As a teenager, Amber Robinson always noticed the thin edges of her hairline, but never imagined she’d one day need a hair transplant. At the age of 37, however, after losing portions of hair from the side edges and the front of her head, hairs from the back of Robinson’s head were transferred to the left and right sides as treatment for traction alopecia and androgenetic alopecia (female pattern baldness). The transplant cost her $8,000.
“This is expensive,” says Robinson, now 39. “But I’m fortunate enough to actually have the means to even attempt to make this happen. I couldn’t do this when I was 20. There’s no way.”
Robinson, a doctor of physical therapy, is a part of the nearly 50% of Black women in the United States who suffer from hair loss at some point in their lives. But unlike the countless Black women who suffer alone and in silence, Robison is a part of a circle of care provided by her board-certified dermatologist, Dr. Chesahna Kindred, and her trusted hair stylist, Susan Peterkin.
Since 2017, Kindred, owner of Kindred Hair & Skin Center in Columbia, Maryland, and Peterkin, a hair loss specialist and senior licensed cosmetologist, have partnered to care holistically for Black women like Robinson who are experiencing hair loss.
“[The treatment of] hair loss really is team-based,” says Kindred, “which includes the stylist, myself, the patient, and if need be, a mental health professional. And all of us are working towards it.”
This doctor-stylist duo are so committed to a team approach that they created “the first dermatology practice that has a full service natural hair salon” says Peterkin. Clients can come in, lock the door, and have as much privacy as they need, unlike typical salons that have a steady stream of people rotating in and out.
Robinson says that being treated by Kindred and coached by Peterkin on best hair care practices has worked wonders for her conditions. For instance, a few months ago, Robinson says she noticed a little shedding. Although she didn’t think much of it because shedding can be common, even with treatment, Peterkin immediately noticed and became concerned. Peterkin asked, “Have you seen Dr. Kindred recently?” To which Robinson responded “Do I need to?”
Peterkin sent the doctor a quick text message, which prompted Kindred to tweak the prescribed medication. Robinson says that “little bit of intervention” put her right “back on track.”
“Stylists are on the frontline,” Peterkin shares. “We see a lot of stuff before the dermatologists and regular doctors do.”
While Kindred tends to patients’ medical needs, Peterkin tends to their wellness and healing. “Women tend to share more or get more emotional with me,” she says. “I see the crying and the hesitation and the fear and the shame and everything that goes along with hair loss.”
Peterkin believes her fellow stylists are poised to take the lead in supporting their clients’ mental well-being: “I’m looking at the salon now to be at the forefront for mental health when it comes to dealing with hair loss on a wellness level and a emotional-mental level because we see our clients more often than they see the dermatologist.”
Kindred says she and Peterkin have devised an effective workflow on the days patients receive treatment. First patients go to the salon, where their hair is washed, conditioned, treated with an herbal rinse, then blow-dried. Next they walk across the hall to the exam room where they receive medical treatment, which can range from cortisone injections to curb inflammation to the scalp—to platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, where a patient’s blood is drawn and injected into the scalp to repair damaged hair follicles.
Post-treatment, they walk back across the hall into the salon to have their hair styled. At any point in the process, if either Kindred or Peterkin sees something new or alarming, they can discuss immediately to form an action plan. Peterkin notes it’s critical that hair loss patients “care for hair after medical treatment” because poor hair and scalp maintenance can impede the progress made through treatment.
Besides its effectiveness, this doctor-stylist partnership models the importance of communal care and inherently builds a sense of community among patients. Robinson appreciates this salon environment because “everybody talks. It’s good to be in that atmosphere because you hear other people’s struggles, other people’s success stories, and it makes you feel like you’re not really alone because other people are going through it.” Sometimes, that includes your hairstylist.
In 2003 Peterkin began to experience hair loss through female pattern baldness and central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA), the most common form of alopecia among Black women. However, she wasn’t diagnosed until 2016 when she met Kindred. Peterkin says she works with the doctor monthly to manage her own hair loss, something she says helps her clients feel more at ease with her: “I can also be vulnerable with them and say, ‘I understand what you’re going through’ and truly mean it.”
For Black women combatting hair loss, the need to have a circle of support that “gets it” is crucial. Robinson says it took her several months to find a doctor who took her hair loss seriously, but that when she met Kindred not only did she get it, but she “pulled out all of the stops” to diagnose and restore some of her hair.
Photographed by Faith Couch
“Everybody knows hair in the Black community is a big deal. You can’t just have your hair looking all kinds of crazy,” says Robison. Peterkin agrees: “With hair loss, we just have to create that safe place. And of course with Black women, it’s even worse because this runs so deep. Our hair issues run so deep. We’ve been told that our hair is not attractive, and we’re trying to do the things that they say make it attractive.”
Dr. Afiya Mbilishaka, a Washington, D.C-based psychologist and hair stylist, says “Psychology suggests that people who have hair loss have a high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and social phobia, like social anxiety.”
Afiya is on a global mission to connect mental health and hair, especially in the Black community. She created PsychoHairapy, a mental wellness resource that uses hair as “an entry point into mental health care;” and her goal is to create a cadre of “haircare professionals who are trained in mental health first aid, being able to infuse and facilitate the collective healing through conversation.”
Like Peterkin, she recognizes the important role stylists can play in facilitating mental wellness through discussion. To that end, every other month, on Sunday evenings, Peterkin and Kindred host a virtual support group to resource Robinson and their other clients and provide an emotional outlet. Peterkin says the sessions usually cover three areas: medical treatments, hair and scalp care, and mental health. Invited guests range from yoga instructors to therapists—including Afiya, who shares some patients with Kindred.
The support group also enables patients to ask each other burning questions. “A patient might want to know about PRP,” says Kindred. “So they can say, ‘Hey, does PRP hurt?’ and one patient might say, ‘No, it’s fine, it didn’t hurt,’ and somebody else might say, ‘I almost died.’ And then they can just talk about it. Patients need this type of interaction, but it’s not covered by insurance.”
Despite the limitations of insurance, Kindred and Peterkin continue to partner with other professionals and find other ways to expand their clients’ circle of care. In October of 2022 Peterkin hosted the Natural Hair Industry Convention in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The retreat offered stylists & clients workshops on hair loss, morning yoga and meditation, talks on mindful eating, and water-rich excursions. The 2024 retreat is currently being planned.
Peterkin says that being cared for by a strong circle of support is essential for the physical and mental wellbeing of her clients experiencing hair loss. “A lot of the stylists and the Black women in our community, we are like the mothers. We do everything. So if we don’t support each other emotionally and mentally, then where do we release? Where do we heal?
This story was published with support from the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism.
