Sunday, December 30, 2012

It's Winter, Save my hair!!

With the return of "hardcore" winter, just barely begun, I can feel my hair already shriveling into a mess. The dandruff has begun. I was reading an article on Web MD about Winterizing your hair. According to Nick Chavez, celebrity stylist and QVC mainstay, the problem is two or three fold. You're combating the sun exposure that can dry out your hair (think skiing all day). Then add in the blustery winds that turn your hair into a snarly mess. And then to top it all off, you have the ice, snow, sleet conditions that makes your hair brittle and dry. And just when you think, I can escape that, there's the problem of indoor heating. Indoor heating is warm and dry, and in something I'd never heard of before, similar to being in a hairdryer all day. Which, really, is just that if you think about it. Think about what the dry heat does to your sinuses, your throat, your cold. Did we really think our hair could escape it? Another thing to think about in winter is static electricity. If you're anything like me, every time you take your jacket off, take off your scarf, etc. You hear that static sound. One of the home remedies has always been to rub a dryer sheet on your hair. Has this ever worked for you? It's never worked for me. What tricks have you found to use when winter comes?

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tips for Hair Restoration

I found an article today on Hair Restoration Ideas.

As someone who suffers from hair loss, I read anything I can.  My hope that is that maybe something you read on my blog will help you.

From all the articles I have read, there seems to be some common denominators.

1. Stress.  If you suffer from stress, it's causing your hair follicles to go into "resting phase," which ultimately will cause that hair to fall out.

2.  Sickness or surgery.  I've had surgery a few times, and stress of the body from these surgeries causes my hair to fall out.  You should already be familiar that when your sick, you hair loses its luster and shine, and falls out easily.

I'm particularly reminded of this is with my 12 year old cat.  A month ago, she lost her 11 year old "sister."  Since that time, she has lost ALOT of her hair on her back.  It's from stress.  Stress also causes her to over-bathe herself, but she started steadily losing her hair when her sister died.

When I was working at a job where I was under a tremendous amount of stress.  I lost weight, and lost hair in clumps.  Alot of the loss is from stress, but it also leads into a third common denominator for hair loss.

4.  Nutrition.  If you aren't eating well, your hair becomes damaged.  If you're not eating the proper foods, you're not getting the proper vitamins, and this causes more hair to go into the resting phase and start falling out.

Notice the common threads throughout the articles?

What do you think?

Monday, December 10, 2012

Hokey suggestions to improve your hair

I was just reading an article in India Times today, where they discussed recommendations for hair care.

The first suggestion, I agree with, that you should do Hot Oil Treatments on your hair.   I used to do this religiously  They state that you should take these hot oils and put on a shower cap and leave it on for an hour, then shampoo your hair.

Once again, I digress to an earlier post of how realistic this is.  I would do it in the shower, but the oil only stayed in my hair for about 5 minutes.

Another suggestion is to rub your scalp with either garlic juice, onion juice or ginger juice; leave it on overnight and wash it thoroughly in the morning.  Again, how realistic is that?

The third suggestion is getting a scalp massage.  The thought is that massage keeps the hair follicle stimulated.

Here's one that I never heard before "Apply warm green tea (two bags brewed in one cup of water) on your scalp and leave this mixture on for an hour and then rinse."  They suggest that tea has antioxidants that will increase hair growth, but again, how realistic is to keep it on for an hour?

And the fifth suggestion is to practice meditation.  Because the biggest reasons people lose hair is stress and tension, it's believed that meditating will help reduce stress, and therefore help in keeping your hair.

This one seems hokey, but if meditation works for you, why not try it.  

Maybe you can meditate while food sits on your head for an hour?

What do you think of these suggestions?  
Have you tried any?  
Have they worked?