EP207. Solutions to hair loss in women - and its stigma

Whenever we talk about hair loss, we picture men because male pattern baldness is widely recognized because it's so common. But when women lose their hair, the immediate assumption must be that they're unwell or that something's wrong. And yet, hair loss in women is also really common. In fact, a study published in 2022 assessed around 200 postmenopausal women and found that more than half of them were experiencing hair loss or hair thinning. In other words, women experience hair loss too. And you know what? Even I've noticed recently that my hair is perhaps a little bit thinner than it used to be now that I'm in my mid-40s. The beauty industry has of course painted a fairly ugly picture for us and told us that having long, glossy hair, which in their eyes should ideally be straight as well, is the same as health, vitality and youth. So the effects of hair loss can be profound, particularly with women, as it can affect their self esteem, their body image, their confidence, and then, to make matters worse, hardly anyone is talking about it. So today on the podcast, I'm joined by an entrepreneur and campaigner who wants to destigmatize the shame around hair loss and wants to support women who are experiencing hair loss with her formulations, her wigs, and the community that she's created. I am delighted that we're talking about this topic on the podcast today, because I think it's incredibly important that we have these conversations. So grab your earbuds and listen in to this whole episode so that you can take part in that conversation too. Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how you buy, use, make or sell your green beauty formulations. In my weekly episodes, I explore the sustainability of the beauty industry and encourage you to join me in changing the industry for the better. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallnayer. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist, and the CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. We have tens of thousands of students in over 190 countries around the world who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you want to be the first person to know what's happening in green beauty, make sure you subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app. So in today's episode, I'm joined by Helena Gibson, serial entrepreneur, author, podcaster, creator of Unveil Restorative Hair Care, and founder of Strut Hair Solutions. Helena watched her own mother struggle with and try to find solutions for her own thinning hair when she realized that so many other women must be struggling with the same thing. So Helena, in an effort to help her mum, was on a mission and Strut Hair Solutions was born to help women feel vibrant and sexy and free from the negative self image that hair loss can cause. During COVID After 20 plus years in the hair industry, Helena decided that she wanted to make a larger impact in the industry and she created Unveil, which is a natural and cruelty free line of hair growth products that serve as a natural alternative to traditional hair loss treatments. Hi Helena, how are you doing today?

I am awesome. Enjoying this Wednesday.

Yes, me too. And I can't wait for this conversation because I think this is such an important one. So we're here to talk about hair loss in women. Before we dive into your business and everything you do, let's paint a bit of a picture. How widespread is this issue?

I think it's huge. I think that men and women were in the millions of people I know in the US where over 80 million people are suffering from some kind of hair loss. Whether it's genetic, whether it's stress induced, people are still getting hair loss from long term Covid, long tail Covid, I guess is what it's called postpartum menopause. There's so many different reasons that we go through shedding cycles with our hair.

Wow. That is a much bigger issue, or if one can call it an issue, much bigger occurrence than I thought. Tell me about your story. How did you get started?

It was actually kind of interesting. I was in a different business altogether. I owned an auto repair shop and I had worked in a gas station during high school. We had an auto repair on there. So I paid attention to that and did that after college to help to support my daughter. During that time, my mom started struggling with her hair. Well, actually she struggled with it always, but it became more prevalent. And I watched her go to these local stores and what they seemed to be missing was the empathy and understanding how big of an impact this was making on her self esteem and ultimately on her life. And so when I saw that, I thought I could do this, I could do a way better job because I see that piece that's missing. And so I ended up closing the auto repair and. And I started with a kiosk in our local mall 23 years ago next month.

Wow.

And so it just kind of grew from there because I just saw what these women specifically really needed and it was and not Sympathy. They didn't want you to feel bad for them. They wanted you to have empathy and understand that this was something that they couldn't control. Because a lot of the doctors and referring physicians don't understand that, that this is not a cosmetic issue. This is really an internal. You know, it's biblical, right? It says in the Bible that a woman's hair is her crown and glory. And I think that it really goes very deep into also your identity. Every day you look in the mirror, this is the frame to your face of what you see, of who you are, who Lorraine is, how Lorraine shows up. And. And when you have a great hair day, we. We show up differently.

Yeah, it's very true. So what happened at that point?

Well, so I started with the kiosk, and I had more and more ladies wanting privacy because I was in the mall. So it's kind of that little thing in the middle. So after about a year, I did an inline store, and then that's when we started introducing the wigs and so forth. And then I had the medical clients, whether it was chemotherapy induced hair loss, trichotillomania, alopecia, lupus. Then we started getting clients that had had gastric bypass surgery. Any kind of anesthesia causes hair loss. People don't realize that's a huge effect from facelifts. All those different kinds of things can cause hair loss. So then we just kept growing. And so after I'd been in the business about five years, I went to school. I went back to school and got my cosmetology license when I was 30. And then while I was in school, I realized how to run my business remotely. So when I came out and walked in the store, nobody needed me. So I decided, okay, I'm going to go and open another location and try to scale this business and see what I can do. And so in 2011, we opened Strut Hair Solutions in San Diego, California. And we've just been growing since then.

That's amazing. Well, congratulations, first of all, on your success, but also on all the women that you have no doubt helped, because it sounds to me like you've had a huge impact on a lot of people's lives.

Thank you. And we get people all the time. I'll be in Target, which is one of our local kind of retailers. They'll come up to me and, you know, and thank me. They bring us gifts because that's some of the most troubling times in a person's life, men and women, and to feel good about yourself while you're going through that just helps you that much more. So when a lady comes in that's going through chemo, we tell her, don't worry about this. We've got you. You focus on your health and that stuff. So that that way you feel like yourself, especially around your kids. Some ladies are still working. They don't want to tell their co workers. So it's very important that we keep them looking and feeling whole so that they can go through this process.

I completely understand what an incredible impact you're having, but you haven't just stopped there, have you? You've started another branch to your incredible business. Tell us what else you've created.

So during COVID it was kind of scary because for the first time ever, they closed our stores. I was only closed for a few days. Since we are a medical necessity and we can bill insurance for cranial prosthesis, we were able to open up a few days later. But while I was in the store by myself because my team was unsure and not ready to come back, I started thinking, I've got to do something else because this could happen again. And my daughter was in college at the time. She was in her last year. So I had a lot of debt that I needed to pay for that. So I looked at our SKUs. What was our next highest SKU? So obviously the wigs were first, but those were imported. And I don't know how much you know about California, but our ports were closed also and backed up during COVID so I couldn't import the wigs. So what could I make in America? The next biggest skew that we had was our hair growth products, which was at the time viviscal. Revitagen were products that we were selling to clients that didn't have necessarily chemo, but genetically thin hair like my mom. I started looking for formulators and I found somebody in Phoenix. And from there, we started tweaking with. Over the 20 years that I had been selling these other products, what clients wanted and didn't want, they wanted efficacy. They wanted the product to work. Yet, as I said, I deal with medical clients. So they didn't want hormone disruptors, they didn't want anything with gluten. We had a lot of gluten sensitivity soy. We have one product. We have our number five hair nutrition vitamins. I made sure they didn't have shellfish in them, that there's. They're vegan, there's no gelatin. Myself, I think I had mentioned I'm a vegetarian. And so I wanted to make sure. There was no animal products. So we took all of those things and created Unveil Restorative Hair Care. And that launched last year.

Congratulations. What an exciting additional string to your bow. And how have things gone with the brand since you've launched it?

Oh my gosh. It's been so amazing to wear. I mean, I love Strut, but this is my next 20 years.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, I'm, I'm kind of over now. My retail store, like all my focus is on this because now I can help people worldwide, throughout the whole US not just in a 30 mile radius. And most of our clients, Funny. Are on the east coast. So it's a whole new world because now I'm a digital marketer, now I'm working on my newsletters and creating that business. I mean, it's so different and so fun. And then every time I look at a product, I realize how much that took to get to the shelf. I mean, I've been working on our shampoo and conditioner now for almost 20 months.

Wow.

I mean, they don't just happen, right. Because you know, every time you get a sample and it doesn't do just exactly what you want. And so none of this is private labeled. This is all my creation. And it's almost like having a kid again.

That's really exciting. So how does your serum actually work to counter hair loss? What does it contain?

Sure. So we're using plant stem cell culture. So that's one of our differences. So our main competitors in the marketplace would be, you know, a minoxidil based product. Right. Like Rogaine, this product is using plant stem cells and terapeptide. So what that actually does is create a different ecosystem on the scalp. We put all this stuff on our face, you know, wrinkle creams and everything you can imagine. But we don't do scalp health. So your scalp follicle actually miniaturizes as you age, which then causes the hairs to actually atrophy. And, well, that follicle atrophies. And so then you're not getting the healthy hairs. You have mostly vellus hairs, which are those small, fine baby hairs. So this actually makes a stronger terminal hair so that your hair feels thicker, looks better. So it's actually, it's really amazing what it can do. And it just gives you healthier hair. Healthier.

Amazing. Well, it sounds absolutely fascinating. I'd love to try it myself. I want to go back to your mother's story, because I think it was your mother really who got you into this. Whole industry, if you're happy talking about story. I mean, how did she feel when her hair initially started to fall out? You mentioned self esteem being affected, but how was your mother's confidence affected by this?

I think it hugely affected her confidence. And even with the wigs, I noticed she would come in to me because she was dating, she had divorced, and she would say, how can I keep this wig on? Like when she's on a date or if she's intimate or when she's sleeping over. And so even though she had hair with the wig, she still felt a little unsure. The wigs don't come off. You can sleep in them and etc. But there's still that little bit of it. It's still not mine. It's still not a part of me. It's something I take on and take off. So with unveil, she started using it, which I found was really odd that she wanted to use it. And I said, okay, well, she's had great results. It doesn't give you hair you never had, but it does give you about five to 10 years back. So now she'll send me photos and she'll say, look how thick my hair's gotten. And I can go without my wig, you know, to answer the door or to go to bed because your head actually gets cold. So she's always trying to do little styles now. But back when all this was going on, I think she didn't go on dates. I think she was unsure, different at different. Like business meetings, sales meetings. I would watch her when I still lived at home in the 80s, crimping her hair, perming her hair, anything she could do to make it look and feel thicker. Then she'd go outside and the weather would hit it and her hair would drop. And then I could just see her confidence drop. Or her and my stepdad used to go fishing and she'd come back and her scalp was sunburned. And that's the other thing with me living in Southern California. People forget how damaging the sun can be. And so if you have thin hair, I tell those clients, you need a topper, you need some type of sunscreen or to wear a hat because that exposure is all day long and people are getting melanoma on their scalps and they're coming in with big gashes where the, you know, dermatologist has had to take the cancer out. You just shouldn't have to live like that.

No, I quite agree. I mean, were you, were you surprised when you started to realize how widespread this Issue was.

Yeah, just from being on the cart. You know, when I first started, I was just. I was just trying to see was there really a need or was it just my mom? Right. I would go in the stores with her, I'd see the other ladies in there. But I was thinking, okay, maybe it's just cancer patients, because remember, my mom didn't have medical hair loss. She just always had thin, fine hair. And in the 70s, that looked great. Everybody had the stringy long hair. I mean, it worked. But like I said, once the 80s rolled around and big hair came in, that's when I noticed the shift in my mom. And then by the 90s, that's when hair extensions were coming out. And so she would wear hair extensions, but yet the top was still super thin. So she almost looked like a tree because it come out really wide, but the top was still very fine. So it was just so interesting to me. That's when I decided I'm just never leaving this industry. And that's when I went back to school just so that I had my license, just in case, which that way has been beneficial because we can perm the wigs, we can color the wigs and really customize them because you can't buy them online and take it out of the box and throw it on and expect it to look like yourself. It needs all of those things.

Yeah. It's effectively like going to the hairdressers, I suppose.

Yeah. And that's what we are. You know, I always say we're like the Nordstrom, but of hair.

That'S beautiful. How do women typically deal with hair loss when they first start to find that their hair's thinning or they go through a phase in their life. And you described at the beginning, there are many phases in a woman, woman's life where this can happen, and a man's life for that matter. How do women typically deal with this, with hair loss, when they first experience it?

I think that they feel. I think they feel the shame. I think they feel shame. I think they feel self doubt, from what I've noticed. I mean, when they come in, we have tissues all over my store because they cry. You know that. Why is this happening to me? What did I do? They very much personalize it when it's nothing that they did. It's nothing that people talk about. You know, there's so many topics for women that we don't talk about. Like, you know, on our initial conversation, we talked about menopause and stuff like that. That everything's a Big secret. So when the women come in, I notice they feel like it's just them. This is only happening to me. There's no support groups for it. There's. There's nothing to. To let them know. You're not the only one. This is affecting 80 million other people.

But how do people react when they hear that? I mean, is that relief? I suppose, to a certain degree, to know that they're not alone.

I. But I feel like since it's not talked about in the media and if a man gets cancer, shaves his head, nobody thinks anything of it. He's just lost his hair. If you try to go out to dinner with your husband and have no hair, everybody immediately assumes you're ill. It's not a hairstyle. It's. Something's wrong with her. And that narrative needs to change.

Yeah. Why do you think no one talks about hair loss in women? Like, what is the big secret?

I don't know. Honestly, I don't know why that is, especially being in this industry for two decades. And I've been trying to create a platform, at least locally, on this. And that's why unveil is so amazing, because now it's giving me a larger platform that I can get this out there, that it's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, it is a societal pressure, but those things are changing, and there are solutions now. And knowing that there are things you can do for your hair that it doesn't have to be like that now, again, don't read into the fish, the snake oil, that somebody's going to give you hair you didn't have naturally. I don't think we're there yet, though, with, you know, transplants and all these things are, you know, coming along and getting so much better. It's still not to that point, but you can have healthy hair. You can feel good about your hair. You just have to use the right products and know what's out there. And that's what we're trying to change, is that there are solutions for you to have healthy, nice hair.

I think that's a beautiful mission, and I love that you're campaigning so actively for this. What would you say? I mean, we're listened to by women, many women all over the world. What would you say to anyone listening who is experiencing hair thinning or hair loss?

I would say one of the things is how often you're shampooing. I know a really big thing right now is dry shampoo and to go all week to extend that blowout. But you have to be careful because as you're piling products on your hair, if you're dry shampooing every day, if you can just imagine, you're packing that on, so you're actually suffocating the follicles to where it can't get the air, and then it's compacting in so the new hair growth can't come out or your shed can't happen. So then it's damaging what's happening underneath in your papula. So you definitely want to get like a scalp brush and you want to use that and move it around so that you're stimulating. Plus, blood flow is not coming up. All of our blood flow is going down, usually to our stomach because we're always eating. So blood flow is going down. So the brush helps to bring the blood up, and then that nourishes your hair, follicles and the papula. So that's very important. And you can do that anywhere, even if you just take your fingers at night and just massage your scalp. Because think about when the last time you did that, like, you just actually took the time to massage it.

Yeah, I think we're all guilty of not doing that enough. I certainly am.

Well, it's like a facial, right, for your. It's like a facial for your scalp, and it needs that. So I keep my scalp brush right by my bed, and at night I like to watch TV to fall asleep. So I just massage it for just a few minutes. And I know I'm doing something healthy for my scalp. So anybody anywhere can do that.

Amazing advice. And I'm sure there'll be plenty of people listening, thinking, where do I get my scalp brush? And heading over to Google straight away, how would you say we can counter the shame in society around female hair loss in particular? I know some of the things you're working on, but what can we as a society start to do to make the shame disappear?

Having the conversations is one. And then when you see someone that's wearing a turban or that has finer hair, not staring at them, not making a comment, how are you doing? Kind of like, if someone's overweight and you say, oh, when is the baby due? Like, I learned that a long time ago. I made that mistake one time when I was like, I don't know, I was like 20 something and I said, oh, when's your baby due? And the lady looked at me and she said, I'm not pregnant. And I mean, I was so embarrassed. I mean, how do you escape that? So it's kind of that same thing too because. So funny story. So when I first started Strut, I had my business cards. I'm so excited. I see this lady in the grocery store with the most horrendous wig. So I walk up to her and hand her my card, super excited. And I say, I can help you. The lady looked like I had just shot her. Never obviously came into the store. So that's when I realized this isn't like a realtor. I'm not going to be able to walk up and go hand my card to somebody and say, hey, I can help you. Being telling. I know, right? That's you right there. So excited. And I get that even now when, when women come in and then they see that we have unveil for their sons or their husbands on how to approach it. So what I say is get it for yourself. Set it on your bathroom counter. He'll see it. It's a very hard subject to bring up to someone because they take offense to it. There's something wrong with me. What do you say? Am I losing my hair? So I think, I think that it's just being gentle with it.

I love that. So having more conversations around it, but being gentle, particularly in our one on one conversations. I know I was laughing, but it. I can totally imagine the awkwardness of the situation for both of you. Let's talk a bit more about your business.

Yes.

What's your big mission for Strut? For Unveil? What are you trying to achieve with it?

Well, with Strut, my mission is to sell the stores to my managers. I would love to help empower my team so that they can keep the legacy there going on. My focus is purely now on unveil and bringing out products that are cruelty free, that are non toxic, clean and sustainable. So that's been also very important to me. As we use glass bottles with our products, we have recyclable plastic. So our brush that we use, our scalp brush is actually wheat stock. So it will disintegrate over time. I think those are things that people now want to know what's in the products. They want to know who's behind it. They don't want these big conglomerates where it's just all about money that we're actually giving back and that we have a mission and that we care. And I think that's really important. So that's where I've been focusing now the last couple years, all of my time.

Exciting. Any more products on the horizon?

Well, I'm still working on that shampoo, which I was trying to have the first two in one with no sulfates, no parabens, and it was okay, but not enough. I wanted to put my name on it. So we just separated them. We had our first series. And the conditioner I actually really loved because it's for people with fine hair, so it doesn't weigh your hair down, but the shampoo is still a little heavy. And so we're still working on that iteration. And then I'd like to do a repair oil and a sunscreen. So one thing that I was trying to work on, which that's a whole thing, because now we're with the fda, so I'm learning about that and how they test for the ingredients there. But something where you can spray, because not everybody looks good in a hat and not everybody wants to wear a hairpiece so that you could spray onto the hair because they have sunscreen for bald men, because they can use what they put on their face and then put it on their hair. But there's really nothing for spraying on your part or the thinning areas of your scalp.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. When you were describing it earlier, actually, I was thinking, how would I do that without getting my hair all greasy? You know, because you still have some hair, obviously, unless you. Unless you've lost all of it. So, yes, I can imagine. That is a wonderful new opportunity for Unveil, and I look forward to. To watching you unveil it as part of the brand. So finally, where can people learn more about Unveil and you, and where can they come and buy your products?

Sure. So unveilhaircare.com and that's where we have different offers all the time. And then nvailhaircare is where our Instagram is. And then we're on LinkedIn, Facebook, and then we have a special offer for your listeners. We have 20% off. So all they have to do is put in Lorraine. And so once this goes off for the next. I think it's. We have it set up for 60 days, then they can get 20% off their first order.

Where do you ship to?

Right now, we're just in the U.S. okay, so, but if, you know, if somebody reaches out to me and sends me an email, hellonvalehaircare.com I'm sure we could work something out. So we're just learning. That's what's so cool, too, is after being in a business for 20 years, you kind of have it down. It kind of runs itself. So, honestly, I was getting a little Bored there, right? Because it's like, okay, you know, I got this down now what? And this, like, shipping. We had a customer in Australia order from us, a big wholesale order, but by the time we were trying to figure out customs and all of that stuff, I ended up not doing that one because there's so much with it. So we're going through all of those things and taxes and duties and. But it's exciting, you know, figuring out all of this. It's like a whole new world. And there's so much for people there. You know, I told you, I've listened to your podcast, you know, for the last year or so, and there's so many things that women can do as having a second around. I mean, I'm in my mid-40s now, and I would have never thought I'd start another business had it not been for Covid. I was going to stay in my 30 mile radiuses, you know, in California, the rest of my life. And then this opportunity came up and there was so much not good, but so many wonderful things. When some kind of adversity hits you, there's actually something you can do with it if you keep your mind open, especially as creators and so forth, of what could we bring to the market, what's missing? And I saw with these products there was really a void. And this is for men and women, because a lot of the competitors I found too, that were clean, if you will, they were all geared towards women. Well, men want clean products, too, because the products that are going towards men have a lot of gnarly side effects, like Propecia, Florisaride, and with Minoxidil, Rogaine, those have side effects. And like with the. I think it's Propecia. Even women aren't supposed to touch the tablets while they're in their childbearing years. And the men are putting that in their bodies. Right. But they're that desperate, too. And I think that we've been talking about how women feel, but men feel the same way now. They don't get the societal pressures, if you will, but they do. Because I see them when they come in, they're always, what do you got for me? Because they feel that too, because that's a loss of their masculinity and their virility, and they want to have a full head of hair as well. So I think that men also are something that we don't talk about. Just shave your head, you're fine.

No, it's very true. Well, I think you have a wonderful mission. I think you have a wonderful company. Helena, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. All of those links you mentioned and the discount code will all be in the show notes as well. For anyone who wants to go and buy your unveil hair care and I wish you all the very best with it.

Thank you Lorraine. I appreciate it. It was an honor to be here with you.

Oh thank you so much. I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Why is there such shame around hair loss in women? What can we collectively do to change that? How can talk more about it? Leave me a comment on our social channels as both the Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you. And if you want to hear more about some of the topics we covered today, please do delve back into the podcast archives. So go and listen to episode 153 in which I interviewed Ekwi Chukwuji Nene of Ekwi Botanicals, who very vulnerably talks about her own struggles with hair care and hair loss. Or episode 139 in which I interviewed Suzanne Soto Davis, founder of O Bloom Haircare. We talked about sustainability in the hair care industry. Well, let's go all the way back in time to episode 57 when I interviewed Ada Juristovsky of Nala Care where we talked about another normal part of our bodies and the shame that women feel around sweat. There's a wealth of information in our old episodes and I do encourage you to go back and listen to them. Thank you for joining Helena and I for this latest episode of Green Beauty Conversations. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please do leave me a five star review so that other other people can enjoy these conversations too. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever your favorite podcast app is and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica at Formula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn. We are everywhere and come and give me a Follow Lorraine Darnayer on Instagram, visit our website@formulabotanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course today. SA.