Our Mission
Advancing Hair Health Equity Through Education, Research & Advocacy
NAFPOC exists to make accurate hair loss information, competent care and meaningful research available to every community — starting with the ones that have waited longest.
Why We Were Founded
A gap measured in years and follicles
NAFPOC was founded by trichologist and educator Dr. Leola Anifowoshe-Brown after two decades of the same story repeating itself: a patient notices thinning at the crown, is told to change her shampoo, and returns four years later with scarring that can no longer be reversed.
Central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA) affects a substantial share of Black women, yet remains absent from most public health education. Traction alopecia is nearly always preventable, yet is rarely discussed before the damage is permanent. Frontal fibrosing alopecia is rising globally, and is regularly misdiagnosed in patients with deeper skin tones.
Meanwhile, the evidence base that clinicians rely on was largely built without these patients. Studies that exclude textured hair produce guidance that does not fit it. That is not a knowledge gap — it is an equity gap.
NAFPOC was built to close it: with education people can actually use, advocacy that treats hair loss as the medical and psychological condition it is, and research designed with the affected community rather than about it.
Our Pillars
Four commitments that guide every program
01
Education
Plain-language, culturally grounded resources for patients, families, stylists, barbers and clinicians — free and always accessible.
02
Advocacy
Raising the national profile of hair loss as a medical condition, and pushing for coverage, workplace and school protections.
03
Research
Funding and enabling studies that finally include the populations most affected by scarring and traction alopecias.
04
Community
Support groups, ambassadors and events so no one navigates diagnosis, grief or regrowth alone.
Our Promise
Everyone seeking answers is welcome here.
Our focus is on communities that have been underserved — and our doors are open to every person living with hair loss, and every family standing beside them.