In this episode, we're going to talk all about hair loss in perimenopause.
Is it something that's happening because of your hormones, why it might be happening,
and of course, what you can do about it.
What's up, sisters? Welcome to the Period Whisperer podcast.
I'm Bria. I'm your host. If you're new, I'm so happy you are here.
I'm your perimenopause and menopause sister, your holistic trainer,
hormone specialist, translator of your female body.
I'm a recovering people pleaser and hustle addict turned body whisperer and hormone decoder.
And I am here to help you de-stress your body, decode what it is saying,
become the CEO of it and own your own health, energy, and weight loss again.
This show is for you, the overwhelmed, overworked, underappreciated step woman
who dreams of a body they feel strong, energetic, and sane in.
The woman who knows that she shouldn't just wave the white aging flag and believes
in a body and life of peace, love, and purpose.
But you don't just know how to get there yet. So if you are stuck in your body,
your energy, your life, you are in the right spot.
Let's lean in and learn what our bodies are saying to us.
Well, hey there, sister. How are you feeling in your body today?
Are you feeling achy? Are you feeling curious about why there's less hair on
your head and more on your face?
I hope not. But if you are, I want you to know that you're not alone,
that this is a common, albeit not normal, thing that starts to happen.
And that's what we're going to talk about today because it is something that
we don't talk enough about.
And I have absolutely been shocked by how many times I've had to clear out the drain in my shower.
I have been shocked by the long hair growing out of my chin that somehow I managed
to miss when I was looking in the mirror doing some personal grooming.
So let's make a little light of it. Let's have a little giggle and let's figure
out how to make this uncomfortable thing, this confusing thing start to feel better.
So first of all, it's estimated that 21 million women in the U.S.
Alone experience hormonal hair loss. And although that number includes women of all ages,
the shifting of hormones in peri and postmenopause definitely adds to hormonal
hair loss and can feel really upsetting and confusing.
Using. Actually, what I'm going to say is the shifting of our hormones makes
them more sensitive to the things that throw off our hormonal balance, right?
All these symptoms that we experience, hair loss being one of them,
yes, are often indicators of imbalanced hormones.
But our hormones by nature will balance themselves.
So we always need to look beneath what's causing causing the hormones to imbalance
and therefore the weight gain, the energy suck, the night sweats,
the insomnia, the hot flashes, the hair loss, the belly fat, right?
We want to get beneath that. When we start to look beneath and not just treat
the symptoms, we're able to actually get results again. And of course, it never happens.
As fast as we want it to be. But I think we all know by now that even though,
and myself included, I'll raise my hand on this one, even though it is always
sexy to reach for that quick fix that lures us in, maybe this would just work for me.
It has never worked. It hasn't worked. That's likely why you're here listening to this podcast.
So I hope that this gives you permission to to recognize that good things do
take time, but that it can happen.
And when you put that effort in, when you change the underlying issue,
when you take the time to educate yourself and fix the root of the issue,
that you can get like beautiful long-term relief of these symptoms.
And that's what we're going for. Remember that perimenopause happens for you,
not to you, for you to pay attention to the things that your body has likely
put up with for a very long time and isn't really having it anymore.
So that being said, hair loss is really just another symptom that can feel uncomfortable to talk about.
Like right up there with incontinence, right? Like how often we pee ourselves.
I just spent a really great weekend with several of my girlfriends and we had
a full on conversation about how, you know, leaking urine is something that
is becoming more common in our lives and what to do about it because it is not normal.
It is something that we want to pay So hair loss is one of these things.
And, you know, along with incontinence, along with really messy,
awful periods, along with like constipation or digestive issues and mental health, you know, it's.
Falls into that line where women can feel really alone or are left wondering
if this is just a part of getting older.
I have absolutely found myself scheduling an appointment with a healthcare practitioner
in a moment of desperation where I've just had enough of whatever symptom I've
experienced only to dismiss myself later,
like not wanting to be a complainer or not feeling like my my concerns are valid,
or that I should even complain, or maybe it's not that bad, right?
Because our hormones shift, our feelings of irritation on something can also shift.
But it's really important to recognize that although there are times where we
have more tolerance in our cycle than others, what bothers us bothers us.
So if you are feeling like something isn't right? I really want you to trust that gut.
So, you know, we can really dismiss ourselves and we don't want to do that.
And even worse is when we're dismissed by our healthcare practitioners, right?
When we take that time, when we take that vulnerability, when we decide to share
what isn't feeling right in us and we get dismissed by that.
So let's get that out there right now. How you feel is how you feel.
If you have concerns, they are valid. Ask for help. And if you're dismissed,
keep looking for answers.
It's not you and it is happening to you and you deserve and are worthy of getting that changed.
So let's get into it because understanding what is causing hair loss.
Really always the first step, right? What is causing, what in our hormones,
what imbalance, whatever is causing the hormones?
Because we can treat the symptoms all we want, but if we don't,
again, if we don't address that root of the issue, then these symptoms will always come back.
Some way they, sometimes they come back in other areas, right?
Like patching up a hole only for it to squirt out another, you know,
crack in the foundation, right?
It's in the same way, you know, we often will drink to calm our nervous system
and it doesn't really keep it from happening again, right?
There's a bigger root, like there's a reason we're drinking because something
is irritating our nervous system, causing us to be upset.
So we have to really get to that root piece.
So there are several different types of hormone imbalances that can lead to
thinning hair and hair on your face, right?
Like it's almost like the hair starts to migrate.
Like whether it's in your armpits, whether it's down your legs,
whether it's on your chest, whether it's like all over your face,
like it's like that the hair can begin to migrate.
So whether you're losing it on top and gaining it in other places, I know it's not fun.
But let's get into, you know, some of the different hormone imbalances just
to shed a a little light on it. So the first one is testosterone troubles.
So believe it or not, testosterone is actually like our largest produced hormone
in our female body, which seems kind of crazy.
We always often think of, or I think we're culturally normalized to think of
testosterone as a male hormone.
And certainly males have, or people with male physiology have way more testosterone
than we do, but it is our most predominant hormone in our body.
Now, at least 10% of that testosterone is converted into something called dihydrotestosterone
or DHT, which impacts hair loss and also hair gain in areas that we typically
don't want it, like on our face.
So if we're having testosterone troubles, if there's too much testosterone,
so then therefore more is being converted into DHT, then we're going to run
into some of these issues.
The second major imbalance that we run into that impacts hair loss is insulin
imbalances from irregular blood sugar,
from eating too processed, too simple sugar, to eating a diet that is high inflammatory
and really high in a lot of sugars or simple carbohydrates, right?
So insulin is really like a key hormone for our cells to utilize the energy we get from food,
which means that high glycemic foods like sugar, processed sugars,
and of course also things like excess stress can cause an overload of this hormone insulin,
which will disrupt ovulation and stimulates more testosterone to be made in the body.
Again, causing more DHT, further irritating the hair loss problem.
Number three is estrogen dominance, which becomes really common in perimenopause,
especially in the first half of perimenopause, due to the sensitivity of our
other sex hormone, progesterone, to cortisol.
So estrogen and progesterone are two of our main sex hormones are symbiotic, right?
We hear about these a lot when we think about our main sex hormones with female
physiology. And symbiotic meaning that if there's not enough of one,
there's too much of the other and vice versa.
Now progesterone is, I've heard it referred to as the shy hormone.
It is, it really quickly kind of shrinks away, especially when it comes to cortisol,
which is our stress hormone.
So if we're dealing with a lot of inflammation in the body, if we're dealing
with a lot of toxic stress in our life, you know, whether that's emotional stress,
you know, mental stress,
environmental stress, stress from the impact of the pesticides and stuff on
our foods, that cortisol kind of comes in, suppresses our progesterone.
Because it fights for those same receptors, throwing off this estrogen-progesterone
balance, causing what we call estrogen dominance.
So there's too much estrogen now on this symbiotic seesaw.
And what happens, of course, is that excess estrogen can be turned into testosterone,
which then there we are, excess testosterone, too much DHT, more hair loss issues,
and more hair on our face.
And of course, the fourth one is, you know, a thyroid hormone imbalance.
So the thyroid's main role is to regulate energy in our body, right?
If it's under a lot of stress or poorly nourished, right, it's not getting the
right amount of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins,
it's not getting enough of the right vitamins and minerals and our micronutrients,
then it will begin to shift its priority to regulating the body for survival.
And then therefore has less energy to put on things like hair growth,
which it's also responsible for.
So we have these four, you know, main hormone imbalances that can really result
in things like hair loss and hair kind of coming down on the chinny chin chin
and everywhere else that we're really not super keen on having.
You know, we, you know, look, be how you want to be. But if you're struggling
with hair loss or hair in places you don't want, this is, this,
these are the hormone, most common hormone imbalances that are creating that. So what's a girl to do?
This is where we want to get to the point. Like we know, okay, it happens.
It happens in perimenopause because our hormones are much more sensitive, right?
Perimenopause is happening for us. It's telling us things aren't right.
We got to pay attention to it.
And now we know some of the main hormone imbalances. So what do we do about it?
So, you know, there are quick things that we can do and they never result very quickly.
But certainly there's research that scalp massage with mixing what we call a
carrier oil like jojoba oil and essential oils like rosemary,
thyme, lavender, and cedarwood can help promote hair growth.
So like really getting that on your scalp a few times a week.
But But ultimately, we need to get to the root of that problem.
And no pun intended here.
I like to make myself laugh on these days. To the root of the problem by prioritizing
regular blood sugar levels, right?
Good sleep habits, proper daily movement and stress management,
and getting the right amount of nutrients for you to have the building blocks
to metabolize things, to build the hormones,
to metabolize estrogen better.
And some of those things look like, you know, eating lots of cruciferous vegetables,
eating fiber-rich foods to support regulated testosterone.
But certainly looking at the stress faucets of our life and how we manage our
relationship with stress will really go a long way.
So you can always see there's not, there's never a real quick fix.
Now, another piece of the puzzle that can help a lot is correcting nutrient deficiencies.
I'm a firm believer in in really testing before you start guessing what nutrients
you might be deficient in.
You know, there are some main vitamins and minerals that we see are really important
for hair health, of course, but also most commonly deficient in women going
through these transitioning years of perimenopause.
So several of those might be B vitamins, which helps improve circulation and
results in greater blood flow to the scalp, vitamins A and C,
which really supports cell growth and collagen production for stronger hair.
So we're not just losing weak hair.
Magnesium is one we see a lot. I see a lot of my clients and myself.
It supports healthier hair follicles and also really helps calm that nervous
system down, right, bringing that estrogen progesterone back into balance,
supporting the thyroid and therefore impacting the testosterone and the insulin.
And omega-3s are another one which give you shinier hair and the healthier follicle growth.
Probiotics, but probiotics we want to be careful with. We want to make sure
we're taking the right probiotic for our specific gut, but they help you absorb
and assimilate more nutrients and reduce stress.
Zinc is a big one that many of us are deficient in. It has unmatched benefits for hair health.
According to lots of research out there, it's been shown to help speed up the
recovery of damaged hair.
And vitamin D3, where research suggests that optimal vitamin D levels are critical
for thyroid function, for immune system function, for hormone balancing,
and of course, hair follicle health.
So there are some options out there for us,
but none of them pack as big of a punch as going
through a healing process to make sure the underlying issues of your body are
solid so that our hormones can balance on their own so that we are producing
the amount of hormones that our body needs so that we're metabolizing those
hormones so that our cells can take in those hormones and then we can get the benefits of it.
And all of those pieces of the puzzle, they take a little bit of time.
And I really want to bring light to the truth that quick fixes don't work.
We spend, and by we, I mean me also, hand in the air, I'm always in that number,
so much energy looking for quick solutions.
Buying quick solutions, trying quick solutions, when ultimately,
we all know in our gut, it's really like a lion hunt, right?
Can't go over it, can't go under it, can't go around it.
You got to go through it. We've just got to do this work because the severity
of your hormone imbalance and your symptoms in perimenopause.
Can be correlated and stepped back to the choices that you have made to bring you here.
And that's not your fault. That's not anything to feel badly about.
It's just information to know now that where you're at in this big transition,
in this shifting of time, it's time for you to change.
We got to get back and heal the underlying piece, which is its own journey.
And then we need to learn how to optimize our metabolism, you know,
take care of our thyroid, Make sure that our blood sugar levels are regulated.
Really, you know, ground in the rooted pieces of our health in order for us to thrive.
So as sexy as it is to look for quick fixes and even want to go out and buy
vitamins and minerals that I just suggested, I really struggled with even sharing
those on the podcast because there's just no better solution.
No more certain solution, solution
no you know more long lasting solution than
doing the underlying work and it's not sexy but
what is sexy is the confidence you gain when
you do the thing when you do the dang thing right when you actually focus on
something and see the progress and stumble along the way but keep going that's
when we really get to find out about ourselves and what we need to do that is
unique for us because we are all bio-individual.
That's why we can't just do a one-size-fits-all
situation, but the healing process can work for everyone.
And this is a lot of what, you know, I do within the Perimenopause Posse and,
of course, my one-on-one coaching and Midlife Mojo is really teaching you the
healing process so that you can recognize and customize the strategy for optimal
health in perimenopause to you.
So you can pay attention to that real-time feedback in your body,
those whispers of your body.
Do the work and you will reap the rewards long-term without sliding back or
creating more issues, right?
That's, again, this metaphor always pops into my head or this image of it's
like, you know, your body being like, I've had it up to here.
I'm done doing it your way. It's not working for me, right?
We want to bring it back to that peak. And sister, if you aren't able to do the work.
Like if you're struggling with motivation, you're struggling with consistency,
what you're hearing, you're trying, and it's not working, that's when you know
it's time to reach out for help, you know?
And there's always different ways to get help, right? Sometimes it's just tuning into this podcast.
Sometimes it's joining us in the Perimenopause Posse, so you get that go-with-your-flow,
like healing hormone course and the support of the community there.
And sometimes it's working one-on-one in a coach. But don't wait.
Don't wait for things to get worse. When we leave things for too long,
they always fester and more metabolic chaos ensues inside the body.
That's when we start to see dysfunction in the other areas.
And it is always possible to come back, but much more challenging when you sit
on the other side of that lion hunt and dig your heels in and think there must be a faster way.
The fastest way is through that sucker. So reach out.
Right now, spots are open for my exclusive one-on-one coaching program,
and there's space in the Perimenopause Posse.
So if you are ready to dive in, whether you want to go all in and work really
closely together, you can just swipe up and grab a free assessment spot with
me so we can actually talk about your unique situation.
I'm not there to sell you. I am there to better understand where you're at and
figure out what will work for the circumstance that you're in.
Or you can join us in the Perimenopause Posse. You can grab that link for that
course and get started today.
Do the work, sister. Be more in your life and not just less on a scale.
And let's get that luscious head of hair back and off of our chin.
All right. We'll catch you next time.
Thank you so much for joining me on the Period Whisperer podcast.
I want to encourage you to reach out to me directly and message me if there
are topics or things you're struggling with so we can address those right where you are at.
And of course, if you loved this episode, if you learned something,
make sure to share it with your friends and please rate and review it wherever you get your podcasts.
