“Our scalp is a world of its own and we should pay more attention to it!”

Interview with psychological counselor and hair growth specialist Gianni Coria about " Natural help for hair loss ".

"Most people pay little attention to their scalp - until problems arise, the hair is no longer adequately nourished and eventually falls out. The reasons can be varied and range from a lack of care to psychological stress such as stress or shock experiences to chemotherapy and other medication exposure. However, those who learn to consciously and actively care for their scalp and supply it with important nutrients will be rewarded with new natural hair growth and vital hair."

Gianni Coria, author of the guidebook “Natural Help for Hair Loss”, founded the successful “Hair Growth Specialist” network, in which numerous specially trained hairdressers participate: Using analysis, massage and deep cleansing, damaged scalp is (re-)vitalized, and hair problems are solved permanently and sustainably.

Hair is considered a mirror of the soul; it can reveal a person's emotional state, but also their social status. Where does this great symbolic and cultural significance of hair come from?

Gianni Coria: The symbolism of hair goes back a long way, to ancient Egypt and even further. For thousands of years, the quality and length of the headdress and the way the hair is styled have said a lot about a person's individual personality and sent messages to those around them. Our ancestors spent a lot of time exploring nature in all its facets and forms of energy, in other words: incorporating the spiritual aspects into their existence - far more than we modern people do today in a world that is so materialistic. Through the spiritual ideas of our ancestors, that hair is an antenna to the ancestral world or a storage and expression of our life force, the lived knowledge of that time has been deeply imprinted on our souls. We have internalized the symbolic power, it has developed into a natural inner "premonition". Imagine that around 100 years ago, up until the First World War, people in Europe who loved each other gave each other their hair as a sign and expression of deep trust and devotion. After this war, many things were different and this custom has largely disappeared, but our inner belief that our hair is something special has remained and will probably always remain rooted in us as humans, no matter how much culture seems to be lost on the outside.

Despite the attention paid to hair growth and the effects of hair loss, hair and scalp are largely underestimated organs. What is so special about them?

Gianni Coria: We humans have around 100,000 to 150,000 hair follicles on our scalp, in which a hair papilla is located at a depth of two to five millimeters - the actual growth center of the hair. Every day these growth centers produce up to 30 meters of hair on our head, regardless of whether we are stressed, skip meals, go out with friends in the evening, don't get enough sleep, hardly drink water or eat an unbalanced diet. The body uses the scalp as a valve, as a regulator for physical excretion processes. You can find all kinds of minerals, heavy metals, drugs and medication in the hair, including the stress hormone cortisol. Depending on the stress, the quality, color and mobility of the scalp change and natural, important biological processes are hindered. Each hair canal has its own blood supply, nerve pathway, sebaceous gland, hair muscle, etc. You see, the scalp is a world of its own, in which countless processes take place every day that we unfortunately do not experience consciously. That is why it requires even greater attention.

You initially worked as a therapeutic consultant in your own practice, helping people with various issues. How did you come to focus on hair problems and develop the holistic care concept?

Gianni Coria: I was deeply touched by the despair of my first hair loss client. When I saw her hair grow back bit by bit until it was completely full - thanks to my method - not only she was very happy, but I was too. I first had to gain more experience and acquire knowledge to be sure that I had not just been lucky, but that a general success could be reproduced. At the end of 2012, the time had finally come and my experiences had also been successfully tested under hairdressing conditions. In February 2013, I then trained the first hairdressers in the field of holistic scalp care. Today, after almost four years, there are around 300 hairdressing businesses in eight countries that practice the new craft in their salons. My everyday life was therefore very quickly dominated by the topic of beautiful, vital hair and new, natural hair growth.

The network of hair growth specialists you founded focuses on targeted scalp care and the natural regeneration of hair growth. What methods are used to achieve this goal and how is it different from the work of hairdressers?

Gianni Coria: Active scalp care has nothing to do with the conventionally learned work of a hairdresser, such as cutting and coloring hair. Integrating the concept of the hair growth specialist into the salon is not equally easy for every hairdresser. A hairdresser often has a hectic day. Before getting involved with a customer with hair problems, however, a hair growth specialist must slow down and find inner peace. First, take a deep breath and then approach the customer calmly. It is very important that our customers can simply let go and switch off during the treatment time of around 60 to 80 minutes. Trustful relaxation in a quiet, protected environment allows us to calm down after stress and hecticness, and this allows the specially developed scalp massage, the stimulation of meridian and acupressure points and the deep cleansing of the scalp to unfold and have an optimal effect. The more relaxed and better prepared the scalp is, the faster and stronger the new hair grows.

The causes of hair problems are varied and range from incorrect care and nutrition to environmental influences and stress. What types of hair loss are there and what causes each one?

Gianni Coria: Hair loss can be triggered by separation from a loved one or by shocking experiences, by misunderstood care, by medication over a long period of time, by massive environmental influences, etc. The fundamental problem is our way of looking at things: we think the body is doing something wrong, attacking itself or even destroying itself. Personally, I find it very difficult to accept such views due to my current level of knowledge. Our body is programmed to constantly renew itself and to do everything to maintain itself, provided the conditions are right. No matter what form of hair loss we are facing, the treatment is very similar. There is thin hair, receding hairlines, circular hair loss, complete baldness... The soothing massages from the hair growth specialist can help our stress-stricken body to relax. With active care, we ensure that the excretion via the scalp, through which the body wants to rid itself of harmful substances, can take place more easily. This means that we first provide a deep clean to remove stubborn dirt. Then we care for and nourish the skin and hair, and experience shows that the body allows hair to grow again completely naturally. It is therefore about creating optimal scalp conditions through cleaning and care, and not about primarily preventing a process such as hair loss. If, for some reason, most of the hair is in the telogen phase (falling phase), there is no remedy in the world that can prevent hair loss anyway, because the hair is no longer nourished by the bloodstream. That is why I recommend that anyone with hair problems visit a hair growth specialist who has a micro camera and can explain the current scalp situation in detail. If you find out exactly what is happening on your scalp, it will calm you down and prevent you from indiscriminately buying hair loss shampoos, etc. And that is a big win.

It is considered normal for hair to become thinner and less, or grey or white, as we age. For you, however, this is a result of inadequate scalp care. So what can you do to combat what you think is a genetically predetermined baldness?

Gianni Coria: If someone is prone to baldness, the signs can be seen with a micro camera from around the age of twelve. We inherited our metabolism. This means that the way food is metabolized in our bodies is predetermined. So if I eat the same as my parents and one of them has (had) a hair problem, then it is possible that this eating behavior will also lead to a hair problem for me. If we start brushing the scalp to better remove deposits that are stuck in the scalp, if we treat the scalp with care products that have real nutritional value and do not constantly destroy the important bacteria on the skin, and if we generally eat correctly and with high quality food - then baldness can be avoided or even reversed. If baldness is already present, the causes for it were established very early on and it takes much longer to correct it than for someone who only has small patches of hair. The quality of food was much higher in our grandparents' time, which meant that many people were able to keep their natural hair color into old age, which many customers have told me about their grandparents. When we are under constant stress, our bodies use up significantly more minerals, vitamins and trace elements. If these are not replenished, not all bodily processes can be maintained at the highest level, and our skin ages faster, and our hair turns grey and thin earlier. If you want to prevent or reverse this, you need time, patience and the highest natural quality in food.

There is an almost unmanageable range of products and offers for hair care or the treatment of hair problems. However, many sufferers find that all their efforts remain unsuccessful for years. Why is that, and which approach is the right one?

Gianni Coria: It's good that there are many options available, so everyone can decide for themselves which approach they prefer. My recommendation for long-term satisfaction with the chosen solution is: always ask the provider: "What will the result look like on me in ten years - if everything goes perfectly with your method?" The problem is that the hair will fall out again or grow back thin if we don't care for the scalp correctly in parallel with the treatments, i.e. if we only work with injections or carry out hair transplants without thinking holistically. This can often lead to even greater despair for the person affected, as the artificial hair transition becomes more and more visible over time. As children, we all usually learned to brush our teeth, and today if we leave the house without dental care, we feel uncomfortable. We simply failed to learn how to care for our scalp, and today as adults we often find it extremely difficult to spend even three minutes a day brushing our scalp. But in my opinion, in the long term, there is no way around planning more time for active scalp care and regularly treating your scalp with nutrient-rich care products if you want to be able to leave the house with beautiful hair for the rest of your life.

Thank you very much for your interesting questions and for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

Book tip:
Gianni Coria: Natural help for hair loss. Strong hair growth through targeted nutrient supply and revitalization of the scalp. Mankau Verlag, 1st edition December 2016, paperback, color, 16 x 22 cm, 159 pages, 15 euros (D) / 16 euros (A), ISBN 978-3-86374-340-6.

Link recommendations:
More information about the guide "Natural help for hair loss"
To the reading sample in PDF format
More about Gianni Coria
To the Internet forum with Gianni Coria