It’s your favorite stylist, the one, the only Melanie Day, here with the In Living Curls Haircare Community. We’re bringing you the right stuff, factual information about all things hair, all things beauty, and the community that we all desperately need right now.

August is Hair Loss Awareness Month, so I wanted to dedicate this post to educating you all about hair loss awareness. So, what exactly does that mean?

I’ve noticed some of us have been experiencing more shedding or more hair loss than we might've been experiencing in the past.

Well, for me and the community that I serve, which is primarily women, I wanted to share some information and some things that I've been noticing. You know, since I've been back in the salon, I’ve noticed some of us have been experiencing more shedding or more hair loss than we might've been experiencing in the past. I’ve noticed we’re all going longer between appointments, something that’s understandable in these times. So I wanted to share my experiences with hair loss and get into what I’ve done for my hair health.

Have you noticed that maybe you're starting to see more hair loss:

• In your sink

• In your brush or your comb

• When you start to shampoo your hair

• Or even in the palm of your hand?

If so, that's why hair loss awareness is important, especially for us women. We may share a lot, but there's a lot of things that we keep deep inside - that we hold very close to our chest because we just don't want other people to know some of the struggles that we're going through. I started noticing my own hair loss back in March, but I know my reason for it.

What I realized was that my body already knows what to do.

I had recently upped the dosage of hormone medication. A few months after, I started noticing the clumps, the shedding, the breakage - just the change in my hair. I was like: whoa! Where did this come from? I'm trying to do everything in my power to change that; I even considered going vegan for a second. I thought, “maybe I should become an herbalist and make these remedies at home.” I made these teas, tinctures, and all this stuff to heal my hair. But at the end of the day, what I realized was that my body already knows what to do, I just have to be able to support it.

I took myself off that medication. I made sure that I was supplementing my body with iron because I am anemic and I also found out that I was deficient in Vitamin D. One of the things we don't realize is there might be a nutritional deficiency; we're not getting things in our diet that could be causing things happening with our hair.

That is why I created the In Living Curls Haircare Community; I wanted to cater to women of color who are experiencing hair loss while also trying to manage their hair at home. I created this program specifically for that problem because I know how it is.

I talk to clients like you every single day, and I see the struggles, I see the pains that you're going through, and you have been my motivation.

You have been my motivation to create this, to bring it together, to bring it to fruition, and to make sure that I am giving the best that I can give. There are so many things that go into this. It is so special. This is a monthly membership that will help you:

• Become that phenomenal woman

• Reach your goals, with your hair

• Achieve your goals that you may have with your health

• And attain your goals that you may have with your diet

It all matters. It all encompasses what affects the hair, and what we put into our bodies eventually affects the hair. So there are four parts to this program that you might fall into. There's the discovery, there's the experience, there's the journey, and there’re super phenomenal women at each step. When you come in, you might be at a different level because there are descriptions.

You may notice that you are not so much at the discovery phase, but I'm experiencing the journey, I'm really liking my hair, and I'm really wanting to know what can I use. What type of hair care routine can I use? How can I stop the breakage that I'm having all the time? That might be the phase that you're at, or maybe you're a different phase of the journey. I'm really happy with the journey that I'm taking with my hair, and I'm okay with where my hair is at right now. I’m embracing the fact that my hair is never going to grow back. I'm completely fine with that, I just need the courage to shave it off and just be bald. I’m ready to be happy with it and be beautiful and embrace that.

This program is about community.

Everyone reaches the end goal, which is the phenomenal woman. This program is about community. It's about sisterhood. It’s about empowerment. It's about resources and having the correct information. There is so much information is out there, and there's so much misinformation out there when it comes to hair and health.

I know a lot of us are on YouTube, and a lot of us are in Facebook groups because that's where things are- that's where the community is. But sometimes, it's tiring. It's really tiring to sift through all these pages. It's really tiring to go through all these videos just to answer one question. You may have questions like:

• What about rice water?

• What about onion water?

• What about onion oil?

• Or what about Vicks VapoRub?

We're reaching for so many things to try, and why not ask the professional? So that's why this community was created. As a licensed cosmetologist and trichologist, I am bringing this program to you along with invaluable other resources. I wanted to share that with you. It's definitely one of its kind, and there is nothing that's out there like this. You get to be a part of something really special and that's, and that's the best part.

We forget about the other things that started happening in our lives around that time.

Some of us are experiencing changes with our hair, and we may think that it's a certain product that's making our hair come out. Sometimes we notice changes and we think it's a product, but then we forget about the other things that started happening in our lives around that time, right? Maybe we were going through a really stressful breakup, or maybe we started a new medication, or maybe we started a new diet, all while we started a new product. And then we're seeing all these changes happening with our body, but we don't really think of that. We think it was the product.

That's why I wanted to bring attention to the hair loss awareness part of things. And it's not always product-related. It could be nutrition, it could be our health. It could be our diet, it could be metal or the medicines that we're on too. When you start seeing changes with your hair, slow down and think about what happened three months prior to the experience that you’re seeing now?

Was something really stressful happening in my life? Did I go on a calorie restricted diet? Was I sickor have a high fever? Those are things that you want to think about because those are things that could also cause hair loss or hair thinning.

I don't know if any of you all have seen this, but Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley shared her amazing story of her hair loss journey. And if y'all don't know who she is, look her up, Her story was amazing because first of all, she is a black Congresswoman and she wears her hair braided. She wears her hair naturally in the public eye. And that has always been her signature look, but her hairdresser started noticing changes with her hair. And during that time, she was also noticing that her hair was falling out on her pillow and things like that.

She started wearing more braids because it's easy. Then she started wearing more of her wigs, but this was a part of the story that really got to me. The night before she was going to speak on the House floor, all of her hair had finally come out. She was slick bald, and she had to get herself together the next morning and present in front of the entire world while she was going through this personal crisis.

She decided that she would just embrace her bald head.

She says after that experience she went to the stall and to the bathroom and just cried because it was just such a painful experience of what she was going through. After that, she decided that she would just embrace her bald head. She would just embrace it.

I love her story because not a lot of people knew what she was going through; she only showed her baldness while she was at home, but when she was out in public, she wore a wig. Most of us didn't even know before then. She's just now getting comfortable in herself and accepting what happened. Now, she's more uncomfortable wearing a wig than she is without her hair.

So that's why hair loss awareness is so important; there's so many different reasons why we experience hair loss.

• Some of it's genetic

• Some of it is medically induced

• Some of it is where it's autoimmune-related- more than likely what happened with her

So when we know what's happening, we can know that there are solutions. We know that there's a community that will talk about it and is there as a resource. And that's why I think it's really important that we as women talk about our struggles with hair loss and with hair things. How has it made you feel? What support have you gotten? What are some things that maybe your significant other or your family may not know that you're struggling with or that you may need at that particular time?

I just wanted to share that. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. So definitely look up Ayanna Pressley’s story and just how everything that her journey, everything that she went through. And if you want to learn about In Living Curls Haircare Community, you can learn more on the website, or by checkout out the Facebook Page. So stay tuned, stay well, stay safe, stay connected. Keep smiling. Bye everybody!

-Melanie Day