Alopecia Life

Today's guest is Lauren Lee. She is a student-athlete golfer at NCAA Divsion II, Western Washington University where she is a senior studying psychology with a minor in anthropology. She's lived with alopecia most of her life, and the journey of hair loss has shaped her resilience, confidence, and outlook on life. Balancing competitive golf and academics, Lauren has learned the importance of mental strength, self-acceptance, and finding joy in every challenge. Without sharing too much in the intro, I'll let Lauren introduce herself and share more of her story with you now. 

Thank you for sharing y...

Welcome back to the podcast.I'm so excited to start Season 7 of Alopecia Life with a guest who has a passion for making the world a better place for children impacted by skin conditions and birthmarks. She also loves building relationships and collaborating with others since she believes we are better when we lift one another up so we can all become the best versions of ourselves. Dr. Alanna Bree is a Pediatric Dermatologist, Founder and President of Made A Masterpiece, Director of Pediatric Dermatology Collaboration at Sagis Diagnostics, as well as an Advisor and Speaker for CeraVe. In...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. It's been awhile since I've published an episode. I've been working on some big projects, and life has had a way of getting reorganized as time goes by. Thank you so much for coming back and for listening today. I'm excited to introduce Arron Johnson as our guest today. Arron shares his personal alopecia story with us from the point he was diagnosed at the age of 15. Over the last 25 years, Arron transformed from a teenager hiding behind du-rags and hats to a confident IT professional, successful entrepreneur, husband, and father. His...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. We are so happy to participate in this 3rd edition of Podcasthon! For one week, more than a thousand podcasts will highlight a charity of their choice, and today, I have the pleasure of welcoming back Jeff Woytovich with the Children's Alopecia Project. 

In this episode, we talk about what's new for CAP, JAK Inhibitors, along with the ongoing conversation about community and how we continue to be supportive and focus on education. We talk about his recent outreach with a family in the UK and some of those details, a...

 Welcome to this episode of Alopecia LIfe. Today's guest is Sarah Durrett. I reached out to Sarah a few weeks ago after she posted a video of herself shaving the last of her hair off after living with alopecia areata for several decades. The video is super raw, and I truly felt with her in the moment while she shared. It had a strong effect on me, and I knew for those who hadn't yet seen it and were going through something similar - it would be super helpful. 

When our hair is actively falling out, it...

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Alopecia Life. I've been waiting to share this episode with all of you because I knew it was important to release it at this unusual time in the US that has been so full of unrest. I'm editing this the week before our presidential election, at a time where a lot of stress and imbalance is working to right itself. Although this week has already played out and I have no idea of the outcome while editing, my wish is that today's guest, Jen Baradi, provides you with...

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Alopecia Life. Today's guest is Sharlay Sloss. Sharlay is a certified doula, teacher and author. She is dedicated to fostering positive and healthy environments where children can express themselves and fully embrace self-love. As a teacher, she has been the recipient of multiple awards including the Heart Award for her dedication and commitment to children and their families.

Sharlay lives in Virginia  with her husband, two children and dog Remy. Today, we'll be talking about her new book, Hair-Free Horace. If you're an avid listener of the podcast, y...

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Alopecia Life. Today's guest is Dr. Elyssa Green. Dr. Elyssa is a woman making a significant impact in the world of alopecia. After being diagnosed with alopecia in 2022, she shaved her head and embraced the beauty of baldness. Even though that sounds like an easy 2-step process, she shares the personal challenges and triumphs that led her to help others struggling with the diagnosis and all that comes with the hair loss journey. Dr. Green established Bald Bozz Beauty or B3 to advocate and bring awareness to alopecia. The mission...

Welcome to Season 6 of Alopecia Life. Each September, I have a back-to-school episode and find a guest to share how to make the transition easier. Historically, these are the ones that parents ask me about the most too. Our guest today is Jodie Lee. Jodie is a dedicated educator with 15 years of experience as a high school teacher. She is a passionate advocate for celebrating diversity and fostering inclusivity in schools. Jodie is the proud mother of two daughters, and her youngest, Makenna, was diagnosed with alopecia. When Jodie registered Makenna for school, she searched for a book that...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Our next guest is Ava Hanssen. I first heard about Ava when the Children's Alopecia Project reached out to say thank you for featuring them on her race car. Her racing background is super interesting, and after hearing more about who she is and what she wants to accomplish in the racing world, I thought you would all be excited to hear more about her racing, especially if you're like me and have a fairly limited bit of knowledge around the racing world. Ava started racing go karts at 4 years old, and...

 Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. For those who have listened to past episodes, you may remember the 3 healthy habits to have in our lifestyle toolbelt that Integrative Nutrition and Gut Health Coach, Lisa Taylor, provided to all of us to start and continue a self-healing journey. Lisa is back to share about her upcoming FREE masterclass in March, along with her 12 week Alopecia Warrior Self-Healing collective group program. I believe we are becoming more empowered with our health. There's more information, more insight into root cause, along with more resources for us to be the healthiest version o...

Thank you for joining us for this first Alopecia Life episode of 2024. It's a new year, and I'm so excited to have a feel-good story for you today. Our guests today are Allison & Anthony. I found out about this fabulous family within a group where Allison shared about the hat collection that was growing exponentially after they started a small ask of their friends and family to help support Anthony. Due to the number of hats they were receiving, she knew she wanted to find more kids who might be interested in receiving a hat so she could send...

 Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. A few months ago, I was talking with Kylie, another CAP mentor, who expressed an interest in helping college-bound kids share their alopecia story in the essay portion of their college application. I thought it was a fantastic idea, and got to work looking for the perfect podcast guest to speak on this topic, and found Jill Shulman. Jill is the author of College Admissions Cracked: Saving Your Kid (and Yourself) From the Madness. She is an established College Admissions expert who offers an empowering, low-stress approach to succeeding in the admissions p...

 Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. The time for gatherings is here. Holidays, work parties, get-togethers with friends and family that "should" be fun. But...sometimes these gatherings turn into colossal upsets due to well-meaning or misguided family and  friends. Of course, there does tend to be one total ass-hat who likes to take up space too. The early days of being diagnosed can be increasingly difficult with all of these events that we're expected to attend. 

Over the years, I've heard from others living with alopecia that they don't feel supported, and tha...

Thank you for listening to today's podcast. Back in September of this year, I re-interviewed Skye from season 2 of Alopecia Life to get an update on how things had changed for Ohna from when she was 9 until now at 13 with regards to school. Back then, It was 2020, and we were talking about back-to-school at a very strange and uncertain time. Today's interview is with Skye only. Ohna has given us the go-ahead and trust to share about her experience through Skye's own perspective. As we move into the holiday season, I know having a back-to-school podcast is a little...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Today's guest is Deanna Beattie of Freedom Wigs. Freedom Wigs has a unique origin story and an even more unique continuation of that story. As I was talking with Deanna, I discovered more about her as a mother, about someone who has a commitment and passion to provide a superior experience with Freedom Wigs, and takes into consideration knowledge, empathy, and respect for what goes into the process of making something so personal when someone is looking for a way to capture who they are with a hair piece. Thank you for...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Four years ago, Skylar Weaver set off on his mission to raise alopecia awareness while traveling through central America. As with most adventures and intentions, things come up that cause us to change direction, take a new route, and that's just what happened 7 months into the trip. It was great catching up with Skylar to see what the trip accomplished, not only for his own wellbeing, but also for the families and groups he met throughout the trip. Let's welcome Skylar back to Alopecia Life.

Thanks for...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. It's the month of September, and as many of you know - it's Alopecia Awareness Month. Today's guest is Eryn Barclay. She is a wife and mother, and works full-time for the Walt Disney Company in the entertainment department as a cosmetologist. Eryn shares with us about the origin of Lou & Doe. How it started and the significance of what it has grown into in the last year. Sometimes, we wonder what we can do during alopecia awareness month, and this is a great example of an idea that took shape and...

Welcome to Season 5 of Alopecia Life. In this first episode, our guest is Dr. Sherri Barrow. Each season, around this time of year we talk about back-to-school and how we can make the school experience a good one for our kids. Looking back as a kid who lived with alopecia areata since the age of 7, I know I needed more support in school.  I'm sure many of you would agree based on your own experience - there was very little to no support. Some things have changed since then. There are more resources and ways to thrive in a s...

Next week will be the beginning of Season 5 for Alopecia Life and the beginning of Alopecia Awareness Month. I'm excited to bring you episodes with new and continuing conversations around living with alopecia areata. Thank you so much for listening over the last 4 years. I look forward to another season filled with amazing guests and topics that help us all understand there is a community of support out there who understands.

Support the show

Alopecia Life provides free resources for school and home education, including a growing list of alopecia books, education videos on YouTube...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. This is one of the last ones for the summer of our Stories from Camp series. It was super cool to tune into the sounds of nature again - kids playing a game, birds chirping, and the hum of dragonfly wings. Today's guest is Baylee, and she is being interviewed by Angelique and Abbee who do a great job of asking questions on the fly. Baylee has the sweetest personality, and provides some very touching insight into what it's like in school, along with a health journey that we didn't know about...

Welcome to this next episode of Alopecia Life and the Back-to-School recap #2. This is 2020's episode where I interview Artist and Animator, Lydia Hibbert and Kerry Montgomery, the Psychological Wellbeing lead from Alopecia UK where we chat about the importance of raising awareness in a way that kids can relate to. Through their Talking About Alopecia animation, which features voices of children living with alopecia, alopecia awareness has been able to make a difference in a strong and unique way. Whether it's your first time listening or are here for a second time, I'd love to hear your thoughts...

 It's that time of year again for kids as they head back to school. Going back to school is often one of the biggest pain points for families, especially if their child has been diagnosed during summer break. This is the first recap of 4 of our back-to-school episodes set up to remind us that even though we cannot control our child's hair loss, we do have the capability of making the education experience better for them, no matter how old they are. These episodes are all setting up for the release of our 5th year of Alopecia Life and t...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Today's second episode of Teen Talk is with Abbee Tolman. As she shares her story with us, you may feel memories pop up around sharing about your own hair loss, friendships that have been gained and lost, and the strong sense of self that comes from living with alopecia. I feel lucky to be invited in to listen to Abbee's story, and I have a feeling you will be too. Let's welcome Abbee to Alopecia Life. 

Thank you so much for sharing your time with Abbee and m...

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Alopecia Life. We are sitting outside on a perfect day in the Pacific Northwest at the second annual kids CAP camp out on Orcas Island. Today's guest is Brandon James.He is dad to Kennedi and AJ. Brandon's thoughts about Kennedi being viewed as different than other kids was at the top of his mind after hearing she had been diagnosed with alopecia. He's here to share the not-so-easy beginnings, and the journey to embracing Kennedi's alopecia and how he continues to encourage her fierce confidence.Brandon is a...

 Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Today's guest is Joyel Crawford. Some of you may have already watched her recent Tedx Talk. Others may have purchased her book "Show Your Ask" - Using Your Voice to Advocate for Yourself and Your Career. It's very cool to see the many ways her work in leadership also relates to her alopecia diagnosis. Check out the show notes for all the awesome ways Joyel is impacting the career and leadership world. Thanks for joining us today for this fun conversation.  

More about Joyel: Recently awarded for th...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. I'm super excited to have two guest hosts, Abbee and Angelique interviewing Kennedi for today's stories from camp. I wanted to have teenagers interview the younger kids who felt comfortable sharing about their alopecia experience to gain a different perspective from them as a group. It couldn't have gone better, especially for it being their first time. Last episode, you got to know Angelique a little bit better, and Abbee's episode will be released very soon. Throughout the episode, Kennedi's personality shines through, and you can read more about her in the...

Welcome to this first episode of Alopecia Life - Teen Talk with our guest, Angelique Staggs. I am excited to have the perspective of teenagers on the podcast to share what living with alopecia looks and feels like for them. Angelique is one of the two guest hosts who interviewed children at CAP camp at the end of May, and I look forward to sharing those episodes with you very soon. Please welcome Angelique to Alopecia Life. 

Thank you for sharing your time with Angelique and me today. Feel free to comment over on t...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Some of you have been here from the beginning, and others have just recently discovered this podcast. Right now, I'm excited to be at the tailend of the 4th season. When I started, there were no podcasts dedicated specifically to alopecia that had any true longevity. It was so important to open up conversations about alopecia so that all of you would feel connected to the guests and the topics that surround alopecia. Alopecia Life has always focused on interviews with everyday folks just like you and me who are experiencing autoimmune...

Our guest today is Jamie Way. Last year, I noticed Jamie posting quite a bit about his young daughter's alopecia and how they were doing a deep dive into her health. We actually interviewed last year, and the recording ended up not being usable. It took us another year to record, and with that a lot more information has surfaced that we hope will be helpful to those of you wishing to explore some potential triggers. 

Their journey has not been an easy one, and listening to the interview really puts this in perspective. T...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. In past seasons, I've interviewed authors of books with characters who have alopecia or are written by authors with alopecia. Today, in this author spotlight, I'm talking with Marciano Flores and Mathew Flores. You may recognize Marciano's voice from an episode we did last month, and he is here to share about his first of hopefully many chapter books that feature his family and upbringing, and includes a character who is living with alopecia. I'll let Marciano and Mathew tell you more. 

Thanks again for sharing your time with Marciano, M...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Thank you so much for sharing your time with me and today's guest, Rebecca Saunders. Rebecca is known as video ninja in the digital world, and the impact she has made in this space has grown exponentially in the last few years. Today, she shares with us her alopecia story, along with some great advice about living authentically and "leaning into the uniqueness of you." Of course, there are some fantastic tips on how to share your own alopecia story through video in a way that features you in this same authentic...

Welcome to Alopecia Life. Throughout generations, families are often presented with opportunities to change the way things were done before, by having a similar experience present itself. Many times, it's handled in the same exact way, and other times it's handled in a completely different way based on new information, and a sense that there could be a more positive outcome if we make new decisions. Today, I have an amazing family who not only share a common bond of living with alopecia through several generations, but also one that includes and shares culture, traditions, and coming of age...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Today, our guest is Alyssa Carpenter. On social media, you may know her as Clean Conscious Bald Beauty. Alyssa is a proud wife, entrepreneur, and alopecia warrior of over 10 years. As both an Alopecia Awareness and Clean Beauty Advocate, she uses her platform to share her passion for learning & educating about unnecessary toxins in our everyday world. After getting a diagnosis of alopecia, many of us jump to cleaning up our diet, looking to eliminate harmful foods that may be causing inflammation. One thing that many of us don't even consider is...

Welcome to this episode of Alopecia Life. Today's guest is Summer Yang. When Summer developed alopecia in kindergarten, she also met one of her best friends. Years later, when they were both experiencing hair loss - one from alopecia, and the other from leukemia - their friendship became even stronger from their shared experiences. Summer is here today to share about her alopecia, along with the Student Visionaries of the Year Campaign to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Her campaign ends on Friday, March 10th.

Summer is a sophomore in high school who finds a...

 Thank you so much for sharing your time with Alopecia Life today. Our guest is Erica Vargas. Erica is a relationship expert who went on a journey of self-love, self-discovery, and self-worth to support people to reveal and claim their heart's truest desire. Although this particular episode is lined up right near Valentine's day, love and relationships is a topic that resonates with us any time of the year. Throughout the episode, Erica shares about the importance of activating healthy relationships, especially when we are living with something, like alopecia, that often shifts who we are within those existing r...

Welcome to this first Alopecia Life episode of 2023. Today, our guest is Natalie Diasti. We talk about one bold experience that many of us have already gone through, and one that so many others are still wanting to have, but just don't quite know how. The first time we choose to publicly be out in the world without anything on our head. The questions of, "What will people think?" or "How will they respond?" are all still there, but so is the perfect timing that sometimes calls to each of us. That moment that says, "If I don't do...

It's the end of 2022. However you celebrate this holiday season, I'm wishing you happy memories and good company. Alopecia Life is taking a short break until January, and I look forward to sharing new episodes with you then.

Support the show

Alopecia Life provides free resources for school and home education, including a growing list of alopecia books, education videos on YouTube, links to support groups within the US, UK, Canada and more. You will also find access to Head-On, Stories of Alopecia, the Alopecia 101 free course, paid Alopecia Roadmap course for parents of children...

Welcome to Alopecia Life and part 2 of the Iron Protocol interview with Caitlyn Hartigan. Many of you have already gone over to the FB page to read the protocols, check your symptoms, understand what lab work to ask for, and how to read that lab work. Others have started looking at the information, and even more have started to wonder what ferritin has to do with their fatigue and anxiety. Thank you for hanging tight as we waited to release this next episode. At the end of the last one, Caitlyn was telling us about the myriad of symptoms...

Welcome to this 2 part series of Alopecia Life around the topic of iron deficiency. A couple years ago, living with "low iron" caught up with me. I found myself unable to do simple tasks like walk my dog, go up a flight of stairs without feeling like my heart was beating out of my chest, and I had an incessant cough that wouldn't go away. I soon discovered that my Iron had dipped to an alarmingly low level, but there was more to the story than I realized. I didn't fit the puzzle pieces together until April of this...