Natural Ways of Overcoming Hair Loss

by Vera Peiffer^[1]

Introduction

It is estimated today that around 25 to 50 percent of women will suffer a spell of hair loss in their lives. These statistics are not far behind those of men. Hair loss is increasingly becoming a problem and it is no longer a consequence of old age. Younger and younger men and women are affected, and even though it is not a life-threatening condition, it can be emotionally devastating.

I should know because it happened to me. At the age of 14, I discovered a small bald patch on my head which slowly became bigger. Doctors and dermatologists did not seem to know why it was happening or what could be done. UVA treatment, steroid tablets and irritants didn't help, and steroid injections into the scalp made the hair loss even worse. 

I was devastated when I realised that I had to start wearing a wig to cover my baldness. I could not believe what was happening to me, and nothing seemed to stop the hair from falling out. Within another few months, I had lost all the hair on my head. Within another six months, the hair on my entire body had fallen out. 

To this day, I don't know how I got through the first few years of losing all my hair. I tried more medical treatments with irritants which produced a bit of hair but this fell out immediately once the treatment was stopped. 

I had tried every conventional treatment that was available at the time, none of which worked, but all of which had major negative side effects. For the next thirty years I was to try and recover from the medically induced health problems I had developed.

Thirty years later, while I was training to become a health kinesiologist, a fellow student worked on me to see if my hair growth could be restored. Using my arm muscle as biofeedback, she found out what it was my body needed to rebalance itself and to become healthy again. After 16 sessions, I noticed that something was happening on my head. I looked at my scalp and found that tiny hairs had started to grow. It was the happiest day of my life and for weeks, I spent hours in front of the mirror just to see whether it was all still there!

Since my own hair started growing back, I have spent endless hours researching alopecia and have been able to help numerous clients regrow their hair using Health Kinesiology, self-hypnosis and natural supplements. My findings, together with many self-help methods, resulted in my book Regrowing Hair Naturally.

Different types of hair loss

The three most common types of hair loss are alopecia areata, alopecia androgenetica and telogen effluvium. 

Alopecia areata usually starts with one small round patch where hair falls out, usually on the head. This bald patch can stay the same size and then gradually begin to grow hair again, or it can become bigger, with more bald patches turning up. In about 30 percent of cases, the bald patches become worse and all the hair on the head falls out. In rare cases, such as mine, all the hair on the entire body can be shed.  

This condition is considered an auto-immune disease.  

Alopecia androgenetica is also called 'male pattern hair loss'. It shows itself in men as gradually receding temples and thinning of the hair on the crown. In women, alopecia androgenetica commences by thinning hair in the crown area which slowly spreads over the top of the head. The remaining hair grows only very finely so that the scalp can be seen through the hair.  

In both men and women, this condition is thought to be caused by genetic factors and/ or hormonal imbalance.  

Telogen effluvium is a condition that affects women only, usually after childbirth or during menopause. ‘Telogen” is the resting phase in the hair cycle where hair becomes loose in the hair follicle and is shed. The word ‘effluvium’ means 'flow out' and is used here in the sense of 'shedding'.  

Telogen effluvium is different from alopecia androgenetica in that hair is shed evenly over the whole head and sometimes also over other parts of the body.

This condition is considered to be due to an hormonal imbalance.

Causes of hair loss  

There are a great number of reasons why your hair can start falling out. Pinpointing the underlying cause is crucial but can be tricky as the body sometimes shows a delayed reaction to a noxious substance or a traumatic event. It is also possible that hair loss problems are triggered by a combination of causes.  

The body is an extremely finely tuned mechanism which is geared towards keeping an equilibrium. If, for example, you are getting too hot, the body starts cooling you down by producing sweat which evaporates on the skin's surface and so  returns the body temperature to normal again.  

Problems start occurring when this ability to adapt is overstretched and the body can no longer right itself and consequently remains in a permanently unbalanced state. It is at this point that you start noticing symptoms of illness or disease.  

Unfortunately, we often overlook or ignore the initial warning signals that the body sends out, and we tend to only take action when the symptoms become acute or slow us down so much that we can't function normally any more. Worse still – conventional medicine often treats the symptoms only by switching them off so that we no longer get the warning signals. Often, this makes matters worse. Not only has the underlying cause been ignored, but now we are also likely to have side-effects from the drugs so that the underlying cause for our initial symptom gets obscured even further.

Once the body is struggling or unable to return to its natural equilibrium, the immune system is compromised and bacteria, viruses, fungi and other parasites have easy access. By the time your hair is starting to fall out, a lot has already gone wrong. The hair problem is usually only the tip of the iceberg.  

Here is a list of reasons that can be at the bottom of your hair loss problem:  

Physical causes

Lack of vitamins and minerals through toxicity

Hormonal imbalance through toxicity

Under- or overactive thyroid through toxicity

Extreme blood loss during an operation or accident

Severe or chronic illness

Overactive immune system through toxicity

Parasites

Incorrect bite  

Emotional causes

Prolonged stress

Emotional trauma

Sudden shock  

Other factors

Accidents or falls

Operations and scars

Dental substances

Infected oral cavities

Vaccinations

Prescription drugs

Smoking

Common metal poisoning

Hair products and dyes  

What can you do?

In order to help yourself, you should check the following areas:  

Do you have any silver-grey amalgam fillings in your mouth? These leak mercury vapours into the body which are known to cause a number of serious health problems, amongst them hair loss. You will need to detox first and, at a later stage, have the amalgam fillings replaced. Spirulina is a particularly relevant remedy in this context.  

  Do you have a problem with parasites? Have a health kinesiologist or bioresonance practitioner check this out.  Parasites destroy body cells faster than they can be regenerated.  Important remedies for fighting off parasites are wormwood, cloves and black walnut.  

Are you drinking enough water?  You should have at least 8 large glasses of still filtered water a day. This is absolutely essential if you want to help your liver, kidneys and gut to work well so hair can grow again.  

Are you frequently stressed? Sort out any emotional problems by going to an analytical hypnotherapist or counsellor. Stress is a big factor in hair loss – I have had clients who regrew their hair simply by getting rid of emotional baggage. Alternatively, learn self-hypnosis to help your emotions back onto an even keel.  

With any supplements you are taking it is crucial to take the right amount. If you take too little, you spend a lot of money and the supplement doesn’t work. If you take too much, it can be dangerous as in the case of iron. Your best bet is to have a hair or nail analysis done or go to see a health kinesiologist or a bioresonance practitioner.  

About Health Kinesiology (HK)

HK is a combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western style muscle testing. By touching an acupuncture point and at the same time exerting gentle pressure on, say, the client's arm muscle, the practitioner sets up a biofeedback system with the body. A strong or weak response of the arm muscle will show whether there is a problem relating to that particular acupuncture point or not  

If energy cannot flow freely through the energy pathways (meridians), the organs and glands will not have the strength to be fully functional. In the long run, this can lead to ill health or disease.  

HK stimulates energy flow and encourages detoxification, and as the body gets rid of accumulated waste, nutrients can get to the cells and help heal the body. With a number of my clients I found that their body didn't recognise certain nutrients and were therefore unable to utilise them. Even though these clients were taking all the right supplements, their cells were unable to metabolise the supplements. This problem can be remedied with a variety of HK procedures  

Don’t give up!

Hair falls out easily but regrows slowly. If you notice a problem with your hair, deal with it as soon as possible. You can get your hair back without chemicals that compromise your health. Make sure you find out what your body needs to regrow healthy hair and start looking after yourself physically and emotionally. As you start to look after your body’s needs, you may well find that other health problems disappear as well as your hair loss problems.  And if you are feeling particularly low, remember that my hair regrew after 30 years of not having a single hair on my body, so your chances are pretty good too!  

Case histories  

Case history 1 

A client of 60 came with a number of health problems. She suffered from diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel, panic attacks, anxiety and alopecia areata. With health kinesiology treatment, the hair started growing but kept falling out again and again. She had a great number of crowns in her mouth which had been put in a long time ago. Initially, my client was very reluctant to go to a dentist as this would have meant financial outlay for having to have the crowns with the amalgam inside removed and replaced. However, I was finally able to persuade her to see the dentist I work with who specialises in amalgam removal. He found that there was an area of serious inflammation in her jaw, and on removing one of the crowns found that it had amalgam inside. Gradually, she had all the crowns with amalgam replaced and the difference in her hairgrowth became quickly apparent. The hair started growing better and more quickly without falling out again.  

Case history 2 

A young man of 24 came to see me. He had had problems with his hair since the age of 14 when he had developed thinning hair on his crown. He was eating a lot of junk food, drank lots of diet coke and was also very dehydrated. We started with a little tidy-up of his diet by reducing the junk food somewhat and increasing water intake. At the same time, eight sessions of Health Kinesiology were necessary to allow his body to rebalance itself and allow nutrients to get into the cells. At his last session, he came back, sporting a shorter hairstyle and showing off a clearly denser hair growth.

        Sep Meyer's review of Vera Peiffer's book Regrowing Hair Naturally will be found in our review section.  http://www.NurturingPotential.net/Issue15/Bookreviews15.htm#hair    It is also available on special offer on our Books and Tapes page.

^[1] BIODATA:

Vera Peiffer holds a degree in psychology and has been in private practice as an analytical hypnotherapist since 1986.  She has also trained in Thought Field Therapy and health kinesiology.

Vera is the author of a great number of books, amongst them Thorsons Principles of Hypnotherapy. She is the principal of the Peiffer Foundation and runs Positive Thinking and self-hypnosis workshops in England, Italy and Germany.

Visit her website at  www.hairgrowthUK.net, or her more general website at
 http://www.uk-therapy.com/successhypnosis/.