You try to ignore it or pretend you can accept it. It's part of getting older, it's not as bad as it seems. But I could tell... this was something more.
I have reconciled my dramatic turn into gray hair. It started at 23 and it progressed in bits and spurts and all came crashing down along my hairline these past two years. This, my recent hair loss was different. It had started with a missing cul de sac of hair on my right temple. Then it continued with increased dryness and breakage along my hairline and an increased thinning that receded my hairline a good 1".
I'm a beauty founder & CEO. I sell gorgeous hair, I certify national salons on how to offer gorgeous hair and I no longer had it.
I think the most frustrating part about aging hair is not understanding or really being able to isolate just what is causing the breaking, the thinning, increased shedding. Is it just stress, from what though? Environmental, work, family responsibilities? Is it not enough sleep? Is it a vitamin deficiency, if so how do I know? Is it perimenopause, what does that even mean, low estrogen, low testosterone? Is it just a texture change because my hair is more grey? Like what the fuck is happening to my hair. Is this my post covid reality of less hair…
I knew that my hairline wasn't as thick as I deluded myself. But it was an off the cuff CEO interview in my office one day that punched me in the gut. The lighting in my office is truly perfect. There basked in studio perfect lighting I could see that my entire right side of my temple was basically hanging on by a thread and my hairline in general was overall thinner and further back.
And let's be clear, this isn't the pursuit of perfection, just the dry, textured consistently stuck at my collar bone hair that I've known for the past 10 years. It felt like something deep inside trying to tell me something isn't right.
So off to TikTok I headed
Rosemary Oil, massaging my hair nightly upside down, this serum, that peptide, pumpkin seed oil, banana clips, iron pills, MaryRuth's. It wasn't for a lack of trying to think of any and every non medical approach to address what was clearly something deeper that my body had been trying to scream at me to listen.
And that's why I'm so frustrated with the American system of health care.
A ferritin level of 7
This past February I was in the Swiss Alps for an extended 3 week ski trip. I had not been feeling well the weeks prior and I believe I had what was a rebound illness. I decided to visit Medi Verbier just to make sure it wasn't an infection. I had been extremely light headed, with a severe cough and absolutely no energy. This could have been ascribed to a million of things including altitude sickness, sinus infection or a miserable combination of all 3.
But it wasn't.
It was my first time sitting down with a doctor who cared just as much about wellness as she cared about illness. I met with Dr. Sabine who spent hours with me to discover a multitude of issues some of which were easy to fix but after thorough blood testing we realized I had a ferritin level of 7. That's low, extremely low and she said have you had any inklings?
Yes. My hair.
It suddenly made sense, the cul de sacs of lost hair, thinning and breaking along the hair line and a stunning decrease in density over a few months. That coupled with I had just lost 10 lbs in 3 weeks during my 3 weeks vacation in France. I'm the face of brand that literally sells the idea of perfection in hair and my hair was literally falling out.
Things that pissed me off when we looked at my blood markers
I've been to two different dermatologists in the US. Harvard-trained dermatologists and a fancy Westport dermatologist where I had paid consultation specifically for hair loss and was not asked any of these questions and I had a blood test done which showed signs that I might have low ferritin but no further testing was explored. Not even a questioning about my menstrual cycle, my dietary habits, my lifestyle and stress.
You know what I did get? A suggestion for a PRP treatment that was about $5,000 with a kind promise that it's indeed painful and may not be that effective in the end.
The second doctor pissed me off more because she suggested after my blood panel results that although my testosterone was in normal to low levels that I should start a Pellet program for Testosterone, even though that is known to accelerate hair loss in women. It is a lucrative and recurring source of income though for Medical Practitioners and Med Spas.
I've been to my hairstylist and she's incredibly sweet and kind but she suggested Rogaine. She did the best she could and at least she had been one of the first people to notice, but she hadn't been given the skills or diagnostic tools or referral networks to even know where to get more information and help.
I've been to a general practitioner years ago when I felt super low energy and exhausted just by the idea of life and she dismissingly said I was just a mom of twins and just get used to it.
It was not until I was talking with Dr. Sabine that I felt truly cared for. She acknowledged I deserved more than just not being ill, that I truly deserved a life of complete and holistic awareness, and she affirmed for me that:
What is often dismissed as cosmetic concerns is often diagnostic signals for deeper issues.
I felt like Iron Man
She ordered an immediate iron transfusion via IV and then had me return in 8 weeks to retest. She also advised that I do a stool sample 6 weeks before so that we could also analyze if there were gastrointestinal issues. She advised that I might have tenderness or feel flu like symptoms over the next few days. I did not have any of these symptoms.
Over the next few days I felt like I was literally Iron Man.
Was this psychosomatic? Highly likely. Was this validation of my humanity and being seen as a fully dimensional patient? Yes.
Over the next few weeks, my TikTok feed was scarily flooded with truly predatory and misinformed TikToks suggesting low iron was a precursor for colon cancer, a slew of gastrointestinal diseases and if I've learned anything from this process… there are limits to what you should be consuming on TikTok and algorithmic media. It's designed to flood the zone, scare you and take you down spirals that often lead to a quasi snake oil solution available on their TikTok Shop.
Overall, I slowly felt like I had more energy, more vitality to my skin tone but no signs of improvement to my hair or balding cul de sacs.
Heavy cycles, and other things no one ever defines
I returned to Switzerland 8 weeks later for a stool and follow up blood test. Dr. Sabine advised that while an infusion was necessary it was more important to understand what could be the contributing reasons for such low ferritin levels. The common culprits are:
- Heavy menstrual cycles
- Not eating meat
- Gastrointestinal issues
As we started discussing my lifestyle, I realized that there aren't a lot of clear indications or benchmarks for any of this. What is really and truly defined as a heavy cycle? I've had a truly consistent cycle throughout the years and not one doctor, nurse or practitioner has really ever explained to me what is precisely the definition of a heavy cycle and thus I've just self designated as having a normal cycle.
I stopped eating meat and poultry and basically became a pescatarian 10 years ago. It wasn't until I was at a Summer Camp at The Wing and casually brought this up that a nurse discussed with me that I truly was going to have to make a dedicated effort to seek the best method of absorbing vitamins and minerals and proteins from my food if I was choosing to forgo dairy, poultry and meat. Even in that casual discussion no one ever discussed with me exactly how to supplement the iron deficiency from a nutritional standpoint other than telling me I should eat red meat occasionally. I had gone to two nutritionists but even that never quite discussed or addressed the total self. It didn't involve a full blood testing work up and a vitamin and mineral test.
As for gastrointestinal issues, I've definitively been aware of how important it is to your health. And…if I'm completely honest, outside of eating fermented foods and taking a probiotic occasionally I don't know if I really understand how I would approach or understand how to investigate if this was the issue. But I do know I've received an insane amount of ads on leaky gut and still can't define what it is.
And so in this one small mountain clinic in Verbier, one doctor approached the issue with patience, time and an holistic and comprehensive manner.
I returned in April and we discussed and examined the updated blood panel first. The good news: my Ferritin levels were now at 215. Which is incredibly high… and would take time for my body to use the iron stores. The stool sample also showed a completely healthy GI system. We isolated that the combination of both my cycle and not eating meat was a likely contributor to the low iron levels. We made a comprehensive and preventative plan to keep my iron levels high that will most likely include some sort of iron IV infusions once a year or every other year.
The body is the operating instrument
I'm not one to just put so much of my medical history on the internet. Trust. But… I felt compelled to speak on this because I see so many people that I know who are frustrated with their skin, their hair, their weight and genuinely feel dismissed by the traditional medical establishment as a cosmetic concern. Alternatively they can get trapped in the expensive and sometimes predatory world of med spas and supplements and non traditional medicine that takes advantage of the gap in our health care system especially in the US.
It's designed to treat illness. And I truly acknowledge and admire the advances and incredible system that we get to the privilege to complain about until the day we truly need its innovative and best in class surgeries and treatments. Like hard full stop. It's incredible and I'm so thankful for the entire healthcare system and professionals who allow us the ability to seek wellness.
And yet, when it comes to wellness it feels as if the fragmented and specialization by practice area has led us to where many of us don't have a single place to go that allows us to look and feel like our best selves, medically informed, personalized and progressive form of wellness.
And what I realized through this process, and why I want to share it and why it's worth divulging so much personal information on the internet, is that my body is the operating instrument. It's my only one. As I get older and as a founder and as a CEO and a mother, you realize how many things are reliant on it.
In a world where your time is super fragmented and you're already driving your kids to orthodontist appointments, dentist appointments, or the pedics and the pediatrician, and you're trying to go to your gynecologist, your body is being stretched among so many fragmented places holistically. You need to be able to listen to your body.
I now realize that when my body is screaming something and not just physically in my physical form, when my hair is thinning or my skin is looking weird or there are dark circles under my eyes, I think that is nature's way of communicating and screaming to us. We'll stop when we see the visual manifestation of what's going on inside. That we should advocate for ourselves.
That is what I want to scream to all women: we need to have a framework for self-advocacy, for places to go to that holistically address and treat and discuss with us. Give yourself permission to advocate for yourself, get to know your numbers, even if you're coming out of pocket, even if you have to fly to Switzerland (which hopefully you won't have to).
Don't let your body scream. Start listening to your body's whispers.