Hi Reader,
Let me ask you something. Do you remember the first time you noticed it? Maybe it was more hair in the shower drain than you'd ever seen. Maybe it was your ponytail feeling half as thick as it used to. Maybe it was catching a glimpse of your crown in overhead lighting and feeling your stomach drop. Maybe you thought: "Is it just me?""Am I imagining this?""Am I being dramatic?"
You're not. And you may not have been warned. Not by your doctor. Not by your mother. So let me be the one to say it now:
What's happening to your hair...you are not alone.
The shocking truth not talked about
Up to 40% of women experience noticeable hair thinning by age 50. By menopause, that number climbs even higher. What?! Why did no one sit us down and says: "Hey… when your hormones shift, your hair will change too."
No doctor. No magazine. No wellness program. We're taught about wrinkles, about hot flashes, about bone density. But hair? Silence.
So when it starts happening, we internalize it. We blame ourselves. We panic. We google at midnight. We buy everything with the word "thickening" on the label.
Sound familiar?
Here's what I want you to know: That panic you felt? It makes perfect sense. You were handed a symptom with zero context. Anyone would spiral. But there's a better path forward. And it starts with how you think about this not what you buy for it.
"Wait… What Is Happening?"
About 2 years ago, that moment was mine. I was doing everything "right." Eating well. Taking supplements. Trying to manage stress. Seeing great doctors. And yet… My hair was shedding. My texture was changing. My crown felt thinner. I tried what most women try first. Keratin. Nutrafol. Serums. "Miracle" products hair dressers said would help. Nothing felt like the real answer.
Deep down, I knew: There's more to this.
And if you've ever had that same whisper, that quiet knowing that the product aisle isn't where your answer lives, trust that voice.
It's the beginning of everything.
The Decision
Instead of adding another product… I stopped it all. Bye Bye Keratin and hair supplements. I went for real data. After meeting Dr. Bauman, I had my first true hair analysis. Not opinions. Not marketing. Not trends. Actual measurements. And here's what surprised me most: My hair quality was pretty good.
This meant the problem wasn't my hair quality, it was my internal environment. Hormones. Iron. Stress. Inflammation. Blood sugar. Things no serum or shampoo can truly fix. So I decided to try 3 new things:
- PRP first
- Algae next
- Hormones after
My One-Year Midlife Experiment
I treated this like a science experiment. With doctors. With tracking. With patience. And stressed Natural.
August 2025: Crown – 91 Mid – 87 Frontal – 98 Right – 80
November 2026: Crown – 82 Mid – 97 Frontal – 84 Right – 81
Some areas improved. Some declined. Some held steady. Not perfect. But sometimes the data doesn't match the mirror. I have lots of new growth and that's encouraging. And still some numbers went down. And that's the point. This isn't foolproof. No single supplement, product, or habit tells the whole story.
I wish I'd understood all of this sooner. But now I do. And that changes everything. If you take one thing from my experiment, let it be this: Progress in wellness is rarely linear. It's layered. It's nuanced. It's deeply personal. And the woman who tracks, adjusts, and stays curious? She's the one who wins.
So yes I have tons of new hair growth right now and I believe a big part of that is from my daily algae intake, which I've been consistent with for a year now (full of natural vitamins and minerals). The hormones also helped to stop the excessive hair shedding.
Growth signals can coexist with thinning signals. You can be doing something right and still have areas that need attention.
What Hormones Do to Hair
Why are we not taught this sooner? As estrogen declines in perimenopause and menopause:
• Hair follicles shrink • Growth cycles shorten • Shedding increases • Regrowth slows
Add in low iron (which I tend to run), high cortisol (typical for women in midlife), or metabolic stress (hello blood sugar)…. hair becomes one of the first places you see it. It's your body whispering: "Something is shifting."
Most of us just weren't taught how to listen. If you're reading this and thinking, "This is exactly what's happening to me" you now have language for it. And language is the first step to power.
The Framework
If you're going through something similar, if your hair is changing and you don't know where to start, I want to give you a way to think about it. Not a product list. Not a panic plan. A framework.
Observe → Understand → Align → Upgrade → Reflect
Here's how it applies to hair:
🔍 Observe. Stop reacting. Start noticing. Where is the thinning? When did it start? What else changed around that time from stress, sleep, cycle, diet, medications? Your hair is a messenger. Before you silence it, listen.
🧠Understand. Get educated on what's actually happening biologically. Estrogen decline shrinks follicles. Low iron starves them. Cortisol disrupts growth cycles. Inflammation weakens the scalp environment. Blood sugar instability affects everything. This isn't vanity. It's physiology.
🧠Align. Match your response to the real root cause, not the surface symptom. If it's hormonal, a volumizing shampoo won't fix it. If it's iron, a scalp serum won't fix it. If it's stress, a supplement alone won't fix it. Align your action to your biology.
⬆️ Upgrade. Now and only now, layer in targeted upgrades. Maybe it's algae for micronutrient density. Maybe it's optimizing your iron with a doctor. Maybe it's a clinical hair analysis to get a real baseline. Maybe it's addressing your water quality (more on that below). The key? Upgrade with intention, not impulse.
🪞 Reflect. Track what's working. Reassess. Adjust. My numbers shifted over a year—some up, some down. That's not failure. That's information. Reflection turns a one-time fix into a lifelong practice.
This framework isn't just for hair. It's for every wellness decision you'll make in this chapter of life.
What This Year Taught Me
This wasn't just about hair. It was about self-trust.
Instead of asking: "What's wrong with me?" I learned to ask: "What is my body asking for?" Instead of chasing fixes, I built understanding. Instead of fear, I chose curiosity.
That's what Owning Your Wellness really means.
Observe → Understand → Align → Upgrade → Reflect
It's not a one-time thing. It's a practice. And every time you circle back through it, you get clearer. Calmer. More confident in your own decisions.
What I'm Exploring Now (And Why)
I'm currently researching Korean scalp and skincare brands. Because they obsess over something most Western brands completely ignore: Water quality. Minerals. Purity. Bioavailability.
Water makes up the majority of most cosmetic products. So if the water is poor, the product can never be exceptional. Think about that for a moment.
You could be buying a $60 scalp serum… and the base ingredient WATER could be undermining everything else in the formula. This is why I recently did a full episode on water quality. If you haven't listened yet, start there. It will change how you shop and how you think about every product you put on your body.
Owning Your Wellness Reminder
Wherever you are in your hair journey or your wellness journey—come back to this:
Observe — What is your body showing you right now? Understand — What's the biology behind what you're seeing? Align — Is your current approach matched to the real root cause? Upgrade — What's 1 change you can make this week?
Reflect — What did you learn? What will you adjust?
Write these five words down. Put them on your mirror. Come back to them every time you feel the urge to panic-buy, spiral, or blame yourself.
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