The Truth About Hair Restoration, Growth Supplements & Protective Styles ft. Trichologist Ashley Zsaton

Naked Beauty

In this episode of Naked Beauty, host Brooke DeVard interviews Dr. Ashley Jatan, a board-certified nurse practitioner and trichologist, about the

Key takeaways

• Dr. Ashley J/Jatan explains that the scalp should be treated as an extension of the face due to its living cell structure.
• Traction alopecia, caused by tight hairstyles like braids or high buns, can lead to permanent follicle death if not addressed early.
• The FUT (strip) method involves removing a linear section of the scalp, whereas FUE extracts individual follicles for more precision.
• Low iron and ferritin levels are significant, common contributors to hair thinning in women.
• Biotin supplements are often unnecessary because true deficiencies are rare and high doses can cause acne breakouts.

Main topics

• Trichology and Scalp Health
• Traction Alopecia and Protective Styling
• Hair Transplant Techniques (FUT vs. FUE)

Notable quotes

The scalp is essentially that [an extension of your face].

Conclusion

The episode serves as a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to unde

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hello, hello, this is Brooke DeVard and you're listening to the Naked Beauty Podcast. I am here in studio with Dr. Ashley Jatan, an incredible, incredible board certified, let me get, let me get your titles right, board certified nurse practitioner and entrepreneur recognized for her expertise in ophthalmology, aesthetic medicine, and hair restoration. And today we are going to go deep on. hair restoration, hair loss. These are topics that can be taboo for women specifically, which is why I'm really eager to talk to Ashley about it. I had a chance to be in her practice and I did my full scalp analysis and we talked about different things I could do to get my hair to be its healthiest and happiest. We're going to get into all of that. She's the co-founder of the Hollywood Hair Institute. Dr. Jatan has built a reputation for delivering regeneration and cosmetic treatments that combine clinical precision with artistry. There is an art to all of these things, which we know here on Naked Beauty. Ashley, welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I'm a longtime listener. So I'm really, really excited. Thank you. Thank you. Well, it feels like, you know, to say hair loss is sexy right now, you know, when is hair loss ever sexy? But it's like everyone is now focused on the scalp. Yeah. It's having its moment. Speaker 3 (1:12) Finally. Finally. Yeah. When I first started, this was not. the norm. And now I love that I get to talk about it all the time. So it's great. And Speaker 2 (1:19) I love that. So I think a lot of men, even just in the past five years, who have talked about, you know, having a receding hairline and we see the men going to Turkey to get the transplants. It's like, it's not this kind of quiet talked about in like whispers thing. It's like people are out talking about what you don't have to live with hair loss or a receding hairline or traction alopecia. Speaker 3 (1:41) Very, very true. It's, I definitely think there's like the external aspect now, like social media, people talk about it, you know, you have options. But there still is this part about it that's a little bit taboo. And I think that's part of my mission in life is to change that so people know that they don't have to live with it. Speaker 2 (1:56) So what pulled you towards I know, you know, you started in ophthalmology, but what pulled you towards like hair restoration and aesthetics as a career path? Speaker 3 (2:06) Yeah, I definitely never thought I would be here. And I was thinking about that. And When I was young, I grew up in Milwaukee. And so it was when mixed race was just sort of becoming more of the norm. There wasn't a lot of different hair textures. And like good hair, bad hair was a thing. And I remember being really young, just always being told I had bad hair. It was not the good hair. Who told you that? Oh, my gosh. That's a whole combo with a glass of wine. But like family, friends, community, you just kind of grow up feeling that. And I remember being like, what is this good hair? Like, how can I get it? Where can I find it? Because your hair is, I mean, for people, your hair is gorgeous. I feel like it's been a journey, though. Like I have photos where it was, you know, like just going and getting your pressing curls and your scalp is burned and then doing perms and then you have to cut it off two or three times. It's been a long, long journey. And it wasn't until I moved to the Dominican Republic when I was 17, also a long story, but I went there and I'm like, this is a country of curly-haired people. They know how to do hair. They're doing their roller sets. They have beautiful hair. It's, like, humid outside. They know how to take care of it in its natural state. And from that time forward, I think I was always obsessed with it. and I lived in South America. I worked as an interpreter, came back to the U.S., and I was working in hospitals. I was not in health care at all, and I got really interested in intensive care, and so I was like, you know, maybe I'll just try something in health care. So I went back to school. I did, like, a quick program. I really liked nursing, and then I was like, okay, I'm going to go back, and I did, like, a bachelor's and a master's and a postmaster's and then a nurse practitioner program and a doctoral program, and I was working in intensive care, and my husband, He was the one he was like, you are I've never met someone who's as obsessed with like scalp health and hair as you are. Like our we need like a closet for all of our products that you try. We literally have an extra closet. And he had gone to medical school with a guy whose dad was a trauma surgeon. And he was one of the few black trauma surgeons in the U.S. And he had himself had a transplant at like 20. like 24, a hair transplant. Yeah. And it changed his life. And so he went into hair transplantation. So my husband kept being like, you need to meet him. You need to go and just, I think you would love this. And I did. And that's kind of how it started. Speaker 2 (4:34) Wow. Wow. I love that. I mean, it does change someone's life to bring their hair to it. So it's like you have that magic touch. Ashley was doing a transplant this morning. You came like fresh from a transplant. So you were actively. doing the transplants. And I'm going to, I have a whole list of definitions that I want to get into with you because I think we hear about these terms, but we don't necessarily know what they mean. Yeah. Okay. Let me start with trichology. What, what does it mean to be a trichologist? Speaker 3 (5:00) So it's just the study of hair and you don't have to be a medical professional to be a trichologist. So there are a lot of really good. Speaker 3 (5:11) like barbers and beauticians that they understand hair in a different level. So they'll go and study the science of hair and the way that it grows and like the pH of hair. It's more of like the science of hair and the way that it grows. But you don't have to be a medical provider to be a trichologist. Got it. Two separate things. And Speaker 2 (5:27) why is it important to focus on not just the actual strand of hair, but to focus on the scalp? Speaker 3 (5:33) Because the scalp is a part of, essentially, it's like an extension of your face. So if you think about the skin on your face. Your scalp is essentially that. And it houses your live cells, your hair cells. This that we see externally is essentially old keratinized cells, so it's not really living. But the scalp is a real system, just like your face. Right. So when people say hair Speaker 2 (5:57) is Speaker 3 (5:58) dead, Speaker 2 (5:58) is that Speaker 3 (5:59) accurate? I mean, yeah, like sort of like from here on. Yeah, it does. It can't like revive, which is why they're like, oh, you have to cut it. You can kind of change the chemical structures with. like glazes and glosses and deep conditioners, but you can't really change anything. If you want to, it has to be at the root where it's alive and can be fixed. Speaker 2 (6:18) Okay. Okay. Alopecia. And also traction alopecia, because I know they're two different things. What are the definitions of those two things? Speaker 3 (6:26) So alopecia is essentially hair loss. It's like an umbrella. So there are many, many different types of alopecia. Like people will be like, oh, I have alopecia. But then you need to say, okay, well, what type of alopecia do you have? And traction alopecia is one type of alopecia or hair loss. And it is simply when traction or pulling. damages the hair cell and it can permanently cause it to not work anymore. Speaker 2 (6:51) You're basically bald and there's, and that's in those spots and there's nothing you can do. Speaker 3 (6:55) You, well, depends. So a biopsy can determine if there, there are types of traction alopecias that the cells are completely defunct. Like they will no longer come back. However, there are like, if you catch it early and they're just kind of sleeping sometimes with medication, they can be revived. And then there are other types where you can transplant and you might be, you can then transplant and essentially recreate that same hairline that you had and hopefully not lose it again with traction. Yes. Speaker 2 (7:26) Now, a lot of people don't get braids because they say it pulls too much on my hairline or people say, okay, I can do braids, but I can't do the like high bun styles because that causes traction alopecia. You can get traction alopecia from wigs, from sew-ins, like the glue that's used in a lot of wigs. What are you commonly seeing when people come into your practice are like the main causes for traction alopecia? Are there any hairstyles that are the culprits? Yes. So Speaker 3 (7:53) there's one for men and there's one for women. And I'd say braids. I love braids. I love braids. Beautiful. I wore them all the time growing up. But really this section kind of like. right at the edge. Like at the temple. It's always these poor little guys that are like hanging on and they're super tight. You know, when you get them and they're fresh and it's like tight and your head hurts, like that's not okay. Not a good Speaker 2 (8:18) sign. Speaker 3 (8:18) Not a good sign. Speaker 2 (8:19) And we have to stay on this topic for a little bit because, so one, I don't braid. I always leave out my little baby hairs. Yeah. And it means I can't always do that super high bun or the super high ponytail, but I'm like fine to wear my braids down because I don't want. Those like little tights. And my hair is too fine. Some people can withstand it. One of the things that I hear all the time is people will say, I just got my braids done. They're too tight. Sometimes people see those little white bumps. Yeah. If you feel like it's too tight, should you just take it out immediately? I would. I would take it out immediately. Before more damage is caused. Yeah. Speaker 3 (8:53) Like there's been times, I haven't gotten done in many, many years, but. I remember one of the last times, and immediately, like by evening, I'm getting this folliculitis, those little white bumps that are... That's Speaker 2 (9:03) what Speaker 3 (9:03) it's Speaker 2 (9:04) called, folliculitis? Speaker 3 (9:04) Mm-hmm. My follicles are like, girl, you are trying to pull us out. Like, what's happening? And I try to loosen it, but you just have to take it out because sometimes you just can't fix that. Speaker 2 (9:15) You can't fix it. Okay. And the longer you leave it in, is it just causing more damage every day? Speaker 3 (9:20) Yeah, it is. And last week, I had a transplant on a beautiful young woman. She had one previously on her edges, traction alopecia in the past. We were able to fix it. And it's been like two years and she's been wearing braids again. So she came back and we had to re-transplant. Okay, so she spent Speaker 2 (9:36) thousands of dollars. We're going to get into the cost of the hair transplant. She spent thousands of dollars and hours and months of recovery getting her hairline to look beautiful with the transplant and then went and started getting braids again. And now she's back for round two. Back Speaker 3 (9:49) for Speaker 2 (9:49) round Speaker 3 (9:50) two. Which is not good because there's scar tissue and, you know, you only have Soma. But yeah, that's we'll get into that. But yeah. Wow. But I say all that to say it's just really difficult because it's a style that's great. If you work out, you're a mom, you know. Of course. We Speaker 2 (10:05) love braids. Speaker 3 (10:06) We love braids. So what are you what are you supposed to do? You have a good solution. My solution. Speaker 2 (10:11) That's that's my personal solution. But I do think that is the way because I just can't I can't braid my hairline. Speaker 3 (10:17) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's Speaker 2 (10:20) my hair. Speaker 3 (10:20) I also think that braiders, you know, you kind of want that like snatch cute when you're done. You want to see the edges. But I think as braiders, too, you have to be responsible and notice, which is why having a certification in trichology is important and helpful because then you're able to say, OK, no, this area is weak. You can take a look at the scalp and then also adjust your styling around it. Speaker 2 (10:43) Yes. And finding a gentle braider that actually cares about the health of your hair is so important. That's why I love Janae. She's so gentle. Okay. An FUT or an FUE hair transplant. What is it? Speaker 3 (10:57) So the FUT, and it is, so we're talking about follicular units, which are, it's basically like the follicle that we're taking out to transplant. It's like the hair cell, basically. But when you say T, you can think of the word strip. And it means essentially that we take a strip of the scalp, like a linear line. It's removed and then the scalp is sutured back together. Speaker 2 (11:24) So your scalp is cut out? It's cut. Okay. So I'm saying it very nicely. Speaker 3 (11:30) No, that's exactly what it is. And you take it, you put it under the microscope, and then the actual follicles or the follicular units are chopped up, and those are then reinserted into Speaker 2 (11:41) another area. Got it. So you basically take it. That's where the term donor site comes from? Speaker 3 (11:48) Yes. The donor is wherever you take hair from, which is typically Speaker 2 (11:52) the back. The back of your head. Okay. And then what is the difference between that and an FUE hair transplant? So Speaker 3 (11:58) the FUE, you're not taking an entire linear strip. You're taking each unit individually. So there are machines that kind of create a circle around, like a little hole around it. You're able to go in at the right angle, and then it's extracted. And then that is then taken and put into the new space. So you're not left. You don't need sutures. But you may have thousands of small little holes, you know, which are distributed well. That is the art of doing the procedures, but they're different. Do you have a preference between the two? You know, they both have utility. FUT, the strip, has so many people say, oh, it's the old way. But if you're a woman, like if I were, I want to do an eyebrow transplant at some point just for these, Speaker 2 (12:47) like, over-plucked brows right in the middle. Which I didn't even know until I went to your office and we had our whole session that you could even, because I, you know, I do microblading. I'm Speaker 3 (12:55) a Speaker 2 (12:55) very hairless person. I didn't know that you could get hair transplanted Speaker 3 (12:59) into Speaker 2 (12:59) your eyebrows. You can. And Speaker 3 (13:02) it's great. Like if it's done well, it looks beautiful. And it just Speaker 2 (13:07) restores your face. Are you not worried about the recovery time? Because it's like your hair, you can cover it. You can do a scarf. You can do a hat. But if it's on your face, what do you do? Speaker 3 (13:16) So definitely you can have some swelling and bruising, especially if you're fairer skinned, you'll see a little bit more bruising. But honestly, it's not terrible. Like I have people. What's Speaker 2 (13:26) the recovery time? Speaker 3 (13:27) It just depends on how big your transplant is