Featuring Anisa Woodall
Photo provided by Anisa Woodall
What is your name? Anisa Woodall
How old are you? 28
Where are you from? Northern California
What is your background? Mixed race: half-Persian/half-white
In a few sentences, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do:
I’m a real-food Certified Nutritionist and natural mama whose life’s purpose is to inspire and educate women to live, eat and move with intention and confidence. I specialize in supporting women in their fertility journey- from menarche to motherhood - using their cycles as information about their overall state of health and teaching them how to use real foods in a holistic, personalized way to achieve their dreams.
What are you currently doing for hair health and care?
Rituals
External hair care is fairly minimal. I use herbal shampoo and conditioner bars scented with essential oils. I wash my hair once or twice a week and use a shhhowercap the other days I shower.
I absolutely love brushing my hair for a good couple of minutes before bed with a dry brush made with horsehair bristles. If my hair has been up in a ponytail all day, brushing it helps to relax all the little muscles in my head to prepare for a good night’s rest.
Every once in a while I scrub rosemary or lavender essential oil into my scalp before bed and that too brings good circulation and relaxation.
Diet
Besides a nutrient-dense diet, I make sure to include collagen (food and/or supplement-based) and tea with self-harvested horsetail regularly.
Haircuts
The herbal shampoo bar I use is made locally and I buy it at our local co-op but I don't recall the name. I use the conditioner bar from byHumankind.
The only other hair product I use is the John Masters Organics hairspray. I bought it a few years ago for a wedding and still use it, only if I blow-dry or straighten my hair, which, to be honest, is only a couple times a year.
What works well for you and what doesn’t?
I went through a lot of trial and error to figure out what works for me and what doesn’t. I’ve found that I do best with sulfate-free shampoos, and I love the shampoo bar for this in addition to it being waste-free. I’ve come to appreciate brushing more (and that happened when I found a great brush). Washing my hair everyday doesn’t work for me and I generally feel better when using natural, non-toxic products. I've also strayed away from heating my hair with blow dryers and straighteners to prevent damage and prefer to let my hair dry and exist naturally.
What do you like about your hair and what has taken some time for you to accept about your hair?
My hair quality and texture has significantly shifted over the years with my health and diet quality. When I was vegetarian (with multiple nutrient deficiencies), my hair was very brittle, it would split easily and would fall out by the handfuls. It was more curly during that time which may be due to living in a more coastal region at the time.
Now, my hair is strong, wavy, has the perfect amount of shine, grows more quickly, and has a normal level of hair loss, mostly when I brush or shower. I like that my hair reflects my overall health and that it’s just one other indicator of my state of wellbeing in addition to my fertility/cycles, energy and digestion.
What are some helpful tips you can share with other readers?
Interestingly my hair stylist can tell when my collagen intake has increased! A few years ago I had significantly increased my intake due to having a knee injury but of course the body doesn’t only put collagen in one place, it uses it all over the body so my hair saw some major benefits! She told me it was “the healthiest hair I’ve ever seen”.
So collagen, found in bone-in, skin-on meats, fish and poultry as well as broth made with more parts of the animal are all great sources of dietary collagen. Chicken feet are my secret to the best-tasting and most collagen-rich broth that I make. You know the broth is good when it gelatinizes once cooled (if it lasts that long)!
Please share something different, interesting, or funny about yourself:
I have several, but I’ll share two!
When my mom lived in Pakistan, she learned that one of the things the locals would do to thicken their daughters hair growth was to shave it at 2 days, 2 months and 2 years old. My mom decided she would do that if she ever had a daughter. After I was born, she couldn’t get herself to do it because as a baby I was too delicate and she was afraid she would cut me, so she only shaved my head at 2-years old and my older brother still makes fun of me that I was a “bald baby”.
In the 3rd grade I was envious of the other girls who didn’t “have to” have bangs. One day I saw a girl with no bangs, went home and spontaneously decided to cut my bangs off. Realizing immediately that mine didn’t look like hers, I came out to embarrassingly face my mom and told her what I’d done. Later I realized that that girl didn’t have bangs because her hair was fully pulled back into a ponytail and the hair in the front was long enough to do so. 🤦🏽♀️
If you would like to link information about yourself and how to contact you please list your website for other readers to look at:
Follow on Instagram @anisawoodallnutrition