Posts Tagged ‘thinning hair’
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 | 4 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 | 2 Comments »
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
Bald men do not get a date with the prom queen and women with thinning hair are not likely to date the captain of the football team. Of course, few people experience hair loss as early as high school; however, our cultural views about hair loss are usually firmly set by the time we reach adulthood. It does not take a scientific study to prove that hair loss can affect your social life, and your career.
The news is rife with stories of discrimination against overweight people. Most politically correct people will now call them weight challenged, but does that even begin to undo the average person’s first impression of people with substantial girth?
We assume that they have no discipline and self-control. Even when they have a relatively proportioned body, attractive facial features or a great head of hair, our cultural prejudices will kick in. We either ignore them, try to fix them, or make jokes about their condition.
With few legal cases on the books, it is difficult to prove that the weight challenged suffer from unfair discrimination in employment. However, certain jobs, including the military, do impose weight restrictions on potential applicants. So, career opportunities for people whose weight exceeds the standard can be limited.
Career discrimination against bald people and those who are losing their hair is one of the hidden costs of hair loss. Our cultural perceptions of competency and leadership potential are tied to a genetic message hardwired into the human psyche.
In the days of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of early humanoids, the strongest men were appointed to track down dangerous predators like the saber-toothed tiger. Even those who were charged with hunting down the beasts that provided food had to meet certain requirements of speed, strength and virility. The bald and the old need not apply. With survival a priority, the subtle discrimination against people with hair loss took root in human culture.
We all know that appearance can affect career opportunities. Many people in line for management and corporate leadership positions go to great expense to hide any evidence of hair loss. They dress for success by investing in the right clothing, shoes and other career props. They also realize that they must treat hair loss aggressively before it affects their career opportunities.
Being the most competent and qualified often is not enough if your competition has more hair!
Tags: bald, baldness, career opportunities, cultural prejudices, discrimination, genetic message, hair growth, hair loss, hidden cost, strength, thinning hair, treatment, virility
Posted in Female Hair Loss, Natural Hair Growth | Comments Off
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Hair has been a hot topic forever. Hair care has its own unique history, just like hair loss. No culture or society seems immune to this fascination with hair. Along the way, hair played a starring role in the attraction of the opposite sex and attractiveness to potential mates. Of course, that makes thinning hair and baldness even more important.
Prehistoric cave drawings suggest that men dragged the woman that they chose home by her hair. That may be a myth, but do you suppose that having no hair made it harder for prehistoric women to get a suitable mate? Of course, being dragged around by your hair could lead to early baldness. So, hair was probably a Catch 22 for the women of that era.
Hair Care Practices
Did we develop hair care practices as part of the mating ritual? If not, where do society’s hair practices come from? Early Christians and Muslims shared the philosophy of making women cover their hair. This practice lost popularity in one religion. However, the Catholic church still frowns on uncovered heads, apparently for women only. The nuns also cover their hair to this day, but the priests get to display their crowning glory for all to see.
Hair Styling History
Some hairstyles have been popular during specific eras in history. A few finally died a well-deserved death. The beehive and the 1920s permanent wave immediately come to mind. Both these hairstyles were made possible by the invention of technologies that helped women torture their tresses with heat, chemicals and tension, sometimes all three, at one setting.
Hair care may have taken a turn for the worse when “colorists” started using peroxide and ammonia to bleach women’s hair at the end of the 19th century. When Charles Nessler invented a permanent wave machine at the beginning of the 20th century and the hairstyling industry took a great leap forward.Synthetic hair came on the scene in 1908. Interestingly, it was made from cotton and corn, along with some other available grain products. Could it be that these new technologies used to attack (women’s) hair spurred the need for synthetic hair, wigs and other hair replacements?
Buddhist monks and ascetics often shave their heads. Are they always smiling because they know a secret? Or perhaps they are happy because they have been relieved of our historical fixation on hair as an object of beauty.
Tags: ammonia, baldness, beehive, Buddhist monks, Charles Nessler, chemicals, colorists, hair loss, hair replacements, heat, mating ritual, permanent wave machine, peroxide, synthetic hair, thinning hair
Posted in Female Hair Loss, Natural Hair Growth | Comments Off
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
Changing jobs may save your hair. Healthcare and industrial workers often experience occupational hair loss. Nurses, doctors and medical assistants are affected by toxins in their environment that people who do not work in a hospital setting are not normally exposed to every day. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, monitors occupational health hazards. This agency has gathered evidence that exposure to many industrial chemicals can be linked to many serious illnesses and hair loss.
Healthcare workers who treat cancer patients with chemotherapy drugs (antineoplastic medications) have a higher than normal incidence of abnormal hair loss. These anti-cancer agents are already known to cause temporary hair loss in people who receive treatment with them. However, repeated exposure from handling these drugs has side effects that have only recently come to light.
Evidence that NIOSH collected from studies conducted since 1988 suggest that dermatitis, rashes and hair loss are common among healthcare workers, including pharmacists, who handle these drugs. Other occupational side effects include reproductive problems, along with kidney and liver damage. The beneficial effects of these drugs for the patients outweigh their side effects. However, the medical community must grapple with the problem of protecting healthcare workers from the unintended consequences of this occupational hazard.
Investigators have found that many workers who inhale and handle chloroprene during manufacturing experience dermatitis and temporary hair loss, along with serious illnesses like cancer and kidney disease. this chemical is formed by processing of the ingredients used to make synthetic rubber, neoprene. DuPont introduced neoprene in 1931. Polymerization of butadiene produces chloroprene. Natural rubber made from rubber tree sap does not contain the toxic chemicals produced by neoprene.
Since the federal government became aware of the significance of this exposure, most workers have been required to wear respiratory masks. Isolated incidents still occur due to accidents and spills. Wholesalers and retailers who stock large volumes of sporting goods products may put inventory workers at risk of excessive exposure.
Consumers who purchase synthetic rubber products have not reported the same adverse symptoms that affect industrial workers. Outside the automobile industry, the most common uses of neoprene in consumer products are waterproof wetsuits, waders, gloves, and boots. With the exception of waders, direct skin contact occurs during use. Irritation from prolonged skin exposure has been reported, but studies of dermatitis and hair loss in consumers are not conclusive.
Consult your physician for a diagnosis and find out if your occupation plays any role in your onset of bald spots or thinning hair.
Tags: antineoplastic medications, automobile industry, bald spots, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chemotherapy drugs, dermatitis, DuPont, industrial chemicals, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, neoprene, occupation, occupational hair loss, rashes, synthetic rubber, thinning hair, waterproof
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | Comments Off
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
The Food and Drug Administration recently issued stringent new guidelines that require the testing of all herbal supplements. Compliance with this ruling will be phased in through 2010. The FDA does not regulate herbal supplements, since they are not considered to be drugs. However, in recent years, there have been some notable cases that linked severe illness and even death to some herbal supplements. In most instances, the herbs were not the culprits. The FDA and other independent researchers found that the manufacturers’ formulations were at fault.
In 2007, the Occupational Medicine Clinic at University of California Davis reported on the case of a woman who started taking kelp, fish oil and other supplements to relieve menopause symptoms. Over a two-year period, she suffered from fatigue, memory loss and severe alopecia. Since she was self medicating, her physicians were at a loss to find the cause of her symptoms.
At one point, she doubled her daily intake of the kelp supplement and stopped taking the others. Her hair loss increased. This decision allowed her physicians to isolate the potential cause. Lab testing revealed that she had toxic levels of arsenic in her blood and her urine. Her doctors recommended that she stop taking the kelp supplement. Normal hair growth resumed within two weeks.
UC Davis investigated potential problems with arsenic in kelp supplements. They purchased nine samples produced by different manufacturers, including three that the women had taken during the previous two-year period. Eight of the samples had traceable amounts of arsenic. Seven exceeded the acceptable levels set by the FDA for food products. None of the samples had indication on their labels that they contained arsenic.
Supplement Toxins
Kelp is not the only herbal supplement that has been found to contain unacceptable levels of toxins. In 2006, many users of the male enhancement supplement ExtenZe complained of unusual symptoms. Tests of the product found high levels of lead, which can trigger alopecia. Some homeopathic and Ayurvedic supplements have been reported to contain illegal amounts of arsenic, mercury, or lead.
You can recover from alopecia caused by certain supplements. Rescue your hair from their side effects. If you take herbal supplements and you have unexplained hair loss, read reports from the FDA and reputable sites like WebMD to find out if other consumers have complained of thinning hair and patchy bald spots.
Tags: alopecia, arsenic, Ayurvedic, ExtenZe, FDA, hair growth, herbal supplements, homeopathic, kelp, lead, male enhancement supplement, patchy bald spots, thinning hair, toxic, UC Davis
Posted in Health & Wellness, Natural Hair Growth | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
Let’s face it; human beings are the only species on the planet that endure extraordinary and even dangerous remedies for hair loss. The rest of the animal kingdom just moves on. Humans have been losing hair since time immemorial. Unfortunately, human beings have tried almost everything under the sun to restore normal hair growth. Despite the fact that these remedies are mainly futile, they live on in folklore, like urban legends. Consider that almost none of the widely used folk remedies have any scientific evidence to support them. More importantly, if any of them worked, why are so many people still bald?
According to folklore, baldness sufferers only need to rub the scalp with an egg yolk and leave it on the affected area for an hour. Wash the hair to remove the egg yolk. Rinse, Repeat, Repeat! Eggs are plentiful and relatively cheap. They are certainly cheaper than hair transplants. So why haven’t the millions of bald people worldwide been able to restore their normal hair growth with this home remedy?
On the other hand, people who use castor oil as a home remedy for hair loss must not only rub the oil into the scalp and hair roots, but they must also wrap their head in newspaper and leave both the oil and newspaper on their head overnight. Folklore dictates that this treatment must be repeated for at least seven nights to see results. It’s likely that even after washing the hair every morning, the accumulation of ink from the newsprint will be enough to give many hair loss sufferers hope, if not more hair.
Red Henna is a dye made from a plant found in parts of Asia and Africa. To use it as a home remedy for hair loss, you must spread it on the affected area of the scalp and leave it on your head for about an hour. Wash, rinse, repeat for at least 10 days. If your hair doesn’t return, at least you’ll have a great new hair color – red! That is sure to make your thinning hair less noticeable.
Tags: bald, castor oil, egg yolk, folk remedies, hair loss, Hair Loss Products, home remedies, Natural Hair Growth, red henna, thinning hair
Posted in Hair Loss Products, Natural Hair Growth | Comments Off
Friday, November 14th, 2008
Over thirty million women in the United States are experiencing hair loss. It affects some women by the time they reach their teens. Heredity is the main cause of hair loss for women. The degree of hair loss and the pattern is different. Most women suffer from thinning hair instead of complete baldness.
Androgenic alopecia, female-pattern baldness, is inherited from either parent. It affects more than thirty percent of women. The woman’s hair becomes thinner with age because some hair follicles stop producing new hair to replace those that fall out naturally. Sometimes, new hairs are shorter and finer than previous ones. This condition affects the entire scalp, not just the crown of the head. It usually does not affect a woman’s hairline.
Women are much more likely than men to use chemical hair treatments, heat, and hairstyles that pull the hair tightly. Properly used chemicals do not cause hair loss. Many women who use hair dyes, hair straighteners, and perms at home damage their hair and scalp.
Hormones and Hair Loss
Hair loss after pregnancy is also common among women. This condition is usually temporary. It stops naturally about six months after delivery. It occurs because the woman’s estrogen level increases dramatically during pregnancy. When it drops after her delivery, this disrupts the normal growth and rest pattern for her hair follicles. As the hair follicles return to their normal alternating cycles of rest and growth, the postpartum hair loss stops.
The onset of menopause increases a woman’s risk of hair loss by as much as fifty percent. It will continue to increase as she ages. Peri menopause and menopause affect the balance between testosterone and estrogen in women. These hormonal changes are responsible for triggering the onset of thinning hair, even for women who have no genetic predisposition. At the same time, many women report that they notice changes in the texture of their hair after menopause. Unfortunately, while the scalp hair becomes thinner, facial and body hair can become more profuse and coarser.
Two-thirds of all women experience hair loss at some time during their lives. From adolescence through menopause, women’s hormones, lifestyle choices, heredity, and even childbirth put them at risk of hair loss. Treatments for female hair loss are available for women who don’t want to resign themselves to wearing wigs and scarves to hide their thinning hair. These treatments not only help women regrow hair, they also boost self-esteem.
Tags: Female Hair Loss, girl hair growth, hormones, thinning hair, women hair, womens hair loss
Posted in Female Hair Loss, Health & Wellness, Vitamins | 5 Comments »
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
It’s not your imagination. You’re losing hair. Long or short, daily hair loss is normal. As many as 50 to 100 hairs on your head die daily. Normally, new hair replaces them and the beat goes on.
When is hair loss a cause for worry?
Slow hair loss that results in thinning hair or bald spots causes alarm for most people. Thinning hair and baldness can start for some people in their teens. Rapid or sudden excessive hair loss, at any age, should concern you as well. They are both symptoms of a hidden problem.
Stress may be the culprit. Everyone’s body responds to stress differently. Some people get hives or nausea; others find their comb and brush full of hair! Genetics may play a part; some people are predisposed to hair loss. However, if you start treatment before you experience the symptoms, you may be able to triumph over your gene heredity. Chemicals in our water and food, prescription drugs, and over the counter medications can also cause hair loss. Chronic illnesses, shampoos, aggressive brushing, tight braids, greasy pomades and poor nutrition are all possible underlying causes of loss of hair.
Treating hair loss may take as little as a few weeks or the treatment may take several years. The first step to finding the correct treatment is to find the cause of your hair loss. Then you can attack the problem confidently. The dermatologist is your hair’s best friend. Make an appointment to have your hair and skin analyzed.
Like allergy screenings, the tests that a dermatologist conducts will pinpoint possible causes. Modern science can analyze strands of hair with remarkable precision. These tests report what you have eaten and where you have traveled. They will also reveal your exposure to toxic and common household chemicals.
No matter how long you have lived with the symptoms of hair loss, explore the causes of your hair problems. Once you have a diagnosis, you will be ready to tackle the situation with the right tools.
Tags: cause, chronic illness, genetics, hair loss, hair loss stress, thinning hair
Posted in Natural Hair Growth | 2 Comments »
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