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Hair Loss
Shedding of the hair may signify a need for pruning.
Hair loss is a condition that affects people across the diaspora.
Hair loss is one of the most common complaints in primary care and dermatology, yet it remains one of the most isolating experiences.
We look at these numbers not to scare you, but to validate you.
For the Men: It’s Not Just Getting Old
Society often dismisses male hair loss as inevitable, but it is a progressive condition that signals changes in your hormonal baseline.
By age 35, approximately 66% of men will have experienced some degree of appreciable hair loss.
By age 50, approximately 85% of men have significantly thinning hair.
95% of hair loss in men is caused by Androgenetic Alopecia (Male Pattern Baldness) due to a specific sensitivity to DHT (Dihydrotestosterone), a hormone that shrinks hair follicles until they can no longer survive.
43% of men fear losing their attractiveness due to balding, yet most wait years before seeking professional help.
For the Women: It’s Not Vanity, It’s Vitality
For women, hair is often tied to identity. Losing it is statistically linked to higher rates of psychological distress than in men.
40% of women have visible hair loss by the time they are age 40.
By age 50 (post-menopause), roughly 50% of women will experience thinning.
Women are significantly more prone to Telogen Effluvium (stress shedding). Because women’s hormonal systems are more sensitive to shifts (menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, cortisol spikes), women are 11 times more likely than men to experience hair loss related to high stress.
47.6% of Black women surveyed reported hair loss at the crown or top of the scalp.
CCCA (Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia) is the #1 cause of scarring alopecia in Black women. The tragedy is that 81% of women with these symptoms had never seen a doctor about it, assuming it was just "breakage."
Traction Alopecia: It is estimated that one-third of women of African descent suffer from traction alopecia caused by tight styling. This is 100% preventable if caught early.
Regardless of gender, our community faces a shared barrier to growth:
Studies consistently show that 76% to 80% of African Americans are deficient in Vitamin D due to melanin blocking UV absorption. Vitamin D is essential for creating new hair follicles.
Insulin resistance (pre-diabetes) is a major driver of hair loss in both sexes. High insulin increases the production of androgens (like DHT) in women and increases inflammation in men. Addressing your metabolic health is often the first step to saving your hair.
Androgenetic Alopecia (Pattern Hair Loss) is a progressive condition where hair gradually thins, most often on the scalp.
It happens when hair follicles become sensitive to androgens (hormones like DHT), causing them to shrink over time and produce finer, shorter hairs until growth eventually stops.
This condition can often reflect deeper imbalances in your physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
Hair loss is a meaningful signal about hormonal balance, metabolic health, stress patterns, and overall vitality.
Spirit Listening
In our culture, hair is often called our glory.
It is tied to our history, our pride, and our sense of beauty.
So when it begins to leave us, it feels like a loss of power or identity.
But think of your hair as a spiritual antenna.
Because your hair is a non-essential tissue, it is often the first thing the body lets go of when the spirit is overburdened.
When the internal load (the grief, the stress, the refusal to rest) becomes too heavy, the body may shed the external weight to survive.
Your hair loss is not a punishment from God.
It is a conversation He is trying to start with you.
Three Spiritual Signals Your Hair May Be Sending You
1. The Season of Pruning (Releasing the Dead Weight)
In nature (and in John 15), a gardener prunes a tree not to kill it, but to help it bear more fruit.
Sometimes, we hold onto dead things like toxic relationships, bitterness, old versions of ourselves, or the need to please others.
The Question: Is my body physically shedding because my spirit is refusing to let go of something that has already died? Am I holding onto stress that God asked me to release?
2. The Call to Sabbath (The Forced Rest)
We often wear our exhaustion like a badge of honor.
But you cannot pour from an empty cup.
When cortisol spikes, hair falls.
This is your body physically waving a white flag, saying, "I can't keep up".
The Question: Have I made "hustle" an idol? Is this hair loss an invitation to lay my burden down and actually trust God with the outcome?
3. The Shift in Identity (Where is Your Worth?)
For many of us, our confidence is wrapped in our edges and our length.
When that is taken away from us, we don't feel complete. But sometimes, Yah strips away our outer security to remind us where our true value lies.
The Question: If I lost it all today, would I still know who I am? Am I willing to love the woman in the mirror, even in this transition?
Usually, when we look in the mirror to check our hair, we do it with anxiety.
We search for the thinning spots; we critique the breakage.
I want you to flip that.
The Action:
Every time you apply your scalp oil or do your massage, turn it into a prayer. Do not just rub oil on a "problem." Anoint your head with purpose.
Say this (out loud or internally):
"I thank You for this body, which is fearfully and wonderfully made. I release the stress I am carrying in my mind. I release the need to control every outcome. I speak life to these roots. I command peace to this soil. As I nourish my scalp, I ask You to nourish my soul. I am listening. I am ready to rest."
Your hair will grow back when the soil (your body and your spirit) is ready to sustain it.
Peace is the best fertilizer.
Rhythms that Heal
I know not many people think of hair loss from a mental or spiritual perspective.
We are taught to see it as a vanity issue; something to hide with a hat or fix with a pill.
But as with any health condition, the mental and spiritual components are incredibly important.
The best way to approach managing or treating hair loss is to figure out the root cause behind it.
Working in virtual urgent care, I see many men (and women) who come in asking for a quick prescription of Finasteride.
Yes, Finasteride can be beneficial for some, but I consider it a potentially risky drug. I am cautious about prescribing it because of the potential side effects.
More importantly, it is often a temporary patch. Once Finasteride is stopped, if we haven't addressed what is actually causing the hair loss, it is just going to happen again and often at an even faster rate.
The Truth About Your Genes (Epigenetics)
I understand that hair loss can be very much a genetically-based condition. But we have to remember: Just because something is in your genes doesn't mean it has to be active.
Okay, you have the bald gene, but it doesn't mean you have to be bald.
This is the concept of Epigenetics.
Think of your genes as the hardware, and your lifestyle as the software. Your DNA might load the gun, but your lifestyle is what pulls the trigger.
You want to work on turning off the genes that lead to rapid hair loss. And you do that by focusing on your internal environment.
Connecting the Dots
We have to get deep into the "why."
To optimize our scalp health, we must optimize our overall health. We do that by asking the right questions:
Is it hormonal imbalance? (Specifically your thyroid or insulin?)
Is it a medication side effect? (Cholesterol meds, antidepressants, blood thinners?)
Is it your skin barrier? Your scalp is part of your integumentary system. If you have eczema or psoriasis on your body, your scalp is likely suffering the same inflammation.
Is it toxicity? Heavy metals or parasites affecting malabsorption?
Losing your hair is an invitation to look deeper. It is your body’s way of saying, “Come on, let’s do something about this. Let’s look at the engine, not just the paint job.”
Pruning & Antennas
And then, we must go deeper.
Because sometimes hair loss speaks beyond biology.
Many traditions historically see our hair as an extension of our spirit; the antennas that connect us to a higher power and our intuition.
Think of Samson in the Bible: his strength was directly tied to his hair, symbolizing his covenant with God.
So when your hair begins to shed, we have to pause and ask: Is this representing a spiritual pruning?
Is God, or Life itself, trying to help you remove what no longer serves you?
Is this an invitation to redefine your worth beyond your appearance?
Is this a physical manifestation of a spiritual "identity crisis"?
I guarantee you, the majority of hair loss cases are associated with stress and toxins. These are the two things that drive your body to literally attack its own follicles. When we are faced with an attack, we need to pull ourselves to the side and think. We have to learn how to connect with the Almighty Power to navigate the healing we actually want to go through.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Instead of rushing to fix, begin a gentle dialogue with yourself this week. Sit in a quiet place, perhaps during your scalp massage, and ask these questions honestly:
The Physical Check: "Have I been neglecting the care of my skin and scalp? Am I exposing my pores to toxic products that are degrading their integrity?"
The Medical Check: "Am I taking a medication that may be contributing to this? (anticoagulants, beta-blockers, anti-thyroid agents, etc.)"
The Emotional Check: "Is the way I am taking care of myself on the inside reflecting on the outside? Am I giving my body enough rest, sunlight, and time to repair?"
The Spiritual Check: "Is this a measure of my over-responsibility? Is this an invitation to lay my burden down and reconnect with Yahuwah?"
Weekly Reflection: "What is my hair loss trying to tell me about my stress, my boundaries, or my need for rest? How can I honor my body's message this week?"
Did You Know?
The hair you can touch is dead tissue.
The only living part of your hair is the root buried deep inside the scalp. That is why you cannot actually heal a split end. You can only cut it off or glue it down.
Wet hair tears as easily as a wet paper towel.
Wet hair can stretch by 30% of its original length, making it incredibly fragile. Brushing your hair while it is soaking wet puts stress on the strand that causes it to snap.
Humans have a shedding season just like pets
Studies show that people tend to lose the most hair in late summer and early autumn. If you notice more hair in the shower in September, it might just be nature's rhythm.
Your hair holds a grudge for ninety days.
Hair loss rarely happens immediately. The shedding you see today is usually a reaction to stress, illness, or trauma that happened 3 months ago. Your hair waits a full season to quit.
Your body treats hair as a luxury item
If you are sick, stressed, or skipping meals, your body cuts off the blood supply to your hair first to save energy for your heart and lungs. Your hair is the first thing to get fired from the budget.
Sleep acts as fertilizer for your hair follicles.
Your body releases the majority of its growth hormones while you sleep. If you are only sleeping 4 hours a night, you are missing the primary window for hair repair.
Melanin makes it harder to absorb the sun vitamin.
Melanin acts as a natural sunblock, which protects the skin but blocks the absorption of Vitamin D. Since Vitamin D is required to create new hair follicles, the sun might be the most underrated hair product for our community.
You are not losing the root, it is just shrinking.
In pattern baldness, you do not actually lose the hair follicle. It just shrinks until it becomes so tiny that the hair it produces is invisible to the naked eye. The root is still there, just sleeping.
The same hormone that grows a beard kills scalp hair.
Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) shrinks follicles on the scalp but stimulates follicles on the face. It is a biological frenemy that destroys one while boosting the other.
A single strand of hair is stronger than copper wire.
Healthy hair is incredibly strong. A single strand can hold about 100 grams of weight, and a full head of hair could theoretically support the weight of two elephants.
Let's preserve our hair (spiritual antennas).
Often, hair loss or shedding is a signal from our body that we need to shed, from a mental, spiritual, and physical perspective. We are building resources to help you navigate this healing journey.