At some point, most of us will experience thinning hair. Two-thirds of men will see some thinning or loss of hair by age 35 and 40% of women will have visible thinning or hair loss by age 40.
Depression, low self-esteem, altered self-image, and a desire to go out in public less frequently are symptoms of hair loss. These symptoms can negatively impact your life.
In this article we’ll look at five ways to slow thinning hair and maintain a healthy scalp.
5. Exfoliate Your Scalp
Most of us are familiar with exfoliating facial scrubs, body scrubs, and foot scrubs. Often we forget that your scalp needs exfoliation too! You can increase the oxygen to the scalp, remove harmful deposits from gels, hairsprays, and other product, by washing your hair and massaging your scalp for better blood circulation. The result is healthier skin. Healthier skin grows healthier hair.
If you have sugar, coconut oil, and tea tree oil around the house, you can make your own scalp exfoliant at home. If salon products are more your style, here’s a list of seven amazing scalp exfoliators.
4. Change Your Part
Consider changing where you part your hair from time to time. The more you part your hair in the same place, the more settled your hair gets. It gets used to flowing in one direction and the strands of your hair have a tendency to stress and break with exposure.
Switching up your hair part makes sure your roots are upright and breathing. It will also help you tame any annoying flyaway hairs along your part that never seem to lay flat.
Another consideration is your scalp health. People who part their hair in the same place for a long time will notice a darkening on their scalp around the part. This is because your part exposes the bare scalp to the sun, allowing the sun’s rays to penetrate the skin. Overtime, sun damage leads to scalp damage and a thinning of the hair along the part.
3. Wash your hair every day with a shampoo that has a low pH
One of the enemies of healthy hair is friction. Excessive friction wears at the hair fiber surface causing cuticle damage that can result in flatness and breakage. Research indicates that shampoos with a higher pH can increase the negative electrical charge of the hair fiber surface. In layman terms, there’s more static electricity in your hair. You may notice that certain shampoos give you frizzy hair. Increased static electricity results in increased hair friction and overtime thinning hair.
A great way to solve this problem is to use a shampoo with a lower pH. A shampoo that’s in the 4.5 to 5.5 pH range is ideal. According to this study, only 38% of popular shampoo brands have a pH of 5.0 or less while 75% of salon shampoos met that standard. Baby shampoo has a pH of 7.0 because of the “no tears” concept.
Check with your salon for a low pH shampoo that’s right for you. Or consult this list compiled on Reddit.
2. Massage Your Scalp
Massaging your scalp is the kissing cousin to scalp exfoliation. The primary benefit of massaging your scalp is to increase blood flow to the area. Better blood flow results in more oxygen and nutrients to the area, which results in healthier skin, which results in healthier hair.
You can easily massage your scalp daily (exfoliation is a weekly or bi-monthly ), it doesn’t require any special tools or products, and it feels really good. Go ahead, take a minute and rub your scalp. Bet you can’t do it without smiling. 🙂
1. Use Minoxidil (Rogaine)
If you are looking for a medical solution, you may want to consider Minoxidil. Rogaine is the brand name of this treatment. There are now versions for both men and women and it’s the only product that is FDA approved to slow thinning hair and hair loss, with a chance of re-growing previously lost hair.
There are some potential side effects and potential skin irritation. Beyond that, it requires a twice daily application, can take months to see results, and can be expensive to maintain your results. But if you’re serious about managing your thinning hair, this could be a quality option for you.
Thinning hair and hair loss is a fact of life for many of us, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept it. Combining any or all of the above recommendations is the best way to be both proactive and reactive to thinning hair.
If you have more questions about how to manage your thinning hair, contact us at Summit Plastic Surgery & Dermatology today!
At some point, most of us will experience thinning hair. Two-thirds of men will see some thinning or loss of hair by age 35 and 40% of women will have visible thinning or hair loss by age 40.
Depression, low self-esteem, altered self-image, and a desire to go out in public less frequently are symptoms of hair loss. These symptoms can negatively impact your life.
In this article we’ll look at five ways to slow thinning hair and maintain a healthy scalp.
5. Exfoliate Your Scalp
Most of us are familiar with exfoliating facial scrubs, body scrubs, and foot scrubs. Often we forget that your scalp needs exfoliation too! You can increase the oxygen to the scalp, remove harmful deposits from gels, hairsprays, and other product, by washing your hair and massaging your scalp for better blood circulation. The result is healthier skin. Healthier skin grows healthier hair.
If you have sugar, coconut oil, and tea tree oil around the house, you can make your own scalp exfoliant at home. If salon products are more your style, here’s a list of seven amazing scalp exfoliators.
4. Change Your Part
Consider changing where you part your hair from time to time. The more you part your hair in the same place, the more settled your hair gets. It gets used to flowing in one direction and the strands of your hair have a tendency to stress and break with exposure.
Switching up your hair part makes sure your roots are upright and breathing. It will also help you tame any annoying flyaway hairs along your part that never seem to lay flat.
Another consideration is your scalp health. People who part their hair in the same place for a long time will notice a darkening on their scalp around the part. This is because your part exposes the bare scalp to the sun, allowing the sun’s rays to penetrate the skin. Overtime, sun damage leads to scalp damage and a thinning of the hair along the part.
3. Wash your hair every day with a shampoo that has a low pH
One of the enemies of healthy hair is friction. Excessive friction wears at the hair fiber surface causing cuticle damage that can result in flatness and breakage. Research indicates that shampoos with a higher pH can increase the negative electrical charge of the hair fiber surface. In layman terms, there’s more static electricity in your hair. You may notice that certain shampoos give you frizzy hair. Increased static electricity results in increased hair friction and overtime thinning hair.
A great way to solve this problem is to use a shampoo with a lower pH. A shampoo that’s in the 4.5 to 5.5 pH range is ideal. According to this study, only 38% of popular shampoo brands have a pH of 5.0 or less while 75% of salon shampoos met that standard. Baby shampoo has a pH of 7.0 because of the “no tears” concept.
Check with your salon for a low pH shampoo that’s right for you. Or consult this list compiled on Reddit.
2. Massage Your Scalp
Massaging your scalp is the kissing cousin to scalp exfoliation. The primary benefit of massaging your scalp is to increase blood flow to the area. Better blood flow results in more oxygen and nutrients to the area, which results in healthier skin, which results in healthier hair.
You can easily massage your scalp daily (exfoliation is a weekly or bi-monthly ), it doesn’t require any special tools or products, and it feels really good. Go ahead, take a minute and rub your scalp. Bet you can’t do it without smiling. 🙂
1. Use Minoxidil (Rogaine)
If you are looking for a medical solution, you may want to consider Minoxidil. Rogaine is the brand name of this treatment. There are now versions for both men and women and it’s the only product that is FDA approved to slow thinning hair and hair loss, with a chance of re-growing previously lost hair.
There are some potential side effects and potential skin irritation. Beyond that, it requires a twice daily application, can take months to see results, and can be expensive to maintain your results. But if you’re serious about managing your thinning hair, this could be a quality option for you.
Thinning hair and hair loss is a fact of life for many of us, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept it. Combining any or all of the above recommendations is the best way to be both proactive and reactive to thinning hair.
If you have more questions about how to manage your thinning hair, contact us at Summit Plastic Surgery & Dermatology today!
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