Slow Down to Listen
- Dec 30, 2025
- 2 min read
By Tabitha Fredrichs
If you had told me years ago that being a hairstylist would help me change lives, I wouldn’t have believed you. My hairstylist path led me to trichology, where now I help clients with hair loss and scalp conditions. Today, I guide other hairstylists to do the same.
Being grateful is something my mom and dad always taught me. They reminded me that even the hard things deserve gratitude because without them, you wouldn’t be who you are today. Watching my students grow every day only makes me more thankful that I stumbled into this path.
I have always been driven. But I learned that sometimes, the biggest growth comes when you stop getting in your own way. When I allowed myself to slow down just enough to listen, to trust the process, everything started to align. That shift from pressure to appreciation changed everything for me.
One day, a client came in and told me she had stopped smoking, started walking, and didn’t need her anxiety medication anymore. At that moment, I realized this work was never just about hair. It was about helping people pause long enough to listen. When the body can relax, the mind can refocus and yes, the hair can start to follow. True healing happens when we stop running and start paying attention.
I remind my students that we all carry labels. We are ‘not enough’, ‘it’s too late’, ‘I’m too tired’. But those labels aren’t tattoos. They are velcro. You can pull them off and replace them with new ones. Gratitude helps you do that. It gives you permission to see yourself differently, to recognize how far you have come and to celebrate it. When we lead from stress, we stay stuck.
I take a few moments each day to pause and breathe.
Sometimes it’s between clients, sometimes it is a few quiet minutes while heading home. Those pauses remind me that being grounded is part of being mindful. My students tell me they can feel that calm energy and it inspires them to create it in their own lives too.
In Trichology, connection is everything. We walk with our clients through life’s most challenging moments, whether they are facing illness, postpartum changes, chemo or major transitions in life and help them rebuild hope one conversation at a time. Appreciation keeps that work meaningful. It builds trust, compassion.
That sense of gratitude is also what inspired me to create education programs to help other hairstylists do the same. I wanted to show other professionals that their skills can be a bridge between outer beauty and inner healing. Gratitude is the difference between burnout and balance. It is what turns stress into strength and turns work into purpose.
If I could tell every woman one thing, it would be this: Your impact grows with your gratitude. Take a breath, appreciate where you are, and trust that you are exactly where you need to be.
Tabitha Fredrichs is a Board-Certified Trichologist, Naturopath Practitioner and founder of TrichoEDU
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