Hair loss can be a source of shame and embarrassment, especially when it is noticeable. While many of us may know the common causes of hair loss, my guest will talk about some hidden causes that aren't as widely known.
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My guest today is Britt Reuter, a Certified Nutrition Specialist and the author of the eBook Girl’s Guide to Reversing Hair Loss.
It was after years of struggling with her own chronic illness that Britt was first introduced to Functional Medicine and realized that it had the potential to revolutionize how we approach wellness by guiding people to uncover hidden sources of inflammation.
Britt’s personal experience, coupled with her formal training, empowers her to help women overcome the symptoms they feel stuck with so they can get back to living their best life.
Britt lives and works in the Boston area, consulting with female clients online via webcam.
Join us as we discuss some causes of hair loss that you may not know about.
Do you struggle with hair loss? Let me know in the comments!
In this episode:
- Why is Britt interested in hair loss?
- Why do ointments and creams sometimes not work on the scalp?
- FOUR different types of hair loss
- Testing options to help you figure out what's DRIVING hair loss
- Stress – hair loss connection
Quotes
“A lot of hormonal birth control can have very potent androgens in it that disrupt our own natural hormones and can manifest as hair loss or skin issues.” [16:57]
“If you see that a product has phthalates in it, that can actually cause a lot of surface level inflammation and increase inflammation under the scalp and interrupt that hair growth process pretty severely.” [27:45]
Links
Girl’s Guide to Reversing Hair Loss
Take the FREE “What's Your Hair Loss Type?” quiz HERE
FREE Girl's Guide to Dry Shampoo
Healthy Skin Show episode 072: Sex Hormone-Skin Rash Connection w/ Dr. Carrie Jones
Follow Britt on Facebook | Instagram
118: Hidden Causes Of Hair Loss That No One Told You w/ Britt Reuter, MS, CNS FULL TRANSCRIPT
Jennifer: Hi everyone and welcome back. I've got a good friend of mine today to join us to talk about something that's a little bit aside from skin issues, but this can happen as the result of skin issues and I'm oftentimes asked about hair loss. What do you do when you've had chronic skin issues in areas like your face or the head of your hair, where you have hair, you want hair, but now it's not growing back as a result of all the damage that has happened because of eczema or psoriasis or whatever else you may have going on in those areas. My guest today is Britt Reuter. She has a master's degree in nutrition from the university of Bridgeport and she is the author of the ebook, Girl's Guide to Reversing Hair Loss.
Jennifer: It was after years of struggling with her own chronic illness that Britt was first introduced to functional medicine and she quickly realized that functional medicine has the potential to revolutionize how we approach wellness by guiding people to undercover hidden sources of inflammation. It's Britt's personal experience coupled with her formal training that empowers her to help women overcome the symptoms they feel stuck with, so that they can get back to living their best life. Britt lives and works in the Boston area, consulting with women online via webcam. Britt, thanks so much for joining us.
Britt: Thanks for having me.
Jennifer: Well, here's the first thing that everybody wants to know. Why exactly was hair loss something that was of interest to you?
Britt: Right. So about a year ago I actually started noticing a trend with clients that I was working with and although they came to me for support and guidance on so many different issues, quite a number of them shared a common concern. They were young women and they were experiencing abnormal and unexplained hair loss, so they'd be like brushing their hair and the brush would be full, they'd be leaving clumps behind in the shower. Some of them, it was so severe that they were actually resorting to wearing wigs or toppers because it was so noticeable, they're getting patchy spots of hair loss. And in listening to these women tell me just how hard they were finding it to cope with their hair loss emotionally, how they may have felt so much shame, how betrayed by their bodies they were. I actually heard a lot of my own story in what they were saying to me.
Britt: So we mentioned this a little bit in the intro, but a little bit about my background. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune thyroid condition at a very young age and just like these women who were telling me that they were doing everything right, all of the healthy diets, the scalp treatments, the supplements, the exercise, meditation, everything. You name it. They're doing everything right and they're still not getting the results that they want, that's exactly where I had been at certain points in my health journey, literally just at my wit's end. So I felt like after having these clients that were coming to me struggling with this terrible symptom that I really needed to just get in there, dig into the research and help them, because I heard so much of my own story.
Jennifer: Yeah, and I think one of the complicated pieces to this with at least the hair loss skin issue is that it can be difficult to use the products on your scalp. For example, if you've got skin problems on the scalp and then you're supposed to use these creams and lotions and other commercial products, but you've got skin that's really damaged you're going to be probably very, I don't know, I wouldn't want to put that on my scalp, broken skin. But why exactly, if somebody has considered that, why might those options not necessarily work?
Britt: That's such a good question. And you know what I noticed too is that when I was working with these clients, or I'm talking to women online that are experiencing severe hair loss, they have actually tried everything. And I'm sure that you hear that all the time with your skin clearer clients as well, where obviously you're desperate for a solution and you'll try all of the drugstore stuff, all of the infomercial stuff. And they just really don't ever seem to live up to the promises, all of the hype. And honestly, the reason for that is because none of those products do anything to address the root cause of why that's happening. It's a very surface level, symptom based approach where you're just trying to put a band-aid on it so to speak, so I mean that's honestly why I don't expect any of those sorts of products to deliver results because that underlying issue is still there provoking the hair loss, provoking the skin rashes.
Jennifer: And I want to assume too, there's probably a lot of chemicals in these products that …
Britt: Great point.
Jennifer: I mean our skin is so porous, it's a barrier, but it also has the capacity to unfortunately absorb chemicals and xenohormones and all sorts of things and I would assume, I mean I've never had to use those products, but I would assume they're probably pretty loaded with things that even if your skin wasn't unbroken, you might be wary to actually apply to the skin.
Britt: I mean, they say that your skin is the largest organ, right? And everything that you put on your skin is likely getting absorbed into your body. I mean, one common factor driving hair loss is hormone imbalances, and when we look at the way that a lot of these toxic products behave, they're actually mimicking hormones, so you could be potentially exasperating hormonal hair loss or exasperating even skin conditions that are related to hormone imbalances. So you think that you're helping yourself out by applying this product, but you're actually just contributing to the issue.
Jennifer: Yeah, and I love the fact that you talk a lot about there's different types of hair, you've kind of created this idea that there's different buckets or types of hair loss to really help orient people. And maybe for someone who hasn't quite figured out what their root causes are for their skin, this could potentially help them understand the skin problem via the hair issue. So would you mind talking a little bit what are the hair loss types that you've identified and then, where do you see overlap with the skin rash piece?
Britt: Yeah, that's such a great question. So the hair loss types that I identified, and people can be more than one of these, so you may find that you're having, one, two, three, four, maybe all of them are affecting the way that your hair grows, but it's nutritional, stress, hormonal and inflammatory. And those are just super high level, right? But I think underneath them you find that there's these issues that are interrupting a normal hair growth process, maybe interrupting healthy skin. So the biggest overlaps that I see in between hair loss and skin rashes like eczema and psoriasis, number one, autoimmune. So we know that psoriasis is an autoimmune condition. Eczema is also likely an autoimmune condition, there's more and more evidence supporting that. And when you have one autoimmune condition, you're more likely to develop another. They tend to sort of cluster like that.
Britt: And so, when we think about autoimmune hair loss, alopecia areata, if someone is say, suffering with eczema, they're so much more likely to also experience that autoimmune hair loss. Yeah, autoimmune is a chronic inflammatory disease, so when we're presented with chronic inflammation, it only makes sense to go searching for the root cause of that inflammation. And between either a skin rash or hair loss, you're going to see a lot of overlap in those root causes. So it really just comes down to that bio-individuality that I know you like to talk about. So let's say that you and I are both exposed to the same toxin, that's our root cause but for you, maybe it presents as eczema and for me, maybe it presents as hair loss. So, it's so important to dig into what those individual root causes are because how they manifest from person to person is going to be different. It's not as though if you're exposed to mold, you're always going to have hair loss. It could be any number of things. It could be autoimmune, thyroid, it could be hair loss, it could be eczema or rheumatoid arthritis or any number of things. So yeah, you'll definitely see a lot of overlap there between auto immune skin conditions and autoimmune hair loss.
Jennifer: So with those hair loss types, so nutritional, what are some thoughts on that for someone who's listening to that. Does that mean that they just to take more? It's like, what do I just take some supplements or is there something specific that you like to point toward when there's a nutritional root cause that's driving the hair loss?
Britt: So nutritional I like to say is sort of a blanket category for a couple of different things. So number one, it could be poor diet, it could be that you're under eating, maybe you're not eating a very good diet that has varied foods in it, maybe you're struggling with gut inflammation, so you're not actually absorbing the foods that you eat. I see that a lot, like gut issues all the time. And then also food sensitivities that can be another thing and that's sort of a symptom spiraling out of that gut inflammation. So nutritionally, it doesn't seem like there's any one specific nutrient that is going to be true for everyone. Some people, I mean I'm sure anyone struggling with hair loss has already thought of taking biotin, has already thought of taking iron and it's true that some people may be low iron, may be low biotin, but I think it's really important more than just reaching for another supplement to ask why am I deficient in iron?
Britt: Am I having hormonal imbalances that's causing me to have a really heavy period? Am I celiac? That is often associated with iron deficiency or even biotin. If you're having inadequate digestion, low stomach acid, you're not going to be able to break down the foods that have biotin in order to absorb that. So it's definitely not going to be the same for everyone. And even at a surface level, a lot of people find that just taking iron or just taking biotin isn't enough to address their hair loss.
Jennifer: Yeah, and one of the neat things is to look at your iron levels is really easy.
Britt: It is.
Jennifer: That's such an easy one and that's probably, I don't know, when I've talked to doctors a lot of times they're like, the first thing I always want to check is iron because it's the easiest to look at, it's the easiest one to go after with very simple labs, which most of the time are covered by insurance by the way.
Britt: Mm-hmm (affirmative), mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jennifer: So you can always ask your doctor for a full iron panel and also add on ferritin, that's pretty good. But for all of those others, I love the organics, I don't know if you feel the same way, but I love the organic comprehensive panel from Genova to look at organic acids that tell us a lot about the nutrition and biotin certainly is listed as one of the organic acids on there. Well, the organic acid correlates with biotin status. So any other suggestions or thoughts on that or?
Britt: On testing?
Jennifer: Yeah.
Britt: So I'd say when you suspect that there's nutrient deficiencies, I like the Genova test too, NutrEval is one of theirs I like, also the ion test is really great. So one thing that I find under the nutrition umbrella too is if you're struggling with concurrent toxicities, let's say that you have some heavy metal toxicities or some gut dysbiosis, it may be that those are competing for uptake with the nutrients. So maybe you're eating a great diet, maybe you're even taking these supplements, but you're struggling with mercury toxicity, that's also going to show up on some of these tests, like for example, the ion test, so it's kind of nice to just kind of get that whole big package. And I think you made a good point too that those tests look at the different biochemical pathways. They're going to be way more sensitive than just testing plain old serum levels of these vitamins. So they're super early indicators of inadequacy.
Jennifer: Yeah. And you actually bring up a really good point too, which I didn't even think of is yeah, heavy metals can be a major factor here and that is a great point because for somebody who's like, oh wait, I'm just going to go and ask my doctor to find out what my mercury level is because think about it, we've heard about Flint, Michigan, there was lead in the water, right? People have these mercury amalgams from their fillings and they get nervous about that and they start thinking that the heavy metals are the issue, just so everybody knows, getting it tested in your blood is actually it's not a very helpful way to know what your heavy metal burden is, so you really need to do a urine culation with your doctor and working with a medical practitioner on that is my personal preference.
Britt: Absolutely.
Jennifer: Do you have any thoughts on hair analysis testing? Some people ask that or they might be even thinking about it like, oh that's easy, I'll just test my hair and see what's in it and what's deficient and obviously my hair will tell me what the problem is, any thoughts?
Britt: I don't personally use that in my practice. Some colleagues of mine really swear by that and they use it. I feel like the jury is still out on how reliable it is and if you're someone that chemically treats your hair and a lot of our products now have aluminum in them, I just feel like there's so many different factors. Likely the hair follicle is not going to be pure, it's not going to be necessarily very reliable to tell you what's going on inside your body.
Jennifer: I totally agree with you. And I think there's a lot of questions around, well, even too, as you're walking around, there's tons of pollutants in our air that we can't see. And so, depending on what you wash your hair with, the residues from water, all sorts of things can cloud the sample. And on top of it, I just haven't seen a whole lot of scientific validity around those, especially the ones where they're then telling you what food [crosstalk 00:14:48]. I just don't think that's really valid and helpful. So I think it's better, like you're suggesting, to look within instead of trying to do everything on a superficial level. For the hormonal type, what does that mean? What does that look like?
Britt: I mean just to kind of play off what we were just talking about too, with the testing. So I really love Dutch, they have great tests there that are super sensitive to picking up on different hormone imbalances and the hair growth process is a very hormone sensitive process. Our hair follicles will definitely pick up on hormone imbalances, so there's something that people may be familiar with, androgenic alopecia, which is basically androgens are masculinizing hormones, so think testosterone. And women need them in small amounts and so, it might not be until they become imbalanced that you start noticing issues. But when you get too much of those androgens, those masculinizing hormones, it prolongs the rest phase of the hair growth cycle. So you have less growing, more resting, which is going to manifest as thin, sparsely distributed hair.
Britt: And I think that that has got to be way up there for one of the top causes that I see, root causes of hair loss in women. So when we think about sources of androgens, I already talked about how some of our personal care products may not be doing us any favors in the hormone department, maybe disrupting our hormones. So that could potentially be something that's at play here. But I like to look at it as typically one of three things. Excess androgens can come from your ovaries, like when you have polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS, it can come from our adrenal glands, which normally do contribute some of our androgens, but when we're in that chronic fight, flight mode, chronic stress, it's actually going to produce quite a bit more, so from our adrenal glands and then also hormonal birth control. I see that quite a bit too. A lot of hormonal birth control can have very potent androgens in it that disrupt our own natural hormones and can manifest as hair loss or skin issues.
Jennifer: Hm, that is super interesting. And yeah, I agree. The Dutch test, I think that's like my go to. I think that's a lot of people in the functional worlds go-to test for hormones and obviously everybody can go check out Dr. Carrie Jones' talk as well and hear a little bit more about that. All right, so we have nutritional, we have hormonal, we have oh, inflammatory, we kind of touched on that a little bit, but with the skin issues, the inflammation piece is such a big piece and then plus if you're scratching …
Britt: Right.
Jennifer: … you're creating that external inflammation as a result. Any additional thoughts you would want to add to that bucket?
Britt: Yeah, so under inflammatory, I like to think of that as also including toxins. So we talked a little bit about the heavy metals, but it could also be mold, it could be organotoxins, so like pesticides for example, toxic beauty products, products in your home, like the kind of cleaners that you're using. Maybe that fragrance spray that people use all over their homes, that's a toxin. So that can contribute to hair loss for sure. And then infections too. And infections are broad. I mean it's definitely not limited to just gut dysbiosis, it could also mean viruses or parasites, so you really got to dig into some of that. Some of that's blood work with your doctor, sometimes it's a stool test, I think a lot of times you'll see those things pop up that way. And then obviously when you're having toxins in your body when you're having these infections, it's going to contribute to nutrient imbalances. It's going to contribute to hormone imbalances. It might even push your adrenals into overdrive. So you can kind of see how all of these different hair loss types can kind of compound and that's why I'm never surprised to see someone raising their hand and being like, I think that I'm nutritional and stress or inflammatory and hormonal, they're going to overlap.
Jennifer: And so, with that being said, I like that you brought this up, that there's overlap. With the stress piece, a lot of times when you go to the doctors, especially with the skin stuff and even I would argue to with hair loss, in and of itself, the conditions are very stressful. They create stress because of the physical pain that sometimes people are in with skin issues or the stress that we perceive because of societal norms that we don't look the way that we or everyone else maybe expects us to and we're treated different or stared at. There's so many things that can generate stress and you go to the doctor and you're like, you're just stressed, we'll give you an antidepressant. Stress is being used as an excuse to kind of blow off the concern that you have. So why in this particular instance, if stress is a factor, why in your view should we take stresses so seriously?
Britt: So stress is really serious, right? So it's a whole hormone cascade. It's going to affect how well even your blood glucose is managed by your insulin. It's going to affect our female hormone cycle. So it is really important and it depletes your body of important nutrients as well. And I completely understand, as someone who has a chronic condition that may even have been triggered by stress, how stressful it can be to have someone tell you that you need to relax. Sometimes that can just feel like another thing on your to do list, like you just need to find that time to meditate. I'm great, I'll check my schedule. So it really can be overwhelming. So I have so much empathy around people who are struggling with stress management. I think that if you look at what the sources of stress are in your life, sometimes it means reframing things. Sometimes it means learning to delegate things more. Sometimes it means practicing healthy boundaries, but it can also look different than just emotional or psychological stress. Sometimes it can also be the stress of under eating and over-training.
Britt: I'd say that that definitely manifests as hair loss for a lot of women who are hitting the gym a little too hard and not feeling their bodies appropriately, that's stress to your body. That still feels like, primally that you're running away from the hungry tiger is the same as checking those scary work emails. It's also stressful for your body to not get enough rest. Not just downtime, not just watching Netflix and trying to unwind, but actual sleep and in the right sleep environments, that can really register as stress for your body too and so can poor nutrition. So, not giving your body the nutrients that it needs, the variety in your diet that it needs, being on too restrictive of a diet maybe can even register as stress. So it's very varied for everyone. Everyone's going to be different but really I just look at it as taking an opportunity to invest in yourself and ask yourself those questions, where am I experiencing stress and what can I do that's an incremental change to get a little bit better there.
Jennifer: And I think this is a good question for people who have been stuck in this position where they're like, I'm really working on things. I want to see my hair grow back. But they get incredibly frustrated because it feels like it takes a really long time. And I know with my nails when I dealt with that with nails, even though that's a different conversation, but again, it's sort of similar, my nails got messed up from eczema and they took so long to grow back out normal. Somebody does experience this where their hair has or they're still in a state where things are falling out, do you have an approximate timeframe assuming everything gets back in check, right? Because that's a big piece here. It's not like you just say, “Okay, today I'm going to start working on it,” and you do one little piece but you've got five things to address if you get everything correct, how long should someone give it? How long is a hair growth cycle? I think that's what everyone wants to ask.
Britt: That's what everyone wants to know, right. Well it's so hard because everyone's so different and the level of severity of the inflammation that they're dealing with, like how long they've been struggling with those nutrient deficiencies, so it is completely case by case. I personally wouldn't expect anyone to start seeing new results much before 60, 90 days. And that's not probably typical, not the same results for everyone. So it can take a really long time and I understand how painful that can be. Something that I've seen is that a lot of women who are struggling with severe hair loss do find some kind of work around, it might be changing their hairstyle, maybe they're used to having very long hair and they end up switching it to short hair or they end up finding something like a non-permanent hair extension or a wig or just something to help them feel more like themselves, give themselves back that confidence in the meantime. And they find that it's able to help them be a little bit more patient in the process, a little bit more present. And that's not a sign of weakness. That is just you showing up in the world how you want to and I think that that's so important. So there's definitely no shame and no guilt in finding those little work arounds while you're working on addressing those deeper issues so that you can actually regrow your thick, beautiful hair.
Jennifer: Yeah, and just so everybody knows, because I've had one client who's had this, experienced this. Unfortunately your hair only, on average, grows a half of an inch every month. So that's why people are like, why I want to grow faster?
Britt: Which is something that you don't know until you're desperate to try to regrow your hair, right? Honestly, it's so hard because hair loss, just like skin rashes, you feel that shame and the stress and all of these emotions that come with that and so, asking people to be patient is so hard. But really what you have to remember is that hair loss and skin issues are a symptom of something deeper going on. It's your body's way of communicating with you and so, by you treating that as a clue, digging into those root causes of inflammation, you're really honoring your body and just showing it so much love and attention that it's hungry for. So, I mean, be patient with yourself and yeah, half an inch in a month, that's tough to hear.
Jennifer: It is but the thing is, and you know this, and for those of you who are watching who have followed me for awhile, I'm really big on being honest and giving you realistic timeframes because I don't like when people say, “Oh, fix your skin in two weeks or grow out your hair and one month,” that's not realistic. It's an unrealistic promise and many of us have a number of things going on that we have to address that take time and I just think it's better to give you a realistic picture of what that's going to look like so you can manage your expectations because it can be really easy in this world to lose hope because things seem to go so slowly. And many of you know that my skin issues, I still had flares for six months and I just kept going.
Jennifer: I don't know why I kept going but I listened to that inner voice. So know that it is possible to get your hair to regrow but you have to start looking internal instead of just these external products. That said, Britt, do you have some tips for us, maybe of some hair care products that may be okay to try or use or if you're having some issues and you're concerned, are there any suggestions you have of just how to care for the hair that you have right now in a little bit better ways so that way as things are growing back in, we're caring for everything.
Britt: Yeah, cherish those locks, absolutely. So I mean, number one is to stop using toxic personal care products. We already talked about how really disruptive that can be to the hair growth process. So I want to especially stress avoiding products with phthalates, P-H-T-H-A-L-A-T-E-S. A little counterintuitive on the spelling there. But if you see that a product has phthalates in it, that can actually cause a lot of surface level inflammation and increase inflammation under the scalp and interrupt that hair growth process pretty severely. So I would definitely do that. Downloading the Environmental Working Group's app, it's called the Healthy Living app. That has been such a game changer at my house and it's great because what you do is you can look up all of your personal care products on there, kind of be a super sleuth and check up on those products, see how they rank.
Britt: They're going to tell you how toxic they are and you want to really focus on either ones that they've picked for you as saying this is healthy, this is nontoxic or that are at about a one or a two I think is a great goal. So definitely helping to get rid of some of those toxic personal care products has got to be number one. And there's a lot of great shampoos and conditioners that don't have these harmful toxins in them. So you can definitely still wash and condition your hair in a great way but without the toxins. Second, I like to personally be really nice to my scalp, really nice to my hair. So what I like to do, this is like a little bit of a bedtime ritual that people can try out. So if you take some hemp seed oil or jojoba oil is another good choice, those are both really nourishing for your skin too, as well as your follicle and your hair strand.
Britt: So if you take a little bit of that and you can actually add some rosemary oil to it, some rosemary essential oil, just a little bit and just massage it into your scalp and that helps to not only nourish with that oil, but then the rosemary oil actually helps to increase circulation and circulation can be great for helping those hair follicles grow. And it's still relaxing, right? So you're combating stress and you're massaging your scalp, so I think that's really nice. And then I also like to use a silk pillow case.
Jennifer: Okay.
Britt: So a lot of cotton pillow cases or some of those synthetic fibers can be really tough on our hair. So as it's growing out and we're rolling around, it's snapping and breaking the hair, which when you get all that damage it's going to also make your hair look thin and sparse because you're breaking off those strands, so that's nice. So do your scalp massage and then you lay down on your really soft pillowcase and it's just a really nice hair growth, promoting bedtime ritual.
Jennifer: Awesome. Okay so, I want to back up a second. So for those who are listening, because I'm also thinking this. All right, so in your hand with the oil thing, you're going to do what? Like put maybe a dime sized amount of, we'll just say jojoba oil.
Britt: I like to add the rosemary oil straight to the bottle because that way it's less to just play with, but if you're not ready to commit that's okay. You could just try to make it in your palm, very little. Essential oils are so potent and so, you definitely don't want to overdo it with that and you don't want it to be strong, it's near your eyes, stinging your eyes. So you want to just go slow, right? You can always add more. You can't ever add less.
Jennifer: So with a bottle, let's just say the bottles' like, we'll say four inches tall. I know that doesn't mean anything to anyone, but you get the point. It's a small bottle, it's not a ginormous bottle. And I assume is that the size of the bottle you're probably using, so how much rosemary, how many drops-ish would you be adding to a bottle like that?
Britt: So I actually just added 15 and there wasn't any hard and fast science to that. That's just what I find is the right amount. So I put 15 in there and maybe start out at ten and then give it a little smell and see if that smells good to you. And then just try a little bit. Not more than a quarter size because I mean, personally I don't want to have oil everywhere, and just a little bit and then I work it in between my hands and then just try to take my fingertips and really massage it into my scalp. You can also have your partner do it in case my husband's listening, maybe he does a little scalp massage, I'm just asking for a friend here. That can be even more relaxing than when you do it yourself.
Jennifer: It sounds like too, if you were just going to give this a shot it would be probably, maybe a quarter sized amount of oil in your palm and one drop.
Britt: Yeah, I think that would probably be good if you're just going to mix it in your palm like that.
Jennifer: Perfect. I love the fact that I'm able to kind of pull out these little nuggets and get them for people because I'm sitting here going, wait, what does that look like? And I'm thinking other people are probably thinking that too, so I'm really glad that we were able to sort that out. Those are awesome tips and I really appreciate you being here. And then for anybody listening and you want to dive deeper into this whole thing of what's your hair type and you have a concern about hair loss or maybe you know that does, Britt, you have a what's your hair loss type e-guide, well it's really a quiz and then you have a bunch of really great information associated with that and we'll put the link beneath this along with your website, that way people can go and check that out.
Jennifer: It's a really cool guide everybody and Britt also has some great content over on her social media platforms as well. So if you don't follow her, definitely do that. Britt, thank you so much for joining us here and sharing this. Again, it's a little bit of an aside, but the scalp and everywhere where we want hair, when you lose it, you're like, aw man, this stinks. So I'm so appreciative that you willing to spend the time with us and share all these nuggets of wisdom.
Britt: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS
Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS is an integrative Clinical Nutritionist and the founder of Skinterrupt. She works with women who are fed up with chronic gut and skin rash issues discover the root causes and create a plan to get them back to a fuller, richer life.
I don’t have skin issues but I have a history of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, SIBO, hair loss and reached menopause 12 years ago. I have hair loss on my scalp and legs. I’ve cleaned up my body from a lot of toxins over the last 3 years, gained improved nutrient absorption & included oral biotin & vitamin D3 in my daily intake. I live in the Pacific NW. I’ve made this observation: it seems that when I spend time in a sunny location the hair on my legs seems to grow more. (It’s harder to tell an effect on my scalp hair.) What could it be in sunshine that I’m not getting in a pill? Is anyone looking at a sun/hair growth connection that you know of? Thank you!
I love your work and tuned in a few years ago because I have an adult daughter with history of eczema. A note about that: it started after she used Accutane in college. It went away during chemotherapy and came back some months after her chemotherapy ended. (She is 6 years cancer free!) We have always found that curious. No need to comment on this story though there may be others who identify with similar events. Thank you, again.