Every note I kept, from shedding to regrowth

Put on the contraceptive pill because my periods hadn't settled. Nobody asked why. I stayed on it for five years.

My curls turned a dry, coppery orange that wasn't my natural colour, and started shedding.

Came off the pill on my own. After a few months the shedding slowed and tiny new curls came through.

• Then my skin broke out badly
• No period for a whole year
• Hormones felt like they were everywhere

I chased hair growth before I understood my root cause. What I tried, and what happened:

• Fo-Ti and Dong Quai: shinier hair, but my oestrogen spiked and I gained weight
• Soy milk and tofu instead of dairy: clear skin, but more tired and off balance
• Going vegan: nails peeled, hair drier, shedding faster, even with omegas
• Keto: helped my insulin, didn't suit my hormones
• Holy basil: more shedding and an itchy scalp
• Coconut oil on my scalp: nothing
• Biotin: nothing

My second round of hair loss started. Diagnosed with endometriosis. My pain was manageable and my oestrogen was "normal" on paper, so nobody linked it to my hair.

• Wore a bun at the back every single day to hide how thin it was
• Scared to touch it, and I washed it less often because every wash meant handfuls of curls
• The shower drain showed it first. With curls I barely brush, so the shower was where I saw everything
• Under the bathroom light I could see my scalp

I was told it couldn't be the pill. I was told it couldn't be heavy metals or hormones because my results were in the normal range. Naturopathy was dismissed completely.

Tried minoxidil. Some feathery new hairs, but thin and stunted, and they disappeared once I stopped. I knew I wanted to stay away from things that felt unnatural to me.

Turmeric made my shedding worse. My instinct was that it was crowding out my own progesterone. Later I read about lead contamination in some turmeric too. Stopped it.

I felt ugly and embarrassed. I started shying away from anything that meant a helmet or getting my hair wet.

• Stopped swimming
• Stopped wearing it down
• People either told me to try oils, pretended not to notice, or asked why it was always up in a bun

Finally asked for the right tests. No GP ever suggested a natural approach, so I found a practitioner through reviews and friends.

• Full thyroid panel, not just TSH
• Iron and ferritin: low
• Hormone panel read as ratios: "normal" numbers, unbalanced ratio
• Heavy metals: high arsenic
• Hair mineral test online, under $100, a 30-page report in about four weeks
• Stool test: showed what my gut was missing

Cut gluten and dairy. Bone broth, a celery-juice phase, acacia fibre and inulin daily with probiotics. I even checked the shape of my stool every day. Too many nuts and seeds hurt my gut, so I cut back.

DIM, no phytoestrogens, artichoke for my liver, no milk thistle. There is real debate about phytoestrogens, but oestrogen-positive cancer patients are told to avoid them for a reason.

Zinc, magnesium, selenium, vitamin C, L-arginine, B vitamins, myo-inositol and NAC. Still take NAC every day. Oral iron took over three months to show in my hair.

• Slowly ramped up Lugol's iodine for a sluggish thyroid, which I read can be dragged down by too much oestrogen
• Chlorella and liquid zeolite for toxic load, and my periods got lighter
• Tried metformin for a while for insulin

Castor-oil scalp washes, rosemary oils, an ACV rinse. Yoga instead of hard cardio. Epsom baths to relax. Red light at home and PRP in clinic.

• Lesson: don't drown actively shedding curls in heavy oils
• Pumpkin-seed oil and B3 were great for my skin and acne

After having my kids my periods got much heavier. I couldn't swim around my period and needed medication to reduce the bleeding. That coincided with anaemia, and I believe it was linked to my hair loss too. Iron became a big focus.

Little fuzzy hairs appeared before I saw any other sign the shedding was slowing. I was hopeful, but careful too, because minoxidil had given me fuzz that vanished once I stopped.

• Even some of those baby hairs fell out during shedding phases, and that felt hopeless
• I kept going anyway. I wanted to wear my hair down again and get compliments on it

My hair grew back strong, stronger than it had been in years.

Over the years I spent thousands. I bought everything that had data behind it.

Leave-in conditioner, washing only once or twice a week, a leave-in hair oil now and then. NAC, zinc and iron taken regularly.

• I will never go back to soy or processed protein bars, even the soy-free ones
• Whole foods, every day

My hair is fine. I still shed more if I eat badly, my hormones shift or stress climbs. Some of us are more sensitive. I know my triggers now.

Run. If my parents had allowed it, I would have seen a naturopath first and asked why my periods hadn't settled, instead of just making them regular.