I notice a lot of people want solid answers, definitive answers on hair loss treatments, varying from IF it will work for them, IF they shed from the treatment – will the hair come back, where on the head the benefit will be, if any.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees with anything and there are no definitive answers. We can only know what works and doesn’t work for us. There is nothing that universally responds exactly the same in every person… And everything, EVERYTHING has risks.


Anything that can make your hair grow, can also make it shed. That is a hair loss treatment universal truth. I am not a doctor, but this is also more than just my opinion and most ethical doctors would agree this is true. It’s not advertised, because it’s not a sexy selling point to anything. True for Minoxidil, true for PRP, true for laser therapy… anything.

I believe to do best for ourselves, we need the most education possible, so that we can make informed decisions and go in eyes wide open with ANYTHING we choose, whether it’s a hair loss treatment or wig.

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Birth Control Pills and Hair Loss

by Y on May 3, 2021

Birth control pills and hair loss is very common, I just don’t think that women know how common it is until they are affected by it.

I had made this video for instagram, and felt I wanted to share here, as I think more women should have this information and I also wanted to provide a home here for women to share their own experiences as well. If you want to view the comments that were shared on instagram, you can find the post on my IGTV there: https://www.instagram.com/whlpnetwork/

Birth Control pills can cause hair loss that is temporary, however, it can also kick in our genetic pre-disposition for hair loss and that is what I definitely believed caused the beginning of my hair loss in 1999 – Getting off the pill Loestrin FE.

Read My Hair Loss Story From August 2007, of “How Did I Get Here?

Some doctors believe that getting on a “hair friendly” pill can stabilize the hormones and help hair loss. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a “hair friendly” pill.

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When I first started to lose my hair I would try and discuss what what was happening, and every time I was meant with a smack in the face, or what felt like a smack in the face. Since I started off this process with a ton of hair, for many years into my hair loss, I still “Looked” like I had a lot of hair, even though my loss was very real, very profound and taking a tremendous toll on me.

I wanted to be SEEN so badly, and I was dismissed. It was really very hurtful, it shut me down – and it made my already bad situation, worse. 

Follow me on Instagram: @whlpnetwork

Please realize, you don’t need to prove your hair loss, you don’t need another person’s validation for what you feel or what you do. 

Nobody, and I do mean NOBODY knows you, like you. Nobody knows what your hair was, and nobody has any reference point to compare it to like you do. 

The same thing is true for if you want to treat your hair loss, or wear wigs. There is no approval needed by anyone. None. You need to do what is best for you.

You cannot live your life waiting and hoping another person gets it. 

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Living with hair loss is difficult. So difficult. Conceptually imagining that it was a possibility was a complete improbability for me for many years and I understand it takes so much out of us. There also can be this external pressure to feel like we need to be something or somewhere other than where we are. Which honestly, makes everything much more difficult.

I received this comment on my video, “It’s OK To Not Be OK About Your Hair Loss” and I wanted to share my thoughts on dealing with hair loss, deciding to treat it or not, wearing wigs or not and really just allowing yourself to be true to yourself and not feeling pressure to feel anything other than what you FEEL.

She wrote: I feel the pressure to be positive for everyone else all the time about this hair loss. I don’t see a day coming that I can accept this …but I’m trying. One moment to the next. Thank you for validating our feelings. Only someone else living with this can truly understand.

We need to remove any pressure we are putting on ourselves to be happy or positive for ANYONE else about OUR hair loss. You do not need to be happy about a devastating situation to make someone else more comfortable in their world. I understand the pressure to feel that way, but I want to let you and everyone else know, this doesn’t help us deal with with one of the most devastating afflictions to women.

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I wanted you to HEAR me speak The words and not just read them on the screen. 

I wanted you to take them in, I wanted you to feel the meaning and what I am saying. So I have recorded my words to this video and shared some of my love, including my baby HOPE. The male kitten I got from the Spanish Harlem shelter in 2001, and who I name HOPE because I was devastated by my hair loss and needed a reminder that HOPE was always around. I am pretty sure I still haven’t recovered from his passing in 2019, but that is a different story.

For 13 years I have communicated with women online, and I know the pain from hair loss, not just my own – but in hearing your stories. I spent over the first half of my hair loss life (of 22 years) not believing, feeling or thinking that things could get better, but it did and it is important for me to let those know, that need to know – it can better, that it definitely can. 

Often I find that women are so hard on themselves, comparing themselves to other women, which makes the process of working through anything so much more difficult, and especially in dealing with your hair loss – something that is plenty sufficient to deal with on its own.

You only have to do what feels right for you, not for anyone else.

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My 5 Failed Hair Loss Treatments

by Y on April 13, 2021

Some people have asked what are my 5 failed hair loss treatments I made mention of in a previous post. 

Important to note, everyone is different and some of these medications do actually work for other people, for me they were a no go.

There are actually a few more than this, but these are the main ones.

I separate them into two categories, ones I took, but didn’t have a negative impact on my life really, so I didn’t regret it.

And then there are the others I took that I regretted.

The three I didn’t regret and I took within the first two years of my hair loss, approximately 1999-2001:

  1. Nioxin
  2. Rogaine
  3. Finasteride (Propecia)

The two I do regret, and took from approximately 2000-2013:

  1. Ortho Tri-Cyclen
  2. Aldacone 200mg (Brand name of Spironolactone)
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I was prompted to make this video because as I was scrolling my instagram feed, I saw an ad for female hair transplantation. As a whole, in general, women with androgenetic alopecia aka female pattern baldness (diffuse thinning of hair ) are not candidates for hair transplants. 

It is important for women to be able to make informed decisions regarding the treatment of their hair loss.  While there are a lot of sub optimal things that occur online that result in disappointment, frustration, loss of money etc., this is ONE thing that is extra disturbing to see targeted to women with hair loss, because without the proper information, women who are not candidates and choose to undergo this treatment may not only lose money, but they could *potentially* be left with physical scars and in a much worse position than when they began. 

The scar of hair loss to my life is sufficient, I don’t think additional physical ones are needed. 

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This episode of The Women’s Hair Loss Project podcast focuses on moving forward through hair loss, and what that looked like for me. I know a lot of women are in a place of feeling they will not be able to accept, they will not be able to live with hair loss – but you can, I know you can. I am living proof of that. 

I share different parts of my story and journey to let you know it took different things along the way to get me to the place I am today. 

Believing YOU CAN emotionally get past hair loss is so important.  Removing the fixed mentality that things have to be a certain way – that fixed mentality kept me stuck in my own prison for over a decade, till the one day things changed. I changed. My mindset changed. I learned I could be okay even though my hair wasn’t going to come back. I accepted my hair loss, I accepted what is, I accept wearing wigs.  I found a new way to live, and I found it when I was open to it. It was there along, but I wasn’t open to it. 

I sat down today to speak to you, to speak to the woman who needs to hear these words from the person who has lived through it, and who knows deeply all the emotions and feelings that hair loss brings with it. 

We don’t always feel like we have any choices, but we do. It’s not always the choices we want, but we do get choices. Those choices empower us, and bring us closer to reclaiming ourselves and our power.

When I stopped feeling like everything was happening to me, out of my control, without any say of my own whatsoever, and began to make the choices I needed to,  and take action over how I dealt with my hair loss – everything changed. 

To the person that needs to hear this today, there is hope.

Sending much love to all!
XOXO
~Y

Follow me on Instagram @whlpnetwork

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A Formula For Hair Loss Acceptance?

by Y on March 28, 2021

I have…

22 Years of Hair Loss

5 Unsuccessful Treatments

8 Years Feeling Alone ( Started The Women’s Hair Loss Project in 2007)

13 Years Spent Feeling Helpless/ Powerless 

12 Years of PRP

9 Years of Wearings Wigs

9 Years of a Shaved Back Hair Cut

And a partridge in a pear tree…..

I wish I had the exact formula to provide everyone, that one recipe to get you to feeling better, moving forward – closer to acceptance, but the one thing I do know as well as knowing my hair is not coming back, is that everyone is so different. We all process very differently, we all need to do and try things differently, and sometimes one of those things is actually doing nothing. 

I mean that in a passive and active sense. Passively doing nothing, as in we cannot AT THIS TIME make a move, and ACTIVELY doing nothing, meaning we decided, we aren’t going to do anything for our hair loss and that works just fine. 

There are zero hard and fast rules when it comes to dealing with, living and treating hair loss. 

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Getting Over Hair Loss

by Y on March 17, 2021

Over the years, I’ve often been asked “How did you get over your hair loss?” But I didn’t get “over” my hair loss, rather, I learned to accept it and I learned to live with it.

Hair loss was traumatic for me, it impacted every part of my life, countless decisions were framed around it, including many times choosing to not treat myself medically because I was afraid ANY medication would make my hair loss worse, so at times I had compromised my health for hair loss.

I wear wigs because of my hair loss, if I shave my head, it’s because of my hair loss – those are present day realities. I treat my hair loss with PRP. Saying I’m “over” my hair loss would not be an accurate statement.

What I CAN say is I have quite successfully learned to live with hair loss, accept it, no longer feel a prisoner to it, no longer compromise my health for it (physically or mentally) and that’s a solid win in my book. I couldn’t have hoped for more, truly. Quite honestly, that’s as close to getting over it that I will be, and I am really content in that, because I can actually accept my reality, no longer be owned by it, I can live my life – I can feel free from hair loss, and also at the same time, not be “over it.”

I’m proud and have much gratitude for having reached this place I have in my hair loss life, there was a time I never thought it was possible.

Let me know your thoughts below, would love to hear from you!

Sending much love to all!
XOXO
~Y

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