My hair loss success story & hair regrowth protocol

Back in June I noticed a small bald spot right on the top of my head, and since then I noticed at least 2 other substantial bald spots. My initial thought was my hair loss was from stress, and of course losing my hair was just stressing me out more! I knew I needed to make some big changes and focus on reducing stress (I had been feeling very on edge and disregulated for several weeks) – but I also wanted to make sure it wasn’t hormonal hair loss caused by something bigger like hormone/thyroid issues.

I decided to work with a functional medicine practitioner and got a full functional lab done including things like thyroid panel, cortisol, progesterone, and estrogen. My lab work came back in pretty good shape other than moderately high cortisol (not surprising to me) and a few vitamin and mineral deficiencies. 

Now, over 4 months later, my bald spots are filling in and I’m looking forward to the day when my hair is thick and healthy once again. At this point, I’m pretty convinced that I was dealing with post-covid female hair loss (I had an VERY mild case of covid back in February, at the same time as a miscarriage, so lots of stress on my body at once).

So many people have been asking what I did to get my hair to grow back – usually with the assumption that it was a certain supplement, procedure, and/or topical product – but it was much more involved than that. Below I’ll share the steps I took to reverse my female pattern hair loss; but keep in mind this was for my individual situation with my blood work results and current diet and lifestyle.

1. Stress reduction and nervous system regulation. The very first thing I did was to heavily focus on reducing my stress and regulating my nervous system. Not only does lowering stress support a healthy gut (see below), but stress also depletes nutrients and leads to poor quality sleep. I hired a coach, increased my meditation practice to 2x per day, and I found that movement such as dancing really helped regulate my nervous system. I also started taking 5-HTP and an adaptogen blend 1-2x per day which both help with stress response. 
2. Gut Health. At this point in my life, I know my gut is in good shape so I did a pretty simple 30-day gut health protocol. I wanted to do this FIRST, along with stress reduction, to ensure that my body was set up to best utilize the nutrients from the supplements I’d be taking specifically for hair growth. If your gut is not in good shape, your body won’t be able to get the most out of the nutrients you’re feeding your body. So, on top of my regular probiotic I added in GI Revive from Designs for Health as well as saccharomyces boulardii, which is a strain of probiotic that’s great for getting rid of common “bad” bacteria like candida. Additionally, I upped my intake of probiotic foods like sauerkraut, kombucha, and started making homemade yogurt.
3. Hydration. I increased my water intake from about 100 oz per day to a gallon per day. This may seem like a lot but note that I live at 8400 ft. so my requirements may be higher than yours. (Tip: to make sure you are getting the best hydration, add a pinch of quality real salt to your water.)
4. Detox & mitochondria support. After my 30-day focus on stress reduction and gut health, my next step was to add in some great mitochondria and detox support using liposomal vitamin c, liposomal glutathione, and increased b vitamins through not only my regular multivitamin, but also a supplement specifically for mitochondrial support (Mitochondrial NRG from Designs for Health). At this point, I noticed my energy was coming back and I was feeling so much better in the mornings. Honestly, before this step of my protocol, most days I would feel hungover when I woke up, even if I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol.
5. Hair growth supplement. About 2 months after my initial blood work (1 month focused on gut health & reducing stress and 1 month focused on mitochondria support) I went back for a followup appointment. We noticed that little baby hairs were beginning to grow back (yay!) and my blood work returned showing that everything had improved. At this time I started taking a hair growth support supplement, which I plan on taking for at least 3 months.

I love that I was able to use my knowledge of nutrition & supplements along with my troubleshooting engineering brain as well as the support from a functional medicine practitioner to develop a custom protocol exactly for me, my lifestyle, and my specific type of female hair loss.

I know that hormonal hair loss is SO common in women, and I’ve been hearing more and more cases of post-covid hair loss in women as well. If you are trying to find that one supplement or topical treatment to grow your hair back, I urge you to go a bit deeper and set your body up for thick and beautiful hair regrowth!

If you would like a custom protocol for your female hair loss, schedule a breakthrough call with me today. In this call we will spend 75 minutes discussing all your symptoms, relevant medical history, current diet & lifestyle, and your health goals and coming up with a protocol for you. After our call, you will get a custom written plan including meal plan, recipes, and supplement recommendations as applicable. I can’t wait for you to be the next female hair loss success story!