Why Your Hair Won’t Grow: Breakage, Thinning & Hair Health With Dr. Heather Woolery-Lloyd

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (0:01)

G-L-A-M, Gloss Angeles.

Sara Tan (0:14)

Why does it sometimes feel like your hair has stopped growing? Today, we're joined by board certified dermatologist and Nutrafol Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Heather Woolery-Lloyd, to talk about thinning, shedding, breakage, and the hair changes that can come at different life stages. Thank you to Nutrafol for partnering with us on this episode. Welcome to Gloss Angeles, Dr. Heather.

Kirbie Johnson (0:37)

Here's straight from Texas. We were both there at the same time.

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (0:40)

Yes. Yes. What a coincidence.

Kirbie Johnson (0:42)

Via Miami. Okay. What do you love about Miami?

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (0:46)

I love the heat, believe it or not. I love that warm weather. I love the people. Miami is a really fun place to live. Never bored. It's always something. There's always something fun going on.

It's a great place to live. I've lived there most. I've lived in South Florida most of my life.

Sara Tan (1:04)

Really?

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (1:04)

Yes.

Sara Tan (1:05)

We feel like so many people are moving to Miami right now. The beauty scene is just bumping.

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (1:12)

It is. There's a lot of beauty in Miami. Cosmetics are huge in Miami. So cosmetic procedures is a very innovative environment.

Sara Tan (1:19)

Yeah.

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (1:20)

But yeah, we are focused a lot on skincare and hair care and beauty. So Miami is a place to be for that, for sure.

Kirbie Johnson (1:27)

If you go and you see the women in Miami, you're like, damn, okay, I do need some work done.

Sara Tan (1:32)

I'll have what she's having.

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (1:33)

Exactly. And the workouts. I'm like a workout queen. Okay. That's another big thing. I do love that about Miami. Everyone works out and it's fun.

Sara Tan (1:41)

It does feel like LA. You said it earlier. It's like we're like twin cities.

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (1:45)

We are twin cities. We just have the humidity. Yes. Yes.

Kirbie Johnson (1:48)

Yes. Although arguably we've been getting some humidity here in recent weeks and it's been nuts. We're like have never experienced that ever.

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (1:56)

I love it. Yeah.

Kirbie Johnson (1:57)

It's kind of wild. But I wanted to ask you, what are the big things that you see from your patients who come in, in terms of their skin? Do you see a lot of melasma? Do you see a lot of skin cancer? Especially because everybody's out, half naked, enjoying their lives. What are you commonly seeing from your patients in Miami?

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (2:17)

Well, for me, I specialize in pigmentary disorders and in hair thinning. So that's primarily what I see. But yes, I see tons of melasma, all pigmentary disorders. So hyperpigmentation is a big problem. The UV index in Miami is so high.

So I'm really fighting that sun exposure that causes every type of hyperpigmentation. So dark spots from acne, melasma, rare forms of hyperpigmentation. So it's something that I deal with all the time. It's super common.

Sara Tan (2:45)

Do you love a laser?

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (2:47)

We don't use lasers in my patients. My patients tend to have darker skin. And lasers for pigment and darker skin is a little more challenging because the laser can't distinguish between the normal skin and the hyperpigmented skin.

So in my practice, I'm primarily using skincare to address hyperpigmentation.

Kirbie Johnson (3:06)

Really? Okay.

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (3:07)

And peels. And peels.

Kirbie Johnson (3:09)

Okay, yes. Do you mind? Can we ask?

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (3:12)

I want to know more about the peels. Tell us about the peels.

Kirbie Johnson (3:15)

I have melasma. Yes. It's the bane of my existence.

I have it under control. But as you know, heat, temperature, working out can completely obliterate all my hard work. So when you have somebody coming in that is like a lifelong melasma patient, what are you doing to help them with their routine?

Heather Woolery-Lloyd (3:35)

So with melasma, you know, you understand melasma really well, but the average patient who comes to see me might not understand that it really is a chronic condition. The average patient might say, isn't there a peel you can do or one thing you can do, one cream and it'll get rid of it forever? So a big part of what I do is explaining what melasma is. I talk about it being a chronic condition. There's no cure, but it does get better with age. So the good thing is that it's like skin condition we see in the 30s, 40s, sometimes 50s. But generally women in their 60s and 70s don't have melasma. And that my goal is to help manage it while they're in their active kind of part of their melasma. So a big part of what I do with melasma is education, which is one of my favorite things to do, is really help people understand their condition so that they really have the best expectations, understand what to expect for results. And when it comes to melasma, some protection is just as important as the treatment itself. So I really spend a lot of time on that.