Are you worried about hair loss? Let’s take a look at both causes and cures. And there can be many causes, from hormonal imbalances due to under active thyroid, drugs, pharmaceuticals, and poor diet, especially too few B complex vitamins, Vitamin C, zinc, sulfur, and iron. But if you find you’re losing hair at a rapid rate, don't panic. It’s normal to lose 50 to 100 hairs each day. There is a strong link between anxiety and hair loss, especially excess shedding of hair at the telogen stage, which can be made much worse by worrying about it. It’s time to go through a rational process of elimination to discover possible causes then you can do what’s necessary to correct the shedding. Ask yourself the following questions:
Are you taking any medication such as the birth control pill or artificially based hormone-replacement therapy? These are common causes of thinning hair, which can be corrected by stopping the drugs and turning to bio-identical hormone replacements under the guidance of a knowledgeable health practitioner. Anti-coagulants, cortisone, and diet pills such as amphetamines are also anathema to hair health. So is boric acid, which stupidly gets added to shampoos, skincare products, ointments for cuts and burns—even eye baths—so read labels carefuly before you buy. Thyroid medication can be a culprit—shift to natural thyroid treatments instead. So can simple aspirin, if you take as many as one or two a day. Now, let me with share you what I have learned over the years about how to stop hair loss:
Have you had major illnesses or traumas in your life recently? Shock, illness, and emotional worry can bring about heavy shedding of telogen hairs. This is called telogen effluvium. Help can be had from vitamin supplements—more about this in a moment—and from eating organic liver often. Even getting enough physical activity to help you deal with stressors in your life can help. dramatically. Is is your scalp tight or loose when you put your fingers into it? Start giving yourself a daily scalp massage. And start brushing the old fashioned way—fifty strokes each day. I do myself, and it works.
Are you anemic? Women, who suffer from anemia far more often than men do, frequently find their hair has thinned greatly. Have a serum iron test and a total iron-binding capacity test done to find out.
Is your hair breaking off near the roots from over-processing, sun bleaching, or too much heat on it? This is easy to detect. If you sit in front of a mirror with the light coming from behind, you’ll be able to see a myriad of tiny hairs standing up out of the scalp no longer than a half to three quarters of an inch. If you examine them carefully, you’ll find that even these short hairs are damaged, with split ends. Consider cutting your hair shorter until the damaged hair has grown out and healthy hair shafts replace it.
Have you recently been pregnant? Women often lose hair during pregnancy. It may be the result of hormonal changes or some kind of subclinical vitamin or mineral deficiency—often zinc as it is very low in most women just after childbirth. Happily this condition usually disappears a few weeks after the baby is born, provided your diet is adequate and you are generally well.
Do you wear your hair pulled back, or have you been putting rollers in too tightly? A common cause of hair loss is simple traction caused by a tightly wrapped rubber band around a ponytail, or curlers that are too tight. The pull on the hair interferes with proper circulation there and results in damage to the hair follicles, which shed their hairs. If this is the case, you need to change your hairstyle, stop rolling curlers tightly, and give yourself daily massage or treatment with an electric vibrator. If you are using a nylon-bristled brush, rollers with brushes in them, or a too fine-toothed comb, you should replace them as they can exacerbate hair loss.
Most important of all—Look to your diet:
- Eat plenty of foods high in biotin and take biotin supplements. Biotin is needed for healthy hair and skin and to help prevent hair loss. Good food sources include brewers yeast, brown rice, bulgur, green peas, lentils, oats, sunflower seeds, and raw organic walnuts.
- Don’t eat raw eggs until hair loss has stopped. You see, because raw eggs contain a protein that binds biotin and prevents it from being absorbed. Cooked free-range eggs are okay.
- Rinsing your hair with Kombucha tea is far more effective than all the fancy products sold in salons for hair growth and regeneration. It might even prevent hair greying.
- You can also use apple cider vinegar and sage tea as a rinse to encourage hair growth.
- Horsetail tea is the best source of silica, which all of us need for strong, shiny hair, and healthy nails.
BEST HAIR GROWTH SUPPLEMENTS
- Good quality Omege-3 oils improve hair texture and help prevent hair loss and damage.
- Raw thymus glandular—500 mg a day—stimulates immune function and improves the functioning capacity of hair glands.
- Vitamin B complex with B3 50mg, B5 100 mg, B6 50 mg, biotin 50 mg, and inositol 100 mg top quality B vitamins are needed for the health and growth of hair.
- Vitamin C—3000 to 10,000 mg a day can greatly improve scalp circulation.
- Vitamin E—start with 400 IU and slowly increase to 800-1000 IU—increases oxygen uptake, which improves circulation to the scalp.
- Coenzyme Q10—improves scalp circulation and increases tissue oxygenation.
- Kelp—500 mg/day—supplies minerals for healthy hair growth.
- Silica or horsetail—helps keep your hair looking shiny and sleek.
Finally, when it comes to reestablishing a gorgeous thick head of healthy hair, always go the natural route. Why? Because it works. You can spend a fortune on hyped-up hair restoring products and get nowhere. Let Nature do it for you!
Supplements I personally recommend:
Life Extension, BioActive Complete B-Complex
What distinguishes BioActive Complete B-Complex is that it provides enzymatically active forms of critical nutrients like the pyridoxal-5-phosphate form of Vitamin B6, the active form of folate (5-MTHF) that is up to 7 times more bioavailable than folic acid, and meaningful potencies of each B-vitamin.
Life Extension, Natural Vitamin E, 400 IU
There has been a long-standing debate as to whether natural or synthetic Vitamin E is better. For most vitamins, there is no difference between natural and synthetic. With Vitamin E, however, the natural form has proven far superior.