“I’m I loosing hair?” A question I’ve been asked a lot in my career but more so since COVID I’ve noticed. There’s no evidence to suggest that the two are linked at all but it’s definitely come more into the limelight since that period. Why? Honestly I don’t know but I do believe there’s more paranoia around it these days (I blame a certain caffeine shampoo brand, power of marketing)
Hair shedding, often mistaken for hair loss. This is perfectly normal and part of your hair growing cycle. It is normal for you to loose on average 100 hairs every single day. Sometimes you don’t even know it. You’ll of course notice it in your brush/comb. If you tie your hair up a lot you may notice a lot coming out when you take it down. Don’t panic. If you’re loosing 100 hairs throughout that day it can’t go anywhere because it’s in your bobble, so you see that hair going seemingly at once.
Another one I get asked is “baby hairs that never grow on the hairline” another that gets mistaken. Again they are a part of the growth cycle. They are also new hairs every month on average not the same ones. It’s new hair growing through all the time, if you have those that’s a good thing! If that stopped you would notice your hair thinning very quickly. Again it’s normal don’t panic!
However of course there is hair loss that is abnormal and has many causes, hormones out of balance either because of other medical conditions, after giving birth and all our favourite excuse we get from the GP menopause. Thyroid issues is another common one as well deficiencies in diet or from a lot of weight loss. These are all things that can unbalance your hair cycle and basically create you loosing more hair than regrowing it. I read an article last year from a Trycologist and I agree with him wholeheartedly that the most common cause of hair loss is stress!!! We all just need to calm down! Easier said than done I appreciate.
If you have genuine concerns about hair loss my advice is go to your GP first because if it is caused by a medical condition they’re the people to tackle that rather then going straight to a private hair loss clinic.
They are things you can do at home that can help, give your scalp a good massage when you shampoo and condition your hair. Massage creates blood flow to scalp stimulating the hair follicles, it feels good so why not? It may help you never know. Avoid tying your hair up really tight. The excessive tension may force hair out creating hair loss. Same for aggressive brushing/combing. Start at the bottom of hair and work your way up. This will prevent the hair getting stuck and ripping out. This applies especially if have hair extensions. Your natural hair has a excess weight on it creating slight tension to start with which can also contribute to excess hair loss. Plus taking a break from them now and again won’t be the worst thing.
I hope this has given you useful information you can use and if you have any questions about what I’ve discussed in this blog please feel free to get in touch.
See you all soon
Emma x
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