By Sher Segal for PRANA head spa & wellness and The Little Salon Co.
You started noticing more hair shed and thinning… Now what?
There are a few things to consider when it comes to hair loss, I’m not a physician so I cannot diagnose, I can only offer what I’ve learned from my personal research, education and experience as a hair professional and a person with Alopecia. The first factor is to understand our hair production has stages, and every strand is in it’s own stage at any given time.
Anagen The Growth Stage
This is your active growth stage and lasts anywhere from 2 to 7 years, depending on genetics, and fortunately 85-90% of your strands and usually in this stage. Also important to note, average growth during this time is approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch per month. How long your hair stays in the Anagen stage depends entirely on your DNA and how much of an enzyme you produce called 5 Alpha Reductase. This enzyme keeps your hair in the growth phase, as we age we produce less of the 5 Alpha Reductase.
Catagen The Transition Stage
This is a short period of about 2 or 3 weeks where any growth stops. Your hair strand detaches itself from the blood supply, but remains in the follicle, good news is only about 1 to 2 % of your hairs are in this stage, but it is a sort of a reset stage that is necessary.
Telogen The Resting Stage
10 to 15% of your hair is in this stage, and usually lasts 3 to 4 months. In this stage your hair follicle is going to be inactive, meaning that hair strand is in the follicle, but not doing anything. You’ll notice the most shedding at the end of a Telegenic phase as the hair begins to enter its growth stage.
Exogen The Shed Stage
Think of this stage as the companion to Telogen, where the old hair that detached in Catagen falls so it can allow a new hair to create and grow. Despite how scary it looks in the brush or on the bathroom floor, it is completely normal to shed anywhere from 50 to as much as 100 hairs per day during this stage. Where we have the Enzyme to grow hair, now enters the Hormone responsible for losing it called D.H.T (DiHydroTestosterone) How much DHT you produce, just like Enzyme 5 Alpha Reductase depends entirely on your genetics.
Another consideration is in how you care of your hair. Your hair grows from the scalp not the ends, and the only hair strands actually “living” are still in the follicle, once it passes the scalp its dead as only the follicle has blood flow, which for a hairdresser, is always a giggle when someone comes in and says “just trim off the dead ends” lol. But seriously, this is why it’s so important to be protective of the integrity of your hair.
Your nutrition matters. Diet is not a four letter word, its a lifestyle choice. Society has taught us to associate that word as something unenjoyable we must do if we want to lose weight, in fact they’ve built entire industries to capitalize on it and your self image. You’re not dieting, you’re choosing healthy nutrition to fuel your amazing bio machine that is so specifically calibrated, it really is a marvel how we’re made when you think about it. These healthy, balanced choices create a healthy gut biome, which creates a healthy functioning immune system, which in turn creates healthy hormone balances, which create healthy hair, skin and nails… and so on.
And finally, the reason I created PRANA headspa in the first place… a healthy scalp equals healthy hair. Routine scalp deep cleansing, exfoliation and stimulation help remove built up dead skin cell and hair product residue clogging the follicle and produce healthy circulation to the scalp area. Hair follicles need two things, blood supply and oxygen, if they aren’t getting those it essentially suffocates the hair strand trying to grow.
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