I love having long hair. It’s more adaptable to versatile styles; I love how it looks under my (perpetual) collection of berets and getting that ever-so-cinematic Insta-shot where it flows behind you in the beach breeze.
Long manes are a fun time – until you start getting sick of all the tumbleweeds of hair piled up on your bathroom floor. And don’t get me started on clogged shower drains.
But while this all-too irritating issue for most women, it isn’t something to get too panicked about. Research shows that hair loss is normal for everyone, with most losing about 50 to 100 strands of hair per day.
Those may sound like high numbers, but considering the 100,000 (or more) hair follicles on a person’s head, it’s hardly a cause for concern.
However, if you’ve noticed an excessive bunch of hair tangling up on your combs lately – it may be worth looking at a few lifestyle factors at play.
Stress and anxiety
Whether it’s physical or emotional stress, if you’re undergoing events that are taking a toll on your mind and body – they may be the answer to your shedding hair.
Stress or anxiety-related hair loss can be attributed to three different kinds: telogen effluvium, alopecia areata, and trichotillomania.
I know, I sound like a college textbook. Put simply, each of these conditions lead to the following:
Telogen effluvium: The life cycle of hair involves three stages: its growth phase, rest phase, and shedding phase. Telogen effluvium is when stress pushes large amounts of hair into the shedding phase, usually noticeable three or six months after a nerve-wracking event.
Alopecia areata: Severe stress or anxiety can cause the body’s immune system to attack your hair follicles. This is known as alopecia areata, and while it fortunately takes place in only small patches of hair, some extreme cases can attack the entire scalp – or even all bodily areas of hair.
Trichotillomania: Finally, trichotillomania describes hair loss caused by your own urge to pull hair out of your scalp. This is commonly a coping mechanism for those dealing with anxiety or other negative emotions; including loneliness, boredom, or anger.
How to combat this
If stress is your underlying reason for hair loss, keep your mental health in check by giving yourself a stress-free breather every once in a while.
If you need to and can afford it, it may even be worth taking time off for yourself to enjoy your favourite stress-relieving activities. Spending more time with friends and family, going on a weekend getaway, or simply having relaxing day in may do your emotional health and hair a favour.
If you need to, you can even turn to a professional for assistance. There are plenty of Australian mental health resources out there, BeyondBlue and Headspace being great places to start.
Courtesy of BeyondBlue and Headspace.
Overstyling
I’m guilty of this one. Using an overabundance of hairstyling tools to an excessive degree will likely cause your strands to fall out over time.
The most common overstyling practices that lead to hair loss are:
Using heat styling tools on the regular. Exposing your mane to high heat on a constant basis eventually causes your strands to turn brittle, resulting in breakage fallout. Those who struggle with this (me!) often have fine hair with an unsightly amount of split ends.
Tugging at your hair. Keeping your hair in taut styles (ex. tight ponytails, cornrows, or buns) can cause stress on your hair follicles. This makes it easier for them to eventually fall out.
Over-exposing your hair to chemicals. Hairsprays, gels, dyes, chemical straightening – you name it. Keeping your hair in constant contact with chemicals can damage their inner structure, leaving them more prone to damage.
While hairsprays and gels are less damning than perms and bleaching – some ingredients may dehydrate the hair or clog hair follicles, eventually causing fallout.
Over-combing or brushing your hair. Pulling at your hair excessively can cause damage to your roots, eventually causing strands to slip out.
This is extra damaging with wet hair, when its at its weakest. While brushing does promote hair growth by stimulating the blood in your scalp, and does the healthy job of bringing oil from the scalp into the strands – overdoing it will cause more damage than good. Keep it up as a healthy practice, just don’t go overboard!
How to combat this
Easing styling products can be tricky when you rely on them to keep your hair presentable. While it’s not necessary (and frankly, unrealistic) to do away with your styling practices altogether – it’ll help to keep them in check.
Use heat protectant sprays when styling your hair with heat tools. Keep to under 200°C (or lower for finer hair!). Invest in the right treatments for your hair after chemical processes (bleaching, dyeing, perming) to keep the strands strong and less susceptible to breakage. Avoid gels or hairsprays with high amounts of alcohol.
With the right awareness, you can still keep to your glam-hair routines – with less hair scattered on the bathroom floor.
Family heredity
Sometimes, your excessive hair fall’s totally out of your control. If hair loss at a certain age is prominent in your family history, chances are you’re also predisposed to the condition.
According to Health Navigator, such hereditary conditions are most common among men – but for every five men that have it, three women are affected.
While men are more prone to receding hair lines, hair loss in women often leads to thinning hair and a wider parting. Early signs of this usual peak at age 30, and become more noticeable around the 40-50 age mark.
How to combat this
There is no cure for genetic hair loss, but there are ways to slow the process. Keep in mind that ageing hair loss is an absolutely normal for anyone – but for those who notice some distressing, rapidly increasing signs early in life, there are medical treatments available.
Such medications are best used at the early stages of hair thinning for better success. Those that promote hair regrowth will cease effect once stopped, and thus must be used continuously.
Consult your healthcare professional on the kinds of suitable treatment available.
Medications
If your sudden hair loss is congruent with any new medications you’re taking, they may be to blame for the side effect.
Certain drugs interfere with your hair’s natural growth cycle, pushing them into their resting phase and causing them to fall out too early (telogen effluvium). This effect often takes place two or four months after consuming the drug, and cause between 30% to 70% more hair shedding than your usual 50-100 strands a day.
Such effect can commonly be found in medications related to acne, birth control, epilepsy, depression, high blood pressure, Parkinson’s, weight loss, and more.
Drugs with a more extreme impact on the body’s immune system, such as chemotherapy drugs, will have a more intense effect on one’s hair. Rather than simply accelerating their follicles to the resting phase, these drugs damage the hair during their growing phase, preventing the cells from developing normally.
As a result, people suffering from these side effects lose most or all hair on all areas of their body.
How to combat this
If you’ve noticed new medications in your regime causing hair loss, it’s best to speak to your doctor about possible alternatives. They may be able to find a replacement that lessens such side effects, or they may even recommend that you stop taking it altogether.
As for chemotherapy medications, there is no guarantee that any treatment will stop the effect of hair loss altogether – but preventative measures that slow the hair loss process or promote hair regrowth include scalp hypothermia and rogaine.
Again, it’s always best to consult your doctor your best available options.
A lack of vitamins or nutrients
Being low on your body’s much-needed nutrients can impede on your hair growth and cause your strands to suffer.
This is why those who undergo drastic weight loss tend to experience a loss of hair, as well. Cutting down on certain foods may result in a lack of vitamins, protein, or iron – all of which are needed to stimulate healthy hair growth.
If your body’s lacking in any of these, it may be time to check up on your diet:
Iron: A lack of iron will result in a lack of hemoglobin in your blood, the protein responsible for transporting oxygen throughout your body. This oxygen promotes the growth and repair of cells, including those that stimulate hair growth.
Vitamin B12: As this vitamin plays a vital role in cell growth, it’s needed to produce new hair cells and keep your hair growth in check.
Vitamin D: These guys help create new hair follicles. No vitamin D, no new hair follicles, and your hair growth is effectively stunted.
Protein: Consuming enough protein is an essential part of healthy hair growth, being that protein is a primary component of its inner structure. When your body lacks protein, it saves what little it has left by moving growing hairs into their resting phase.
Of course, these hairs eventually fall out within two to three months – but if there isn’t enough protein grow new replacement strands, signs of hair loss become noticeable.
How to combat this
Maintaining a healthy diet is beneficial in more ways than just hair growth. However, if you’re experiencing a sudden amount of fallout, it’s worth looking at what foods you need more of – or what supplements you can take.
Fortunately, supplements exist for each of the nutrients discussed above, and can be taken after or before your meals. But if you want to adjust your actual meals, below are some of the best foods to eat for each:
Iron: lentils, beans, nuts, seeds, whole wheat or brown rice, fortified breakfast cereals, and green vegetables (Credit: healthdirect)
Vitamin B12: organ meats (ex. animal liver and kidneys), sardines, clams, eggs, tuna, trout, fortified cereal, beef, fortified non-milk, fortified nutritional yeast, and dairy products. (Credit: Healthline)
Vitamin D: beef liver, cheese, egg yolk, and foods fortified with vitamin D (ex. certain orange juices, soy milk, cereals) (Credit: WebMD)
Protein: lean meats, eggs, dairy products, soy products, seeds, nuts, beans, and lentils. (Credit: BetterHealth Channel)
Of course, it’s important to keep a good balance of everything. For better advice on maintaining a healthy, nutritional diet, it’s best to consult with your healthcare professional.
Hair loss is a natural phenomena among all of us, and is usually no cause for panic. However, if bundles of brittle hair are starting to build a new rug on your floor – it’s probably best to investigate why. A little lifestyle tweak here and there may be worth it for a strong, healthy mane that doesn’t shed with every brush.
It won’t just be your hair reaping the benefits – but your overall health and shower drain, too!