Have you ever experienced the dreaded feeling of shedding hair? I know that it can be a nightmare to see every day as you live your life. Sometimes, you may even begin to wonder, “What am I doing wrong?”
The truth is that shedding can happen to any of us, and we may only know a little bit about how it operates. So, what is shedding, and how can we prevent it from ruining our hair?
Shedding vs. Hair Breakage
Before we jump into the reasons why your hair is shedding, it’s crucial to understand the difference between shedding and hair breakage. When you educate yourself about the two, you’ll be able to better understand how to address the underlying issue.
Shedding is the natural process of hair falling out of your scalp. This hair ends up dropping out of the follicles of your scalp after it completes its growing cycle, which typically lasts for a specific amount of time, depending on the phase it’s going through.
Once that occurs, another strand of hair will grow in its place. If no hair grows back after a certain amount of time, then you have something known as hair loss. Don’t fret, though, because we will discuss this topic in another blog post.
Hair breakage occurs when a certain amount of hair is broken along the hair strand. Unlike shedding, this is not a natural occurrence and must be dealt with sooner than later.
Still can’t tell the difference between shedding and hair breakage? Here are two essential characteristics to keep in mind:
-
If you have a bulb at the root of the hair strand, then shedding has occurred.
-
If you lack the bulb at the root of the hair strand, then hair breakage has occurred.
Why Is Your Hair Shedding?
Now, it’s time to address the tough question: Why is your hair shedding? Hair shedding occurs for multiple reasons, and most of them are avoidable. Putting in extra effort to reduce the amount of hair that sheds can make a lasting impact on the health of your hair.
Now, here are seven main culprits as to why your hair may be shedding excessively:
Diet/Lack of Nutrition
For hair strands to grow strong and sturdy, you must ensure that what you put in your body will contribute to that change. When you eat foods that are high in nutritional value and keep up with a dietary plan, you can keep both your body and hair healthy.
There are certain foods out there that contain the essential nutrients needed to promote healthier and thicker hair. Some of those foods include:
-
Salmon: Contains protein, omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin D, and B-Vitamins.
-
Eggs: Great source of protein, biotin, zinc, and selenium.
-
Avocados: Rich in essential fatty acids and Vitamin E.
-
Beans/Legumes: Loaded with protein, zinc, iron, folate, and biotin.
-
Fruits: Filled with antioxidant vitamins.
Be Sure to check out my E book "I want beautiful Healthy Hair. 9 factors that contribute to healthy hair. " I have a full list of Hair loving foods and my E book also includes hair healthy smoothie recipes.
Product Build-Up
Using an excessive amount of product in your hair can cause significant damage. You’ll put yourself at risk of not only shedding your hair but also developing conditions like eczema and psoriasis.
To keep your hair from experiencing these problems and more, you’ll have to take caution to what products are used in your hair. This means you must monitor how much product you place in your hair and what ingredients are used within those products.
Also, you’ll want to shampoo your hair often to prevent the product build-up from causing too much shedding. When doing so, keep some of these pointers in mind:
-
Use lukewarm water when washing and cold water when rinsing your hair.
-
Be gentle when washing your hair, especially on your scalp.
- Incorporate a scalp scrub into your regimen.
Medication
Sometimes, experiencing shedding isn’t entirely your fault. It could also be as a result of the type of medicines you’re taking.
Some prescribed medications can drastically affect one, some, or all the three stages of the hair cycle. When even one part is disrupted, hair shedding can occur and remain until you’re done taking the medication.
Some medications that result in hair shedding include, but are not limited to:
-
Chemotherapy drugs
-
Birth control
-
Beta-blockers
-
Antidepressants
The only known way to prevent shedding through medication is to stop taking the medication entirely. Of course, you should talk with your doctor to see about any other options you can choose that’ll prevent shedding.
Lack of Hydration (Internally and Externally)
There’s a reason why experts express the importance of staying hydrated, Doing so will allow your body and hair to grow and remain healthy.
Hydration first starts with your body. It is recommended that people drink water throughout the day and adjust their intake based on their size to prevent dehydration. Once you’re adequately hydrated, your hair will feel the effects of it too.
You also must keep your hair itself hydrated to prevent excessive shedding from occurring. When your hair experiences dryness, it’s easier to become brittle and breakable. Therefore, providing the right amount of hydration to your hair will cause it to grow faster and maintain its strength. Using a hydrating product like Moisture Milk is very essential to providing hydration to your hair and scalp.
High Manipulation
Highly manipulating your hair means you’re using extra measures to maintain your hair in unique styles. Additional ways of keeping up your hair include using heating tools, like curling irons and blow dryers.
There may not be too much of a problem with using heat on your hair, if done properly. The only time it imposes a significant problem is when it severely damages your hair, which will lead to hair shedding.
On natural hair, its crucial to avoid highly manipulating your hair very often. In addition to causing excess hair to shed, it can also result in your hair becoming heat damaged. This will stop the hair from fully growing to its full potential.
To prevent shedding from occurring, be sure to limit the number of high manipulation styles you wear. Try to choose methods that require less heat and can last longer.
Stress
You may have seen it coming, but yes, stress and shedding are directly correlated with each other. As soon as the feeling hits your mind, your hair will be in immediate danger of losing its growth potential.
You see, when you’re stressed, those feelings will affect your hair by halting the life cycle of the hair strands. Once the period stops, the hair will fall out, and it’ll become much more difficult for the strands to grow back.
So, how do we stop being stressed? There are plenty of methods to practice reducing your stress levels, like focusing on:
-
Meditation
-
Self-care
-
Lifestyle changes
Product Usage
In addition to product build-up, product usage can cause hair to shed. Using products with certain ingredients and materials can strip your hair of the necessary nutrients it needs to remain healthy.
How can you prevent this from occurring? First, make sure that you avoid products with ingredients that are harmful to your strands, like:
-
Formaldehyde
-
Sodium lauryl sulfate
-
Parabens
-
Benzene
Next, it’s time to pick products with essential and healthy ingredients within them. These are some of the materials that will prevent your hair from shedding and breaking:
-
Water (as the first ingredient)
-
Oil (Coconut, jojoba, olive, etc.)
-
Aloe vera
Ingredients like these will help to slow down any extra shedding from occurring. They can also keep the shedding to a minimum since they are meant to build strands that’ll last throughout the whole hair cycle. To minimize shedding and bring your hair back to a healthy balance, I recommend the Nourish and Grow hair care kit. This kit contains all the products that you will need to maintain and grow healthy hair.
Shedding is a normal part of the hair cycle. However, how much shedding occurs is completely up to how you protect and care for your hair. Be that change and keep the shedding to a minimum today.