Thinning Hair From Stress and a Poor Diet
So about 6 years ago, I made YouTube videos about natural hair care and loc care.
The locs I have now are actually my second set of locs. I cut off my first set of locs after 1.5 years because I didn't like how fuzzy they looked. I didn't feel pretty.
So I wore my hair short for a year and regrew them during the pandemic. I call these my Pandemic Locs because I started them right in March 2020. (Then I got my first apartment in May 2020. A year of new beginnings for me.) And I've been growing them for 3.5 years now (as of October 2023).
In my last life-update video I talk about some health issues I was dealing with, namely Candidiasis and other fungal infections, that affected my whole body, including my scalp. I didn't know why back then, but now I know very well why.
When I look at and feel my locs, I can tell that they are skinny in the middle and thicker at the roots and ends. I attribute that to a period of stress and poor health.
Now, the stress was the result of me needing to explore life and bump my head a few times. But the poor health was not my fault. I had been trying to be healthy since I was in high school. I was searching all over for the answer to my health problems for years, and I'm still learning new things.
One major thing that stood out about my hair is that there was an uneven hair texture in the front of my head compared to the back. In addition, these locs took over 6 months to actually lock in a matted form, even after interlocking and sewing them to themselves. That was way too long! Especially after the rest of my locs were completely matted and mature. I even had to combine a few because they were getting too thin, hanging on by a few strands. But now I don't need to because they've gotten so thick!
The problem was that I had dandruff on my scalp right in that front area, and I'm still working on healing that. There also grew some type of itchy lump right in the middle of my scalp. I was taking Turpentine at the time and decided to rub some on the lump everyday. Soon after, it started to flake and decrease in size until it just stopped itching and went away.
After doing all types of research, reading studies, joining Facebook groups, taking courses, asking my doctors, and the works, I learned that my scalp issues were a result of the major gut issues I was experiencing. One being Candida Albicans growing out of proportion. I also learned more recently that since my gut was out of whack, my endocrine system wasn't functioning properly to release the proper hormones for my body to function as a whole.
Why was this happening?!
I would literally cry about this at night because I couldn’t figure out why, and my doctors didn't know either. That was the most depressing part.
So I took matters into my own hands and tried to heal myself with my diet. I've tried all of the following:
raw veganism
vegetarianism
the Candida diet
gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free diet
Low-protein diet (by accident because media influenced me to not eat meat)
probiotic diet (reintroduced dairy by drinking kefir)
the "chicken and salad" diet that I made up because it was the food that made me feel the best (and now I know there was a reason for that)
Blood type diet
Blood Type O Keto diet (which has been giving me the best results ever!)
Now, after all of these diet changes, yes my scalp has improved to where it doesn't itch and flake as much and as often, but I'm still working on it. And finally, my locs have thickened! I started to notice thicker locs when I started drinking kefir about a year ago (I no longer drink kefir) and started a new job that provided me with stability. My hair has been growing steadily ever since.
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