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It's Your Hair, Take Good Care of It

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

As women, we don’t need to be told about the merits of taking good care of our bodies, including our hair and scalp. Healthy hair is an indicator of a healthy body so it is important that those of us with thinning hair take notice, examine our diets, personal grooming habits and lifestyle, and strive to take better care of ourselves. Ensure that you do everything you can to improve your overall health and avoid creating situations such as diets and stress that lead to more hair loss.

Keeping your scalp and hair healthy requires more than just washing and conditioning your hair with just any available product, especially when you are in the process of losing it. These are some things you can do in addition to normal daily care to keep your remaining hair healthy and looking its best.

  • Consult an experienced hair stylist to select a style that accentuated your natural facial features and minimizes your thinning.  Discuss keeping it short (as short hair has more bounce) with bangs and layering around the face. These features give the illusion of more hair in the front and gives shape and movement to thin hair, adding volume in the right places.
  • Use a mild shampoo with a minimum of chemicals ingredients and use a clarifying shampoo from time to time to remove build-up and reside. If your hair is oily, shampoo every day to remove the excess sebum produced in your follicles. Massage your scalp while shampooing to help promote circulation in the scalp. Condition, rinse well, towel dry and, using a coarse comb or brush, blow dry on a warm or cool setting only.
  • Use a conditioner suited to your type of hair, ask your stylist to recommend one if you need help. Conditioners coat the hair and besides protecting it from damage due to brushing and blow drying will temporarily increase its volume. Use a lighter conditioner with fewer ingredients to pump up the volume.
  • Use a good quality root lifter to help your hair stand up at the scalp and a volumizer to thicken the hair shafts and make your hair look fuller.
  • Avoid any hairstyle or styling technique that pulls and holds your hair tightly. The constant pulling action of ponytails, buns, braids, cornrows and even rollers and curling irons may eventually lead to permanent hair loss in localized areas.

Taking care of ourselves and making the most our thinning hair is important for us to feel good. Using good quality professional products including a cosmetic enhancer to thicken you hair can help do just that!

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Women Who Inherit Hair Loss Still Have Hope

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

Hair loss is never an easy thing for anyone to accept, but it seems especially difficult for women. It seems that for many of us, our femininity is inextricably linked to our hair and how it looks, possibly why so many women have or desire longer hair. It just seems right for a woman to have long, thick, lustrous hair. When we are faced with hair loss, it takes a little piece away and robs us of our identity. We often think that men are the only ones that blame their hair loss on genetics, but heredity is the major cause of women’s hair loss as well.

Technically, genetic hair loss is called Androgenetic Alopecia and is determined by the genes passed on by our parents and grandparents.  Contrary to popular opinion, Androgenetic Alopecia can be inherited from either parent and those of certain ethnic descent such as Caucasians and Chinese are predisposed to thinning hair more than other races.

Hair loss in women is commonly experienced as a part of certain medical conditions like Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Thyroid disorders, Lupus and Cancer. These conditions, along with many others which have temporary or permanent hair loss as a symptom or result of the treatment, are typically hereditary. Examine your family history and if you find related women who have experienced, or are now suffering from, these conditions including hair loss, you may be at risk.

The root cause of genetic hair loss in women and men is the conversion of testosterone, typically a male hormone that is present in all females to some degree, to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT binds to genetically predisposed hair follicles which results in the gradual miniaturization of the hair follicle and eventually the loss of the hair.

Luckily there are a wide variety of products on the market that target this process and that actually can make a difference. There are several mechanisms that manufacturers target to control DHT but generally women should look for products containing active ingredients such as minoxidil, azelaic acid, spironolactone, ketoconazole, aminexil and saw palmetto in shampoos and topical scalp treatments to block the effects of DHT. Avoid solutions containing anti-androgens such as finasteride and cimetidine as they are less effective on women and, in the case of finasteride, even seemingly insignificant exposure can cause birth defects. Women should also consult a medical doctor to identify and treat hormonal imbalances that they have inherited. In many cases with early treatment, the associated hair loss is controllable and may be irreversible.

If family members experience some of these problems or you see the beginnings of hair loss on your own head, see your doctor armed with this information as early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are crucial to controlling or reversing the problem.
Additionally, take action and use your knowledge of female hair loss to help prevent the trauma that this condition brings with it. Many commercial products, both over-the-counter medications and hair thickening cosmetics targeting hair loss are worth a look and represent minimal risk, so try some!

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3 Stresses That Can Lead to Your Hair Loss

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

In addition to genetic hair conditions (androgenetic alopecia) and hormone fluctuations, add the physical stress of surgery and chronic unresolved emotional stress to the long list of things that negatively impact our crowning glory—our hair!

Telogen Effluvium is the second most common reason for hair loss and is usually caused by severe physical or emotional stress and sometimes due to the lack of dietary iron or protein. In this condition, an abnormally high percentage of hair enters the resting, or telogen phase, and often falls out in clumps. The reaction can be sudden or delayed and accompanied by “painful hair” but is fairly common and will usually resolve itself over time.

Crash dieters or inexperienced vegetarians can experience hair loss. For either, the intake of iron and protein should be examined and adjusted as necessary. The good news is that hair loss associated with either deficiency is reversible with corrective action.

Surgery places physical stress on our minds and our bodies regardless of whether the surgery is minor or major. As if nine months of the discomfort of pregnancy and the pain of labor was not enough, many women also experience hair loss! The shock, including the effects of the anesthesia, places our bodies under a great deal of stress that it may take several months to recover from.  In recovery, the body uses all of its resources and energy to recover from physical trauma and some of that energy is diverted away from hair growth and other less necessary bodily functions. Consequently, our hair may stop growing and begin to fall out during the recovery period. This type of hair loss is usually temporary and the hair will begin to grow back once the body has completely healed.

The mental stress of losing a friend or loved one, a marriage or even a job are some of the greatest mental stresses that we face in life. Additionally, facing an economic crisis may put us in panic mode and worrying about how we will support ourselves and our families also creates considerable stress. Economic crises are often accompanied by a job loss, a family medical emergency or accident, a double whammy which adds even more stress to the situation. Under these circumstances our bodies go into survival mode, marshaling all energy for recovery at the expense of those functions that are not vital to life. Hair growth may cease or slow and hair strands may fall out until our hearts and minds begin to heal.

If you have faced a mental or physical trauma like the ones mentioned above or something similar, the first thing you need to do is to take care of yourself. Adjust your diet, allow yourself time to heal physically, get emotional help from a professional or cry on the shoulder of a friend. Do whatever it takes to ensure your own mental and physical well-being. If you begin losing hair during times like these, try a hair thickening cosmetic to help you feel better about yourself and take heart, your hair will inevitably grow back once the trauma subsides. Treat your body and mind kindly keeping friends and family close to help you on the road to recovery.

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Hormone Imbalance Can Wreak Havoc On Your Hair

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

Finding the ultimate cause of female hair loss can be complicated. There are a variety of conditions or situations that can lead to hair loss in women. For men, the typical diagnosis is male pattern baldness. For women, hormonal imbalance is only one of the known causes of thinning hair in women.

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Hair Loss – It’s in the Genes For Women Too

Friday, March 13th, 2009

As a woman with thinning hair, do you find yourself comparing the thick luxurious locks you had in old photos with what you have now? What has happened? As women with thinning hair, we can think of our lives in two stages: “before” and “after” hair loss. “Before” were those (now) seemingly blissful days when our concerns were more about making our hair do what we wanted it to, and the “after” was the horrible realization of our new situation. We of course held strongly to the hopes that “no one would notice” and “it would eventually grow back.”

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Stop Grieving For Your Thinning Hair

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

It may seem silly to say that women grieve when we discover we are losing hair. After all, many men have been dealing with worse hair loss for a lot longer. With the moral support and understanding of friends and family, most men reluctantly accept it. Some opt for drug therapy or a hair transplant and others resolve to do nothing – aging gracefully (arrrgh!) while letting nature take its course. Others opt to shave their heads and are considered just as attractive, if not more so, than when they had hair.

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Beauty Means Success or So They Say

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

There are many quotes about beauty. It is only skin deep. It is in the eye of the beholder. However, science has proven what people have long suspected about beauty. Statistically speaking, beautiful people are more likely to be successful in their professional and social life.

However what is beauty? It changes from generation to generation, however in general it tends to be made up of symmetrical facial features that are proportionate in size, thick, healthy hair and skin that is relatively flawless.  Body shape, hairstyles, and other details are different depending on who you ask.
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