and contributing to future osteoporosis. It's affecting every cell and every system in your body, not just your hair. Mm-Hmm. So see this as a red alarm. So we talked a little bit about hormones. Yes. We talked about the sex hormones and you mentioned stress. What about cortisol? <Laugh>?

Speaker 3 (18:29):

Yeah, huge, huge part. Cortisol has been known to shorten the hair cycles. We talked about trying to keep your hair in the growth phase for as long as possible. So hair typically grows anywhere from two to seven years. And we want it to be on the side of the seven years as much as possible. 'cause A lot of women actually call in and they say, I can't grow any hair, I can't or I can't grow longer hair. And so this is a common complaint that we get, especially from women over 40 years. How do I grow my hair longer? Well, hair's the thing, your hair doesn't stop growing every day. Your body's growing 0.3 millimeters off your hair, every single hair. So it's, your body's doing its job, it's just that the hair is falling out, which is why you can't grow past a certain stage.

Speaker 3 (19:16):

And so the, the best thing we can do is to keep the hair in the hair growth phase as long as possible. Now, stress unfortunately shortens the hair growth phase from seven years to five, to even three, which means you're not gonna be able to grow long tresses like you want to. And so there's two types of stresses here. And I kind of briefly alluded to this, but I wanna come back to this. Number one is the big, big stressor, which could be, you know, a lot of my friends have gotten the virus and they experienced a huge shedding and we're talking 30 to 40 to 50% of their hair coming out. And they thought that they were gonna have to shave their head off. They were looking at wigs and luckily they were able to save their hair, all of them. So that's one.

Speaker 3 (20:00):

But it can also happen from, as a result of surgery, as a result of a breakup, as a result of a divorce or anything that's physical or you know, psychological. So those are big stressors. We wanna be very careful. And typically the big shed comes after the big stressor about two to three months after. So it's very hard for you to kind of correlate to what's causing this. But just know that if you're losing handfuls of hair every single day, it's because something happened two or three months back and there are strategies for you to make sure all of that hair comes back. Which goes back to my earlier point. If you are transitioning, you wanna make sure every single hair comes back. The other reason that stress kind of plays a part in this is if you have chronic ongoing stress. So my friend Ashley called me from LA and she goes, I'm losing a bunch of hair.

Speaker 3 (20:44):

And I said, so what's going on? She goes, well, my coworker left a few months ago and I'm having to cover for her. I'm having to do two jobs. So she's stressed out for the past four or five months and as a result, her hair cycle is shortening and she's losing a lot of hair. And so what we wanna do is balance the cortisol levels, balance the stress levels to ensure that we have the best possible hair growth. But also what cortisol will do is it will pull all of your resources towards your vital organs. 'cause Your body says, okay, what is expendable? Hair, nails? I can expend all those and still live. I have to protect the organism. And we are under big dur, we're under big stress. So let's bring all the blood flow, all the nutrients, let's repu redistribute them to the vital organs as opposed to the hair follicles, which happen to be furthest from your heart, vertically speaking. So your heart has to work even harder to pump that blood up. And the other thing that cortisol will do is it will shrink your blood vessels so your blood can't go as fast or as far and considering that has to go all the way to the top of your scalp. It's very important to have healthy levels of cortisol or balance them and to make sure your circulation is good as well.

Speaker 1 (21:51):

And so many women these days are under chronic stress constantly. They've got aging parents they have to care for, they have children, they have partners, they have jobs. And it's this constant, constant stress. So if you're listening and you haven't done your salivary cortisol test, you need to do it and then you need to address it. And you may need to change some things in your life, but stress can be not only coming from lifestyle and psychosocial interactions and situations, it can be coming from inside the body like toxicity and inflammation. And that can affect care growth as well. Right?

Speaker 3 (22:28):

Yeah, totally. So I'm glad you brought that up. The other things that we learn about as we talk to women is that the average woman, Dr. Kyron, you know this very well, is putting on 10 to 12 different chemicals on her face, on her body, on her scalp before she leaves the home in the morning. And this is a lot to do with the modern beauty products that we have that that include parabens, that include phalates, that include benzoates, formaldehyde, fragrances. We don't actually know what's in these beauty products. And so the best thing, especially if you're experiencing hair thinning, is to use as natural of products as possible. You can pick any brand but make sure that it's very, very natural. It doesn't have all of these chemicals be listed because they are adding oxidative stress to your hair follicles. And as your hair follicle is fighting to survive and grow during times of hair thinning, we don't wanna add any extra stress to it.

Speaker 3 (23:20):

The other thing you mentioned is inflammation. Inflammation has been directly linked to hair loss. It's been measured in the hair follicles from scientists that are studying hair loss. And so we also know that as we get older, inflammation is, is known as inflammaging. It's one of the reasons why we age faster. If there's more inflammation in your body, you're likely gonna age faster than others that are have less inflammation. So we wanna get that back under control. Some ways to do that is having very good sleep, having low oxidative stress, having low cortisol levels as Dr. Karin mentioned. But also you can take some natural supplements that can help balance stress inflammation levels in your body to normal range. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (24:03):

I always think about inflammation like fire in the body. Yeah. And you can think of a, like a lot of little fires or one big fire, but how do you stop a fire? Well, you stop feeding it. So get the firewood out. So stop putting, using the chemicals changed to natural products. Stop eating things with pesticides and artificial flavorings and colorings processed foods and get them out of your environment. So stop feeding the fire. But then also you can quench it with antioxidant types of supplementation, which can be helpful. But it's so funny 'cause some people will say, oh great, I'll, I'll take this, this anti-inflammation supplement. I'm good. No, you still need to, to detox your life and stop using all the toxic things and stop eating gluten and all those <laugh> inflammatory foods. Alright, so inflammation, we've got hormones, we've talked about sex hormones, we've talked about cortisol. What else can contribute to hair loss?

Speaker 3 (24:59):

Yeah, totally. There are thyroid conditions. Mm-Hmm. Having too low thyroid and having too high thyroid can both lead to hair thinning. And, and I'm sure you talk to people all the time about having low thyroid, but the symptoms include, you could even be losing hair on the eyebrows, you could be gaining weight, you know, e or when you sit down you get pretty lethargic. You have cold hands and feet and of course hair thinning. So that's the low thyroid. When you have high thyroid then you're just, your engine's running very, very fast and very hot and you'll be jittery and you'll lose hair as well as a result. And so there's only two tests that we, for the most part, when we recommend, because we wanna make sure we're not asking women to spend too much money. One of them is the full thyroid panel with antibodies.

Speaker 3 (25:45):

And this gives us a very good indication that you have either low thyroidism or you have Hashimoto's, which is something that we have to deal with outside of our products to make sure that that is normal. And sometimes when the thyroid gland is being attacked by the immune system in the body, you wanna make sure to stop that progression as quickly as possible. Otherwise you will lose the thyroid gland and you'll have to take medications for the rest of your life. And so that is the one thing that we, if you do notice that you have low thyroid, we recommend getting, or if you feel like you have low thyroid, we recommend getting the full thyroid panel with antibodies. So that's one. And then the other thing I, I guess I didn't mention is that nutritional, there's some nutrition aspects which can cause hair thinning.

Speaker 3 (26:25):

There's the big five, as we like to call it, in the hair loss world. These are vitamins and minerals. So what are these? Iron is very important for hair. We've got zinc, that's very important. Vitamin D is very important. Folate and B 12, you've gotta have enough of these in your body to support hair health and to make sure that it's not falling out because you're, you're deficient in these, interestingly enough, vegans these days, veganism is, is getting more and more popular. And I have friends in Los Angeles and New York that, that have gone vegan and you know, if that's what you wanna do, that's totally fine. But vegans are at risk of being deficient in three of these five nutrients, which is iron B 12, and folate. So make sure that you're either getting enough from your foods and or taking a supplement that has these ingredients so that you can fulfill those needs and you're not, you're not losing your hair and then wondering what's going on. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (27:19):

I would just caution people that I, I remember a while back, years ago, I don't know if someone was on Oprah talking about biotin, I think <laugh> Yeah. For hair. And everyone was taking these mega doses of biotin. And what a lot of people don't understand is that when you supplement certain B vitamins, which biotin is, or even other vitamins to the exclusion of others, especially in these humongous doses, you cause these relative deficiencies in the others. And you can actually cause your chemical processes in the body to malfunction and cause more problems. So I always say it's best to get your nutrients from nutrient dense food mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and supplement if it's targeted, and maybe you've had a nutritional test to target those nutritional components, but then retest to see do you still need those doses of those nutrients? And other than that, to use more broad-based type supplementation. But yes, nutrition is important and then hair is dead protein, right? Yeah,

Speaker 3 (28:27):

Yeah. It's keratin. I, I do want to come back to the nutrition aspect that you mentioned. I love what you're saying in that there are certain nutrition or nutritional aspects meaning vitamins and minerals. If you take too many of them or too much of them, then you'll cause her, you'll cause hair loss as well. So it's very interesting that vitamin A iron, both of these selenium, all three of these taken too low or being deficient in can cause hair thinning. But if you have too many of these, it can also cause hair thinning. So you've gotta be very careful, like Dr. Kyron mentioned, don't take these for months and years on end if you're taking target supplements, but do get measured to make sure you're not going over the limit for any of these. And then of course, hair fo hair, the hair strands are actually dead proteins. They're made up of keratin. And there's also melanin in them, which is the color, which creates the color in the hair follicle. And, and so that's what it is. You've gotta make sure you've got enough protein in your diet too, so it can have the amino acids to create the actual strand for the hairs. And so lots of things that go into her follicle health and I'm glad we're discussing these.

Speaker 1 (29:34):

Yes. And most women are not getting enough protein. So that's why, to make sure to mention that, that it's super important to make sure you are getting enough protein. And you also mentioned something before we started recording, I think everyone would find fascinating is that the density of hairs on a woman's head varies by hair color. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 3 (30:00):

Yeah, this was shocking to me when I learned this as well. So blondes seem to have more fun because they have the most hair on their head. It's about 150,000 hair follicles that blondes have and brunettes like myself and yourself, Dr. Kan if that's your natural color, we have about a hundred to 120,000 hair follicles on our scalp. And then redheads have to have seem to have the, the worst luck when it comes to hair follicles to have about 80 to 90,000 hair follicles. But still, I just wanna mention that, that that's plenty of hair follicles that's gonna cover your scalp very, very effectively. But coming back to the point that you made, blondes do have to do, seem to have the most hair and it's the thickest for them, especially early on.

Speaker 1 (30:45):

Yeah. And I, after you told me that, I started thinking, I wonder why that is and because I love to think about questions like that. <Laugh>. Yeah, <laugh>. And I had this thought that, you know, blonde hair is more, it's lighter and opaque so it doesn't look as dense and maybe you need more of it to be substantial, whereas darker hair is more visibly obvious. But then I thought hair isn't on us to be seen, it's for thermodynamics, it's to keep us warm. So I'm not sure exactly why that is. It's very interesting. If anyone listening has an answer, I'd love to hear about it to reach out on social media or maybe you know the answer. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (31:30):

I'd love to hear the answer as well, <laugh>.

Speaker 1 (31:33):

So what else is important for a woman to know or investigate if she's noticing hair loss?

Speaker 3 (31:42):

Yeah, the number one reason that I believe that women are not successful with fixing their hair loss problems is because they're not sure of the reason. As we mentioned, there can be multiple reasons for hair thinning and the number one reason, of course is hormonal. But sometimes there can be an additional reason like stress is adding to the hormones or you're taking a certain medication, or you have, you're low nutritional deficiencies in certain aspects or certain vitamins and minerals. And so understanding where the hair loss is coming from and and addressing it in multiple ways that seems to get the best results. What I've seen in practice and what I've learned from all the interviews and all the discussions I've had with hair experts over the years and hair researchers over the years, is that to get the best results, to stop hair thinning and to regrow your hair regrow, thicker, fuller hair, you've got to stimulate hair follicles in multiple ways.

Speaker 3 (32:39):

And that multiple stimulation seems to have the best combined effect. It's all synergistic inside and outside. You know, either taking something nutritionally and or applying pressure or massage to your scalp, all of that and also derma rolling, all of that seems to have very good benefit synergistically. But by itself, I'm sure you've talked to dozens if not hundreds of women that have tried a hair pill or that, that have tried a hair serum and had little to no results to show for it. For some it can work because that is the cause of their hair thinning. But if you take a holistic approach and say, okay, what's going on in your life? And if I had to just, if I had to get products, how could I make sure that these products address 80 or 90% of the reasons of my hair thinning without me having to get a PhD in hair science? That is the best way to move forward.

Speaker 1 (33:29):

You know, as you're talking, I I'm thinking we should talk about, well, how do most doctors address this, right? So if you're having hair loss, having practiced regular corporate mainstream medicine for many years, we really weren't given the tools to be able to properly assess why hair loss, even dermatologists. And so if you're listening, and this is you, you've probably already talked to your doctor and you probably haven't gotten satisfying answers, so I'm glad you're here. But let's talk about some of the different treatments. I mean, Rogan is something that you can purchase over the, the counter minoxidil. You talk mentioned dermal rolling. I've heard of stem cell injections, their transplants. So can you talk a little bit about what the different treatments are? I mean, I would say you gotta first look at it as a warning sign from your body that there are hormonal imbalances, there are toxicities, there are nutritional deficiencies. You've got to examine and address those. And then once you address them though there may be other things available to you. What are some of those things?

Speaker 3 (34:35):

Totally. And so what I'd love to do is to walk this down through simple ways to stop hair thinning and to regrow your hair to more complicated and or expensive ways. And there's a whole ladder you can walk up or walk down depending on how you're coming at this. So the simplest things which you could do is make sure that if you were just looking for solutions, then maybe like a supplement or something that helps balance counterbalance some of the hormones inside of your body, gives you the nutritional supplements, reduces in inflammation, reduce oxidative stress with antioxidants that can be multifactorial and go after a lot of things could be beneficial to you. But like I said, you wanna combine these with multiple things. So a supplement may be good, but you want to combine it with the serum that you apply topically to your scalp that's acting on the area that you need it to work.

Speaker 3 (35:24):

And then the third thing that has scientific evidence behind it is the derma roller, just by itself, a derma roller has proven to grow 15% more hair with nothing else, no other interventions. So that's a good one as well. To add to your protocol, women already are familiar with derma roller of their face and it's easy to do it on the scalp. So that's the third. And the fourth one that we kind of recommend quite a bit is brushing your hair a hundred to 200 times a day. Because what happens the first thing that happens when you're losing your hair, you don't wanna touch it, you don't wanna wash it, you don't wanna heal it, right? That happened to me for many, many years. In fact, I was putting these hair fibers in my scalp because I was so afraid of my scalp showing through when I was going out in Los Angeles where you get judged for how you look.

Speaker 3 (36:08):

And so if you're gonna do that, then those are the, the base layers. You want to do multiple of those at the same time. And they're pretty cheap, right? They're pretty economical for most people. Then if you say, well, I wanna go to a doctor or a dermatologist and I wanna get professional advice one, I would say that yes, absolutely you can do that. I would say that dermatologists aren't spending a lot of their time focusing on hair science. And you can also, I'm sure validate this Dr. Kyron because you're just too busy. There's too many patients to see, there's too much to do, there's too many conditions to treat. So dermatologists in their offices, they're getting a lot of Botox, a lot of fillers, a lot of all kinds of aesthetic things where they don't have a lot of time to figure this out.

Speaker 3 (36:47):

So what they'll typically recommend at a dermatologist or even doctor's office is they'll recommend P R P or platelet rich plasma, which are basically, they draw blood outta your body and they centrif use a centrifuge to spin it and then they, they inject it back into your scalp. The idea being that there are some growth factors that are available in this hair that can help rejuvenate and thicken your hair follicles. And if you look at the studies, there's meta-analyses that have been done on P R P. It's very individual to the type of machine, used to the process of the centrifugation. Many dermatologists that are not aware of the different types of machines will go to Amazon and buy one or they'll buy one from a pushy sales rep from many, many companies that are selling these centrifuges. And so it's really a crapshoot on when it comes to results.

Speaker 3 (37:33):

So if you're going to go down that route, make sure to ask for before and afters, make sure to validate that this doctor has results. Because what they're gonna do is they're gonna ask you to sign up for three or four of these injections over three to four months and they're gonna be a thousand dollars each. So you're gonna be $4,000 in and you're not gonna know if it's gonna work or not. And they won't even guarantee it and there is no money back. So you're gonna be out a few thousand dollars. So again, just know that the other aspect with regenerative medicine, it appears that stem cells unfortunately don't have as much good data. Even though there's anecdotal evidence of some, some individuals getting results, but on the whole stem cells have do not have good data on hair growth. In fact, exosomes, which are basically made from stem cells or extract from stem cells, seem to have better data on the, the hair as opposed to both P R P and stem cell.

Speaker 3 (38:27):

So if you're gonna choose a therapy, I would recommend you at least ask your doctor or dermatologist about exosomes. Again, note that it's not, not gonna be cheap. This is in the thousands of dollars with exosomes, you're probably just gonna do one treatment and there, you know, you'll have to see how that turns out for you. For some it works good for others, it may not work at all. Then we get to the hair transplants. This is the easiest solution for at least some men that have lost a lot of hair. The way this works is that if you have lost a bunch of hair in a particular area, this is can be very effective because they can pull the hair from the back of your scalp, which is immune to the dihydrate testosterone or D H T and you, they can implant it in the front so this hair won't fall out again.

Speaker 3 (39:09):

But you've gotta be very careful to address the underlying causes of hair thinning, because even if you do transplant hairs in the front or the top, the other hair will continue. This is a progressive condition, they'll continue to thin and they'll continue to fall out. So I've heard of instances where some men at least have used the hair transplants to get a bunch of hairs in the front, and then they got a second transplant and a third transplant, and then they just ran out of donor hair in the back. And so now they have a bunch of hair in the front and nothing behind it. So they had to laser off $40,000 of hair transplants that they had done. So you wanna be careful. And in addition, women are typically not the best candidates for hair transplants because when you're injecting or when you're implanting new hair or transplanting new hair, that causes a shock loss around.

Speaker 3 (39:59):

So the existing hair that may be around that newly transplanted hair, when you transplant it, it gets a shock because there's a damage to the skin. And so that hair might go, that hair might be lost because of this transplant. So again, speak with a very, somebody that's got a lot of ears on in in their practice for a hair transplant surgeon. I guess the final thing I would say is that some women, when they experience hair thinning in the front of their scalp, they can get scalp reduction surgery as well. So they will just cut out maybe a centimeter or half an inch of your scalp in the front and then staple it back down, which then brings your hairline lower. And so it makes you look more youthful. It makes you look like you have more hair. And women seem to do this more compared to men that will do the hair crime, spine surgery.

Speaker 1 (40:45):

Interesting. I didn't, I wasn't aware of that surgery. Another thing to do to ourselves, <laugh> <laugh>

Speaker 3 (40:52):

Totally, but never stops.

Speaker 1 (40:54):

Our hair is such a part of our identity that only you as the person dealing with this problem can say what it's worth to you and what, what you would like to have done. So I say follow your heart when it comes to that. I do wanna mention there is a type of specialist called a ologist, which most people have never heard of who is a hair specialist. They're not doctors, but they have specialized training in the evaluation and management of the hair follicles, particularly on the head. And they have very specialized equipment where they can evaluate hair follicles and see what state they're in, the size of them, their health, whether they're able to grow hair or not. And so if you're really struggling with this and a lot, it's funny 'cause I've even met a lot of dermatologists who don't even know that trick exists.

Speaker 1 (41:53):

Yeah. So you can, oftentimes there aren't that many of them, but you can look on Google to find a trick and go to them for a full evaluation. And they're often very good guides. I won't say that they're necessarily good at helping you evaluate the systemic conditions that we've been discussing that can contribute not only to hair loss, but also to decreasing your longevity and vitality. They, I haven't found that they universally are aware of that or know how to do it, but when it comes to targeted treatment, they're, they're the experts. So I did wanna mention that. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (42:32):

Totally. I've been to, I have many psychologist friends of my own. I've been to them. They have looked at my hair and scalp and microscopes. Yeah, they have 50 x magnification so they can look at what's going on. They can give you advice about, so yeah, totally agree. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:46):

But this is great information and I'm glad to have you here. I know you've given hope to some women today who are really struggling. You now know the steps you need to take, evaluate your hormones, so your sex hormones, your cortisol, your thyroid, I'd say your insulin too. Look at your inflammation levels, your toxicity or to decrease that toxin fire. And then look at your nutrient inputs, where are you deficient and work to sup supplement those. And then there are local things that you can do that we've discussed for us. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing all this wonderful information. Tell everyone how we can find out more about you. Tell 'em about your Anti-Aging Hacks podcast. Where are you online?

Speaker 3 (43:32):

Totally. Thank you Dr. Karin. So a couple of places. Number one, I'm the host of the Anti-Aging Hacks podcast, where we talk about wge and anti-aging and how to bring typical or simple resources to help you slow down your aging now and then in time, also reverse it because that revolution is coming very soon. So that's what I talk about on the Anti-Aging Hacks Podcast. The other is, I'm the founder of a hair wellness and hair growth company called Fully Vital, where we combine different products to give you maximum coverage for the reasons for hair thinning. So we've got a, a supplement that we talked about. We've got a, a serum for the hair, we've got a derma roller they will sell and also a hairbrush. So we sell a bundle that you can get, which covers, in my opinion, 80% of more of all the hair thinning reasons that will give you the best results.

Speaker 3 (44:23):

And if you do go with us, then we recommend that you use the get the three month bundle because hair growth takes a little bit of time. So you've gotta be patient with it. Get the three month bundle. And the best part about us is that we have a four month money back guarantee, full money back guarantee. So try us out for three months. We're covering the most spaces out of anybody out there, and for some reason, if you don't get results, email us and we'll refund all of your money. So there's, there's no risk attached to that. And you can find that@fullyvital.com. And Dr. Kyron, if you would allow me, I'd love to offer your listeners a coupon code as well for this.

Speaker 1 (44:59):

Sure. We can put it in the show notes.

Speaker 3 (45:02):

Okay, perfect. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (45:04):

Thank you so much for Oz before coming and sharing your wisdom about hair. Thank

Speaker 3 (45:09):

You Dr. Karin, honored to be on your show.

Speaker 1 (45:11):

And thank you for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription for Dr. Kieran. I hope that you have learned something today that you can put into practice to change your hair, but maybe even to change your hormones and your life. I look forward to hearing about it on social media, so please reach out and let me know, and I hope you have a great week Until next week, peace, love, and

Speaker 2 (45:34):

Hormones,

Speaker 1 (45:34):

Y'all.

Speaker 2 (45:36):

Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold

Speaker 1 (46:15):

For you.

Speaker 2 (46:16):

Talk to you soon.

 

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