Dr. Shanessa Fenner and Joyce Carter, Hair Loss Practitioner and Master Cosmetologist

Joyce Carter is a hair loss practitioner and cosmetologist. She specializes in hair restoration and treating different types of hair loss, such as androgenetic alopecia and alopecia areata. She offers consultations and treatments based on the type of hair loss a person has. She also recommends hairstyles that protect the hair and won't cause damage or tension, such as blowouts with thermal protection and crochet braids. It's important to communicate with the stylist if the hairstyle feels too tight, as it can lead to further hair loss. 🎵 Hello and welcome to the City Insight Incorporated podcast. I'm your host Dr. Shanessa Fenner and boy do we have a treat for you today. This podcast features hair beauticians, cosmetologists, barbers, and beauty fashion designers. So today I would like to introduce a very special guest. Her name is Joyce Carter and she is a hair loss practitioner and cosmetologist. Welcome Joyce. Hi. Hello. How y'all doing? I am doing awesome. Are you ready to talk up everything about hair today? Yes, I am. Okay. So Joyce, I want you to first start off by telling us a little bit about yourself. Yes, I am Joyce Carter. I was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. I graduated from high school in 1995. After leaving high school, I did a couple semesters in college and I decided to join the military. I joined the military at the age of 19 and I went to basic training in South Carolina. After leaving basic training, I went to Virginia and did my AIT there. After leaving Virginia, I went to Korea. During the time of me being in the military, I met my ex-husband, Robert, and we had five children. I have one girl and four boys. My daughter is the oldest. After leaving the military of eight and a half years, I decided to pursue my education and my love and passion into doing hair. So I went to Fayetteville Beauty College and that's where I got my degree for cosmetology. After leaving school, I decided to do hair with a few ladies at a salon and unfortunately it didn't work out, so I ended up opening my salon later on down the road. Doing hair here at Fayetteville has been a journey. I also enjoy meeting people throughout the time of being a cosmetologist and learning different things about people's hair. I've had people coming into the salon with hair loss issues and thinning issues, so it made me want to learn more into the trichology. So what I did was look into a few colleges and institutions online and I found this particular university called United States Trichology Institute and that's where I went and got my hair loss practitioner license. So I've been doing hair loss restoration now for a period of eight and a half years. I really enjoy it. I thank God for my gift that he has given me to restore hair, not only for women but for men as well. I've been doing that now and I just appreciate the fact that when people come in here, they trust my skills, they trust my expertise and also we look at regaining hair growth. So I just thank God for that and look forward to what's next. Okay, so Joyce, I want you to talk to us a little bit about hair restoration and some of the causes of hair loss and how you treat it. So there are a few things that go wrong when you start losing hair. There's many things that go on. So one of the things that happens is there's 12 types of alopecia. One of the most common ones is androgenetic alopecia and the other one is alopecia areata. Women and men that have those two hair loss conditions, the androgenetic alopecia is due to hereditary hair loss in the family gene. Alopecia areata is one of those types that's related to stress and audio immune deficiency. So hair loss, it comes in those different fashions and whenever you start seeing your hair thinning and hair shedding, you need to go to a specialist or dermatologist. Some of them are irreversible and some are treatable. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about some of the things that you like to do to restore it, the techniques that you may use and you know how someone should come to you of course to have this treated. Okay, so the first thing when I get a hair loss restoration candidate, they come in and we do a consultation. Normally these consultations take about two hours. So the first thing that I do is have them fill out an intake form so I can understand a timeline and when the hair loss and the hair thinning started. Once I can determine where it started, how it started, if it was due to tension, I would say there's 12 forms of alopecia. So when they come in and they fill out the paperwork, it gives me a timeline to narrow down when it started, how long it's been going on and the solutions that I will offer them is based on the type of alopecia that they have. So if they come in and I notice that they have alopecia areata with a little bit of diffused alopecia and DHT. DHT is dehydro testosterone. This particular type of thinning happens when we as women and men start to age and our hair starts to miniaturize. Underneath the hair strand is called androgen receptors. Those androgen receptors get attacked when that DHT starts to build up and most people's hair starts thinning. Some people don't know what this is and how it develops. So when they come in for the consultation, I describe to them and I illustrate to them and show them how these strands are getting attacked. Once I go through the consultation and I realize what type of alopecia or hair thinning that this particular candidate have, that's when I will render services to start treatment. So those treatments can be anywhere from three months, six months to a year or more depending on how bad or severe that hair scalp is. Okay, now you talked a little bit earlier Joyce about that there's some kinds of individuals, the people who you cannot treat. Talk to us a little bit about that. The people that have a chronic case of alopecia, this particular alopecia is called cicatricial alopecia. Cicatricial is also called scarring alopecia. So some people may hear that more than cicatricial. This particular alopecia is when a follicle is dead, is no longer living and either the entire scalp has cicatricial or portions of the scalp. So whenever a person come in with this particular ... Now the way you can determine that type of alopecia, that scalp would shine like a bowling ball. So it would have this real bright shine on the scalp. That's one of the indicators that that's cicatricial. Whenever that person come in with this particular type, I'll scope their scalp with my microscope and I'll do everything that I would normally do with another candidate that have a different form. But once I deem that you have cicatricial, I will still offer solutions that I do in here and one of those are microneedling. We do have new products out that's called growth factors and these growth factors are to help reverse some of the cicatricial follicles to get blood flow back into that stem cell so that blood will start flowing back to the follicle to create a new hair and that new hair is called androgen hair. With the technology and the industry of trichology, there are more hope now with the new growth factors that's out here. Some people may have heard of PRP and PRP is really identical to growth factors. PRP is when you draw blood out of the person's body and inject it into the scalp. I don't do PRP for chronic alopecia cicatricial, but I do do growth factors. So like I said, that is a different form but the same concept. Okay. Now, Joyce, let's talk a little bit about hairstyles that protect the hair and won't damage or pull it. What kind of hairstyles do you recommend for someone so that they don't want to have any kind of hair damage? There's a few styles that I can do in the salon and any salon that provides healthy hair care to individuals that are dealing with hair thinning and hair loss. These particular styles would be generally depends on how thin the hair is. A blowout is still pretty safe as long as you're using a heat thermal protection spray prior to using the blow dryer. So of course, you would shampoo and here in my salon, I would shampoo the hair with a thermal protection shampoo and a thermal protection conditioner. Then after doing those two, I would spray the hair with a good thermal heat protection prior to blow drying the hair. The reason why I do that because I don't want to break the disulfide bond. Once you break the disulfide bond, then you're breaking that natural curl pattern in the hair. So every time a person is going to do a blowout, they always want to make sure that that stylist is using the heat protection on their hair. That's still a safe hairstyle. Other styles I would probably suggest is crochet braids. Now with crochet braids, there are many styles of crochet styles, but the thing is when you're cornrowing the hair, you've got to make sure your cornrowing the hair not as tight. So when you get ready to crochet that hair in, you're not creating extra tension. So I would suggest crochet styles, maybe light ponytail styles. They have different hair out now that you can purchase out the store and softly pull your hair up in the bun and add a certain particular ponytail to give you a nice look with that. So you're not creating a lot of tension. Now Joyce, that is my next question. How do you know if you are creating a lot of tension? How do you know if that ponytail is too tight? I mean, how can you gauge that? So basically when you walk out of salon and you feel like you can't really move your eyebrows, that's one indicator that is too tight. Another indicator is when you start seeing bumps around the hairline. That's another indicator that the hair is being pulled out of the follicle. So if you feel that tension, you should stop the stylist and say, hey, I feel like it's too tight and I feel like it's causing me a headache because sometimes it can cause headaches being too tight. So you should tell the stylist to either loosen their grip if they're doing braid so there's no follicles being damaged there. And when you do have styles that's too tight, you can develop cicatricial alopecia, scarring alopecia. So if we're braiding too tight, now we have tension alopecia because you're pulling the hair out of the follicles. And if you're pulling the hair too tight, then it can develop into cicatricial. So whenever the stylist is pulling styles up, and like I said, if there's too much tension, just say, hey, there's too much tension, can you sort of loosen the ponytail some or loosen the braid some so it won't develop until the person losing their hair around their temples and in the crown. And the crown is mostly where we do a lot of updos and stuff like that. So if a person is still getting those types of styles, you can still tell that stylist not to put it so tight in the crown so you won't thin out right there at the crown. A little bit now about some basic hair care tips when it comes to shampooing, the products that you use, just the basic everyday routine of taking care of the hair. In between those trips to the cosmetologist. Basic hair care tips I would suggest is when you shampoo your hair, the first thing you need to do is rinse your hair thoroughly with warm water, lukewarm water. So you want to rinse the hair for a period of one to two minutes of straight water. After you rinse your hair, the first shampoo you should take is your deep cleansing shampoo or clarifying shampoo. These types of shampoos are designed to clean dirt, oil, and any type of buildup in the hair. So you would shampoo with that shampoo once or twice to really cleanse out the follicles in the hair. After using a deep cleansing shampoo or clarifying shampoo, the next shampoo you should use is a moisturizing shampoo. Now if a person has dandruff or psoriasis or cerebrate dermatitis, those types of things are scalp conditions. So normally you would want to use a shampoo for that particular type of hair scalp. That's not a hair loss area, but it's a scalp condition. So if you have cerebrate dermatitis, psoriasis or eczema, you want to use a rosemary mint shampoo or some type of shampoo that has mint in it. So these types of shampoos lift up the extra dead cells off the scalp so that scalp can be cleansed a little more. So people with those conditions actually need a little more cleansing. So I would recommend a clarifying shampoo or deep cleansing. If you suffer with cerebrate dermatitis, psoriasis or eczema, go with a rosemary mint shampoo. And after you use that particular shampoo, then you would go with a moisturizing shampoo. And the moisturizing shampoo will replenish the moisture that you're taking out with those first two shampoos. If you don't have any scalp condition, then you can go right into the moisturizing shampoo without doing the rosemary mint. And here I retail Design Essentials, Warner Brothers and Influence. With the Influence product, I have Relax and Natural products under that line. Those are the first methods with shampooing. After you shampoo the hair, then you want to condition the hair. The conditioner should only stay in the hair for a period of 5 to 10 minutes. Now if you're going to do a deep condition, then you want to sit on the dryer for a period of 25 to 30 minutes. And you will rinse that conditioner out with cool water. Never leave that conditioner in all day long. I see people making mistakes when they have dry hair. They want to leave the conditioner in all day, lay down in it, and wake up thinking it's going to help soften the cuticle. But that's a no-no. What conditioner does when you leave it in all day like that, it dries the hair out even more. So you have to rinse out your conditioner. After rinsing it out, like I said, use cool water to rinse out conditioner because what that does, the cool water, it closes your cuticle up. And if you don't close up the cuticle, the hair will look wiry and even drier. So you got to make sure you rinse that out. And then after rinsing out, of course, you spray a heat protection spray if you're going to do a blowout. If you're natural, you want to do a leave-in spray and then do whatever twist out or whatever type of style you're going to do when the hair is natural. These are good tips to do in between coming to your stylist. When you're doing these steps at home, it really helps us as hairstylists to still accommodate you when you come into the salon because your hair is used to a system and you're doing it the right way versus just putting your hair under the water, putting your shampoo on. You got to do it in the steps that we as hairstylists do. And it really helps us out when you come back in and the hair looks pretty good if you're doing it pretty good at home, caring for it. Well, Ms. Joyce, what should we sleep in? For example, at night, I sleep in a satin bonnet. Talk to me a little bit about what should we do when we lay down at night? When I tell my clients I believe in what their style is to sleep with a satin bonnet like you're doing. And if they can't sleep with a satin bonnet due to hot flashes, night sweats, and stuff like that, then the best thing to do is get a satin pillowcase. Depending on what style that you're leaving the salon with, it is good to have one of the two. Do not use any cotton, bandanas, things like that on the hair. Bandanas is made of cotton, of course, and cotton pulls your hair out. So if you're not able to put anything on the hair, it is better to use a satin pillowcase. If you're wearing, let's say, commercial editions, which are extensions, you still want to put a satin scarf on or a satin bonnet to protect your extensions that was either sold in or bonded in. Again, even if you're working out, I still suggest people to put ... They have these new things out. It's a sport bonnet. So these particular things have satin around the headband part to keep your edges nice and laid. And the top part of that particular bonnet, for people that work out, is made of mesh. So if you're working out, you want to put something on to still protect that style and then go into bed at night, you still want to have your satin or silk bonnet or, like I said, a satin or silk pillowcase. How long should you keep a sew-in in or your braids in? Sew-ins, I always tell my clients to keep from one month to a month and a half. So with the sew-in, if you're going to do, let's say, micro-link extensions, this type of sew-in is done with links. So this concept is the hair is either fused in with a link, with hair on the link, or the hair is sewed inside that link. So this particular sew-in should stay in the hair for at least 10, I would say 10 to 12 weeks. A traditional sew-in, you can leave it in for a month to a month and a half. Now, if you're going to do the month and a half, then you need to come into the salon and at least have your hair shampooed twice within that timeframe. Some people get misguided when they get a sew-in that they don't have to get it shampooed, but you do. You still want to get it shampooed and get it and treat it as though if it was your own hair, even though it's extensions. Braids, they vary. If you're wearing cornrows with added hair, generally cornrows can last you about four weeks. If you're doing the new technique with cornrows, the feed-in braids, what they call feed-in cornrows, or the knotless braids, those braids tend to last a little bit longer. So you can actually wear those braids at least to three months. But again, you still have to do scalp maintenance while you're wearing these styles. Scalp maintenance can be spraying the scalp with a rosemary mint spray to keep the scalp clean. It also can consist of a cold wash, where if you don't immerse your hair into the sink to get it shampooed, there's a cold wash that you can put on the scalp to cleanse the dirt, oils, and debris that's in the hair. Now, when you're wearing these particular extensions and you're working out in the military where you're running every day, things like that, you may want to shampoo it a little bit more frequently because of the extra sweating and the oils and stuff that our hair generally makes. Some people, depending on their workout schedule, may not be able to wear a style as long as a person that doesn't really have that type of demand. So I would suggest no more than one month to three months based on which direction you do with the extensions. Now, Ms. James, any final thoughts? Any final thoughts you'd like to leave with our listeners? Yes. Well, I'm Joyce Carter. My salon is Unlimited Style Salon and Hair Loss Center. Again, I am a licensed hair loss practitioner and I'm also a master cosmetologist. I have been servicing this community now for 18 and a half years, so I just enjoy the clients that come in here. And if you're looking for someone, if you have any type of hair loss or have any issues, you can contact me. Number will be 910-286-4635. My salon is 792 Bunch Road, Fayetteville, North Carolina, 28314. Now, Ms. Joyce, when they call, you'd like for them to leave a message. Is that correct? Yes. You can leave a message on my phone and I will return your call within one to two business days. And sometimes I get a little busy rendering services, so if you call or even text, I will be back in touch with you as soon as possible between one to two business days. Well, once again, Ms. Joyce, I thank you so much, so much for your time. Audience, this is the awesome Joyce Carter. She's a hair loss practitioner and master cosmetologist. Joyce, I want to thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Dr. Sinner. I appreciate you so much. Okay. So once again, our new podcast, The City Insight Incorporated course will take monthly and we will feature cosmetologists, practitioners, barbers, designers, fashion artists. So once again, please view our website, The City Insight Incorporated. Thank you for listening and have a great day. you