Female Hair Loss & Self Esteem

When it comes to female hair loss, I can tell you some stories. I grew up in the hair replacement and hair restoration industry. My grandmother founded Jernigan’s Hair Replacement clinic. A few years ago, my mother bought the business from my grandmother and has been helping both men and women restore their hair.  Having literally grown up inside the walls of Jernigans’ I can tell you that I’ve swept a lot of floors, known a lot of wonderful employees – many of whom I still count as dear friends – and met and gotten to know more of my grandmother’s and my mother’s clients than I can ever count. I have made friends for life inside the walls of Jernigans.  And I have seen lives literally transformed there as well.

I decided to pursue a different career, however.  My husband Zach and I live and work in the Durham-Raleigh area as real estate agents, helping people find their perfect home – many times their first home – where they can put down roots and start and raise their families. So in a very real way, we find that we are helping people too.  Just in a different way.

I first started going into work with my mother when I was in elementary school. Then high school. And I still showed up on a regular basis even when I was in college. Jernigan’s is, after all, family, and that’s just the way it is at Jernigan’s… everybody is family.  And over the years I have seen more women than I can count come to my mother and her staff of true hair loss professionals who were distraught about their thinning hair.

Some women came in with thinning hair as a result of just simple genetics. Other women came in who had been diagnosed with one form or another of cancer and were going through (or were about to go through) chemotherapy treatments, and the emotional roller coaster that trip entails.  Other women and young girls came in because they just knew they had to do something about the shame they felt because of Trichotillomania, a compulsive hair pulling disease.  Every single one of these women came in with not only female hair loss, but self-esteem loss.

I still remember when I was in probably seventh or eighth grade when one mother and her daughter came in one February evening about 6:30pm or so… it was after dark.  They were embarrassed beyond belief that they felt the necessity to be seen coming into see my mother.  Hair loss takes a terrible toll on a women’s sense of self-worth.  I know. I’ve grown up seeing it first hand.

While my mother helps lots of men that are concerned about balding and thinning hair, our society it is far more accepting of thinning hair in men than with women. A woman’s hair is literally part of her identity, who she is as a person, and who she presents herself as being to her family, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances. Men can go totally bald and society is okay with it but for a woman, there is a whole other level of anxiety and stress when it comes to her hair, or lack thereof. Women often feel that they are judged more harshly than men when it comes to not only their hair, but also their clothing and even their body type. As I said before, I have seen first hand how tremendously emotional thinning hair can be for a woman.

There is Nothing More Beautiful than Confidence

In my opinion, confidence is one of the most important qualities that a woman can possess. So it never surprised me that a woman’s first reaction to having a hair loss problem was to always try and hide it. A lot of women my mother has helped were first asked to check within them selves and assess their level of anxiety they have about others noticing their hair loss. How do they feel societal expectations are of women and do they feel influenced.

I have seen women concerned about hair texture and length as a defining part of their image and identity. Changing their hair color and styles for many was a way for them to express their individuality. When they started to lose their hair, they felt that an important part of their beauty had been taken away as well.

I have seen how Jernigan’s Hair Replacement Clinic has transformed the lives of women who have come to Jernigan’s for help. When a woman gets her hair back – either through a transplant procedure or a non-surgical hair replacement solution – it is literally life changing. The smiles, the joy, the excitement, the relief is so wonderful to behold and so contagious.

I have witnessed women come into Jernigan’s in tears because they don’t know what to do about their hair loss, only to see them leave with a gorgeous head of beautiful, long, full radiant hair that makes them feel happy and hopeful like they haven’t felt in years, in many cases. Their self-confidence has increased ten-fold. They literally feel that they have been given their life back.

If you suffer from thinning hair, or if you have bald patches from alopecia or medications you really owe it to yourself to discover what I have seen first hand. There are female hair loss solutions that not only can restore your hair, but can give you back the confidence you never thought you could ever get back.