Keeping up with different style trends over the years can get a little exhausting. One year, you’re buying neon summer clothes and super tight winter-wear, and the next, all the trends are focused on neutral tones and comfortable, slightly oversized silhouettes.
How are you supposed to keep up?! By finding your unique style and playing up your best feature. As such, many people work on their hair to create consistency among different wardrobe trends.
No matter the season, men and women alike have a few go-to haircare routines to look laid-back and casual or sharp and professional. But, these can be hard to maintain if you start to experience balding.
If your scalp is showing the first signs of hair loss or you’ve already lost a lot of hair, don’t worry. Here are five ways to combat hair loss and five ways to prevent hair loss from happening to you.
How to Combat Hair Loss
Balding can happen for a variety of reasons. It’s not like you just wake up one day and all your hair is gone. The loss happens gradually, but sometimes, it’s inevitable.
At least, that’s what most people think until they find the right tools to combat their hair loss. The following are five methods you can choose from (or try together) to help you maintain the hair you have left and grow some of it back!
1. Taking Medication
You have hair follicles all over your body. These are the living, breathing parts of your hair that still have a chance, no matter how bald you are or think you’re getting. The rest of your hair is already dead – it dies the moment it leaves the follicle.
This is why you should consider combatting hair loss from the inside. Take medication to support your hair follicles and their production of new hair. The medicine will help your body create new hair consistently, in order to replace what may have already fallen out.
2. Using Topical Creams and Shampoos
The catch to using medication is that it will take a while from something taken orally to get into your bloodstream and target the hair follicles. If you want a more direct approach, apply medicated creams and shampoos right on the scalp.
These tools will soak into your skin and replenish the follicles. They’ll support hair growth and possibly strengthen the remaining hair you have, too.
3. Getting Special Salon Treatment
What if you really have no clue what you’re doing or where to begin? Your best bet is to go to a salon and put your hair loss in the hands of a professional.
Some stylists specialize in this condition, by the way. Look for someone who really knows what they’re doing rather than walking into any old salon. Be prepared for this to be a bit costly, too.
Hair loss treatments can get expensive, but when you go to the right person for the job, the price is a reflection of the value you’re getting. Do your research before setting up an appointment.
4. Investing in Laser Procedures and Hair Transplants
As you research different salons and treatments available, you’re likely to come across advanced hair loss technology – like laser procedures and hair transplants.
Laser treatments will target the follicles and work to stimulate them in order to produce more hair. Transplants, like the Artas hair transplant, work to mimic the follicular units on your scalp. These units are similar to fingerprints – they’re unique for each person and need a great deal of attention to detail to be matched and stimulated.
Only trust the best tools and professionals in laser or transplant technology if this is the way you want to go to combat your hair loss.
5. Focusing on Stress Relief
Maybe you’re nervous about using lasers on your body or you’re skeptical about paying a large amount of money for a salon treatment. Maybe, all you need is to relax.
Seriously – stress can lead to hair loss. While baldness or thin hair may run in your family, if you’re living a high-stress lifestyle, the answer to combat your hair may be all in your head.
Relax. Take a walk on the beach or start practicing yoga or trying to meditate. Make use of your sick days and vacation time at work instead of overwhelming yourself with projects and deadlines.
Your mind will start to feel the changes right away, and your hair may soon follow.
How to Prevent Hair Loss
Maybe the only major stress in your life right now is the possibility of losing your hair. If you still have a head of hair worth saving, you can relax, too.
With the tools below, your hair is going to be just fine.
6. Treat Your Hair with Better Care
Sometimes it’s hard to determine the cause of hair loss or thinning hair. Other times, the reason you’re losing hair is staring right at you.
If you use a straightener, curler, or blow dryer every day, or your bathroom is full of harsh chemicals, you know exactly what this is referring to. The same thing goes for people who dye their hair religiously. Stop creating such damage to your hair!
Every time you take a heat tool to your luscious locks, you’re basically burning them. Yes, as mentioned above, hair is dead when it comes out of the follicle, but all the intense heat really puts the last nail in the coffin.
Take a step back from such a harsh styling routine and try other things. This will help you maintain the quality of your hair and reverse some of the hair loss effects you’ve been noticing. In fact, you might even be able to grow it out longer than you ever have or discover a newfound appreciation for your natural, non-heat-treated or dyed hair.
7. Restore Damaged Hair
Once you’ve put away all your heated styling tools and let your natural color grow out, you can focus on restoring your damaged hair. Look into nourishing treatments or just go get a haircut to trim the ends.
Things like special conditioners or moisturizing creams can help bring back some of the shine and strength heating tools strip your hair of. Try to find the most natural products possible for the best results. These are packed with the vitamins and minerals your hair needs to be healthy, rather than chemicals that try to create some sort of quick fix.
Using nourishing creams makes sense, but some people shy away from the thought of a haircut. Why would you chop off the hair you’re trying to maintain? Because you still have a chance for it to grow back and be better than before.
When you cut split ends and permanently damaged hair, you’re relieving the scalp and follicles of what’s been weighing it down. Men and women with thick, curly hair will especially realize the difference this creates. By getting rid of the excess weight on the ends, you’re allowing your curls to be as defined as ever.
8. Stop Pulling on Your Hairline
Thick and thin-haired people alike can benefit from this hair prevention tip. Think about how many times you throw your long hair into a ponytail or slick it back into a man bun.
These looks are fun, simple, and fashion-forward, but if you do them all the time, you’re basically encouraging hair loss. You know those awful ponytail dents? They can break your hair if you put it up the same way every single day.
Same goes for people who wear tight braids like cornrows or for messy bun lovers. Sometimes, you just have to let your hair down. This allows it to relax without any stress on the hairline or the rest of the hair.
Also, be more gentle when you brush your hair. If you’re always pulling on it and fighting knots, work your way through everything piece by piece. Start at the bottom of your hair, and hold it from mid-way up to relieve the pulling effect on your actual hairline.
9. Change Your Haircare Routine
It may sound like a big deal to stop using heat and/or wearing ponytails all the time. But, when you keep your goal of maintaining your hair in mind, these tasks become pretty simple. Plus, you’ll start to discover new, healthier things you can do to your hair!
You may come to realize you really love the hair down look now that everything is shinier and stronger. Or, you could find new things to do with your time rather than spending an hour with the straightener every morning.
Here are a few more healthy hair opportunities to improve your haircare routine:
- Stop washing your hair every single day
- Commit to doing regular hair masks 2-3 times a month
- Use chemical-free shampoo and conditioner
When you wash your hair every day, you end up stripping it of the nutrients it needs. Try going a few days without the wash. Powdered dry shampoo and fun styling tricks will help you.
As far as hair masks and shampoo/conditioner go, these are a personal preference. A general rule of thumb to keep in mind is the more natural, the better. Be mindful of how much of a product you’re using too, since this can weigh your hair down as well.
10. Change Your Diet
This final tip is similar to the stress tip mentioned above for combatting hair loss. Just as there are plenty of products to help restore the hair you’ve already grown, there are many vitamins and minerals you can eat more of to support future hair growth.
All it takes is a little bit of a diet change here and there to transform your hair. Add more leafy greens and fresh fruits to your meals, and watch the difference develop over time.
Styling Tips for Your Hair
No matter what color, how long, or how thick your hair is, the best way to celebrate your victory over hair loss is to style it in a way to show off your new hair! Styling typically depends on the amount of time you’d like to get ready, the lifestyle you live, and the hair you have to work with.
After you’ve mastered how to prevent hair loss, look into the right hairstyles for your personal fashion sense and face shape. For fashion tips and tricks, click here.
