My Journey with Hair Loss
Since my first love and passion is hair (I own a salon and have been in the industry for over fifteen years), I get really excited about the intersection of hair and health.
Let’s start with the basics. Hair is made up of keratin protein that grows from a follicle under the skin. The hairs growth cycle is made up of 3 main phases:
The Anagen (growing) phase, which lasts 2 to 6 years. During this phase, the hair is firmly attached to its root.
The Catagen (transitional) phase, which lasts a few days, when the hair stops growing and forms the basis for the next hair.
The Telogen (resting) phase which lasts 3 to 4 months. This is the hair shedding phase and causes the stem cells to move deeper into the dermis to start a new anagen phase.
The hair follicle actually releases from the scalp 90 days before the hair itself begins to fall out, so when there is an uptick in shedding, it can be helpful to look back 90 days and assess what was going on in your life at that time, such as heightened stress, diet changes, or changes in new medication. Interesting fact: hair can hold 90 days’ worth of information, whereas blood retains just 72 hours’ worth.
The stylist in me is observing an increase in hair loss across all age ranges. Let’s look at this more closely.
There are different types of hair loss. If we can identify the type, we can determine if it's temporary or permanent. On average, we lose 50-100 strands of hair a day. For women, the numbers can be as high as 80-120. So, say you don’t wash or brush your hair for days, use dry shampoo, and keep your hair up in a messy bun. When it's wash day, you might shed a giant ball of hair. That’s probably just your normal shedding. But if you start noticing more in your comb, on your pillow, or bald spots popping up, then there might be cause for concern.
Let me tell you my story:
I always had a fine texture to my hair, but there was medium density to it, so I had a good amount. About 5-6 years ago, I had a major flare up of inflammation and Lyme disease. I made significant diet and lifestyle changes in order to get it under control. About 6 months into my new regimen, my hair started coming out, almost in clumps. Imagine–every stylist’s worst nightmare!
I ran to my natural doctor, who explained that my body was detoxing: EVERYTHING THAT GOES INTO THE BODY COMES OUT IN THE HAIR.
But he assured me it would come back stronger and healthier. It did come back, but it was not as dense. I tried everything: hair vitamins, topical treatments–conventional and natural–even Rogaine, which gave me massive headaches.
What I went through is called shock shedding, which can result from major stressful events such as surgeries, medications, and hormone changes (hello, pregnancy). In most cases, the hair growth will return to normal. In my case, however, the shock shedding triggered a genetic response, activating androgenetic alopecia, or hereditary hair loss.
Androgenetic alopecia can skip generations. So while I was doing all these surface level things, they were just boosters to treat the symptoms. I needed to get to the root of the problem (pun intended).
I focused on stabilizing the hair follicles with a medical grade laser to preserve the hair I had and prevent excessive shedding. I am only several months into this new journey and already seeing a difference!
If you’re suffering from hair loss, reach out!