Monday, June 30, 2008

Facts About Vitamins

Do you think you may need vitamins for hair growth? When hair loss is not a trait of the family nor is a medical condition present yet you notice that you are losing hair, it could be that you have some nutritional needs that are not being met by your diet. Taking vitamins for growing hair and the appearance of healthy hair is a good idea for your consideration if you are having hair problems..

Vitamins can make a difference in the health and appearance of your hair and its growth. In order to grow a healthy head of hair that is shiny and not brittle, you need a steady supply of nutrients. You may need to boost your diet with vitamins if your diet is not enough. You can apply vitamins directly onto your hair or you can choose to take the nutritional supplements internally.

Nutrients that are good for your hair include protein, essential fatty acids, omega 3 fatty acids, iron, vitamin B5, biotin and methylsulfonvlmethane (MSM). You can also take small amounts of zinc and copper for your hair. You only need the amount that is given in a daily multivitamin unless your doctor says otherwise. Zinc and copper are pro-oxidant which adds to free radical formation.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Herbal Hair Loss Treatment

There are so many herbs to choose from when it comes to applying herb products to your hair. You can apply the herbs for healthy hair, or for hair growth, directly onto your hair with varieties of hair care products. You can also take herbs orally with nutritional supplements. You should make sure that you are not allergic to an herb before you apply it to your hair or take it orally. Do a small patch test and if you are in doubt, do not use the product.

There are also herbs to soften your hair, add shine, reduce hair frizz, color, shampoo, condition and use as a rinsing agent. You can use herbal teas on your hair or you can use products with a small percentage of a variety of herbs in their formula. Some herbs commonly found in hair products include lavender, rosemary, sage, calendula, aloe vera, chamomile, lemon balm, nettle, olive leaf, hibiscus, lemongrass, rose hips and thyme.

Many of the herbs and their uses for hair that we know today come from traditional plant knowledge from around the world. The herbs you can use on your hair today may have been used on someone’s hair a thousand years ago.

As more people become aware of the herbs and their effectiveness, the more herbs become interesting to science and the field of health. You can find mentions of vitamins and herbs for hair growth and healthy hair regularly in the media. A few herbs that may gain more significance in the future for hair loss treatment are rosemary, saw palmetto, green tea, ginger, horsetail sage and psoralea seeds. Some of these herbs have a history of being associated with hair growth and healthy hair. It is simple to take vitamins and herbs for growing hair and improving the appearance of hair naturally.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Hair Loss Due To Stress

Madison is your typical college senior. She belongs to a sorority, has a fiancé and is planning a wedding, as well as studying for midterms that are coming up in three weeks. This does not sound all that unusual for her because she is used to being on the go all of the time. Madison thought that she could handle everything in her life but she was recently becoming very stressed and she started noticing that her hairbrush was gathering more hair in it than usual. Madison went to her doctor and he told her there was nothing wrong with her and that her hair was falling out because of all of the stress that she was under.

Stress often plays a significant role in thinning hair. She needed to take some time out of her busy schedule to relax. All of the stress was causing her body to produce a chemical that was blocking the proper nutrients that her hair growth cycle needed to produce healthy hair.

What is the correlation between stress and hair loss? As you can see stress and hair loss go hand in hand. There are two different types of hair loss related to stress. Severe stress such as a major surgery is one of the links between stress and hair loss. The traumatic shock to the system causes the hair to stop growing and reverts to a resting phase. Hair can be at rest for months, but before new hair can grow the resting hair has to fall out and this usually happens a few months after the hair has rested. Once the hair falls out new hair can begin to grow.

Intense stress is another type of stress linked to stress and hair loss. When this type of stress occurs, the hair follicles are attacked by white blood cells that cause the hair to stop growing. After a few weeks the hair will fall out. What makes this type of stress and hair loss different from the others is when the hair begins to fall out, it falls out in patches. This type of stress and hair loss may not only occur on your head, but can happen all over your body. This kind of hair loss can be total and although your hair may grow back, it usually involves some kind of treatment and hair may not grow back at all.

As you can see stress can cause all kinds of havoc on your body and experts suggest that you take some time for yourself, relax and de-stress your body. Though sometimes our lives are so hectic it can be difficult to relax and decompress. However, by just making some time to relax you can eliminate this completely preventable form of hair loss.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Menopause Hair Loss

Many women find that they start noticing hair loss when they enter menopause. Women experience the greatest hair loss due to menopause commencement.It takes three months for women’s hair loss to become noticeable from the time it starts. Hair loss in women can be caused by several factors, the most common being low thyroid function, which is typical during menopause. The changes in hormone levels that are caused by menopause are a factor in hair loss, such as the increase in testosterone. Progesterone levels also drop because of lack of ovulation in the body and it compensates by producing extra androstenedione, which hampers hair growth.

There are several ways to combat menopausal hair loss. The first you may want to consider is just waiting it out. Most women will find that after menopause their hair will regain the fullness it had before menopause. Dying your hair and certain layered cuts can make your hair feel thicker and fuller while you are waiting. Soy, which boosts the levels of estrogen in most women, can be used to combat the effects of hormone-related hair loss.

Some have found that massaging rosemary oil into the scalp helps to re-grow hair. Rosemary is not the only factor in this treatment that helps. The massage stimulates the hair follicles and pours making your scalp healthier.

At home laser treatment may be another option to consider. At home laser treatment is administered with a laser comb that uses soft, rotating, low-light lasers. Studies have shown that using laser treatment for hair loss may stop or reverse the cycle of growth of thin, fine hairs caused by menopause because the laser stimulates follicles and speeds up the production of living cells in the hair root that grows into hair shafts (the hair you eventually see on your head) after hair loss.