Hair loss help

Hair shedding is part of everyday life. On average we lose anything between 100 and 150 hairs a day. They clog up the plug hole and yes, you have to hoover the carpet every other day to prevent it from forming a blanket of hair on the carpet. All this is totally normal. However, when we experience more stress than usual or go through some kind of life changing event then this can cause more hair loss than normal. Sometimes we can’t put our finger on the reason we may be experiencing excessive hair shedding because we don’t look back far enough. You can go through a stressful life changing event and not experience any effects to the hair until 12 month later. For those of you that have had babies then you’ll be familiar with this delayed hair loss reaction.

Factors which affect healthy hair growth

There are many factors which influence healthy hair growth. medical, emotional and lifestyle conditions all of which can prevent the body from effectively absorbing the nutrients it needs to support healthy hair. The thing is, when it comes to hair loss there are so many potential triggers it’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason why your strands are falling out and therefore how to treat it. Hair loss can be a result of the following:

• Hormonal Change
• Stress
• Post pregnancy
• Poor Diet
• Medication
• Age
• Birth Control
• Smoking
• Hereditary
• Menopause
• Over styling
• Chemical Treatments
• Poorly applied hair extensions or poor maintenance of hair extensions

1 in 3 women will suffer hair loss or reduced hair density at some point in their lifetime, the main objective is to try not to freak out as this will only enhance the situation.

Stress

The whole country has been placed in Lock Down for three weeks by our Prime Minister Boris Johnson with very little signs of it being uplifted or reduced for a few more weeks in fact. So with this in mind I want to concentrate on one of the hair loss factors…..STRESS! purely because we are all under some level of stress right now with the Coronavirus pandemic. If you’re unfortunate enough to be experiencing hair loss or excessive shedding already then the added stress of lock down certainly wont help.

Stress can also trigger scalp problems, such as as dandruff and/or disrupt your eating habits and mess with your digestive system, both of which can have a negative impact on healthy hair growth. Lets take a look at how hair grows so we can understand how it can become affected by stress.

Health hair grows in a continuous cyclic pattern and if it’s disturbed for any reason this can impact on the health of the hair and hair growth.

Anagen-The growing stage

The growing phase lasts two to seven years and determines the length of our hair

Catagen- The Transition stage

The transitional stage lasts about 10 days. This is when the hair follicle shrinks and detaches from the Demal papila( second skin stem cell)

Telogen- The resting stage

There’s no growth during this phase lasting around three months. The old hair detaches from the hair follicle. 10-15% of hairs are in this stage.

Exogen- The new hair stage

This is part of the resting phase where an old hair will shed and a new hair begins to grow. Approximately 1% of hairs in the Telogen stage fall out and is considered to be normal hair loss.

If hairs enter the resting stage too early due to one of the factors listed above then this is when you will notice excess shedding or the hair becomes noticeably thinner.

What you can do to reduce and/or prevent this from happening

There are plenty of treatment options for most cases of hair loss. The priority is to find out the cause of the hair loss first before a solution can be found. If it’s a medical condition then medical advice is the way forward. In addition to this there is a supplement you can take that will help to combat hair loss the same goes for factors such as stress and lifestyle changes. Lets look at Dandruff first……

Clearing up dandruff

Dandruff isn’t necessarily a cause of hair loss unless it is severe. In which case medical advice may be needed, but it can prevent a healthy scalp which in turn will effect the healthy growth of the hair. Dandruff can be controlled and even cleared up with a Shampoo. In salon we use and recommend Matrix Scalp Sync Anti Dandruff Shampoo. It’s anti-bacterial and calming properties will target and control the appearance of visible flakes and relieves scalp irritation with continued use. We also use another brand….Milk_Shake Pureifying Shampoo, this will protect the scalp and solve the discomforts associated with dandruff.

Tackling hair loss with supplements

Some of my clients take a supplement called VIVISCAL PROFESSIONAL. One small tablet twice a day for 6 months will make a difference to the volume of your hair. Hair follicles are nourished through consistent intake of Marine protein complex AminoMar C and nutrients in each tablet. Thin and wispy hair is strengthened. Hairs become stronger, thicker and healthier. Viviscal will help to prolong the Anagen Stage therefore keeping the hair in the growing stage for longer.

Here’s a few clinical stats about VIVISCAL

• 7.4% Increase in thickness after 6 months
• 18.3% Reduction in shedding after 3 months
• 111% Increase in terminal hairs after 3 months
• 125% Increase in terminal hairs after 6 months
• Following treatment with Viviscal, the greatest change in hair growth and hair quality occurred during the initial 2 months
• 75.3% of users observed a significant decrease in hair loss
• After 10 weeks there was an average of 46% reduction in hair loss reported.

Viviscal Professional is available to order in salon.

Tackling hair loss with diet

Hair is made up of 90% protein so a high protein diet can only be good for healthy hair growth. Selenium, Iron, Vitamins A, C, D3 and B, E and Biotin also play a part in healthy hair growth. Here’s just a few of some of the foods you could increase or incorporate into your diet to help promote healthy skin including the scalp. Just because we cant see the scalp doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look after if, it is after all the skin cells the hair needs to grow out of.

• Swiss shard
• Chicken
• Salmon-
• Walnuts-contains a high amount of keratin
• Brazil Nuts- limited to around 1-2 per day as too much Selenium can have the opposite effect and cause brittle hair
• Spinach
• Avocados
• Sweet potatoes
• Eggs
• sweet peppers

Hopefully the information above will provide you with some knowledge on how to get the best out of your hair. Salons across the country will hopefully be able to open their doors once again very soon. Just a few simple lifestyle changes like these above will only contribute to healthy hair so when we can all finally set foot through the salon doors (and hopefully you will choose our salon) all our hairs will be well rested from all the heat styling, straightening and product build up. That is if you haven’t joined the shaven head craze and shaved it all off before then!!!! Arrrgh….Please don’t!

So until we can meet in salon again, stay safe, stay well and look after your hair.

With Love

Jo XX