Archive for the ‘Natural Hair Growth’ Category
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
Baldness stalks us from the beginning of life to the end. Sure, your mom told you that you should never make fun of anyone’s new bald baby. It’s bad manners and worse, you have no way of knowing (when the time comes) if your baby will be the butt of snide remarks and snickers. Of course, there’s the bad karma thing to worry about, as well.
The same thing is true about the misfortune of hair loss victims. Go with the golden rule – don’t laugh, at least not out loud. Taking a tour of hair loss through history will prepare you for the day when hair loss hits home.
Flickr doesn’t have any photos online of the 2008 Vice Presidential candidate that show his before and after hair loss and hair replacement treatment. Although Vice President Biden’s hair has been thinning for the last 10 to 20 years, a few people just missed the whole story about his attempt to do something about his thinning hair.
Many people who have seen Biden’s hair replacement treatment are shaking their heads in disbelief. Quite a few are even laughing out loud, in spite of what their mom taught them. One online magazine that follows Washington politicos even went so far as to call it Biden’s Helmet.
Hair transplants don’t regrow hair. Furthermore, like comb-overs, they attract even more attention to your head. If you’re Joe Biden, on a mission to create world peace or restore economic growth, that could be quite a distraction.
One problem with his hair transplant is that while his hair was thinning over several decades, it also changed colors. Finally, his full head of hair is an attractive silver gray. However, the transplanted hair doesn’t quite match the hair that’s still growing. Professional hair stylists have suggested that he dye all his transplanted hair a darker color.
Too bad that he’ll have to join the ranks of millions of women who dye their hair, to hide their gray. He looks great with gray hair, plugs and all.
Tags: baldness, combovers, hair loss, hair plugs, hair replacement treatment, hair transplants, regrow hair, Vice President Biden
Posted in Hair Loss Products, Natural Hair Growth | No Comments »
Saturday, January 16th, 2010
Travel to the tropics – the Caribbean, Latin American, along with most of Africa, Asia and the Pacific islands means taking anti-malaria medications. Chances are, you’ll suffer some hair loss when you do. Frequent travelers who must rely on these medications often complain about their side effects. If you or your loved ones are traveling or working in the tropics, and take anti-malarial drugs, be forewarned about malaria drugs and unexplained hair loss.
Quinine was the most widely used anti-malaria medication for most of the 20th century. It has been replaced by chloroquine (Aralen), mefloquinine (Lariam, Mephaquine, Melfiam), and Daraprim (pyrimethamine). In 1963, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research initiated a search for more effective anti-malarial drugs, due to Vietnam War fighting conditions. The FDA approved mefloquinine in 1989. Now it is widely prescribed for thousands of Peace Corps volunteers, Foreign Service employees, and military personnel. Many take Lariam, because of its convenient weekly dosing.
These anti-malarial medications cause telogen effluvium, sudden hair loss. It’s easy to detect. It is usually occurs near the front of the head or hairline. Hairs in the resting (telogen) phase develop small white nodules on the end of the shaft, while the scalp prepares to shed them. However, it can take up to three months for your scalp to eject the dead hair. You may not experience this side effect until your trip is long over.
The medications can cause up to 30 percent of your hair to switch from the normal growth phase into a resting phase. Since 10 percent of your hair is usually in a resting phase at all times, your total hair loss suddenly jumps to 40 percent.
Malaria kills up to one million unprotected people every year. If you don’t die, you’re sick enough to want to die. So, it’s a good idea to take the pills. Research has been underway since 2004 for malaria medications to replace mefloquinine, because of some other disturbing side effects. Some promising alternatives may be available soon. However, ask your physician if sudden hair loss is a known side effect of any new malaria medications.
Tags: anti-malarial, Aralen, chloroquine, Daraprim, dead hair, Lariam, malaria medications, Melfiam, Mephaquine, pyrimethamine, quinine, sudden hair loss, Telogen effluvium
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Hair loss is a major cause of concern for millions of men around the world. While times are changing and a bald head is no longer frowned upon as much as it was a decade back, having a hair full of lustrous, wavy hair is still considered by many to be a sign of health and good looks.
Changing lifestyles, stressed out lives, and less time to take care of our bodies have resulted in a situation where every man today faces hair loss to a certain extent. If this hair loss is within the normal growth cycle of hair, there is little to worry about. However, for most men, this is not the case.
For such men, hair loss treatments are the only way out to avoid embarrassment. Yes, hair loss can be a cause of embarrassment for many men, especially if the hair loss is heavy enough to result in bald patches on the head. However, lot of men are not sure whether they should go in for hair loss treatments or not, and for good reason.
Hair loss treatments are a recent development and not all reviews about such treatments are positive. In such a scenario it is very tough to take a decision about receiving hair loss treatment. Like every other beauty treatment, hair loss treatments also have their own pros and cons that call for proper consideration before taking a final decision.
Let us look at some of these and compare our options.
Pros of Hair Loss Treatments
- Hair is an important part of the personality of a man. There is a difference in the respect given to a man with good hair and that given to a man with little or no hair. More hair often means more respect. Hair loss treatments can help you earn this respect by restoring the thickness of your hair.
- Losing hair quickly and at a young age can severely affect a man’s self-confidence and tarnish his self-image. By getting proper hair loss treatment, this loss of self-confidence can be reversed and avoided.
- Women find men with a full head of hair more attractive then bald ones. Of course there are women who prefer bald men, but these are a minority. Most women love running their fingers through the hair of their partners. With hair loss treatment, men can make sure they always remain attractive to the opposite sex.
Cons of Hair Loss Treatments
-
With the exception of surgery and follicular hair transplants, no other hair loss treatments provide a permanent solution to hair falling out. Most treatments can only help you control hair fall and not replace the hair already lost. Moreover, any hair growth benefits gained during treatment are quickly lost once treatment is stopped.
- Almost all hair loss treatments are really heavy on the pocket. Permanent solutions such as surgery and hair transplants can burn a hole in your wallet, while other treatments are just as expensive as they call for long term usage.
- No hair loss treatment currently available in the market is free of side effects. Many drug-based treatments are known to carry severe side effects. Other treatments also have some or the other unwanted effect, which just cannot be avoided.On the whole, hair loss treatments are balanced between pros and cons and the decision to take hair loss treatment differs from individual to individual. It should be taken entirely on the urgency of need for hair loss treatment and the overall positive benefits to be gained from such a treatment.
On the whole, hair loss treatments are balanced between pros and cons and the decision to take hair loss treatment differs from individual to individual. It should be taken entirely on the urgency of need for hair loss treatment and the overall positive benefits to be gained from such a treatment.
Tags: hair growth benefits, hair loss embarassment, hair loss treatments, hair self confidence, hairloss side effects
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
Celebrities throughout the world have their own hair stylists. This plum spot can lead to increased demand, additional upscale clientele and higher fees. A few stylists to the stars and glitterati have landed book deals, network interviews and media contracts, including reality shows.
Of course, Michelle Obama, the first lady, has a personal hair stylist, Johnny Wright. She found him quite by accident while she was living in Chicago. During the campaign, she called on him several times to dress her tresses and he became a regular. Her previous stylist, Rahni Flowers, of Chicago had kept Michelle’s hair beautiful for 26 years. He declined the invitation to accompany the first family to DC. However, Wright moved to DC to take up the challenge and open a new salon in the area.
Inquiring minds want to know more about Michelle’s hair care regime, but Wright is mum about the products he uses on her hair. Since the first lady is perimenopausal, does she have thinning hair? Rumors abound that she is actually bald. The persistent rumor that she may be pregnant also leads searchers to speculate that she is experiencing pregnancy related hair loss. Some searchers are trying to find out if her hairstyle is based on a weave!
Although her hairstyle is unremarkable, it is elegant and simple enough to let her manage the long hours on the campaign trail and now to represent the nation with flying colors. Her most recent haircut, in July set the blog universe abuzz. Everyone from the Huffington Post and Anderson Cooper to the Michelle Obama Watch has an opinion about her hairdos.
Almost as an afterthought, some people do want to know who cuts President Obama’s hair. And his haircut is popular with all ages. Since he just gets haircuts (and he’s a man), this doesn’t get as much search volume or website blog action as does the first lady’s hair styling and stylist. There are over 400,000 plus websites at this point where discussions are taking place about Michelle’s hair. There are also over 100,000 blog posts, 10,000 in the last month alone.
It appears that Hairdresser to the Stars is not a bad job when you consider fame and the opportunity to catapult your career into a higher gear, during and after this sojourn. Folks who have shunned this “pedestrian career” might want to take a second look.
Tags: hair care, hair loss, haircut, Johnny Wright, Michelle Obama, pregnancy, President Obama, Rahni Flowers, thinning hair, womens hair loss
Posted in Female Hair Loss, Natural Hair Growth | 2 Comments »
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
If you’re pregnant, you can expect to lose some of your hair during and after pregnancy. Search your family tree. If either of your parents or your grandparents had significant hair loss by middle age, keep your fingers crossed. You may have inherited the baldness gene. Are you a female Baby Boomer? Congratulations – you’re menopausal or perimenopausal and so is your hair. If you work in certain occupations, engage in water sports that involve swimming pools and seawater, or live with certain diseases like lupus and diabetes, expect hair issues. The brutal facts are that heredity, lifestyle and life’s events can cause thinning hair, excessive hair loss or baldness.
It’s hard to escape all of the potential factors that could contribute to your hair loss. Meanwhile, back at the fort. The best defense is a good offense. You can help your hair stay healthy longer by adopting a kinder, gentler approach to hair grooming. At least you won’t unwittingly contribute to the factors that could rob your of your hair.
Your hair does NOT need many of the ingredients that you find on the label of your shampoo and conditioner. Many of the indecipherable ingredients have no real purpose in hair care; most are preservatives, binders, waxes or coloring agents. They give you a temporary hair fix. Unfortunately, you will soon find that you need another fix soon after, if you are to keep your bad hair days to a minimum. Even a few organic and natural shampoos use some suspect ingredients.
Grab a shampoo bottle; any bottle from a major cosmetics manufacturer will do. Take out your reading glasses and fire up your browser. Get ready for some interesting reading. In addition to the usual suspects mentioned here previously (DEA, Phalates, Parabens, Propylene and Polyethylene Glycol, Sodium Lauryl and Sodium Laureth Sulfate), some other common ingredients that you DON’T need for healthy hair are:
1. Fragrance
2. Imidazolidinyl Urea
3. DMDM Hydantoin
4. Isopropyl Alcohol
5. Mineral Oil and Petrolatum
These ingredients can lead to skin irritation and dryness, hormone disruptions, cancer and worse. A good rule of thumb for hair care ingredients is if you can’t eat it, you shouldn’t be putting it on your skin and hair!
Visit the Skin Deep website to find shampoos and conditioners with the fewest unnecessary chemicals. Give the hair you’ve got a better chance of staying on your head.
Tags: baldness, binders, conditioner, DMDM Hydantoin, Fragrance, grooming, hair loss, Imidazolidinyl Urea, ingredients, irritation, Isopropyl Alcohol, menopausal, Mineral Oil, natural, organic, Petrolatum, pregnancy, preservatives, shampoo, thinning hair, waxes, womens hair loss
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
A quick search of the Internet shows that hair care is an immensely popular business. People engaged in this business include the manufacturers of shampoos, conditioners, hair dyes, styling gels and mousses, along with hair appliances. This category of hair care businesses alone accounts for billions (not millions) of dollars annually of our national economy.
The various stylists who wash, curl, condition, color and cut our hair make up the next largest segment of this business. This side of the industry has many independent operators who set up shop after completing vocational school courses that they need to obtain a cosmetology license. In addition, we have beauty and barber shop franchises. This type of hair care business comes with a proven business plan and a trademark that can catapult sales well above those that independent shops can garner.
Wigs for vanity, along with toupees for hair loss victims, are yet another large segment of the hair care industry. In addition to full wigs, the current mania with hair as adornment spurs the hair enhancement segment. This includes production of synthetic hair and processing of human hair, packaged and sold for braids, weaves and temporary applications, like buns and ponytails.
Drugstores, grocers, beauty supply stores and websites devote a sizable amount of shelf-space and inventory stock to hair care products. In addition to the cleaning, styling and conditioning products, consumers need easy access to combs, brushes, hair appliances, scruncis, hair rollers, hair bands and barrettes. Whether you plop down your money at the store or online, this segment of the hair care industry gets a fair share of the economic pie too.
As the population ages and more adults begin to experience hair loss and thinning hair, the customer base for hair loss treatments and hair replacement therapies will increase dramatically. New products, appliances and appear almost daily.
More than ever before in history, the hair care industry, along with its suppliers, is responsible for millions of jobs. When we take stock, we see that hair or the lack of it is fueling a thriving segment of the economy. Even during a recession or a full-scale depression, hair care is big business for many. How on earth did the economy grow before the first commercially bottled shampoo and the first hair salon appeared?
Tags: baldness, business, conditioners, economy, franchise, hair care, hair care industry, hair enhancement, hair loss, hair replacement, shampoos, stylists, synthetic hair, thinning hair, toupees, treatment, vanity, wigs
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | 1 Comment »
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
During the Holocaust, those fortunate enough to be incarcerated immediately had their heads shaven. The reason - robbing a person of their hair immediately reduces self-esteem. All too often, regardless of culture, hair defines our identity.
Throughout history, hair has been the subject of many musings, pontifications and quotes that range from the silly and hilarious to the most sublime and somber. These quotes cover every hair issue from beauty to baldness.
Beauty & Adoration
“Hair brings one’s self-image into focus; it is vanity’s proving ground. Hair is terribly personal, a tangle of mysterious prejudices.” - Shana Alexander
“Hair is vitally personal to children. They weep vigorously when it is cut for the first time; no matter how it grows, bushy, straight or curly, they feel they are being shorn of a part of their personality.” - Charles Chaplin
“The hair is the richest ornament of women.” - Martin Luther
“I’m a big woman. I need big hair.” - Aretha Franklin
“I’m undaunted in my quest to amuse myself by constantly changing my hair.” - Hillary Clinton
“Long on hair, short on brains” - French Proverb
“I’m not offended by all the dumb-blonde jokes because I know that I’m not dumb. I also know I’m not blonde.” - Dolly Parton
Gray Hair
“Gray hair is a sign of age, not of wisdom.” - Greek proverb
“Gray hair is God’s graffiti” - Bill Cosby
“Gray hair is a blessing - ask any bald man.” - Unknown
“By common consent gray hairs are a crown of glory; the only object of respect that can never excite envy.” - George Bancroft
“There is only one cure for gray hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine.” - P. G. Wodehouse
Baldness
“A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.” - Oliver Herford
“I am not the archetypal leading man. This is mainly for one reason: as you may have noticed, I have no hair.” - Patrick Stewart
“It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.” - Cicero
“I don’t care if they call me “baldie” or “chrome dome.” God took an eraser and brushed my head clean. I’d rather be bald on top than bald inside.” - Joe Garagiola
” >Babies haven’t any hair:
Old men’s heads are just as bare;
From the cradle to the grave
Lies a haircut and a shave.”
- Samuel Goodman Hoffenstein
Tags: baldness, beauty, gray hair, hair, hair loss, hair quotes, history, identity, inspirations, quotes, self-esteem
Posted in Natural Hair Growth, Vitamins | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
American women of African descent still pay homage to Madame C. J. Walker who invented the straightening comb in the 1920s. This hair appliance freed African-American women from countless hours of near futile hairstyling attempts. Madame Walker died a millionaire, even though the results of her method of hair torture were temporary! Rain, swimming pools and any other type of exposure to water could easily make her customers hair “turn back” or revert to its naturally curly state.
The combination of the straightening comb and hot curling irons made weekly visits to the local beauty shop an ethereal pleasure for women of all social classes. Those who had limited funds could stretch the time between their visits by investing in their own equipment and doing their hair at home. In this use, the straightening comb could have easily been responsible for complete baldness for millions of African American women.
In inexperienced hands, the straightening comb was capable of burning human hair right down to the hair follicles. The appliances that we have today have temperature controls that prevent them from reaching temperatures so high that they can burn your scalp and hair severely. However, the heating method for straightening combs was to place them on an open flame on a gas stove. A difference of a few seconds could easily result in a burned scalp.
Burned hair might grow back, but hair follicles do not often recover from scarring. Cicatrical alopecia (scarring) plagued many of the women who sought to beautify themselves with Madame Walker’s wonderful, new invention. However, it remained the hair torture appliance of choice for most African-American women until the invention of permanent hair straighteners during the later part of the 20th century.
Instead of heat, this method relied on the application of chemicals that changed the structure of the hair shaft from curly to flat. Many hairdressers and their clients hailed this innovation as a great leap forward in African-American hair care. Few dermatologists saw the application of chemicals like lye to the sensitive skin on the scalp as progress.
What permanent straighteners changed was the length of time that the hair remained straight and the necessity of avoiding water exposure. To the legions of women who were not satisfied with the texture of their hair, that’s progress. Or so it seems.
Tags: African American hair, cicatrical alopecia, curly hair, hair care, hair care history, hair style history, Madame C. J. Walker, straightening comb
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | 3 Comments »
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Three hundred years ago, more people young and old were bald because of poor hygiene, lack of attention to hair grooming, and the prevalence of numerous viruses and bacteria in our living environment.
Children were more likely to have ringworm. Head lice were common. People lost hair permanently and temporarily due to illnesses like measles, scarlet fever and other outbreaks that ravaged the unprotected public. Penicillin, the polio vaccine and DPT immunizations have allowed most countries to leave these health and hair threats behind during the last 100 years. Yet baldness is on the rampage in developed countries of the Western world. In addition, the victims of baldness seem to be stricken at a younger age every year.
Male and female pattern baldness together account for the same percentages of partial and total hair loss that they did 100 years ago. The incidence would not increase without some major deviation in the human gene pool. The age at which men and women are affected by genetically linked hair loss should not abruptly change either, barring a significant biological shift.
What then are the likely causes of increased hair loss in our civilization? Who are the most likely suspects? To paraphrase a character from the old Pogo cartoons – “We have met the enemy and it is us!” The criminals robbing us of our precious hair are inside our homes and staring back at us in the mirror.
The nutritional values of the normal diet in the Western world rose steadily until the middle of the 20th century. Scurvy and rickets passed into oblivion as the majority of the urban and rural population began to have regular access to adequate vitamins, minerals and protein for good health. The popularity of fast food and processed food that now holds sway in the West leaves children and adults without sufficient minerals and vitamins to maintain healthy systems.
Snack foods, convenience foods and even school cafeterias push fats, salt, sugar and unpronounceable chemical preservatives down our throats daily. Obesity in children and adults is a national epidemic. The American Medical Association and the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association and others warn us constantly that our eating habits must change.
Our nation’s risky eating behaviors are robbing us of vitality, longevity, AND possibly our hair. Despite enormous progress in medical and scientific over the past three hundred years, the greatest threat to your hair may be your knife and fork, instead of genetics and disease.
Tags: Diet, hair loss, hair threats, lice, minerals, pattern baldness, protein, ringworm, risky eating behaviors, Vitamins
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
If you can’t find any use for all the hair that you are losing, think again. Hair art is in fashion. Your hair could find a place in one of the world’s hair museums. For centuries, in some cultures, people have collected human hair and turned it into objects of beauty.
Some of these items have found an unlikely home in the United States at Leila’s Hair Museum, in Independence, Missouri. The owner, Leila Cohoon started collecting these ‘objets d’art made from hair, years ago. The collection grew to over 2,000 individual keepsakes that have been fashioned into jewelry using hair. The collection also has over one hundred wreaths made from human hair, along with buttons and artwork.
There is even an organization called the Victorian Hairwork Society that works to increase popular interest in hair artwork. One of the most interesting thing on their website is a photo of a crown made entirely from hair. The hairwork society is the brainchild of Ms. Cohoon. The organization also has hosted hairballs since 1998 for members and friends.
The impetus for this hair artwork comes from the Victorian era. The craft of making keepsakes from hair blossomed alongside crocheting and knotting. This skill was popular because once the memento was complete, the receiver could wear it or display it as a reminder of a current or lost object of affection. This intricate artwork appeared in many forms, but the most popular was mourning jewelry, mainly broaches and pins.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, a man in Avanos, Turkey has a hair museum with 16,000 locks of women’s hair. The museum’s owner, Galip Korukcu, is a potter who started this collection as a way to attract participants to his pottery classes.
He started his collection in 1979 and has now won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. he does not use the hair in any artwork. He keeps each person’s hair along with their address. Every year, he invites several of his museum’s donors to attend a free workshop at his estate.
Tags: Galip Korukcu, Hair art, hairballs, human hair, keepsakes, Leila Cohoon, Leila's Hair Museum, mourning jewelry, museums, pottery, Victorian Hairwork Society, wreaths
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | 2 Comments »
|
