MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There is only so much a mirror can show. The best reflection of what people see is often based on how they feel.
“Beauty is absolutely from the inside out,” said Toiya Teal.
One way Teal shows her beauty is through her hair.
“For the longest in my life, I’ve always had thin fine hair,” said Teal. “One of the things that we really thought was hereditary was the lack of having sides.”
Teal suffered from traction alopecia, a form of hair loss not only attacking her hair follicles but also her self-esteem.
Teal said she felt, “Sad, self-conscious, insecure. You name it…“I wasn’t seeing my sides growing. What I really really wanted was for these sides to come in…It was to the point where nothing was working. I was about to go to the dermatologist to get injections.”
Instead, Teal learned about hair loss specialist, Angela Brown, and her shop, D’Serv Healthy Hair Care.
“There are a lot of educational classes out there, but the popular ones are only teaching you how to color, how to cut, and how to do the male and female replacements,” said Brown. “We have lost the education and the anatomy of how to grow and how to help our clients keep their hair as they’re aging.”
Despite the change in the industry, Brown is sticking to the roots and dealing with hair loss head on.
“Alopecia attacks the scalp under the scalp and on top of the scalp. It can have an appearance. It can clear off your entire head of hair and then it goes into remission where it will restore it, but you never know when the dark day comes,” said Brown. “It also can form in a circle where the alopecia can look like patches throughout your entire head. Then we have CCCA alopecia where it is attacked at the top of your crown area. It’s due to stress. It’s also due to chemicals. When traction alopecia comes in, it starts to destroy around your temple area.”
Traction alopecia is often caused by pulling or tugging at the hair.
“Sometimes, people never recover,” said Brown.
For those who can, Brown developed a line of hair products to fight against hair loss and created an approach to restore good health back into hair.
“Performance, application, coaching with consistency,” said Brown. “The mission was to bring back awareness. I chose not to be around a lot of people because when it comes to hair loss, the shame is there, the embarrassment.”
Hair loss from alopecia not only impacts women but men as well.
“Issues that I did deal with was growing in a full and thick beard. And the corners of my hair like this area in this area used to start thinning,” said Perry Brown who has experienced hair loss. “For a lot of males, it can be become a little self-conscious about it. Because it is something that happens and it does happen surprisingly, at a young age.”
“There is hope and help for people who are suffering,” said Brown.
It is a hope both Teal and Perry now have after getting help from Brown and seeing their hair grow.
“I do feel confident that I can go outside and show what I've worked hard to receive,” said Perry Brown.
“I have sides now. I just want the world to see I have sides,” said Teal. “It feels absolutely amazing. I feel so good, so good. This is my hair, my sides, and I feel good. It’s almost teary eyed.”
We asked Teal, “How do you feel when you look in the mirror?”
“I’m beautiful. Since COVID, I don’t wear makeup, so I just put on my lashes, brush up my hair, and I feel absolutely beautiful,” said Teal.
It is a real reflection from the inside out.