When losing your hair sometimes feels like you’re losing your mind!
Nobody wants to go through hair loss, but the truth is, almost everyone does. It’s even more distressing when it happens prematurely.
Ageing can be a cruel irony: We thin out (hair) on our heads while our waistlines thicken up. Sigh...
To rub it in further, Rod Sinclair, a professor in dermatology at the University of Melbourne says it will happen to everyone over the course of their lifetime.
So what happens when our hair starts to fall out? And can it be stopped or slowed down?
Hair doesn’t just grow, fall out and that’s it.
It’s in a continuous cycle of growth, rest and rejuvenation. Individual hair grows at different rates and are shed at different times. So this cycle of each hair follicle is three years. As a result, we lose between 50 and 200 strands of hair a day.
This time, it’s Gentlemen first.
It can hit hard if you’re a man. Male pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia) affects about half of all men by the time they’re 50 and more than 80% at 70 years of age.
Hair fall and balding are more prevalent in men where the growth phase of each hair gradually becomes shorter, and the resting phase becomes longer. Eventually the hairs that are growing become so short that they barely emerge from their hair follicle.
The process begins at the sides of the head and at a patch on the crown. As it spreads, the hairline recedes backwards and the patch gets larger.
How about the ladies?
Women get it too – in fact, over 50% experience mild hair loss as they age and about 20% of women develop moderate to severe hair loss.
The pattern of hair loss is different for women as it tends to thin over the top of the scalp.
Do something about it now
As we collect those precious strands from the bathroom sink, we can blame it on genetics or the use of certain types of hair products, lifestyle and how we treat our hair. But we can apply old school remedies to prevent or decrease the rate of hair loss:
Exercising: It boosts blood circulation throughout your whole body and may help to stimulate faster hair growth and reduce hair loss.
Having a balanced diet:You have heard this before – Get a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily plus plenty of protein as it’s literally food for your hair (hair is made out of keratin which is a protein so eating protein helps to feed and strengthen each strand).
Be kind: Constantly blow drying your hair on high heat, yanking out the knots, rubbing wet hair dry with a towel and tying it tightly is hair abuse. Stop it.
Let your hair dry naturally by pressing or dabbing it with a towel and drying it at a cooler temperature. If you have plenty of knots, detangle them with a good quality conditioner and slowly separate them with your fingers.
Written by the team at Hairprint Asia.
Getting sick of chemicals? Learn how to safely restore your hair back to its natural colour at https://www.hairprint.asia/
