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Transcript
- 01:40 About Amy Gibson
- 08:40 The stigma around hair loss
- 12:22 Regaining confidence
- 17:15 Underlying causes of hair loss
- 25:36 Hair loss solutions
- 28:52 Cancer treatment and hair loss
- 34:17 Scalp care
- 35:45 Sex, Wigs and Whispers
- 44:12 Hair loss in children
- 48:01 Where to find Amy Gibson & CreatedHair.com
Wendy Myers: Hello! I’m your host, Wendy Myers. Thank you so much for joining us on the Live to 110 Podcast.
Today, we’re going to be talking about hair loss. Amy Gibson is going to be talking to us about her book and how you could really remove the stigma of hair loss by wearing a wig, working your wig, how to take care of it, how to take care of your scalp, and when women are going through chemotherapy, the steps you need to take to prepare so that you can get your own wig.
She proves a lot of education on all the different tips and tricks that you can use to utilize different types of wigs.
And she really takes a lot of the stigma out of it. She suffered from autoimmune disease herself, alopecia, and lost a lot of her hair at the age of 13. So she spent many, many years educating women on hair loss. And we’ll be talking about the underlying causes today on the show.
But before we do the show, please keep in mind that this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your healthcare practitioner before engaging in anything that we suggest today on the show.
Wendy Myers: Our guest today is Amy Gibson. She is the voice of hair loss. She’s a leading personal consultant in the country for women suffering from hair loss.
As the founder of CreatedHair.com, Amy has created a company for women to turn to for solid solutions as she addresses the concerns of women globally who are living with the effects of hair loss as well as those who are seeking to renew their appearance, self-esteem, and radiant healthfulness.
Amy’s commitment to help other women comes from her own tumultuous journey with alopecia and autoimmune disorder that causes different stages of hair loss. Her struggle began at the age of 13 while starring on the daytime drama, Love of Life. At that time, little was known about alopecia, so she had to learn to cope with her crowning glory literally on the job while creating ways to still keep her secret.
Today, these same techniques, her Pearl Program, has been shared with thousands of women worldwide. Amy Gibson has since become the country’s leading personal consultant to women afflicted with her loss and is a national spokesperson and alopecia activist. She has spoken openly in the press and before the state legislature of California in her efforts to bring attention to the issues surrounding hair loss for women and present viable solutions.
She has been active in Girls Inc., a non-profit organization which assists girls at risk in building self-esteem, many of whom have relatives with hair loss. And she’s an honorary board member for I’m a Kid Foundation which educates children in the classroom about baldness.
The main intention behind everything Amy does centers upon helping women look beautiful and feel complete from the inside-out.
You can learn more about Amy Gibson and hair loss at CreatedHair.com.
Amy, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Amy Gibson: Absolutely! Thank you for having me. I’m excited.
Wendy Myers: Why don’t you tell the listeners a little about your background and how you got into helping women with hair loss?
Amy Gibson: Well, it actually was not something I planned on doing.
So, I was an actress for 20 years, over 20 years in daytime television, Emmy nominated until I started going through alopecia. Alopecia is an immune disorder that you’re most familiar with doing what you do. And there are several different stages of alopecia. We can go over that in the show in a moment. But basically, I started at 13 ½, and by 30, I actually lost all my hair. And at that time, I was finishing General Hospital.
And there were many things that started steering me in another direction. I was bored with soaps. I also would hurt my back. I was bedridden with a 50% chance of ever walking again. And literally had to be picked up, bathed, and put back in bed. I had no control below at all. It was as if I was made to sit because my path was incorrect.
And I would keep on saying, “Okay, Louise…”— I read everything she had. I kept on praying, “What is it, God, that you want from me?” On the right side of me, I’m trying to produce, and things will get bought. And they’d fall apart. But the left side of my life, I kept getting these phone calls from my hair loss support groups and friends of mine, an oncologist, that would say, “God! You’ve got a wig. How do I do this? How do I date? How do I work out? How do you wear it? How should I order it?” And it got so busy that I realized—one day, I remember going, “Okay, this is very strange. Everything on the right side of my life is falling apart, and everything on the left is unbelievably busy. I’m going to charge $15 a phone call.”
And that got so busy that when I could walk again, which took about 14 months, I started selling wigs out of the trunk of my car. I’d go to the hair loss centers and oncologist offices as far as 15 miles away. I put about a $50 dollar profit on it. That got busy and moved into my house. That got busy, I built a studio.
During the time I was sick, I had actually created an eyebrow because I started seeing my eyebrows getting thin. I’m all into being proactive and not being a victim. Long story short, that same eyebrow, I didn’t do anything with. But when I started my business up again and was more stable, I said, “You know, that brow, hmmm… I want to get some glue for that brow.”
And there was somebody that I started talking to that, to this day, funny enough, I haven’t met. And in our phone relationship, he said, “You keep on telling me that you have an idea for a swim wig. And there’s no swim wig for women to give them freedom.” And I said, “Listen, I know because I didn’t swim for 17 years. I know this would work.”
Long story short, the largest manufacturer in the world put up millions of dollars for my line, and it went worldwide. And that kind of set me off on my trail of being much more publicly known and really coming out for women.
I was the first celebrity to come out that had real alopecia that was really bald. And it was both [an epiphany], but it was frightening. But it put me on an interesting journey.
And in that, I also had a lot of damage from the cortisone to my kidney and my liver. So I took cortisone shots for all those years when I was losing my hair—17 years worth. And many years back then, it wasn’t as regulated as it is now, the triamcinolone and stuff. And so I had to start learning how to alternatively build my liver back and alternatively get healthy.
And then, of course, I met my husband who is in the alternative health world. And now I’ve kind of come into this world more which has helped me with my clients more.
So, when they come to me for hair loss issues, it’s all-encompassing now because I’m realizing it’s not just an immune disorder, it’s connected to everything, right?
Wendy Myers: Yes, absolutely. And I have a lot of clients coming to me with autoimmune disorders and a handful with alopecia. It’s terrifying for a woman.
Amy Gibson: You’re great at hair testing. It’s one of the main things I suggest right away because my whole thing is let’s discount what it’s not, so we can find out what it is.
Wendy Myers: Yes.
Amy Gibson: And the hair test is just so incredibly accurate I believe—far more than blood. I feel that the follicle gives us way more information. And I feel that there are things that we have found out and be able to really help people with that.
And the other thing is that the minerals are so important. I always explain to women because, most the time, they’re not aware that minerals are like gas in a car. You put the wrong gas in, you don’t move as fast or at all. And that really controls our hair. You and I were just talking about that. Which minerals do you think of are the most important for hair?
Wendy Myers: Boron, very, very important. And there are other minerals. Magnesium is really, really important for a lot of different…
Amy Gibson: Zinc?
Wendy Myers: Yeah, zinc as well for sure. Actually, for the color, when women are graying, they need zinc. It can really be helpful to replace the hair color.
But a lot of minerals, we need to make our body work, including for hair re-growth for sure.
Amy Gibson: Right, right, for sure.
Wendy Myers: So, why don’t you tell us a little bit about—you talked about how you can have fun with hair loss. While most women are cringing from the inside from losing their hair—
Amy Gibson: No! No, we want to stop that stigma. We want to stop that, Wendy. There are 82 million women in the US alone dealing with their loss. I would say almost 5.0% of the current population that are dealing with her loss are wearing some kind of hair addition. I don’t care if it’s a wig, extensions, toppers, little pieces. I don’t care what it is.
And thanks to people like Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani and the Kardashians and Jessica Simpson way back when, I actually think that wigs now become like an accessory, like lipstick and heels. And what I’ve been trying to do is remove the stigma, “Oh, my God! I must be a cancer patient if I’m wearing a wig.” That’s the media thing that women think, “I must be sick if I have to wear one” when now there are such hip styles.
I mean, forget what I created at CreatedHair.com. I’m talking about, overall, the styles that are offered now are not the stick lace. There are some that are very obvious. But we’ve come such a long way that if women—I always say if you can change your perception, you’ll change your reality. And if women can just shift it just a teeny bit to having fun—
I always say, “So, let me ask you something”— and I’m telling you, 99% of the women have the same answer—I say, “So, tell me something. Do you like your hair?”
They go, “I don’t know, it’s alright.”
I go, “Oh, really? So, like why do you want to [ride] again? Why don’t we rock? Why don’t I give you something that’s just about 20% better.”
I don’t want you to be so different that women go, “Oh, my God! I love that piece.” What I want them to say is “You look really good. What’s different about you?” That’s when you know you have the right wig on.
So, when I say, “It’s okay to have fun…”—
And when you’re being intimate, I think it’s great to say to somebody you’re comfortable with, “So tell me something. Are you like into brunettes or blondes? Are you into legs or tushies? What’s your thing?” This is what I used to say before I met Bill. And they’d say, “Oh, I love faces” or “I love legs” or I’d say, “Really? Do you like my hair?” and they’d say, “I love it!” I say, “Oh, that’s great because you know what? You can have it because I don’t have any problem. That’s not a problem, is it?” And it’s about the smile.
Or I’d say to him, “Wow! Do you really have a thing for brunettes because, you know, I’m blonde.” And he goes, “Yeah!” I go, “Oh, okay. So if I showed up brunette tomorrow night in leather high thighs and whatever, that would be okay too?” He’d say, “Yeah!” So, guess what? I can make that happen.
It’s about just having fun with them and removing the stigma that you have to be sick to have to wear one because that really is not the case anymore. They have got to remove that from their minds. It absolutely 100% is not what’s going on now.
Wendy Myers: Oh, yeah. My hairdresser, he does all the Playboy bunnies.
Amy Gibson: Oh, wow!
Wendy Myers: He’s a French guy. He’s amazing. And every single one of them, he’s putting tons of hair extensions and all kinds of hair pieces to make that luscious hair that they have.
Amy Gibson: Well, yeah, but even wigs. I mean, I just did Debbie Rowe . She was Michael Jackson’s wife. She came out about breast cancer recently. And she didn’t want anybody to know.
And when we did it for Entertainment Tonight—it was on last week—she all of a sudden came out, and she said, “You know what? Yes, I have cancer. Okay, so I’m one of those that do. But this is so gorgeous! I would like wear it anyway.”
So, it becomes fun. It just becomes fun. And I want women to understand that it’s not such a stigma.
Wendy Myers: You started losing your hair at such a young age, at 13 ½, and the remainder of it, the height of your television and dating career. And most of them, they’d really lose their confidence. And subsequently, the hair loss begins to affect so many areas of their life—their job and dating and partnerships and socializing and what-not.
So, what steps did you take to overcome the fear and your emotions surrounding this condition so that you were able to overcome this and succeed?
Amy Gibson: It was tough. I’m not going to say it wasn’t. And the operative word being step, one foot in front of the next. And when we future too much about it is when we get lost.
I was lucky to have a mom—bless her heart. Let her rest in peace—who always pointed out the most positive things in me. so although I had a hard time with the hair loss, I never thought I was ugly. She always pointed out that I was smart or I was this or I was that. And so I was able to have my self-esteem built at the same time, both inner spiritually as well as the outer part of me.
But I think women have to get to a point where there is, first of all, a grieving time about their hair. If they ignore that grieving, nothing is going to work. They have to say, “Okay, let me get to a point.” You’re going to cry, you’re going to scream. I had a mini-nervous breakdown when I lost all my hair. I really did for four or five days.
But you have to kind of get to that point before you accept it. And then, you go, “Okay…”
So, the first step is “I’m losing it. This is what I’ve always known to be my femininity and my sexuality.” It doesn’t mean it is, but this is what we’re brought up with from Barbie doll on, all the all the advertising, the subliminal advertising. And then, we say, “Okay, I’m going to accept this. And now I’m going to get proactive.”
It’s like a 3-step process. And if they skip to the third, it’s not going to work because, somewhere along the way, it lives underneath.
So, when they approach somebody, and they’re okay about it, and then they know the person well enough—which I really believe you need to. I don’t believe that you should be on a first date with somebody and go, “Oh, by the way, listen. I have this terrible thing. I have this hair condition.” Men freak out! You know what I mean?
It’s so funny. There is somebody in the industry who argued this point with me saying that I’m lying in my book in Sex, Wigs and Whispers. I talk about the fact that I think you need to get to know somebody longer—not three dates, but someone who gets to know your insides.
To me, my secret about the hair loss thing, it’s a gift to somebody. It’s not something you use as a manipulative way to bond with someone, which often women do when they’re feeling less than when they’ve lost their hair. They use that as an anchor. And it’s the worst thing you can do because you lose your power. All you’re giving away is your power.
So, when you’re going to a date, and you really know somebody—I said to this person, “Well, let me ask you something. Say you have a date with this guy. And chemistry is flying off the wind. You’re already seeing your wedding dress. And an hour into the drinks, he starts talking about his screwed up mother and how awful she is—and how awful she is.”
“And then, about a half hour later, he starts scratching his back and he’s talking about this pimple that he has on his back and it’s really annoying and how it pops out and gets pussy. And he starts getting really gross about this.”
“Let me ask you something. You think at the end of an hour and a half, you think you’d be as attractive as you were to him. However, if you knew him for a month or month and a half, you’re hanging and go to the movies, and he got to know who you were, and you got to know who he was and trusted him that when he told you about his mother, you’d laugh?”
Wendy Myers: Or you’d welcome the pimple story.
Amy Gibson: I’ll say, “You know what? Let me pick up.”
But you know what I’m saying?
I think the big mistake that women make is we jump in too quickly. So I’m about staying in control and keeping your power. And that’s another step.
But if you’re not comfortable with that person yet, then you wait when you are. And to do that, you need to have your elevator speech, things like, “Oh, you know what? I had these extensions put in. Oh, my head is so sore. Can you do me a favor? Just try not to touch my hair for a while. Thanks!” They won’t touch it.
You know, in the black community, in the African-American community, a black man knows never to touch his sister’s hair—ever, ever. It’s like known culture. You just don’t touch a black woman’s hair.
Well, the same thing goes for a white woman. Why can’t, on occasion, women feel good about the fact that she’d rather you not touch her hair. It’s about the way you’re asking something and the way you’re presenting it is the response you’re going to get. And the more in control you are, the more somebody will respect it.
So, those are the steps that I suggest. Was that clear for you?
Wendy Myers: Yes, absolutely.
Wendy Myers: And so, let’s talk about some of the underlying causes of hair loss. We know there’s a lot of different causes. And a lot of women are probably out there wondering why is their hair falling out or why have they lost all of their hair. Can you talk a little about that?
Amy Gibson: Well, first of all, I think that women are living in the most stressful times they’ve ever lived in. I think there are more single mothers. There are women holding double jobs. The economy, I don’t care what anybody says, it’s certainly had its trials and tribulations recently. And that alone will cause your hair to fall out.
I think that I got in trouble saying this on a radio show recently. But hey, I’m a Sag. I just say what’s up. I don’t think we’re drinking the water they say we’re drinking, the air they say we’re breathing, or the food they say we’re eating. And I think that has a huge, huge part and is a huge component of what’s going on especially with toxins and GMO’s and other things that are in the foods.
I think the most common thing is the amount of thyroid issues that are going on with women in this country. And I have often known—I mean, our alternative doctor often talks about the fact that he never saw as much thyroid cancer as recently from all the Japanese radiation that came over into United States. And I have Hashimoto’s. I never knew how common Hashimoto’s is! It’s huge. And it’s a huge direct source to their loss.
So, I think thyroid is a big issue and women overlook it. Until they really say or someone says get tested for it, like maybe they’ve had some weight gain or they’re tired, they don’t think about it. But I always say to women, “Would you please just get a thyroid and an immune panel. Find out where your immune system is. Find out where your minerals are.”
I think the fact that you do hair testing is absolutely 100% vital—100%. That’s the other core. That’s the other part of the core answer here.
I think that lack of nutrition is the one that we mentioned, low iron, low thyroid, huge amount of problems from all these medications and birth control pills, and the low estrogen thing. It’s almost like a pandemic. It’s everywhere. I mean, I never had clients that were in their 20’s before until maybe four to five years ago. I’ve been in business 16 years. I see more young clients now than I’ve ever seen.
So, I think that the number one factor is stress. And then, there’s female pattern hair loss. They say, “Does it come from the mother’s side? Does it come from the father’s side?” I’ve spoken to several different derms who gave me two completely different answers. Some say it’s the father, some say it’s the mother side. But the bottomline is that female pattern diffusing all over or the receding hairline is extremely common—and especially for women.
If you look around, there are a lot of women that have hair here, and they’re really thinning up here. But the good thing is that there are these things called toppers that we make. Have you ever seen a top piece?
Wendy Myers: I haven’t.
Amy Gibson: Oh, my God! I should have had them on air with me. They look like this on a wig. They’re like this. And they clip in with hair. They look just like the front of my wig here. They clip in and we match them exactly to the rest of the hair so that you comb in to your regular hair. It just adds a little bit of volume. I swear, it’s the best invention since the napkin. It’s incredible!
So, for women that are dealing with that crown hair loss—that’s the biggest thing right now with women, that front and top side. I don’t want them to trip because there’s so many great top pieces out there. I’ve been doing them for years. And you can get them in synthetic, and you can get them in human hair. The main thing is to make sure that you match your hair.
The other thing I think is the cause for the whole hair loss is the alopecia and the cancer factor. So cancer hair loss and radiation hair loss is huge. And there is a real process.
I have a workshop that I’ve been giving pro bono for 10 years called Amy’s Power Wig Workshop. And I take it into cancer centers. And there is an absolute process that women who are going to be going through cancer need to know about because I’ve had women forego any type of treatment because they don’t want to lose their hair—and it goes into other stages, even go to alternative. They’re just so freaked they’re going to lose their hair over whatever they’re going to take.
And the truth is that there are many things that will not cause it, but if you are going to go through cancer hair loss, you can go to CreatedHair.com. You can write to me at [email protected]. I have a whole thing that I do for cancer hair loss. And it’s a way to prepare so that part of you can relax and all you’re going to do is concentrate on your healing. It’s huge! Huge…
So, those main things are huge causes, if that answers your question.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. And I had my own story of hair loss as well that completely freaked me out. I’ve always been kind of like a chia pet. I’ve always had a lot of hair. It grows really fast. I have very healthy hair. But I had a period where I just had tons of hair coming out, and it was clogging up the shower drain. I’m like, “What is going on here?”
About a quarter of my hair fell out. I didn’t really have any bald patches or anything like that, but I just had a noticeable thinning of my hair. I did a hair test, and I had a huge amount of uranium coming out.
And then, of course, I started researching that. And what I found was that there’s uranium in a lot of the water in the southern United States.
Amy Gibson: Oh, yeah.
Wendy Myers: Especially in California. A lot of my clients that I test in California have uranium toxicity. And it’s a huge problem. It’s in our tap water. Even if you’re bottled water or filtered water, you’re still showering in it every single day.
And I also know that there’s other metals that will cause hair loss as well like copper toxicity, women that have a copper IUD…
Amy Gibson: The low zinc, the low zinc problem.
Wendy Myers: Yes.
Amy Gibson: But you know, I want to add something to that, and that is that a lot of the wigs that I will get in from women, when they don’t have a water filter in California or where there’s a lot of fracking going on, the hair is so dry that I implore women to get a water filter—not only for their own skin, but to remove the chlorine in the water (especially also for that), but it will dry out a wig, and it will dry out your own hair. And I don’t think women are aware of that.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. And there’s a couple other metals I wanted to talk about in regards to hair loss. Arsenic toxicity is big. And you get that in a lot of rice products, conventional chickens (the antibiotics they feed them have arsenic). So, this is if you’re really, really arsenic toxic. And then, thallium. Thallium is a gasoline…
Amy Gibson: Thallium, I’m not familiar with that one. Tell me about that.
Wendy Myers: Yes, that is a gasoline additive that is added to prevent knocking in car engines. It makes the engines last longer. And we’re all breathing that in. And some clients of mine are extremely thallium toxic and will have hair loss as a result. So this is a big problem as well.
So, you just need to detox your body. And for some people, that can resolve the problem. But in the meantime, I love that you’re providing a lot of answers for people so that they can feel their best and enjoy their self-esteem.
Amy Gibson: Thank you.
Wendy Myers: It takes a long time to detox. It does not happen overnight. So you need solutions in the meantime.
Amy Gibson: Wait, wait. I want to ask you a question. How long does uranium detox take before it starts really working?
Wendy Myers: Uranium, that one, using EDTA or zeolites—
Amy Gibson: Oh, zeolite, you like zeolite? Okay.
Wendy Myers: Yes, I do for some things. It’s kind of a last resort. That will help to remove uranium. But any kind of detox will take a couple of years. It depends on the metal. If you’re taking EDTA, you could get rid of that metal in a few months. But it just depends on the person and their toxicity level.
Amy Gibson: Do you use earth diatomaceous?
Wendy Myers: I do. I don’t use it on a regular basis. I think it can be problematic for some people. But I think it’s something that you can use for various detoxes, like something you want to do at home. But it’s not my go-to product that I use on a regular basis.
Amy Gibson: Okay, okay. Okay, okay.
What else, momma? What else?
Wendy Myers: Yes!
Wendy Myers: So, let’s talk about some of the best and newest products on the market to help with different stages of hair loss.
Amy Gibson: Well, I really like a product from Japan called Siizen. That has definitely helped. There is a product called MD Lash, MD products, by a wonderful chemist and doctor named Susan Lin. She’s up north. I like her stuff. I’m not a big one for Rogaine, but it does help along the way. The only problem is, when you stop using it, it stops working. And I don’t love putting stuff on the scalp that’s not organic. So I have an issue with it. But it does help for those women. I mean, I have women that use it for 20 years. And that’s okay if that’s what works for them.
The saw palettos of the world, and believe it or not, prenatal vitamins are also great for a lot of women that are able to grow their hair back. Biotin with zinc and copper combination really works.
The lasers that are out there, there’s a little misconception about this because I don’t find that laser therapy works without a topical. If you don’t use their topical formula with it, I don’t find that it’s as successful. And many times, they’re not told that. Women aren’t told that.
So, I think laser is a good alternative, but you’ve got to use the topical that is made from the company with it.
Those are the three things that I like a lot, three or four things.
Wendy Myers: Are you seeing clients getting results using PRP, using stem cell therapy?
Amy Gibson: That’s interesting you should say that, but it takes—now in Thailand, I had stem cell procedure in my spinal cord, one of the best places in Thailand. And obviously, I’m walking, thank God! But they do it, and it takes 22 sessions for a stem cell into the head. That’s with pure stem cell from adipose fat. Now they’re doing it with blood.
And the PRP, I’m not sure how many—was it 10 sessions? Isn’t it 10 sessions over six months’ time for the PRP I think it is? Isn’t that how many sessions? Do you know?
Wendy Myers: I’m not 100% sure.
Amy Gibson: It looks like 10 sessions. And I think anything with stem cell, I’m a huge fan because I believe that it does work. It’s just that not everybody’s body adheres to it.
Wendy Myers: And it’s expensive.
Amy Gibson: It’s very expensive. I mean… oh, my gosh! And hopefully, that will change soon. And I think it is changing.
But as long as the insurance companies don’t cover that much with hair, we’re at a loss regardless. They just don’t. I spoke with a California senator about this a long time ago. I don’t know, it’s one of my biggest pet peeves, is to change the way the laws are happening at Congress with insurance companies. I don’t know if they’ll ever change. But I don’t feel that they recognize the severity of what a woman needs to do for her own well-being. It really helps her own well-being—and especially, with the cancer clients.
I’ve worked by the bedside at Cedar Sinai for years for my cancer patients. And I literally can see them totally become stronger and wonderful again when they feel like the woman they were before they lost their hair.
So, I think wigs are important and the treatments are important.
Wendy Myers: What can women expect when going through cancer treatments in regards to hair loss?
Amy Gibson: Well, first of all, I think the key is to make sure that you take care of this prior to starting your chemo. When women are going through this, they’re on information overload—forget the fact that nobody ever even discuss hair loss. It’s not something you discuss at dinner. It’s not something you learn in school. So now you’re getting all your information about your own level of mortality, and on top of that, the first thing that goes through most women’s heads is “What about my hair?”
I recently interviewed Joan Lunden because I created the first cancer hair care center on CancerConnect.com recently. And there’s a magazine called We Magazine. I interviewed Joan. I said to her, “What was the first thing that went through your head when you were diagnosed?” She said, “Oh, my God! Am I going to lose my hair?” It’s the very first fear, right?
So, I think women need to be prepared and move that fear aside, so they can absolutely focus on what they need to do to heal. That’s number one.
So, the steps are the following. Don’t depend on the fact when your oncologist or somebody tells you, “Oh, you’re going to lose it like 17 days after the first treatment” or “You’re going to lose it after your second treatment” because it really depends the level of health your body is at. I have many, many clients who lose their hair in one session, and they’re not prepared.
Take lots of pictures of the way your hair is because women forget. Seventy-two hours, they forget the real color their hair was, the style it was, the length it was because they’re on information overload.
So, these are some of the steps. Number one, after you take the pictures, if you think you want to make a wig with your own hair, CreatedHair.com, I love doing that for my cancer clients. But just know that there’s a six or seven-week lag that it takes to make them.
So, what we do is we’ll get a synthetic, a really comfortable synthetic, that will look like the one we’re making so they can interchange, and then quickly and calmly go right into the human hair when it’s ready. And they keep their discretion which is so important for most women.
Secondly, you also want to take little samples of your hair color because if you decide not to make your wig with your own hair, you want to remember what your color was that you loved! So, you want to take the top and put it in a little baggie that says “top” and the sides.
Your hair, most of the time, will grow back. It may not grow back the same way. It’s going to take a couple of years for it to come back. I hate when they say, “Your hair is going to grow back a half an inch a month” because it doesn’t. And they really raise the expectations of women, and it’s very devastating. It’s better for them to just say, “Let’s get healthy.”
The minute they stop if they’re in treatment, cancer treatment, the minute they stop their treatment, they’re going to see little baby white fuzz. Well, it takes time for that white fuzz to get thicker. And then, it takes time for it to then start to grow and start to get healthy. And it takes a long time for your hair to get back to what you knew before.
So, what you want to do is take lots of pictures and have your samples. When you go into a wig store, you could say, “Yeah, I really want to look like me. This is what I look like. And this is my hair color. Could you please match that?”
And you want to have the tools. The more tools you have, the more in control you’ll be, and the more empowered you’ll be during this particular time that’s out of your control most of the time. A wig is the one place you have control.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, absolutely! And I think it’s such a wonderful service that you’re doing because…
Amy Gibson: Thank you.
Wendy Myers: It is! It’s amazing that Joan Lunden said the very first thing that came through her head is “I’m going to lose my hair.” What about your life? But it’s true! As women, our beauty is very highly prized. And your hair is what makes you. Your hair is what, for a very large portion of our beauty, comprises our beauty.
Amy Gibson: Well, that’s certainly what we’re made to believe. I will be honest with you. You and I are probably the same. I don’t think you’d go out bald, and I don’t go out bald. I just don’t like that.
But I’ve got to tell you, when a woman comes to me for a wig or a hair loss consultation, let’s say, and she walks out and she doesn’t buy one, she says, “You know what? I just don’t think this is me. I think I’m okay walking around bald. I don’t think I want one.” I’m like, “Girl, god bless you because I can’t do it.”
But I honor those. In Sex, Wigs and Whispers, I talk about the fact that I am not only about a wig. If you want to go around bald, always wear lipstick and put some eyes on so you have some face. It’s fine! It’s fine.
But with cancer patients, I think the biggest thing they need to realize is it’s going to come back. Your hair is going to come back. And what you need to do—
Most clients that come to me are with me for two years—not only are they with me prior to take them through the hair loss process and in buzzing their head—our girls will buzz their head nice and short, so the wig is more comfortable for them. We teach them how to wear it more comfortably and how to make sure it stays on their head and everything else—but we also help them in the re-growth process, and then how to make the transition from a wig back into their own hair. And that’s a process that nobody really teaches you.
So, that’s why they stay with me a long time. But I think, for most cancer patients, or women losing their hair currently, it’s so important to know that it’s not the end of the world. It’s just not, it’s not.
And with not only the wigs that are out there, but the type of treatments now—there are some cancer treatments where you won’t lose your hair. But they’re just starting to come out with those. Most of it will still do that. So being prepared is the key.
Wendy Myers: So, what are some of the ways that you teach your clients to take care of their scalp and their hair follicles and things of that nature?
Amy Gibson: Okay! First of all, it’s a great question. I’m so glad you asked that. When you’re going through cancer treatment, as you know, the chemotherapy releases itself two ways—through urine and perspiration. And so, when you perspire through your scalp, the follicles are going to get clogged. Just because you lose your hair doesn’t mean you lose the follicle. It’s still alive.
So, it’s getting clogged from all the chemo. You’ve got to keep your scalp clean. I am really into scalp hygiene, whether you are going through chemo or not. If your scalp, you’re keeping it dirty, it’s going to get clogged, you’re going to lose your hair.
There’s a great product that I didn’t mention before called Hair Support by a company called International Hair Goods where people will freak out because they’ll take it, and all of a sudden, they’ll find shedding in the beginning. But what it’s doing is cleaning out the follicle and it really does help the re-growth. It really does help the hair come back.
So, I love Witch Hazel. Some people may find it drying. But I actually think it cleans out the follicle really well.
Soap and water. I don’t like anything with too much alcohol because it’s too drying. But sometimes Witch Hazel is necessary. Good soap and water, a good tonic. Believe it or not, Clinique has a tonic for the face that I love using on the scalp. And if you do that twice a day, if you’re somebody that’s just running around or whatever, keeping the scalp clean is hugely important.
Wendy Myers: And so, you mentioned a book that you wrote. Why is your book titled Sex, Wigs and Whispers? I really like that title.
Amy Gibson: Because women stop their lives. They stop their lives from having sex and intimacy and dating and hanging with their friends. They’ve become this hermit. And there’s no reason to.
So, it’s just learning that if you have the tools, you can do anything. And I only have four sexual positions. I mean, there are some positions there that I called—instead of doggie, doggie, I say ruff-ruff. But most of it is how do I approach somebody, how do I keep my power.
Part of the book is really autobiographical with all the lies that I told for years on television. When People Magazine covered me, they went to every single person in television that I had ever worked with, and no one ever knew that I had hair loss. There were only two people that knew. And that was the make-up and the hair person—they were together in the same department—and the one producer who made their deal with me that he made this deal that he would never, ever say anything. Nobody really knew!
So, all those lies got me through. I talk about that. I talk about the tips that I teach at my Amy’s Wig Workshop. I talk about how do you walk against the wind.
What do you do if you’re walking against the wind and you don’t want your hair to fly up in the front? It’s very, very simple. You simply go down. If the wind can hit you here instead of here, you’re good. I do not mean walk around like this, but there is a way that you can catch the wind, and I talk about it.
How do you take a Jacuzzi with somebody when you’re wearing a wig? How do you swim? How do you work out? How do you approach your employer when you’re sitting under fluorescent lighting and he’s on top looking down on you most of the time as you’re at your computer and you’re worried about your wig?
These are all the things of really how to give yourself freedom.
The reason why I talk about sex, wigs and the word “whispers” is because I talk about the many, many years of personal molestation that I went through, sexual molestation, and the part it played in my hair loss. It was with my father. I talk about it, and I touch on it.
He just died recently. He would’ve been a hundred years old—can you imagine—three weeks ago. And I was able to forgive him. We got through that that time. You had to, you had to let it go when somebody’s going to go, right?
But it was very strange because during the height of my molestation is also when I was losing my hair.
But also, at eight months old, someone had touched my bottom at a party my mom had, and they had staphylococcus on their hand. I guess they weren’t aware. For the first five years of my life, the only treatment they had was giving me too much tetracycline (which of course turned my teeth brown) and dipping me in very, very, very almost-scalding water, so that the boils on my butt would burst into the water and not go back into my bloodstream. I remember screaming until I was like five years old.
And then, it went away. And then it came back when I was 13 in the back of my knees. My father freaked out because, oh, my god, it’s back. And then, it went away.
But then I got alopecia.
And we weren’t sure. Was it the molestation? Was it the stress of the molestation? Was it my immune system that had been suppressed? Was it the stress of being an actor at such a young age?
We did not know what it was because alopecia and hair loss is just such a mystery disease. It’s just ridiculous trying to figure out where it’s coming from. It stems from so many places.
So, I do talk about it in the book which is where the “whispers” comes from.
Wendy Myers: And we know that adverse childhood events, ACE’s, it’s proven in so many studies to cause disease. You have these mental traumas and shocks, and they have physical manifestations in the body with all kinds of diseases, autoimmune disease, cancer and other diseases that people get that dramatically affects their health later in life.
Amy Gibson: Yea. And I think, also, in my career, because I had to keep it quiet and make sure that nobody knew—these lies really kept it from my cast mates and producers and even the press and even friends. There were a few friends that knew, but many didn’t.
In fact, when I went public for the first time, I remember I had dated this guy—argh, he was so self-involved. He calls me up—unbelievable! His name is Barry. I talk about him in the book. He calls me up—I swear, Wendy—and he goes, “Hey, it’s Barry!”
Do you remember Est?
Wendy Myers: Yes, yes. Yes.
Amy Gibson: He was a real Est follower. And he would say, “You know, Amy, God! I’m so proud of what you’re doing. But can I tell you how I feel about something?” I said, “Sure, Barry.” He said, “I just really feel betrayed.” I said, “Really? Why would that be?” “Because we went out for two years, and you never told me.” I said, “Oh, really?”
“Well, first of all, like usual, it’s not all about you. And number two, maybe I didn’t feel safe enough to tell you. And oh, by the way, could you do me a really big favor?”
He goes, “Oh, sure! Anything, Amy.”
I said, “Would you listen to this” and I hung up.
I just thought that was so typical.
So there were many things that the book really shows a woman how to absolutely have freedom while she has this foreign thing on her head, that she can really make very innate—
There’s some very funny things in the book like when I was on a bus on 57th St., crossing. It was 100° and 90,000% humidity. This Adonis came on the bus and stood right in front of me. I’m thinking, “Oh, my God! He’s looking down at my wig.” And then, a handicapped person came on the bus, and I gave her my seat immediately. I’m standing next to this gorgeous 6”4 with green eyes—like totally my type.
And you know how you hold the bar on the bus? We’re holding it, and we hit a pothole, and his watch caught on to my wig. As he pulled, I pulled back.
But my wig had become such an innate part of me that, when we went for tea afterwards, I decided this was not somebody I was going to date because he was getting separated, and I didn’t want to deal with that again after something I had been through. And I said, “Let me ask you something since I’m never going to see you again. How did that feel when your watch caught on to my wig?” He said, “Oh, I felt terrible! My God! I felt like I was hurting you.” And I said, “Really? Because it’s a wig.” He said, “No way! I would never have known.” And I let him feel my wig. I’d never let anybody do that, but I figured, “What the hell, I’m never going to see him again.”
So, there’s a lot of very funny, uplifting, a lot of affirmations at the end of each chapter. We hit our 100,000th sale recently in the book. And I was amazed because, when I first wrote it, I didn’t know if anybody would buy it. I really wrote it more as a cathartic thing for me. I’m thinking, “If this can even help one person get out of the room… I was told I was stupid my whole life, and I’m never going to be anything. If I could do what I’m doing, she could look at me and go, ‘Wow! She could do it. And I’m bald, I could do it,’ even if it makes that one person…”
Wendy Myers: Yeah! So, can you get this on Amazon.
Amy Gibson: Yeah, you can buy it on Amazon. It’s Sex, Wigs and Whispers on Amazon.com. And it really takes a woman from A to Z, it really does.
There’s all kinds of styling tips in the back. It’s a big problem. Women don’t know how to maintain or wash their wig. They don’t know what it takes to make sure that they extend the shelf life of their investment. I don’t care if it’s $200 or $5000. If you don’t know how to take care of it, you might as well say goodbye to it. It’s a waste of money.
And also, how to make it look like you…
Wendy Myers: How long can a wig last?
Amy Gibson: Again, it really depends how you’re taking care of it. Synthetics, normal synthetics, will go maybe five months or eight months. My cyber wig and my water wigs will go a bit longer. Cyber here is a better synthetic. It can go up to three years; the water wig, maybe a year, a year and a half.
And human hair—oh, my goodness—human hair can go anywhere from three to six years. It really depends how you’re taking care of it and sending it in to get refurbished and to get reconditioned. It’s like a baby, you’ve got to take care of it.
But I think the most important thing is what a woman feels like about buying that wig. And I don’t want her to feel like it’s a negative experience to have to go buy one. I would love her to feel like, “Wow! Let me go rock! Let’s find something that I can put on my head, I’m out of the house in five minutes, and I look fabulous” and change her perspective on it.
If she could do that, this entire hair loss experience would completely change her life—it really would.
Wendy Myers: Is there anything you want to add to our conversation that we haven’t covered?
Amy Gibson: I think about children. We haven’t covered young children. And for the mothers that are listening that do have children that are going through hair loss, I sometimes think that when a woman’s bringing in a child that’s four years old, it’s more for the mother than it is the child.
And there are some young girls that really don’t feel uncomfortable about it because they’re not made to feel uncomfortable. The problem is there’s a lot of bullying at school, which is why a lot of these young kids, why the mothers feel it would be better for them to wear it.
And to be honest with you, a lot of times, I agree with them. It takes a very strong child to walk in bald to a school—it really does. It’s becoming more and more common, but it’s still not a way of life yet.
And for those teenagers or the ones that are from 10 years old on, there are wonderful organizations that they should know about like the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (it’s called NAAF.org), Alopecia World. Those two really give a lot of information.
They can write me at [email protected]. I’ll certainly try to help them. And I do Skype three times a week, three hours a day as well for women all over the world—and kids.
So, it doesn’t matter if you’re older or younger. There are answers. There are real solutions here, so you don’t have to feel lost in the wind. That’s the most important thing I want to get across.
Wendy Myers: Well, Amy, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really, really appreciate it.
And I have a question I like to ask all of my guests. What do you think is the most pressing health issue in the world today?
Amy Gibson: Hmmm… I think poverty is one of them. But in terms of health, other than our homeless, I would say our nutrition problem, the lack of good nutrition. For most people, I think it’s getting more and more difficult especially since Monsanto bought Whole Foods. I feel that we’re not really buying and getting the things that we need for our body at the optimum level. So, I would say good nutrition.
In terms of real diseases, my goodness, I’m not a doctor, but I’m seeing certainly more thyroid issues and blood disorders than I’ve ever seen with women coming in the door. What do you think it is?
Wendy Myers: I really think toxicity. I really think it’s a huge, overlooked problem. Most medical doctors, unless they’re a functional medicine practitioner, are not looking at it. And they’re not looking at nutrition and toxins as an underlying root cause of disease—and hair loss as well. And when you’re not looking at those very obvious causes of disease, you’re not going to be able to help your patients very well.
So, I think that’s something that people—that’s why I’ve dedicated my life to waking people up to getting proper nutrition and detoxing their body to resolve their health issues and diseases and diagnoses and symptoms no matter what they are.
Amy Gibson: By the way, anybody who is not getting your e-mails, they need to really sign up and get them because they’re the type of emails that get out there that’s not all about selling. And you are giving away such incredible, important, vital information in those emails that I hope that any person who’s listening signs up for them because you truly give so much in these blogs and these newsletters that you send out. And I love every single one of them. So thank you so much for your work.
Wendy Myers: Well, thank you also.
Wendy Myers: Tell the listeners where they can learn more about you.
Amy Gibson: Sure, [email protected], you can write me. You can go to my website, CreatedHair.com. You can also always call 1-877-FOR-WIGS. That’s 367-9447. Certainly, I try to get back to everybody within a day or two. I get a lot of e-mail. so please have a little patience with me. You can find me at CancerConnect.com, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on Twitter and all that stuff. So, I certainly welcome any questions because I’m a hair loss consultant. I’m not a doctor. I’m a wig designer. And I can certainly understand your symmetry and know what to create for you to make you look like you again. But I don’t want to be misunderstood to be a doctor because I’m not.
Wendy Myers: Okay, great.
Amy Gibson: I’m a consultant. Thank you so much, Wendy. Have a great day!
Wendy Myers: Well, thank you for coming on the show. And listeners, if you want to learn more about me, you can go to MineralPower.com where I have lots of information about my detox program. And you can also visit me at myersdetox.com.
Thank you so much for listening. And have a fantastic, healthy, and happy day!
