The Hairy Truth – Regrowing Hair with PCOS

Hello Lovelies,

One of the most uncomfortable aspects for me to speak on regarding PCOS is the losing of my hair continuously throughout the years.  One of the most defining moments of being a woman is being able to express yourself through the ability to change and manipulate your beauty.  A woman’s hair is synonymous to her crown, and when that is taken away without a choice, it can really weigh on one’s self esteem.  It did just that for me. For years I didn’t know how to cope with this change.  I felt out of control, out of sync, and to be honesty just un-pretty.  Growing up, all the men in the South coveted the brown girls with long hair, attributing it to attractiveness and some level of prestige among women.  I always felt comfortable during my childhood because I had growing, thick, long hair….and although my mom wasn’t the best with hairstyles, my hair made me feel beautiful.

Around the age of 16, however, I started noticing changes, but attributed those changes to my constant use of relaxers and obsession with highlights (which required bleaching my hair).  In years to come, I would find out that my hair loss, scalp dryness, and  overall thinness would be attributed to my hormonal dysfunction associated with PCOS.  Prior to that discovery though, I was taunted about my hair being short and brittle by boyfriends and peers alike.  I tried everything to get my hair to cooperate. Deep conditioning treatments, supplements, texturizers, stronger relaxers, you name it, I was trying it. Nothing seemed to help, so then I turned to weaves and wigs as a means of hiding what I was going through.  Wigs and extensions gave me a sense of power again and helped me reestablish a sense of beauty (or so I thought at the time). In reality, it was only serving as a band-aid and not really a solution to my insecurity with my tresses.

I needed to find a solution to my hair growth issues and take control over my body.  With PCOS, that isn’t always an easy feat but with much work and determination, you can have victory in some situations.  The mission to achieve hair growth took years and years, but I finally found my method arsenal of tools to combat the constant thinning and balding.

 

1. Changed My Diet

As crazy as it may sound to some, I literally had to change my diet EXTREMELY in order to not only bring my hormones into balance, but to kick-start my hair growth.  I am not fully holistic nor am I perfect, but I had to start cutting back on processed foods and focusing more on organic cuts of meat and vegetables.  When you have a hormonal disorder, EVERYTHING you put inside of you matters. The additives added to processed food, farmed meat, and traditional vegetables can further exacerbate hormonal malfunction.  I started incorporating more nuts, green leafy vegetables, fatty fish, avocados, peppers and nutrient rich products.  I’m not going to lie, it gets expensive, but keeping my body functioning regularly was key.  Once I did that, I started noticing my hair growth slowly change.

2. I started taking prenatal vitamins

I’d like to first begin that I believe in taking prenatal vitamins whether you are planning to get pregnant or not because of all of the nutrients and vitamins in them.  As it pertains to PCOS, most of us suffer from sever deficiencies in the B vitamins, Iron, Zinc, Vitamin D, and folic acid.  There can be more of course, but these listed tend to be a running trend with women suffering with PCOS. Ironically, folic acid is essential to healthy hair as well as assisting in pregnancy.  I thought that what better way to achieve getting all my nutrients that I lack in than taking a prenatal vitamin supplement. As a result, my hair began to grow rapidly in ways that I wasn’t used to.  I noticed that it was becoming thicker and stronger, so now I’m hooked as thinning was all I had been used to for the past 6 years. The other great thing about taking prenatal vitamins with PCOS is that it can help increase your chances with fertility (which is a major plus).

3. Essential Oils

When my hair fell out all over about two years ago, I was devastated!!!!! Luckily, God lead me to a hairstylist that specialized in hair restoration and natural hair.  I had decided that due to all of my hormonal issues, that the only way my  hair could thrive was in its natural state, no additives, no excessive  chemicals, just her natural curls.  One thing that my stylist stressed in all of my treatments, conditioners, and maintenance was the use of oils that stimulated the scalp.  The following oils helped to not only cleanse my hair, but stimulated my scalp bringing it to the proper condition for hair growth; Rosemary Oil, Cedarwood, Thyme, Clary Sage, and Coconut oil.  Simultaneously using a mixture of these oils in my beauty products has brought my hair back to life!!!! I still have a long way to go, but I definitely am on the right path to getting my childhood tresses back.

4. Water, Water, and More Water

There’s nothing long to write for this one, water is the key to regulation of the body in so many ways. Particularly alkaline water (I’ll detail the importance of alkaline foods in a future post).  Water helped my skin and scalp from drying out, which leads to a healthier environment for healthy hair to flourish.

5. Coming off birth control

In a post earlier in the year, I spoke on birth control being completely terrible for my body. One of the side effects that I realized that birth control caused my life was bald spots.  My hormone load while on the pill was through the roof and honestly my body NEVER adjusted. Now I am not a doctor, so I will not give unsolicited medical advice to anyone. What I will always say to any woman or person in general is to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.  Those queues your body gives you are not to be ignored.  When I was on birth control I had soooo many complications, but kept being encouraged that it was the only way I could ever manage my PCOS effectively.  That is not true!  The PCOS Cocktail of Metformin and Birth Control is not the cure all to what is going on with your body. In fact, it serves a coverup and your body doesn’t really become in balance. You have to put in work through diet, exercise, stress relief, and vitamins to truly conquer or begin to conquer the symptoms of PCOS.

Lastly, I just avoided wearing too many hairstyles that caused tension to my hair.  As much as I loved braids, I tried to avoid them often to keep my hair as stress free as possible.  I opted for other protective styles that required less maintenance and still gave me the slay-worthiness I needed. Now let me reiterate this, I don’t feel that long hair is more beautiful than short hair.  I feel like when you love yourself, you can rock any and every length. I just prefer longer hair on myself and it is my own way of saying “PCOS you can’t get the best of me, I can grow my hair as long as I want”.  For me the length of my hair restoring shows that I am beating my condition.  However, rock your hair as you will!!!!

Photos Taken By Kavah King @gentlemenscurb, gentlemenscurb.com

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Hope you learned a thing or two! If so, leave a comment below :).

Sincerely,

Lorna