Being Boldly Bald - Embracing the Peaches without the Fuzz!

Ever caught yourself running your hand through a head that was once full of dense and healthy strands, only to be met with a scanty crop of thinning patches of strands of hair scattered here and there, and an increasingly receding hairline?!

Peeps we totally empathize… Stereotypically hair loss is considered to be the domain of aging men, however it is pretty common in all genders and age groups.

Ever rising stress levels, the interplay of genetics, and the intemperance as well as impermanence of life can contribute to the same. Armed with the right grub, the battle against thinning hair and prominently visible crowns can be almost half won! Intrigued? Read on for some interesting juice on the basics, causes and remedies of baldness.

Acing the basics – grabbing the bull by the horns

That seemingly innocuous bunch of hair in your hair brush or washroom drains may signify a problem that could have deeper roots. So the million dollar question of the hour is when to start worrying about that swirl of dead protein ending up in odd places.

It is absolutely normal to lose 50-100 hair strands every day. With about a million of the strands on your crowning glory, that small loss doesn’t really make much of a difference.

However if you end up with a significantly greater amount in your hands or brush than on your head every time you run your fingers or hair brush through your scalp, it is probably time to pay a visit to your dermatologist.

Your physician will ascertain the cause(s) behind your receding hairline with a physical examination, an analysis of your medical history, or maybe a biopsy of the kin on your scalp. In the majority of cases a simple dietary change or a few lifestyle changes might help.

The psychological aspects of balding

Many equate the elegance and thickness of their mane with the benchmark of beauty, and in the event of their hair thinning or the emergence of a bare scalp can be a setback for the best of us, resulting in decreasing levels of self esteem, shattered confidence and a negative self image.

The point worth remembering here is to understand that beauty is skin deep and truly lies in the eyes of the beholder.

The prevalence of balding is also worth considering here, with 70% of men experiencing some degree of male pattern baldness while 30% of women report incidence of female pattern baldness.

Causes of baldness – getting to the “roots” of the issue

Grab the nearest family photograph off the mantle and if you notice senior members of your blood relatives with a similar issue, you probably have your genes to blame. This is by far the most common cause of hair loss, male or female pattern baldness.

A fluctuation in your hormonal equilibrium may cause temporary and reversible hair loss. Pregnancy, childbirth, menopause or discontinuing the use of birth control pills are examples of certain instances triggering a medley of hormonal upheaval in your system.

Medical manifestations such as a thyroid imbalance, alopecia areata (an autoimmune disease that affects hair follicles), scalp infections like ringworm, some types of lupus, or diseases that cause scarring such as lichen planus can result in permanent hair loss because of the scarring.

How Stress Can Affect Your Hair?

Emotional or physical stressors such as grieving over the death of a loved one, going through a breakup, extreme weight loss may trigger noticeable hair loss. Some people have this urge to pull out hair usually from scalp, eyebrows or eyelashes, a condition known as trichotillomania, can also accelerate hair loss.

Certain hairstyles can also be the culprit behind the unexplained hair loss. Amazed? Wondering how could that even be! Well, amigo there is something called traction hair loss.

Hairstyles such as tight ponytails can put undue pressure on the follicles by putting the hair back very tightly. An imbalanced diet deprived of essential amino acids, iron, protein can also be responsible for your recent hair loss episode.

Remedies and treatments to restore the vitality to your crowning glory

Eggs are a rich and convenient source of protein, include them

Have nuts and seeds to add a protein supplement to your diet

Include green leafy vegetables like spinach in your diet

Medications are usually the first line of treatment to counter the effects of accelerated hair loss. If medications fail to yield appreciable results, one may consider resorting to hair transplant surgeries, which are undoubtedly an expensive, prolonged and painful procedure.

Your doctor may prescribe the oral medication finasteride (Propecia) for countering male pattern baldness, while you may also consider using OTC (over the counter) medication such as minoxidil (Rogaine), which has side effects such as scalp irritation and hair growth in adjoining areas such as your forehead or face.

Sounds scary? Well you can turn to nature’s goodness for a zero side effect albeit effective hair loss curbing techniques. Include a lot of low fat dairy products, walnuts, green peas, carrots, prunes, eggs and oats and you are pretty much sorted in countering the initial onset of hair loss that doesn’t have an underlying genetic or medical cause.

Make a healthier switch to organic and custom hair care products from the house of Bare Anatomy that caters to your specific hair goals and brings only the best and choicest of nature’s gifts minus harmful parabens and sulfates packaged in a personalized bottle, delivered right at your doorstep. Pretty woke! Try hair mask for hair fall for hair strength. If you are looking for damage control with dry hair, go for shampoo for dry hair.

If you are someone who is seriously considering getting a hair transplant done, getting your research and homework done before taking the leap may help ease your journey to a healthier and denser hairline.

You may have a quarry of queries running in your mind such as which procedure should I opt for, the minimally invasive FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) procedure or the invasive FUT (Follicular Unit Transplantation), the costs involved, expected levels of discomfort, and the visibility of scarring.

The surgical remedies of curing baldness tend to be quite expensive and carry risks such as patchy hair growth, bleeding, scarring, and the chance of developing an infection on the transplanted sites.

That’s a wrap folks! Stay tuned for more “hairy” tales!

Sources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/regrow-hair-naturally
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hair-loss/symptoms-causes/syc-20372926
https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/hair-loss/causes/18-causes
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16921-hair-loss-in-women