If you are a lady of a certain age, you have most likely asked yourself this question every morning. And if you are only asking yourself, you probably aren’t getting answers, or maybe not the right answers. As a retired stylist and as an almost 60 year old (nope still not ready), I have researched this for clients and myself, so here goes my best answer for you……..it could be many things…or just one…..so let’s dig in.

As we age we lose the basic building blocks of hair, some will replenish, some won’t. Fortunately, we can replenish most of these with the correct diet and supplements. Lifestyle is a huge contributor to hair loss and so is stress. Hairstylists, if you have stayed with the same one for enough time, can tell when your body has undergone a change, or when you have had a season of unusual stress from the amount of hair you are losing. Hair loss is normal, we are always in a state of losing and gaining hair. Normal loss per day is 100 hairs and remember 100 long hairs will look vastly different than short. Genetics also plays a roll in when we will start losing hair and what areas we will lose it. Hair loss in women typically begins in the front around the temples. The fact that this area usually has the most wear and tear doesn’t help. You need to also be mindful that hair breakage and hair loss are not the same and do not look the same. If you are experiencing breakage the hair will be in smaller pieces and will not be in uniform lengths, loss will be entire strands. Before we look at troubleshooting, lets look at common causes. Strap in, there are more than a few.

As I said before, aging has A LOT to do with hair loss. You can inject your face all ya want, but your aging hair appearance might not be helping. As we age, keratin, collagen, and hyaluronic (hi-a-la-ron-ic) acid deplete. Keratin makes up most of our hair strand, it is the structure and protein of hair. Collagen and hyaluronic acid give us the shine, bounce, and overall youthful appearance. When you are combating hair loss taking supplemental keratin (biotin) and collagen will help tremendously, and honestly hair and nail vitamins that cost just a few bucks will work just fine, normally. Then we get to hair care. Ladies…..you can not buy bargain basement hair care and expect it to remedy your hair issues. The cheaper it is the less likely you are to have anything beneficial in that bottle. I am begging you…..ASK YOUR HAIRSTYLIST AND THEN PURCHASE WHAT YOU NEED FROM THAT PERSON. Your hairstylist is the closest thing to a doctor you have when it involves your hair. A dermatologist can do a lot when it concerns your scalp, but they aren’t considering that head full of color and highlights. And no, color shouldn’t cause hair loss. It can cause breakage if used incorrectly, but hair color has come a long way and is no longer made with leads and lye. Heck my OBGYN told me to get my hair colored because the world would be a happier place….but I digress. Scalp health is a rising trend and rightfully so. If your scalp is unhealthy, hair will not grow. Dry shampoos and fewer shampoos per week will cause hair loss and not allow for growth. You are literally suffocating your hair follicle if you are constantly dry shampooing, limit this to once or twice per week and shampoo at least twice per week if you are using it. Diet and weight-loss injections: when your body senses it is going into starvation mode, it moves all of your nutrients to keeping your internal organs functioning. Once that happens your hair has nothing or very little left to survive. If you want to lose weight, don’t cut food groups, your hair needs protein, carbs, fats, and healthy sugars, eat a balanced diet, and lose your weight slowly. Stress…..probably the biggest culprit. Most of us encounter stress on a daily basis, but when it amps up your body goes into defense and once again your hair gets the short end of the stick. Exercise is vitally important to tap down the stress and the impact of stress. Exercise also increases blood circulation, blood circulation is what drives the nutrients to your hair follicle. Then medications or anything you put in your body effects both your hair and scalp, as does surgery. Medications and anesthesia has to grow off a hair strand, and that takes time. a baby Whew…that was a bunch of information. I didn’t cover pregnancy or delivery because that’s a different age group. But if that is where you are, it is temporary and should subside after about 6- 9 months after delivery. (Note: stopping birth control will cause similar hair loss as having a baby).

At this point you may be thinking of wearing a wig or hat full time. They cause hair loss…so don’t do that. Here are some easy remedies. Diet, eat right, eat well and balanced. Don’t crash diet, and look: I took the shots, but I stayed on the lowest dosage and didn’t experience hair loss. Exercise, your don’t have to do a boot camp, walk or just move. You want that blood circulating all the way up to your scalp. Hair and nail vitamins, look for biotin, collagen, and vitamin E and C. Keratin and collagen hair products…ask your stylist, if this person doesn’t have an answer DM me. If you are about to have a hard season of stress; weddings, illnesses (yours or a close relative), work situations, or stress on your body namely surgery start taking those vitamins before hand. At this point you are probably wondering, “what does coffee have to do with this?”. Scalp care. Your scalp needs to be healthy, there are tons of new “at home” scalp care products on the market. Once again…..ask your stylist. You, nor Walmart, nor the enterwebs will know what type scalp product you need. But, the newest and also effective ingredient in some scalp care particularly when targeting hair loss is….caffeine. Yep, topical caffeine. It makes total sense. It isn’t chemical in nature, when calibrated correctly it will get into the follicle, and it is a stimulant. No, don’t pour your coffee on your head, but do seek out products for growth with this new technology.

This is a torrent of information, but it is and has been a hot topic for most women over 40 as long as I can remember and even before that. So don’t just ask yourself what’s up with that…ask the person who can help. Now…let me share this with you; we are constantly in a state of losing and gaining hair, even while we sleep. It is literally happening 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Matthew 10:30 says “Even the hairs on your head are numbered” Our Heavenly Father keeps up with this count, all day and night. He watches over us that carefully and with that much concern and detail. I just love that about Him.