The Link Issue 44

contributors

STEVE HEYDT

The Link Magazine is the official, quarterly publication of the American Hair Loss Council. The Trade Association Serving the Hair Restoration Industry. For advertising or contributing editorially, please contact us:

THE AMERICAN HAIR LOSS COUNCIL 615.721.8085 or info@ahlc.org

THE LINK STAFF

Publisher: Janine Farro

Editor: Kelly Carson

Editorial Committee: Paul Albee, Lisa Ferestad, Kelly Nemitz

AHLC Board of Directors

Randy Clark, Board Member

Joseph Ellis, President

Janine Farro, Administrator

Susan Kettering, Executive Director

Marsha Scott, Past President

SONYA RENEE TAYLOR

LENNY VENTIMIGLIA

LEGAL STUFF

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Subscriptions to The Link Magazine are mailed FREE to AHLC members within the continental U.S. International members are provided digital copies. Please contact us for additional shipping rates if you are an AHLC member outside the US and wish to receive a printed edition.

To become an AHLC member or renew your membership please call 615.721.8085 or log on to AHLC.org.

The opinions expressed in The Link Magazine are those of the authors and may not reflect the views of the AHLC. Advertisements in The Link may not reflect the beliefs, opinions or attitudes of the AHLC and do not imply endorsement.

© 2023 The American Hair Loss Council, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

PRESIDENT, ATLAS DIGITAL

DR. CARL B. SHORY

FORMER MEDICAL DIRECTOR, LATHAM'S HAIR CLINIC

FOUNDER & RADICAL EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY

DENISE

RYAN VICE PRESIDENT BRAND MANAGEMENT, BIOPHOTOS INC.

PRESIDENT, VAPON INC.

KELLY CARSON EDITOR, THE LINK MAGAZINE

SARA MICALLEF

FOUNDER, PROJECT HAIR CO.

LISA FERESTAD OWNER, CURA HAIR SOLUTIONS

New Hope Surfaces for Hair Regrowth

From Staff Reports

It kind of makes sense that our immune systems might play a major role in hair growth. And now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, have proven the connection in a series of studies.

Ye Zheng, a corresponding study author and associate professor in Salk's NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis, said in a recent article published on labroots.com that hair growth can be realized without having to suppress one's immune system.

"For the longest time, regulatory T cells have been studied for how they decrease excessive immune reactions in autoimmune diseases," Zheng told Labroots author Carmen Leitch. "Now we've identified the upstream hormonal signal and downstream growth

A 3D rendering of transforming growth factor (TGF) beta-3, a protein, known as a cytokine, which is involved in cell differentiation, embryogenesis and development.

factor that actually promote hair growth and regeneration completely separate from suppressing the immune response."

The Salk Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to basic research in the biological sciences and is considered one of the foremost institutions of its kind in the world.

Leitch wrote that the research started with a study of how “glucocorticoids and regulatory T cells were related to autoimmune disorders. Glucocorticoids are steroid hormones that can help control inflammation; they are used as a treatment for autoimmune diseases in some cases.”

“The scientists determined that the relationship between glucocorticoids and regulatory T cells don't appear to be involved in several disorders, including asthma, multiple sclerosis, and Crohn's disease,” she wrote.

The scientists then turn their attention to “places where regulatory T cells can be found carrying high levels of glucocorticoid receptors, like the skin. In both normal mice and a mouse model that lacked glucocorticoid receptors, hair loss was induced.”

Leitch reported that researchers found that normal mice could easily regrow their hair after two weeks. Study author Ahi Liu said the mice without glucocorticoid receptors could barely regrow any hair. "It was very striking, and it showed us the right direction for moving forward,” Liu said.

The scientists said that by observing signaling between cells, researchers found that ”glucocorticoids can trigger regulatory T cells to stimulate hair follicle stem cells, leading to hair growth. The connection between T cells and hair follicle stem cells depends on the production of a molecule called TGF-beta3 in regulatory T cells, caused by glucocorticoid receptors. Hair follicle stem cells will differentiate into new hair follicles, and promote hair growth because they've been activated by TGF-beta3.”

Ye Zheng

Techniques for Better Sur vival

Here are some of the finer points I have picked up over the past

four decades

By Dr. Carl B. Shory, former medical director of Latham’s Hair Clinic, Chelsea, Alabama

Much has been written and talked about with regard to the survival of transplanted hair. In fact, most conferences spend at least a half day talking about the latest solution to soak grafts in or treat them prior to implantation. At first, this was puzzling to me because I have always used a 0.9% sodium chloride solution and never had a problem with hair growth.

Then it dawned on me how many other factors influence survival that has gone unrecognized for far too long. The one factor that is at least as important as a natural-looking result is that the grafted hair survives.

Better Survival of Transplanted Hair

The latest craze in hair transplantation is the revolutionary follicular unit extraction technique, or FUE, where small grafts are removed one by one from the donor site. Whether removed by robots, suction punches, or nonmedical, contracted personnel, the only thing different from 1952-era punch harvesting is that the grafts are smaller. But even the size is nothing new; my first mini-grafts in 1985 were punch harvested.

Virtually every well-constructed headto-head comparison between FUE and strip harvesting has shown better survival

of follicles with strip harvesting. But why is this? First of all, trying to cut the full depth of a 4-mm long follicle with a 0.7-1.0-mm diameter punch is extremely difficult, but to do this with an entire follicular unit is virtually impossible. I attended a conference some time back where a number of FUE surgeons showed close-up photos of their grafts. Calculating the average number of hairs per graft I found that the best surgeon among them averaged only 1.7 hairs per graft. An intact follicular unit should average nearly 3 hairs per unit.

Another unrecognized advantage of strip harvesting is that it often pulls more usable hair into the donor area. Even patients with extensive male pattern alopecia usually shave or cut short the hair at the nape of their neck. When a strip of donor hair is removed and sutured, the skin above and below the cut is pulled together. About 60% of this movement is simply stretching skin along the immediate margins, but approximately 30-35% is accomplished by raising the hairline at the back of the neck. This skin is much more mobile than the skin above the donor incision and allows for more usable hair to be pulled up into the donor area.

Incidentally, the scalp above the donor site is immobile and is not pulled downward, and therefore does not increase the size of the balding crown above.

When FUE harvesting is done with punches, the resulting holes actually open larger than the size of the punch. Because the scalp is under tension, a 1.0-mm hole opens up to an approximately 1.5-mm hole. Unless sutured, this creates a slight sag in the donor scalp, the rear hairline drops, and there is a net loss of future donor hair.

But this is only harvesting. How many hairs actually survive? Again the study results have not been encouraging. But why? First of all, a lot of hairs get sectioned when cutting small grafts, but how many of these survive? In the early 1990s, I did a study where I created one, two, and three-hair grafts, trimmed to where they had no partial hairs attached. Then I cut the grafts in half at the midshaft and implanted the bottom half on one side of the crown, and the top half on the other. Two years later the growth count showed that 40% of the hairs were growing from the bottom half. The top half had about 20% growth, but interestingly virtually none of these hairs would grow more than one inch in length.

A more recent variation on FUE harvesting involves using blunt punches or making

This

This is the closure during the second procedure. Note the slight overlap of the top over the bottom as described in my paper. Sutures should be removed in 14 days.

shallow cuts and pulling the grafts out. This creates a whole new set of trauma. Yanking grafts out causes traction trauma, and having to grasp the graft tightly causes crush trauma, as do dull punches.

Just cutting grafts smaller, whether using an FUE technique or strip harvesting results in reduced survival. Sectioning within follicular units destroys the neurovascular ring and smaller grafts have more traumatized tissue around the periphery relative to the intact tissue of the interior. In addition, they are more prone to crush injury and drying out.

A long-held belief is that mega-sessions of densely packed grafts will result in a thicker more natural result. One of the first surgeons to do mega-sessions wrote a paper years ago describing complications in which he reported that 1-2% of patients ended up with no growth at all. Making too many recipient holes destroys the capillaries feeding the new grafts. The only way they can survive is by diffusion of oxygen from deeper tissues and this is sometimes too much for

them. Also, doing sessions longer than 6 hours begins to impact graft survival as the hair cells begin to die from hypoxia and lack of nutrients.

Female Pattern Hair Loss

A few years ago I was doing research on female hair loss. To my surprise I found the majority of the doctors I spoke with said they didn't like doing transplants for female pattern hair loss because 50% of their patients experienced further — usually temporary — hair loss shortly after surgery. Their technique was the same as with the male pattern, dense packing into recipient slits. I see this in about 1-2% of my female patients but my impression is that it mainly has to do with the fact that the dermis of most women's scalps is barely half the thickness of a man's. The reduced number of capillaries results in less oxygen to the grafts, and spacing the grafts farther apart appears to solve this problem.

Another cause of substandard results for females is the use of slits for the recipient

This is a typical suture line on the back of the head. The first procedure was done 3 years ago. When closed as described in my paper the scar is virtually undetectable.

is the donor site with the hair clipped showing the scar from the first procedure.

site. In male pattern hair loss, a thin result with space between the grafts is often acceptable. This is never adequate for women. I have yet to meet a woman who told me she had too much hair.

If the recipient site is created with a punch (FUT Plus) then a small piece of bald skin is removed and the intervening space between the existing hairs can be filled. In addition, since females never go totally bald, a slightly larger graft can be used. It fills the space better, it retracts less than a smaller graft, and it never looks pluggy.

Recipient Holes vs Slits

The obvious downside of making recipient holes is that the bald plug has to be removed and this adds extra time to the procedure. Other than this, holes have numerous advantages over slits.

First of all, there is bald skin being removed. Secondly, a hole is more the shape of the graft it is receiving than a slit. The grafts must be cut smaller to fit into a slit and this is often why the grafts are a subfollicular unit in size. Even with fewer hairs, the slit tries to close up and pushes even 2 hairs closer together. They often end up growing out of one hole creating an effect known as "bouqueting," like the multiple stems of a bouquet in a single vase.

Grafts placed in slits can make varying angles. Because the slit is elongated, some hairs grow out at a shallower angle, others more steeply. In addition, the ends of the slit have to fill in with scar tissue and when it does the angle of the hair is raised by the retracting scar, making it grow more at 90 degrees to the scalp rather than a more natural 45 degrees.

Better Hairlines

When I worked for Dan Latham back in the 1980s and 1990s I learned more about proper hairline placement from him than all the surgeons I have known put together. One of the biggest mistakes a surgeon can make is to let a young patient talk him into

setting a hairline too low. Another mistake is to fill in the "angle" of a normal recession by rounding the hairline into the sideburn area. Both of these will look good while the patient is young, but will never recede and will look awful in the decades ahead. In addition, the patient may run out of donor hair later. It is always better to set a high hairline and lower it later if necessary.

Many surgeons use the "rule of thirds" to divide the face. (1) from the bottom of the chin to the bottom of the nose, (2) Bottom of nose to bridge of nose, and (3) bridge of nose to hairline. This might work in the art world or for young faces, but if you were to use this to place the middle of a mature hairline you will inevitably place it too low.

Choosing a Surgeon

Choose a physician who has been doing hair transplantation for many years.

Choose a physician who specializes in hair transplantation.

the three points with a horseshoe-shaped line. The final shape of this line may vary depending on the shape of the patient's face and forehead.

Reduce Scarring

The No. 1 reason offered for doing FUE over linear strip harvesting is to prevent creating a linear scar. This is absolutely true. But it does not create less overall scarring. In fact, it creates much more, hundreds upon hundreds of small circular scars throughout the donor area. As they heal, these scars do not shrink but in fact grow larger. The scalp is under tension and cutting a 1.0-mm graft will yield a 1.5-mm hole. In fact, you would have to leave a linear strip open and unsutured to create as much total scar as a comparable FUE procedure.

Understand the procedure you are getting and make sure it is the right fit for you.

Make sure that a physician is doing your procedure. I know of at least two clinics in my area that do surgeries without a physician ever being present.

I use a 45 degree tangent rule. First, place a comb or ruler on the forehead near the point of the hairline. When the comb sits at a 45 degree angle to the floor, mark that point. Second, move the comb to where the hair parts on the side about where it meets the frontal recession. Again this is about 45 degrees to the floor.

The 45 degree point will almost always line up with the part and a line drawn from the most lateral point of the patient's eye. Repeat this on the other side of the hairline and you will have marked the two most lateral points that you should ever place a graft along the hairline. Now, connect

So what are the secrets to minimizing a liner scar? First of all, only make one scar. I have never understood why a surgeon would do three procedures and create three separate incisions. Second, check the elasticity of the scalp before cutting, then make the strip narrow enough so that you don't have to undermine it. Excessive tension not only widens the scar but it creates suture scars along each side of the scar line. Third of all, don't cut too deeply. This creates more scars, both deep and superficially, and can cause excessive bleeding or nerve damage.

A good closure technique is trichophytic closure, which you can read about in many other places. I do a similar closure but have found that shaving off the superficial epidermis may not be necessary. When closing, I prefer to pull the upper edge over the lower by at least a half millimeter. Because the cuts were made at an upward angle of 45 degrees, the upper lip is thinner than the lower. As the donor site heals, this is going to retract anyway. Not overlapping is one of the main reasons for a widened scar.

Regardless of the procedure used, all surgery produces scarring. If your patient wants to shave his head after getting a hair transplant, I would recommend he not ever get a transplant.

AHLC Membership Comes With Perks, Even Cookies... (Sort Of)

By Lenny Ventimiglia, President, Atlas Digital

The American Hair Loss Council was designed to bring together and help hair restoration experts. Membership in the AHLC shows each business owner is committed to the highest standard of professionalism, excellence in client service, and continuing education.

Our members are highly trained hair replacement specialists and technicians, certified trichologists, extensionists, wig experts, and hair transplant surgeons, as well as manufacturers and distributors of industry-related goods. Here are some of the privileges that come with your AHLC membership:

AHLC Member Forum

Ever had a pressing question that you knew only a fellow AHLC member could answer? Well, you have a cadre of experts waiting to help you. We have an AHLC Discussion Forum available to members only. This is where we have members helping members. There are already more than 400 discussion topics posted, including:

■ sharing referrals.

■ learning tips and tricks.

■ help with growing your business.

■ networking with others in the industry.

This is the ideal place to ask a question to other members and find support as well as answers. You can join in an existing discussion or start a new one of your own. To access the discussion forum, simply log into your membership account at AHLC.org and click “AHLC Member Forum” on your membership resource page.

EMPOWERING CONFIDENCE

The Event Calendar

Take a look at the upcoming events calendar in your member event calendar via your member portal to view a list of all upcoming events of interest to AHLC members.

As a vendor, this is a great place to post any events you are hosting. Simply log in and visit the AHLC event calendar. Click “add new event”. This is one of the best ways to promote your event to all of the AHLC members and it’s very simple to set up.

Vendor Directory and Deals

Vendors are the lifeblood of our industry. They provide products that allow us to do what we love and care for our clients. Check out the AHLC Vendor Member Directory to see a list of our vendors, manufacturers, and distributors of hair restoration products and industry related goods. The vendor directory can help you network and find new products to help you grow your business.

Be sure to check each vendor profile card to see if a vendor is offering a deal, coupon, or discount exclusively for AHLC members. If you are a vendor, take advantage of posting deals here for our members to see. You can quickly add a new deal or offer by clicking the “deals” tab on your member profile page.

Access To Attend The Annual HairNow Conference

Our annual conference is exclusively available to AHLC members. If you aren’t a member already, our conference alone is worth joining the AHLC. This is our biggest event of the year. Each year, our members take advantage of this great networking opportunity to grow their businesses, learn new skills, and offer new products and services.

If you aren’t already a member, be sure to join so you can be a part of HairNow23 next year in Nashville. You won’t want to miss it.

LED Light Therapy

An Invaluable Addition to Your Hair Restoration Practice

By Denise Ryan, VP Brand Management, BioPhotos, Inc.

Male pattern baldness, also known as androgenetic alopecia accounts for 95% of hair loss in men. Research shows that by age 35, more than two-thirds of American men suffer from hair loss and by age 50, 85% of men deal with thinning hair. Androgenetic alopecia is a common hair loss condition that is characterized by the miniaturization of hair follicles in the frontal and parietal regions of the scalp.

While many men have embraced the “bald is beautiful” mantra, there are others who suffer from male pattern baldness and are unhappy with how they look, particularly men who begin balding at a young age. Many are desperate for solutions and for some, it can impact interpersonal relationships as well as their professional opportunities. Light therapy complements currently existing treatments and procedures — trichophytic closure prescription

drugs, PRP, stem cells, transplant surgery — to dramatically enhance an individual’s outcome for maximizing hair growth.

Hair loss is not a strictly male health concern. While suffering mostly in silence, women make up a significant percentage of those who suffer from hair loss. The American Academy of Dermatology, reports 40% of women have visible hair loss by the time they are age 40.

Today, patients with thinning hair are taking advantage of FDA-cleared red light therapy devices to restore and prevent further hair loss. Further advances in

technology have seen the introduction of multifunctional, shape-taking devices FDAcleared to treat pain and skin conditions in addition to preventing and restoring hair loss. Introducing your clients to brands that are additionally cleared for home-use allows them to complement your professional services and stay on protocol all in the comfort and privacy of their own home

What is LED Light Therapy

Light therapy, also known as phototherapy, photobiomodulation, or low-level light therapy, is the application of specific wavelengths of light energy to tissue to obtain therapeutic benefits for a wide variety of conditions.

The absorbed energy is utilized to improve cellular performance. Light therapy can be delivered through light-emitting diode devices or cold lasers and has a variety of applications across many medical fields. This clinically validated modality is gaining greater and greater acceptance in mainstream medicine by dermatologists and aesthetic medical professionals as a noninvasive therapeutic modality for the treatment of a variety of skin, pain, and scalp conditions.

Research has proven that LED devices are equal to and, in many instances, can

outperform cold LASERs. According to light therapy researcher Michael Hamblin, “Advantages of LEDs include no laser safety considerations, ease of home use, ability to irradiate a large area of tissue at once, the possibility of wearable devices, and much lower cost per mW. LED photobiomodulation is here to stay”.

LED light therapy has been widely researched and is supported by thousands of peer-reviewed and published clinical research papers from prestigious institutions around the world. LED light therapy treatments are non-invasive, painless, require no recovery time, and can be used safely on all skin types. And now, hair restoration has been added to the long list of conditions that can benefit from LED light therapy.

Credentials Matter

Today LED light therapy devices have been cleared by the FDA for the treatment of male and female pattern hair loss. Applied to the scalp, it helps to proliferate hair follicle size and prevent catagen hair development (the end of the active growth of a hair). Substantial research has supported light therapy’s ability to regrow hair lost due to androgenetic alopecia with minimal degrees of side effects and adverse events. LED devices can be an effective stand-alone therapy or adjunctive

therapy to medication and topical prescriptions for optimal hair regrowth.

Science Supports Using LED Light Therapy for Hair Restoration

LED light therapy enhances hair growth by targeting and boosting the biochemical processes in the scalp and follicle. It is thought that through photobiomodulation, red light energy emitted by low-level light therapy devices may encourage hair growth by accelerating keratinocyte and fibroblast mitosis, inhibiting nitric oxide, and reducing inflammation.

Patients and clients can experience light therapy in a clinical setting, as well as purchase a suitable LED device to complete treatment in the convenience of their own homes. In one review article, "Efficacy of non-surgical treatments for androgenetic alopecia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis," European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, A.K. Gupta, and others, state that, “Relative effects show LLLT as the superior treatment” when comparing light therapy to the six most common non-surgical treatment options for treating androgenetic alopecia in both men and women including dutasteride 0.5 mg, finasteride, 1 mg, minoxidil 2%, minoxidil 5% and platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

By Lisa Ferestad, Owner, Cura Hair Solutions, Marietta, Georgia

Are you looking to create a new stream of revenue in your business? Perhaps you are you looking to create a new interest in something you already carry in your studio.

If you are working with top pieces, you might consider creating a topper bar. Not only has it been a wonderful new addition to our space, but it has been a topic of conversation while generating new business for the studio and revitalizing a piece of the business that has been on our back burner. Our Topper Bar is also giving the studio new content across all of our social media platforms.

After we had been in our new location for a year and a half, there was one last space needing a new identity. The space is 7.5 feet by 12 feet and is an extension of the hallway adjacent to our treatment rooms. The space was too small to close in and we were not interested in adding a waiting area for clients, since we have kept Covid

Add a Topper Bar

Give your clients more choices and a bit of fun with this new salon feature

protocols of keeping our front door locked and letting our clients in one at a time.

The concept came to me one day, because we have a lot of toppers in the studio but they were sitting in bags and no one was seeing them. It is also common for our clients to want to bring a friend with them for a consultation, so creating a space where they could do this comfortably was also something that was important to me.

I thought the topper bar was a space to have a little fun and get creative. If you’re looking to create a topper bar in your own space, it does not need to be large. It could be a small wall where you have one styling station and a space to display a few top pieces.

We looked at the area measuring 12 feet across and figured out that we could add two styling chairs and a station in the center. We added a dark wood bar that runs the length of the wall and two styling chairs in the same style as our existing chairs, but a different color. We chose deep green to bring a pop of color

into the studio. The two new mirrors bring more light into the space. We also added a fun wallpaper to give the area a finished look. We used an industrial pipe to hang the toppers on.

Adding a topper bar to your studio can be a great topic of conversation for current clients and also will help to attract new clients. This new space will also allow us to host events where we can have clients schedule a styling night where they can learn to do updos, perfect working with their tools, and practice blow dries, all while having a curated cocktail along with a theme for the educational events.

When you are showing your space and featuring new top pieces, your social media

content can be endless. We have started a new segment across Instagram and Facebook, where we feature two new toppers every Tuesday. “Topper Tuesday” is now a new feature across all of our platforms. Talking about the pieces you offer in your studio can give you an opportunity to get in front of the camera and let your potential clients start to get to know you and also learn a little bit about what products you carry in your studio. If you are camera shy you could always show a top piece on a stand and do a voiceover and describe the piece that you are featuring. Visit our Instagram and Facebook pages to grab a few ideas for what we are doing to promote the new area in the studio and also bring new life back into the toppers that we carry.

Before After

Never in a Million Years

Alternative uses for double-sided, self-adhesive strips

By Steve Heydt, President, Vapon Inc.

A local band was getting ready to go on stage for a Saturday night gig at a major club in Nashville. One of the band members had a new silk shirt but the sleeves were too long and wouldn't stay rolled up. This wouldn't do as the length was uncomfortable and certainly didn't look cool. Fortunately, the road manager pulled out a box of tape that she keeps for situations just like this. The tape worked perfectly and didn't harm the fabric at all.

Hairpiece tape and adhesives have been an integral part of the hair replacement industry at least as far back as the 1960s. Throughout its product evolution, it has kept hair systems, wigs, and toppers secure and comfortable for clients for more than 60 years.

Used not only by studio professionals every day, but tape strips are also a confidence-building impulse purchase at checkout. Clients like to have tape on hand just in case their system needs a little extra hold in between services. It is a great addition to a host of other assorted products sold by salons. Hundreds of hair replacement studios sell tape as a natural add-on sale to go with shampoo and conditioners.

But when it comes to other uses people find for tape, we constantly hear them say, “I would have never in a million years thought that tape could have been used for that!”

We have been selling the tape to theatrical supply houses, costumers on Broadway and in Hollywood for decades. Tape is a funny product. We heard a rumor that the famous Versace low-cut dress that Jennifer Lopez wore at the Grammys was held together with our tape. Interestingly enough, I was finally able to get an actual confirmation of that when I ran into her costumer in an airport on my way back home from an AHLC conference.

When we happened to see each other at the airport, she said, “Oh, I love your product. I do all this and I dressed you know who, and so I gave her a bunch of supplies, and she was so thankful.” But she confirmed for me that yes, indeed, it was our tape that helped Jennifer Lopez that night and saved her from one of her well-known costume fails.

We also sell a tremendous amount of products to men who do audio for on-camera interviews and broadcasts. The sound techs tell us they couldn’t do their job without it. They use it to tack down and hide small microphones so they can pick up the voice but also so they don’t show on camera.

My son sold it to all his friends throughout his time at college. He was the essential tape supplier to all the girls in his circle of friends and their friends. He would call home and I would have to send him another box of tape.

When he was little, he was in martial arts and he had the white uniform that goes with it, of course. Now being 8 or 9 years old, he was growing like a weed and we couldn't get a uniform that fit. We always got one a little bigger. Every parent can identify here. So I would solve his uniform problem with tape and it held up beautifully, to the point where we would get seven or eight washes out of it before we had to replace the tape.

It works quite well as a clothing tape because it sticks well to fabric and does not leave a sticky residue, which is important. It is a wonderful product for hiding

a bra strap or, especially closing a blouse line, particularly if you have a loose-fitting blouse.

So, considering all this, we put together a special retail package that combines two sizes of strips in one package. We put half-inch and one-inch by three inches strips into a cute little box. For years we have sold it through retail beauty products suppliers, but other places have picked it up and they have found it to be a great little impulse purchase.

One area where we do not market is in medical supplies. The rare exception is with respect to the occasional inquiry for help with cochlear implants. Occasionally we receive a call from a parent whose

child has a cochlear implant and they are having an awful time holding the piece to the child’s head. That is one application where we have been happy, willing, and able to help, but otherwise, we stay out of the medical field.

At the end of the day, we are and have always been a supply company for hairpieces and that is where we focus all our efforts and energy. It is a fascinating industry, and it never fails to amaze me when I hear of the “never in a million years” uses to which people have put our tapes and adhesives. Some years ago, we got a call from the CIA. They were looking for our liquid adhesive. They wouldn’t tell us what they wanted to use it for, and we didn’t ask.

WHAT YOU GET

• Training Basic Volumizer

•

• Training Base

• Connection Points (5 colors/5 jars)

• Aluminum Case

Online Certification class taught by ... Glenn Michael Millet, the Education Expert

TESTIMONIALS

“So happy to have the opportunity to train online. Excited to offer this to my guest with thinning hair issues. Thank you!”

— Emily M., Chapel Hill, NC

“When I registered for Evolve Hair Solutions online certification I did not expect what I received. Evolve Hair Solutions goes above and beyond my expectations with customer service and care for their stylists. Immediate response to all questions and guidance throughout the process is invaluable to me.”

— April M., Huntington, TX

BENEFITS

Learn a new skill that will allow you to:

• Help over 80 million women with hair loss or thinning hair (the fastestgrowing market share in the salon industry)

• Set yourself apart from other salons and stylists by developing your unique skills as a certified hair loss specialist

• Make more money $$$, higher dollars, per hour

• Build a loyal repeat client as hair loss clients return ever 4-5 weeks

• Join the elite network of Evolve Certified Stylists

Being a Part of AHLC Changed My Life, Literally

Information seems to appear exactly when you need it

By Kelly Carson, Editor, The Link Magazine

Hello, I'm Kelly Carson, your editor. And I just found out I have cancer. I have lung cancer, confined to one lung, I'm told. I'm also told I may or may not lose my hair. I may lose just some of it. Thinning I believe it is called. I'm a 65-year-old woman. Don't you think my hair is thin enough?

So I've embraced a path to recovery, building a team of oncologists, radiologists, technicians, nurses, aids, and those who freely volunteer to help people recover from cancer.

At the end of 2019, as I was beginning to launch my retirement plans and wondering where my world would settle after decades of bouncing between newsrooms from coast to coast, a friend called and asked if I'd be interested in helping out a little bit with a magazine they were publishing.

Words and art on a piece of paper? That's what I do. I said, "sure."

The American Hair Loss Council and The Link Magazine have taught me more than I ever knew I didn't know about hair — the agony of alopecia, the heartbreak of cancer, and the mystery of the myriad causes of hair loss.

Readers, salon owners, stylists, and others grab at my heartstrings with their stories and fill me with cheer when one of the many AHLC professionals helps develop solutions to individual

problems. Gathering as industry artists to share best practices spreads love and knowledge around the globe.

The cause of my cancer is no mystery. We've been warned since the first 1964 Report on Smoking and Health from the Surgeon General. I won't go into all the details, but the baby boomer generation wasn't the smartest, and I am proof of that. How did I get here? In the same way scores of baby boomers end up with lung cancer. I smoked cigarettes. I did it for 49 years. Yes, I heard the warnings. Yes, I read the surgeon general's admonitions. But being a child of the 50s, and 60s, and moving into adulthood in the 70s — y'all couldn't tell me anything. I was young and invincible.

I quit smoking in April 2022, three years after my brother died of a smoking-related

illness. By June it was obvious something was amiss in my lungs, and when the magic 65th birthday Medicare card landed, my nurse practitioner pushed me in front of a pulmonologist.

Now I'm not going to debate the medical care in the country. That's not what this is about. We can do that later, somewhere else if you chose.

What I chose to focus on here is the support I am being shown by the leadership and members, many of whom I met for the first time just a few weeks ago at our HairNow 2022 conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. Talk about feeling like family. Y'all have reached out to offer advice, support, a shoulder, an ear, friendship, companionship — heck, even supper.

On Oct. 28, I met up with a hometown acquaintance to start talking about a haircut. Toni Doyle owns Peroxide Hair Studio

in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Like me, Toni is a native of Natchez, Mississippi, where our mothers were friends.

Well before retirement in January 2020, I quit cutting my hair. I don't know why. I just did. It seemed like the thing to do. That lasted about two years and then I had 9-inches slashed off. It was thin. Dry. Yucky. I still had enough length to wear it in a ponytail, but a short one. After the cancer treatments began in earnest, I had Toni trim 4-inches off to begin the transition away from the ponytail. More will be removed in the days and weeks to come. Eventually, the oncology nurse-educator told me, I will lose all of my hair. OK. I'm good with that. Ever since I came out in 1976 I've wanted to shave my head. I just never had to courage to actually do it — not like the young hair artists of today.

As I work with medical professionals to restore me to health, I also want to turn to

That's me in front on the right with all that curly hair. The tall lady in the back with the gray hair is the late former Mississippi Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy. She wanted a photo with the all-woman newspaper staff of the Lamar County Headblock in Lumberton.

the experts of the AHLC to help me maintain a healthy head and scalp and have y'all help me restore my crown health. I always prided myself on this crazy head of super curly hair in my youth and into adulthood. After Hurricane Opal in 1995, all the curls in my hair seemed to be gone with the wind. Coincidence? I think not.

My cancer journey began in October and already the membership of the AHLC has reached out and sent products to help me keep my hair healthy and work my way through to the ultimate reality. Cody, a team member with Renata Salon in Grapevine, Texas, has been amazing — encouraging me to do things I thought might be impossible. She might not even know how much she's encouraging me to just accept what is happening and just be me.

On Nov. 9 I took the ultimate step with my hair as far as I'm concerned and had it shaved off. It was awful, wonderful, scary, freeing, fabulous, and all the more frightening because this was my hair. Well, no more.

If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear from you. Email me at editor@ahlc.org.

THE TREATMENTS

Radiation treatments are five days a week, at 8 a.m. for six weeks. The end date, Dec. 6, is circled on every calendar I have. Radiation treatment is not comfortable. It burns. It burns deeply. It's like being cooked from the inside out. After Dec. 6, I get a three-month break before a CT scan to see if those cancer cells have been blown to smithereens.

Chemotherapy is a different beast altogether. A surgeon installed what is called an Instaport under my skin on the right side of my chest. It allows the nurses to hook me up to chemo bags with a simple needle. They don't have to find a vein every time. Coming out of the port and into a vein is a tube that takes the medicine throughout my body. The port seems cumbersome at first, but I've gotten used to it being there -- always being there.

At some point, the doctors, technicians and nurses will convene and we will check my progress. I have faith I will win this battle.

curls just kept growing in the 1980s. My general manager, Donna McGuyer, even had a knack for the curling iron.

I had curly hair until 1995 when Hurricane Opal blew them all away. I know it sounds like a joke but it's not. After spending days reporting on the damage throughout southern Alabama and Mississippi, the curls were gone. By 2010 my hair was pretty much straight and turning gray.

In 2020 i started growing my hair out. Since it was straight and pretty lifeless, I wore it in a ponytail all the time.

The

Creating Community

Helping Those With Fine and Thinner Hair Through Social Media

By Sara Micallef, Founder of Project Hair Co., West Bloomfield, MI

Hair is powerful. It is a huge part of our image and we know it. Creating communities for hair-related issues is a need that is lacking today. The need for a routine is strong for those with thinning or no hair to be with those who are going through the same day-to-day.

It is powerful to commune with those whose hair is similar to your own. I am a hairstylist that specializes in non-surgical hair replacement and ironically, I do not have fine hair. I merely felt compelled to connect those with whom I worked on a daily basis with others who struggle with hair issues. They share ideas, techniques, and tips that I can learn by observing their posts and comments. And I do.

I started the Facebook group Fine Hair Friends in 2017. It amazes me how the vision for the group has become exactly what I wanted it to be five years ago — a vision for a safe space where uplifting support is given to those with fine, thinning, or no hair. And even more than the support, it created a community.

In 2017 I was working with one of my favorite hair replacement clients. We were talking about how she would love to be able to talk to other people going through similar issues as she was. Because hair replacement tends to be a secretive topic, isolation comes with it. That was when the idea for the Facebook group came about. Thus, the group was born!

Fine Hair Friends did not have many members for the first couple of years,

To ensure group safety and confidentiality, we have group rules members must agree to join.

We have five rules:

Kindness and Respect No Promotions or Scams

Respect Everyone’s Privacy

Please See Posting Tips: Reasons a post or comment may be denied or removed.

Use the Group Search Tool: Search for your question before posting.

Members earn badges based on their contributions to the group. A member can achieve the following badges: Conversation Starter - makes engaging posts.

Rising Star - new member making engaging posts.

Valued Responder - shares valuable answers to questions.

Group Ambassador - helps grow membership by sharing our group.

Visual Storyteller - shares engaging images or videos.

New Member - for the first two weeks after joining.

The positive reinforcement of the badges reassures members that the photos and stories they share are valued. To my surprise, we have members that take before and after selfies, with and without their hair addition. We share these photos in the group to help others to know about the amazing option of hair replacement.

maybe 14 members at the most. One day, it blew up. I was getting hundreds of requests to join per week and soon celebrated 500 members. I was shocked when within the next couple of weeks it had doubled to 1,000 members. Now, we are at 39,000 and growing every day. I am still not sure what caused the sudden jump in requests to join, although it does seem due to the group having filled a need.

The group covers a range of topics including fine hair styling and washing challenges, hair thinning, breakage, shedding, product recommendations, styling techniques, toppers, extensions, and style and cut advice. Posts are made by people who have learned — and maybe are still learning — how to manage their fine hair themselves. I learn so much from them. Group experts, including hairstylists, from all over the world give advice on topics.

In the group, people have the option to post anonymously if they choose, though most do not. I believe that is due to creating a safe space for the members and carefully monitoring the tone and vibe of the group.

Besides myself, there are two other administrators for the group. Let me tell

you about them. Jessica is an admin that has much experience managing large groups. She reached out to see if I would like help as the group started to grow. I am so happy she did. She taught me how to look for red flags on bot accounts, how to spot baiting, multi-level marketing, and scams, as well as how to protect our members from misinformation and bullying. She shares informational articles that shake down the facts so that posts are accurate. These articles can be pinned to the top of the group for easy reference. Also, by using warnings, flagging, deleting, and blocking negative comments or members, it has maintained a positive and encouraging tone in the group.

Becky is the other admin and she is a fine-haired person who said she is happy to be a part of a group with other finehaired people. We reached out to her and asked if she would be an admin due to her contributions to the group.

The administrators assist in approving and denying member requests to join, approving and denying posts, removing inappropriate comments, and creating conversation. This journey has taught me that to be a leader, you must be strong,

consistent, and vigilant. My fellow admins have taught me so much.

We are planning to conduct polls to see what other topics emerge. For instance, we received many posts with questions, and answers, about what shampoo and conditioner others use. We conducted a poll, giving eight choices, and asking everyone’s favorite shampoo-conditioner for their fine hair, and posted the result to our Facebook page.

We have received much positive feedback on the group from members. Here are just a few of their comments:

“This group is vital for those of us with hair concerns and it is so helpful with truly lovely people. Thank you.”

“I am new to this group and so glad I found y’all! I found my people!”

"I wanted to share this incredible experience with you all, my fellow hair replacement specialists."

Who knows how this group can grow and change in the future, and what new features we can add to improve our group? Hair is powerful — especially in a community.

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Tabitha Fredrichs Tabitha F Hair, Plymouth, Minnesota.

With over 20 years of experience, Tabitha has focused much of her career as a Trichologist specializing in Fine/ Thinning hair. She offers services such as hair restoration & wigs as well as scalp & hair services. All in all, this has been the most rewarding part of her career. Tabitha mentions that, "Trichologists are the most amazing and inspiring individuals I have ever met. I am honored to be a part of this community."

Jackie Yates

Jackie Yates Hair Restoration, Braselton, Georgia.

Jackie Yates has been an industry leader from 40 years, working with his staff of six offering trichology solutions and a full hair integration department. In business since 1989, Jackie Yates Hair Restoration began focusing on hair loss in 2015.

Kendra Runnals Shallow

The Wig Parlor , Hampstead, New Hampshire

I provide a private studio to discuss hair loss solutions for women. High quality wigs, toppers & extensions & providing scalp regimens for women are just a few of the services and products I offer.

Sheryl Williams

Sheryl Williams

Hair Replacement, Pottstown, PA and Teaneck, NJ

Sheryl is an educator and hair replacement specialist. A graduate of Parisian Beauty Academy, a Paul Mitchell Partner School, and Dudley’s University. As an educator, Sheryl has taught at private schools and provides education and professional training to cosmetologists in different styling techniques.

She also actively participates in workshops sponsored by the cancer society and offers services to clients who cannot afford a unit. Sheryl provides quality hair services and recommends the proper products for home maintenance of the style.

Sheryl Williams Hair provides systems of highquality hair in creating solutions for children, women, and men experiencing problems with hair loss as a result of cancer or alopecia.

New Vendor Members

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8 Easy Questions: Dallasciet Harper

Title: Certified Trichologist Salon: TriExperts Hair Center

Location: Pearl, Mississippi

Question #1: Tell us about where you grew up.

Answer: Jackson, Mississippi. It's the state's capital.

Question #2: What was your favorite cartoon growing up, and why?

Answer: Suzy on "Rugrats." Suzy was a drop-in friend, not a regular, but when she came only good things happened. Suzy was a child, but a smart one, if they ventured too far into imagination Suzy would always be grounded. That’s a lot for a kid!

Question #3: If a movie were made about your life, who would play you?

Answer: If a movie were created about me, my teen daughter would be cast to portray me. She’s hands down my doppelgänger. She knows me best and she’s pretty stocked with drama so she would be hilariously great!

Question #4: Describe your high school years.

Answer: High school years were great for me. I was active in our choral music program, which gave us an introduction to traveling domestically and internationally. I likely would not have experienced it until adulthood otherwise.

Question #5: Who have been your most substantial influences in life?

Answer: My mother, Sharron Harper, for her determination to give me the best opportunities for advancement, and watching her work ethic has been unmatched.

Trichologist Lisa Akbari has been a major influence for many years. She’s practiced trichology successfully while offering the greatest experience. Yahweh, for always directing my path.

Question #6: How would friends and acquaintances describe you?

Answer: Determined, professionally extroverted but personally introverted.

Question #7: What would you do differently if you had a chance?

Answer: I’m not sure. We’re a summation

of experiences and wisdom learned from them, I wouldn’t want to void the learning through my experiences so I don’t think “what if” very often.

Question #8: Describe a scene of your vision for the future.

Answer: In the future, I see communities of people who’ve lacked knowledge about health disparities, lifestyles, and backgrounds become fully aware of our choices that harm our health, and in that future we choose life-giving ways of living more than the alternative.

Meet The Pets

We all love our pets. So, let’s get to know each other. Meet the Pets lets you show off your favorite fur baby, fish or any other loving creature in your world.

Pet Owner's Name: Susan Kettering Owner, HRI of Pennsylvania and Executive Director of the AHLC

Pet's Name: Bella

Pet's Age: 3½ years old Pet's Breed: Micro-mini Golden Doodle

What does your pet add to your life?:

She adds so much joy and inner peace. She is just a happy little girl. She also thinks she's a cat. You should see how she rolls around and paws her toys — she was raised with them, so I think she may have a small identity crisis!

Does your pet come to work with you?

No. She's afraid of the elevator.

What is your pet’s superpower?

She thinks she's a 200-pound watch dog but only behind the safety of the front door.

THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY

10 Tools to Practice Radical Self-Love

By Sonya Renee Taylor, Founder and Radical Executive Officer,

The Body Is Not An Apology

Babies love their bodies. I have never seen a toddler lament the size of their thighs or the squishiness of their bellies. Children do not arrive here ashamed of their race, gender, age, or disabilities. Have you ever seen an infant realize they have feet? Talk about wonder! That is what an unobstructed relationship with our bod ies looks like.

You did not come to the planet hating your body. In fact, much of how you view your body and your judgments of it are learned things, mes sages you have internalized that may have created an adversarial relationship of body shame.

That body shame doesn’t just harm your relationship with yourself; it harms

other people, too. Your teenager wonders if they will be obligated to hate their body because they see you hating yours. The bodies you share space with are afraid you are judging them with the same venom they have watched you use to judge yourself. Body shame is

Yet so is radical self-love. And you can learn it, just the way you learned its opposite.

Why radical? Why self-love? When you have spent your entire life at war with your body, concepts like self-acceptance and body neutrality offer a truce. But I believe we all need and deserve more than a cease-fire.

Teaching people how to create radical self-love is my highest calling. It’s what I do with my organization, The Body Is Not an Apology, and with my book by the same name. I offer 10 tools that can help you begin to develop this practice. Radical self-love is your birthright. It is the foundation of how we make peace with our bodies and the bodies of others and, ultimately, how we change the world.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story is republished with permission from the author

TOOL NO. 1:

DUMP THE JUNK

On any given day we may find ourselves at our local grocery store, in line with some organic kale chips, when we feel the energetic tug of the tabloid magazine. Of course we want to know the latest news about Kim Kardashian’s divorce and the “Five Secrets to Solving the Sin of Cellulite.” Before we’re even consciously aware of it, we are handing the cashier a $20 bill for kale chips, Kim K., and diet tips.

Getting sucked into the vortex of escapism is alluring, but that mini mental vacation is not without cost. The content we are exposed to impacts us. Whether we like it or not, we are taking in toxic messages.

Is the answer to swear off all media? No, not unless you’re into that sort of thing. But we can be intentional about the media we ingest. Toxic media that promotes celebrity and diet culture creates a cumulative effect of body shame that erodes our sense of self. It also places a scrim of distrust and scrutiny on the bodies of others over time.

“Dump the Junk” is a tool for detoxifying our lives from massmedia body shame. It turns down the high-decibel volume of body-negative messages, creating some space for us to assess our own bodies and others with less background noise.

To actively dump the junk, consider a media fast. Commit to one day per week when you choose not to engage in television, radio, or social media content that reaffirms negative messages about bodies. Fill your time with new areas of interest. You just gave yourself 15 extra hours a week.

TOOL NO. 2: CURB BODY BAD-MOUTHING

Does this sound familiar? Two friends are in a clothing store trying on clothes, when Friend 1 says, “OMG, I look like a cow in this!” Friend 2 retorts, “No you don’t. You look great! Now I would look like a cow in that!” The two proceed to volley mutual accolades over fitting-room doors while tossing body insults at themselves. We call this friendship.

Our society has formed a sense of cultural camaraderie around body shame. It dictates that we affirm one another at the expense of ourselves. How often are we asked to shrink ourselves in size, presence, power?

Couple this with the capitalistic model of scarcity that supposes there is not enough money, space, time, or love for us all, and it’s no wonder we find ourselves abdicating our personal power to uplift our friends.

What happens though when we toss out that tired model and stand unapologetically in our power? We not only embolden

ourselves but inspire those we love to do the same.

Singer-songwriter Jill Scott did exactly that in the concert documentary "Dave Chappelle’s Block Party." In the film, a reporter and Jill gush over the beloved singer Erykah Badu while Badu is onstage. The reporter asks Scott whether she’s nervous about singing after Badu. Her response: “Have you ever seen me perform?”

Scott did not see shirking her power or shrinking her talent as a prerequisite for appreciating and supporting a fellow artist. Radical self-love does not call on us to be less of ourselves — it summons us to be our most expansive selves.

Notice the words you use to describe yourself negatively. Make a list of some body-shame-free alternatives and use them instead.

TOOL NO. 3: REFRAME YOUR FRAMEWORK

Your body is not the enemy. I know how difficult this concept can be when we feel we’ve been at war with our bodies for our entire existence. Think back to your last cold or flu. Chills, fever, scratchy throat ... and it’s our mean old body’s fault!

Except those symptoms all mean the body is working overtime to disperse white blood cells to the site of the virus and squash its attack! Our body is fighting on our behalf even as we’re cursing it.

Practicing “reframe your framework” can be confounding for those of us navigating chronic illness or gender nonconformity. It makes sense to feel trapped in a body that feels like it doesn’t have your best interest at heart. It may very well feel like your body is against you. But on the radical-self-love journey, we need to try on new beliefs and actions.

So, we can ask ourselves this: “What peace, power, or joy can be gained from deciding that this body that I’m inextricably tied to for the rest of my life is my enemy?” If the answer is none, then your current framework simply doesn’t serve you.

To call off the battle against your body, consider these questions: How have you tried to fight your body or make it surrender to your will? How have you shown it animosity? How can you practice radical reconciliation?

TOOL NO. 4: MEDITATE ON A MANTRA

We are hardwired to retain negative experiences as a form of self-protection. This cognitive function is why we haven’t intentionally touched a hot stove since we were 3 or used Aqua Net hairspray since we were 15. These experiences form the informational autobahns of our brains — our

neuropathways. And they help to protect us ... sometimes.

This is where mantras come in. A mantra is a word or a phrase used repetitively. In Sanskrit, mantra means a tool or instrument of the mind. Mantras not only soothe us, but when used with meditation can help to reroute our neuropathways by replacing negative thoughts with new ideas — radical-self-love ideas.

Choosing a mantra is about finding a word or phrase to live by. It should make us uncomfortable. It should make us think, "How dare I believe such an audacious thing about myself?"

Mantras that challenge our current neurological pathways of body shame will initially trigger those pathways as we endeavor to disrupt them. If you feel a little queasy when you speak your mantra aloud, you’ve probably found the right one.

Here are a few mantras you might want to try:

▶ I love my body.

▶ I am a vessel of radical self-love.

▶ My body is my ally.

▶ I have the body I need to live my best life.

TOOL NO. 5: BANISH THE BINARY

Historically, we have used the term “binary” to talk about number sequences. A more contemporary treatment of the term deals with our often rigid and dualistic understanding of gender as strictly male or female, feminine or masculine, and attraction to men or women based solely on those assignments. This inflexibility erases the nuance and diversity of human gender and sexuality.

This either/or thinking also limits the fullness of our human potential and clouds our radical-self-love vision. If “good” and “bad” were choices on a quiz about who we are, the answer would be “all of the above.” Humans (i.e., you and I) are doing and being those things all the time.

Binary thinking that insists we are (or anyone else is) entirely good or bad limits our possibility, squelches compassion, and reinforces narrow ideas of how we get to “be” in the world.

Our behaviors are mutable — of us but not us. Honor that you will be and do many things throughout the course of your life. Sometimes you will be a phenomenal gift; sometimes you will get on someone’s damn nerves. There is gorgeous potential and heinous instinct in us all.

When we find ourselves in the land of either/or thinking — characterized by words like never, always, only, every time, mostly, rarely — it is a great sign that we may be off our radical-self-love path. Ask yourself, "How might I approach life differently if I had compassion for my beautiful mess."

TOOL NO. 6: EXPLORE YOUR TERRAIN

We rarely allow ourselves any level of intimacy with our own bodies. Parts of us have probably gone unobserved, let alone touched, for decades. This negligence is not without cost. A 2003 National Health Industry survey found that 57 percent of breast cancer survivors discovered their cancer through breast self-examination or by accident.

Put plainly, we must touch our bodies. It is impossible to be a responsible steward of a body we constantly avoid being intimate with. Building love relationships requires getting to know the other party. Our relationships with our bodies are no different.

To get to know your body better, I recommend the three E’s of touch: exploration, examination, and ecstasy.

Exploration gives us a baseline understanding of how our bodies look and feel. What colors, shades, and textures make up our landscape?

This is the foundation for the second E, examination. If exploration is a MapQuest of our bodies (it tells us the basics), then examination is the app with real-time traffic updates. Understanding our unique terrain gives us access to awareness, so we can be alerted when something is off-kilter. Noticing skin discoloration or variations in body mass gives us the information we need to advocate for our well-being. Doctors are fantastic, but they do not know your body better than you. Examination makes you an expert in you.

Lastly, touch yourself for ecstasy. “Ecstasy” is not a naughty word. Our bodies are designed for pleasure. Take five minutes and write down the four sensations your body enjoys the most. Include only things that do not require other people. Pick two of them and do them!

TOOL NO. 7: BE IN MOVEMENT

Before the playground became a site of body shame, before crushes and elementary-school politics, there was a swing set, tetherball, you, and 10 to 20 other gleeful little children. After hours of confinement in those uncomfortable wooden desks, recess was body liberation.

But as adults, many of us move from a sense of shame or obligation — and this generally means the movement doesn’t last long.

About three years ago, the voice of the dreaded “should” told me I needed to run a 5K, so I downloaded an app and started to run. Mysteriously, that same loud “should” voice failed to remind me that jogging might not be the most comfortable medium of exercise for a person who wears a size 36JJ bra.

Nevertheless, I found myself pounding the dirt trails of Northern California, sweat stinging my eyes, shoulders cracking beneath the weight of my ample bosom. Jogging made my teeth ache. Literally, my gums would throb with pain at about the 2.5K mark of each run.

About two weeks in I stopped, stood stock still, and asked myself, "Why in the hell am I doing this?" I hate running! I didn’t want to run. I didn’t like it. What I wanted to do was sign up for a West African dance class and learn the Moribayasa, a dance for women overcoming great adversity.

And that’s exactly what I did: dropped the jogging and found some movement that made me happy. We have a limited shelf life in these bodies, and yes, exercise can be a positive activity — but good for us does not have to equal soul torture.

What were your favorite childhood games? Did you love to go walking along a creek or in the woods? Did you love swimming? Dancing? Why did you stop doing what delighted you? What might happen if you invited those activities back into your life?

TOOL NO. 8: BE IN MOVEMENT

Julie was in her late 20s and of Sicilian descent, a heritage that she said explained the flowing ringlets of chestnut tresses that cascaded down her back. It also explained the wisps of ebony hair that coated her arms and snaked down her cheeks as sideburns. Julie had spent years making peace with the birthright of her DNA, but she couldn’t shake the deep sense of shame about having hair on her back.

Julie had a story she was living in, parts of it given to her by mean children, portions of it passed down through razor commercials and messages of hairlessness as a standard of femininity. All these contributors had written chapters in a book that was making her miserable.

Discomfort is a catalyst for change, and Julie’s discomfort prompted her to make a new story — literally. She wrote a fairy tale in which a little girl named Julie discovers that the hair on her back is the remnant of the angel wings she gave up in order to be born; the gods had left them there to “remind her of her time as an angel child.”

Julie’s new story forever changed the way she saw her body. The hair was no longer a source of shame but part of a whimsical tale of beauty and grace, and it shows that we are the authors of our own lives.

Making a new story reconnects us with our unbounded possibility. What story have you been telling yourself that has been binding your possibility? What would be possible if that story were different?

TOOL NO. 9: BE IN A COMMUNITY

In her book "The Gifts of Imperfection," Brené Brown writes, “One of the greatest barriers to connection is the cultural importance we place on ‘going it alone.’” A complicated set of systems, structures, and experiences authored our body shame; we cannot dismantle that in isolation.

Being in community is how we interrupt it — it helps us move beyond the narrative of scarcity and not-enoughness.

We need to find communities of care and compassion. In their absence, we’re relegated to an echo chamber of body hatred and oppression.

The good news is that radical-self-love environments are all around us, and thanks to the power of technology, we can connect with people all over the world who are committed to interrupting body shame. (Hint: TheBodyIsNotAnApology.com is a fabulous place to start.)

You can also start by asking yourself these questions: What have you been holding in shame, secrecy, or embarrassment? How has it kept you disconnected from others? What can you let go of for the sake of connection?

TOOL NO. 10: GIVE YOURSELF SOME GRACE

No matter how rigorously you embrace these tools, you will still have days when you do not love your body. Here’s the good news: It is perfectly OK!

Despite running an organization focused exclusively on radical self-love, there are still days when I do not like this Black, queer, fat, neurodivergent body. Does this mean I am a radical-self-love failure? No, it means I am a human being living in a world that still profits from body shame. Every day we awake to messages that reinforce the narrative that we are deficient. The body-shame amplifier will occasionally ring loud enough to drown out the chorus of our divinity. On those days, the work is still to love.

Religious people consider grace the free and unmerited favor of God. This is a gift we can extend to ourselves regardless of faith or doctrine. We do not have to earn radical self-love.

The act of giving yourself some grace is the practice of loving the you that does not like your body. When we feel the most deficient, what is being called forth from us is more love — not because we earned it but because we never had to.

To give grace to oneself is to move beyond words like “worthy” and “deserving,” terms that still imply qualification. When we recognize ourselves as the embodiment of radical self-love, we stop trying to assess our worth. We begin to understand that it is inherent. Love just is. We just are . . . love.

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• Find out how to tailor pieces to your clients’ exact needs and keep them coming back

• Explore working with color: highlights, lowlights

CALL AMANI HAIR FOR REGISTRATION INFORMATION 949-520-7711

CNC Platinum Partner Training

January 29 - February 4

CNC Training

March 12-13 - Laguna Hills California Training Center

May 7-8 - Wall Township, New Jersey

Learn all the steps for designing a beautiful CNC hair prosthetic with US master trainer Danielle Marzella, and CRLAB Laguna Hills training center manager Diana Ford. The two-day training will include live models for hands-on training with designing a CNC, application, removal, customization, and cut-in.

BEING "SOCIAL" ON SOCIAL MEDIA - Every MONDAY 9:00-9:30 am CST

PARTNERS BOOK YOUR PRIVATE CALL WITH DORIN Our North America Social Media Coordinator –Dorin Azerad – will be available for one-on-one meetings every Monday to answer all your salon and CRLAB social media questions.

For additional information please contact Jodie.vanderhoof@crlab.com or visit crlab.com

Online Certification Program

Available to learn anytime, anywhere

Learn a new skill that will allow you to:

■ Help over 80 million who have hair loss or thinning hair (the fastest-growing market share in the salon industry)

■ Set yourself apart from other salons and stylists by developing your unique skills as a certified hair loss specialist

■ Make more money, $$$ higher dollars, per hour

■ Build a loyal repeat client as hair loss clients return every 4-5 weeks

■ Join the elite network of Evolve Certified Stylists

Introductory Price: $1200 (Use promo code ONLINE and get $300 off the regular price of $1500)

Payable in two easy payments; $600 down, $600 at receipt of your toolkit

Contact: evolvehairsolutions.com or 888-545-1416

Learn from the Best! Hair Replacement Training Class with Doris

Yu

HairArt Salon: Los Angeles, CA

Date: Call for availability

Learn from Doris Yu, founder and head stylist of HairArt, who has been in the hair replacement industry for nearly 40 years! She is offering a variety of class options that will help you expand your professional lexicon.

Ventilation is one of the most important skills to have in the industry. Doris will teach you this increasingly important skill as well as repairing bases and re-sizing wigs. Cost: $1,000 days. Duration: 2 days.

Learn how to design the perfect hair system and wigs in Doris’ 1-day intensive class. She will also show you how to create hairlines, custom molds, high/low lights, natural waves, density, and sizes. Cost: $550. Duration: 1 day.

If you’d like to hone your attachment skills we have the class for you! Doris will work with you one-on-one on attachment bonding, micro locks, weaves, and semi/permanent processes. Cost: $550. Duration: 1 day.

We also offer a comprehensive salon training class that covers all of the above-mentioned business intricacies/skills/techniques in a 5-day intensive class for $2,500. All classes are held in our stateof-the-art salon in Los Angeles. All training materials and hair are included in the cost of the course. Mannequin, tools, and practice pieces are yours to keep. Please join us for these hands-on courses!

CONTACT: 310-217-8900

AMERICAN HAIRLINES TWO-DAY NON-SURGICAL HAIR REPLACEMENT CERTIFICATION

March 5-6, Lenexa, KS (Kansas City) 9 am - 5pm

Included In The 2-Day Certification

• Understanding Hair Loss And Hair Growth

• Non-Surgical Solutions For Hair Loss

• Detailed Review Of System Construction

• Client Consultations For Men And Women

• Live Model Demonstrations Of American Hairlines Systems

• Hands-On Template-Making

• Hands-On System Removal And Maintenance

• Hands-On Men’s System Application Customization

• Hands-On Women’s System Application And Customization

• Home Care Instructions

*One-On-One Virtual and In-Studio Training opportunities also available.

HAIRUWEAR ON THE ROAD TWO-DAY HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

February 26-27 Tampa, FL, March 19-20 Raleigh, NC

Transform your business and elevate your skill with hands-on training by the industry’s best instructors. Our new extended program covers everything you need to know about wigs, clip-in extensions and hairpieces over two incredible days.

Day 1: Mastering The Basics Day 2: Advanced Certification

• **Hair Extension & Pieces Application

• Shade Selection

• Special Occasion Hair & Updos

• **Heat Styling Tru2Life® Fiber

• Wig Construction

• **Wig Styling & Steaming

• Stages of Hair Loss & Ready-To-Wear Solutions

• Client Consultation

• **Cap Customization

• Human Hair Care & Styling

• **Restoring Tru2Life® Fiber

• **Thinning a Wig

• **Adding Bangs to a Wig

• **Point Cutting Techniques for Wigs

• Coloring Trends & Application Techniques

• **Cap Customization

• **Customizing Hair Density

• Tools to Develop Salon Service Menu

**Hands-On Activities | Curriculum is subject to change

REGISTRATION

Sunday Only – $300 per person

2-Day Certification – $450 per person

Day 2 Policy: To participate in the extended education program on Day 2, applicant will be required to have attended Day 1.

Registration fee includes:

• Workshop Admission • Beverages and Lunch Provided

• HairUWear On The Road Kit

Contact your American Hairlines account executive, call (866) 618-1200 or email education@hairuwear.com

We are opening our doors to the Hair Academy for 2023.

January 29 UltraTress Hair Extensions with Presenter Karen Mander

February 19 - 20 Hair Replacement with presenter Baha Alwardi

We have successfully provided virtual education over the past two years, but there is nothing like a hands-on instruction class. The demand for education is stronger than ever and the Hair Academy, once again, is leading the way by offering in-person and Look-and-Learn online classes.

Gain a fundamental understanding of the art of hair replacement and hair extensions from specialists as the Hair Academy will host two in-house educational classes and three virtual classes during the first quarter of 2023.

February 27, March 13, and March 27

Virtual Classes will be streamed from Image First Salon and Day Spa, presented by Baha Alwardi. Classes are being scheduled now.

Contact Karla Hurtado at 800-327-5555, ext. 3325 today or for more information, visit us at hairvisionsintl.com/hair-academy/virtual-class/

Micro Point Solutions Certification (one day)

Going where no extension has gone before, this solution is for clients in the early stages of hair loss. A safe, healthy way to add volume and density to your client’s fine, thin hair. Recreate the look and feel of your client’s natural hair and visibly boost thin hair in just one appointment.

In-Person Micro Point Solutions Classes

March 5 Chicago, IL

April 2 Phoenix, AZ

April 30 Washington DC

June 11 NYC Area

More dates & locations coming soon!

Intro to Hair Replacement Certification (two days)

Hair Replacement Certification class helps you master the many fundamental technical aspects of non-surgical hair replacement for women and men. Intensive and comprehensive hands-on technical training, and Includes thorough client consultation and coaching, and in-depth business discussion.

In-Person Intro to Hair Replacement Classes

March 6-7 Chicago, IL

April 3-4 Phoenix, AZ

May 1-2 Washington DC

June 11 NYC Area

More dates & locations coming soon!

ON DEMAND Virtual Training Available NOW!

Virtual Cyberhair Certification Now available! Comprehensive E-Learning Webinars, Hands On Video Zoom, and Kit. All hair replacement and wig studios eligible to become Cyberhair Studios!!

Micro Point Solutions Certification in E-Learning Classes with additional Hands On Video Zoom Demonstration & Coaching

Virtual Intro to Hair Replacement Certification – online classes and video library with Interactive Hands On Video Zoom and Kit.

Cyberhair Custom Designs (virtual)

The Cyberhair Customs Designs Certification addresses the technical and business aspects of working with Cyberhair®. Cyberhair Custom Designs allows you to create a personalized solution for your client, no matter their needs. This comprehensive session encompasses the many possibilities of nonsurgical hair replacement for women & men, and how they will exceed the expectations of your hair loss clients! Typical Cyberhair Custom Lead time is 4-6 months.

Call or Text 800.328.0311 or email promos@inthair.com for more information and please visit internationalhairgoods.com

Men’s Hair Replacement Certification – ON DEMAND

New to hair replacement or looking to expand your current knowledge? From perimeter to full scalp bonds, temporary tapes to long term hold, Men’s Hair Replacement Certification on Demand by Jon Renau provides multiple techniques and options based on your skill level and your client’s needs.

In this certification you will learn how to ensure a positive experience for your clients through:

• New client requisition and consultation

• Preparation + Application for multiple base designs

• Care Instructions for a successful at home experience

• Client Retention through follow-up and program pricing

Cheveux Direct Certification – ON DEMAND

Jon Renau Cheveux Direct systems offer our hair replacement customers the ability to design handcrafted custom systems for their clients with high quality European hair, the most natural innovation added to Jon Renau.

In this certification you will learn how to ensure a positive experience for your clients through:

• Consultation with a new client and transitioning current clients into a new system

• Placing a custom order

• Preparation and Grafting application for a non-shaved method

• Care instructions for a Cheveux Direct system

Jon Renau Masterclass Certification – ON DEMAND

Ready when you are regardless of distance or time zones. No travel expenses, no lost time, no waiting for what you need.

Business Success Mastery + Product Knowledge for Success

This certification will lead you through the hair loss client's journey, providing you and your team with actionable steps to emphasize capturing new clients while gaining market share to engage today’s clients and give the best client experience.

• Increase revenue, reduce returns, maximize your time

• Increase brand awareness & impact purchase decisions

• Implement client retention strategies

Jon Renau Topper Certification

– ON DEMAND

This certification is designed to provide you with the tools and knowledge you need to service the fastest growing segment in alternative hair: the topper client. Because after all, not every client is ready for a wig!

• Address all aspects of in-person and virtual topper consultation

• Customize toppers and apply blending techniques

• Provide maintenance and care

• Set the right expectations to ensure success

Contact your Jon Renau Account Manager for more information and pricing jonrenau.com 1-800-462-9447

CROSSFIT EDUCATIONAL TRAINING

February 19-20, May 7-8, September 10-11, November 5-6 2023 at our New Image Corporate Headquarters, West Palm Beach, Florida Our CrossFit Training will help you take your business to the next level! Learn from the top salons & educators in the country!

At New Image Labs, we offer CrossFit Educational Training that prepares you to be the best in the hair replacement industry, Whether you're new to the industry or experienced. We deliver intensive, handson training and certification sessions to help you gain in-depth knowledge of our latest technology and products and how they will benefit your business. Our renowned team of educators provides expertise in application, theory, and technique to help you meet your clients' needs and demands. Get ready to train with the best of the best at our New Image Labs Headquarters.

Educators: • Ricky Knowles • Keith Zimmerman • Randy Clark • Mohammad Rahebi • Christian Santiago • Karyna Fields • Marcelle Laurenne

Topics Covered:

• Tools for success using Pro|Gen Probe scalp analyzers

• Attract new clients with Pro|Gen Active Care scalp therapy

• Repair and maintain processed hair with Pro|Gen Nutrifuse hair products

• Become a hair fiber master with Pro|Gen Fiberbond Keratin Thickening Fibers

• Increase your bottom line with our new Club.W women’s collection

• The art of delivering to the female market with top-of-head and micro-linking application

• Transform pre-custom lace and skin units to custom units

• Become a certified Luxia Artiss hair extension stylist

• Deliver pre-custom skin units from start to finish

• Procedures for custom hair orders, from mold making, proper hair samples, distribution, etc.

Stay up to date by visiting newimagelabs.com/pages/training or contact Debbie Metz 1-800-359-4247, Extension 343 dmetz@newimagelabs.com

YOU’VE

The next business day we’ll process that order and get it shipped out to you, the ease of e-commerce with the white-glove service you expect from H.E.H. dedicated Sales Executives.

Don’t have your account set up? Give us a call and one of our experienced Sales Executives will set you up ASAP.