I’ve seen alopecia many times over the years while doing hair. When it showed up on a client, it usually felt fairly straightforward. I would reassure her not to panic and suggest she see a dermatologist.
But when my friend was cutting my hair and showed me the bald spot on my own head, I had a bit of a moment.
One of the first things the doctor asked me about was stress. I remember thinking, I’m not stressed. At least not in the way we usually imagine stress.
I was doing everything I knew to do to take care of myself. I was on hormone replacement therapy and my levels looked great. I ate well, exercised regularly, and had spent years doing personal work to support my mental, emotional, and physical health.
I was doing breathwork, meditating, reading, and always learning new ways to support my body. To me, it really felt like I was doing everything right.
But the alopecia and the other changes I began noticing in my hair got my attention. When I put my hair into a ponytail, it felt significantly smaller. My go-to bun that I had worn for years didn’t work anymore because the hair at my temples had become so thin.
At the time I didn’t feel overwhelmed or burnt out. As a matter of fact, I was about to go on an amazing trip to the Philippines and I couldn’t have been happier. My life felt full and meaningful. I always joke that I can’t believe doing hair is how I made a living because it’s so fun, and being with my clients every day is something I genuinely look forward to.
But when I look back now, I can see something I didn’t fully recognize then.
Stress doesn’t always show up as chaos or emotional overwhelm. Sometimes it’s the kind that slowly becomes normal.
For me, it looked like a long commute. Most days I was spending between two and a half to three hours in the car getting to and from the salon. Ugh, I know.
Then there was the work itself. Like I said, I love what I do, but it’s also physically and energetically engaging. I’m standing, moving, listening, creating, connecting, and holding space for people all day long. It’s work that I love, but it still asks a lot from my body. I call it Hairapy. Hair and therapy for both me and my client!
On top of that, I had been dealing with insulin resistance and prediabetes for several years. It wasn’t something that felt super obvious in my day-to-day life. I had gotten used to pushing through symptoms and moving through my day, but behind the scenes it was influencing my body in ways I didn’t fully understand yet.
None of these stressors felt extreme on their own. But together they created a steady load that my body had been adapting to for years. It was the kind of stress that slowly became normal.
The changes I was seeing in my hair were really the thing that made me start asking deeper questions about what my body might be asking for.
That curiosity eventually led me back to something I had already done a year earlier — a DNA test.
One of the things I appreciate about this kind of testing is that you only have to do it once. Your DNA never changes, but the way your genes are expressed can. The test becomes a kind of blueprint you can return to anytime new questions about your health come up.
And as someone who is a little woo but also very practical, I like understanding the science and the “why” behind things. So I dove deep.
From all the inner and outer work I had done, I already believed that a regulated nervous system is the foundation for any healing journey. So I studied my report through the lens of how my body might need to be supported in that way.
My genetic profile reflects a nervous system that is:
• Very aware of what’s going on around me
• Highly reactive to my surroundings
• Able to easily pick up on people’s moods and energy
And also:
• Slower to calm down after stress
• More sensitive to changes in blood sugar
• More affected by stress that builds up over time.
When I saw that, a lot of pieces of my life began to click.
My work behind the chair requires a high level of presence. I’m constantly interacting with people, listening closely, creating, and responding to the energy in the salon. I thrive in that kind of environment, and it’s a big part of why I love what I do so much.
But it also means my nervous system is “on” all day.
Add the long commute and the physical nature of the work itself, and my system was likely being activated for much longer than I realized.
Another insight that stood out in my report connected directly to something I had already been dealing with for years — blood sugar instability.
My results suggested that my nervous system is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in blood sugar levels. When blood sugar rises and falls too quickly, the body interprets that as a stress signal. Stress hormones are released to stabilize things, which can keep the nervous system in a more activated state.
Seeing that connection helped me understand that supporting my blood sugar wasn’t just about metabolic health. It was also about helping my nervous system feel more stable.
Another pattern in my results related to how my body processes stress hormones, also known as cortisol, once they’ve been released.
Some people experience a stressful moment and their body settles fairly quickly afterward. Others release those stress signals just as easily, but the body takes longer to fully calm down again.
My results suggested that recovery time matters for me, so I began to prioritize rest and relaxation. That was not easy for someone like me who is always going, but I digress.
When I looked at that alongside my lifestyle — long commutes, full days behind the chair, and the constant energetic engagement with people — it helped me understand why my system sometimes felt like it was under a constant low level of stress that I didn’t really notice at the time.
At a cellular level my nervous system also requires strong nutritional support to function well. Minerals, amino acids, and antioxidants are some of the basic building blocks the nervous system relies on to regulate effectively. When those building blocks are low, the system can feel like it is constantly trying to keep up.
Seeing these patterns through my own biology was incredibly eye-opening. For the first time I didn’t have to guess what might work for me.
I had a blueprint, and with that came a surprising amount of relief.
No more time or money wasted on solutions I hoped might work.
Having that blueprint didn’t mean everything changed overnight. It still requires patience, curiosity, and a willingness to observe how your body responds over time. But instead of blindly trying things, I was able to make more informed decisions based on my own biology.
This is also why, when I work with women experiencing hair loss, I focus first on helping the body move out of survival mode. When the body begins to feel more regulated, that’s when repair can start to happen again.
And repair is what eventually allows growth to return.
Through my own experience, what became clear to me is that the missing piece for many women going through this is personalization. Every woman’s body is wired differently, and it needs to be supported in that way.
Helping women understand their body’s blueprint and support their health in a way that is tailored specifically to them has become a fave for me.
I’m not here to down play hair loss because the feelings that come with it are REAL!
The reframe for me is my hair loss became the messenger for me to find out what my body was trying to tell me and it’s been a huge factor in feeling my best at 56.
Can your hair be trying to tell you something?