Having hair that lives up to its full potential of being voluminous, silky with a healthy shine is what we all strive for. Despite our best efforts, the crowning glory we once had may suddenly come under attack and prone to problems, especially the more we age. Here are just a few reasons for dullness, thinning and hair loss that may come as a shock.
Abusing Dry Shampoos May Contribute to Hair Loss
Dry shampoos are wonderful to save your hairstyle when you run out of time to shampoo, revive a blowout, become ill or have excessively oily hair. The only problem with relying on them too frequently is what their residue can do when left on the scalp.
In order to truly benefit from a dry shampoo, you are not meant to keep one on your head longer than a minute before brushing it out. All the same, this waterless method to cleanse the hair still leaves trace amounts of powder behind. Once the powder remains and ferments on the scalp, it can clog hair follicles. This dry powder once combined with your hair’s natural oils mixes with additional chemicals from other styling products, dandruff, and dirt from the environment that can complicate the problem to make it worse.
What this means for your head is a continuous buildup of dry shampoo can create a buffet of yeast on your scalp that can feast on the hair’s keratin. Some schools of thought are of the idea that this overuse of dry shampoo can damage the follicles enough for hair loss, especially if hair loss runs in your family. Others are of another opinion and claim the scalp would more likely suffer inflammation.
The best solution when using dry shampoos to prevent hair loss is stop being dependent on them every day and keep the scalp clean. Healthy, shiny hair is one that has a chance to breathe from undisturbed follicles instead of blocked ones.
The Potential Hair Loss Risk Due to Your Diet
To give your hair more opportunity to stay on your head, you may want to make sure that certain nutrients are among your food choices. Aim for adding ones with vitamin A such as oily fish like salmon, cheese, butter, sweet potatoes, kale, and winter squash are ones to consider. This vitamin can ideally nourish the follicles and strengthen hair while keeping it free from being dry and brittle.
In any case, you should aim to get this vitamin or any fat-soluble vitamins naturally through food instead of self-prescribing with supplements. Under these circumstance, you could be causing a dangerous buildup in your system. The recommended daily allowance set for vitamin A is 900 mcg or 3000 IU for men over age 19 and 700 mcg or 2310 IU for women over 19 who are not pregnant. Taking more than 10,000 IU of vitamin A daily can be toxic and cause hair loss and a host of other serious health issues.
Another fat-soluble vitamin that should be on your radar is vitamin E. This antioxidant can help the scalp’s circulation and defend the follicles against free radical damage from the environment. One small study on subjects with hair loss suggested vitamin E proved promising for stimulating the hair regrowth.
Your best bets for vitamin E foods are vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and leafy greens.
Check the foods that you normally eat that have B vitamins because these build red blood cells and help distribute oxygen and nutrients to the scalp. Biotin (vitamin B7) is the one most recognized for hair growth and doing its part for stopping hair loss. Other B vitamins that are especially beneficial are B6, B12 and folic acid. Excellent food sources of B vitamins are eggs, seeds, nuts, meats, avocados, sweet potatoes, etc.
Zinc is another winning mineral when it comes to preventing hair loss. It stimulates hair growth and repairs follicles from overactive oil glands. I can personally vouch for zinc because I take it combined in a calcium supplement that also has vitamin D in it three times a day. Ever since I started taking this particular combination, my hair is thicker and grows like a weed.
Foods that are high in zinc are legumes, seeds, meats, dairy, eggs, and nuts to put you on the right path.
Increasing your intake of omega-3 fatty acids may help rectify a hair loss problem. One in particular that could come to your hair loss rescue is the flaxseed. The reason flaxseeds or flaxseed oil could help is because of the way it handles any scalp inflammation and restoring healthy follicles.
Hair loss, thinning and breakage need not happen. Hopefully, this post will better equip you with solutions. You also might want to read my earlier post on how to fake more hair in a thinning head.
I have always had really fine hair. Thanks for the great tips!
Some iis hereditary and women do carry the gene. (they tend to be carriers not being affected although some are) I think I am a carrier, as all my brothers are thinning and one is almost bald. One thinned quite earl. I try to use leave in conditioners and oils to keep mine healthy. I do notine it isnt as full as when I wa younger.
Thanks for the tips
Oh, no! Dry shampoo has been a staple for me for years and helps my fine and oily (and thinning) hair ‘not’ be those things.
I didn’t know dry shampoo could cause hair loss. Thankfully I rarely use it, but now I don’t think I’ll use it at all. Thank you for sharing these great tips.