How To Keep Your Hair Full and Healthy
…or Just Feel Like You Are
When my daughter was 1 ½ and I was still getting no more than 3 hours in a row of sleep each night, and I decided to go back and complete my Masters, and I was also teaching… well, something happened from my exhaustion. I started to see my scalp, and I realized with horror that I was losing my hair.
This is the kind of thinning that can – to put it mildly – make it hard to feel like a goddess. I freaked. Which I’m sure made it worse.
We’ve all heard about the normal kind of thinning, which usually happens after the pregnancy hormones finally dissipate around 12 weeks. The usual 100 strands a day become 500. This is because pregnancy hormones cause the hair to stay in the growth cycle, rather than doing its normal shedding. So when pregnancy hormones disappear – au revoir to all that extra hair plus what you’d normally be shedding.
Here are some things you can do for this temporary annoyance:
– Cut your hair shorter
– Dye it darker
– Cut lots of layers to add fullness
BUT. What about the other kind of thinning – the kind that happens for no apparent reason, or maybe genetics, or maybe stress, or maybe a deficiency of some kind (such as iron), thyroid dysfunction, or maybe some sort of fungus, or…???
If you continue shedding excessively, or notice that a year after childbirth your hair is still noticeably thinner than it was before, the next step is to figure out why.
First, talk to a dermatologist. They can do tests to discover whether there is some sort of nutritional deficiency (start green smoothies daily), hormonal imbalance (15 minutes of Nadi Shodhana or single nostril breathing a day – ask your yoga teacher), inflammation (start an anti-inflammatory diet), or fungus on the scalp (try prescription anti-fungal shampoo).
If you’re coming up with nothing than ask yourself – was postpartum particularly stressful and exhausting for you? There is so much pressure to jump right back into a busy life after giving birth, while we are still not sleeping at night and also pumping out prana (life force) all day…
If this sounds familiar, you might want to start some lifestyle practices to get back into balance, and find a more nurturing rhythm for your body.
Here is a list of both Eastern and Western remedies I put together from my lovely experience with thinning hair, in the hopes it will help you before there’s a problem. OR, if there already is – maybe it’ll give you some relief, at least from the tickly itch that can sometimes come with it and the emotional trauma that pretty much always does…
1. Go to a dermatologist asap, and ask them to run all the tests. They’ll do a biopsy to make sure there’s no infection or other histamine reaction at the site. They’ll decide whether it’s alopecia or just Female Pattern Balding. If it is, read on…
2. According to Ayurveda, everything can be broken down into the elements and their properties. We know that heat rises. We refer to energetic heat in English all the time – don’t blow your top; I was so mad smoke came out of my ears; that really burns me up. If you tend toward frustration/ anger/ intensity, than you might want to cool your head off.
First, turn down the hot water when washing and rinsing your hair. In fact, I know someone who washes her hair in the sink with cold. She asked me, “would you put a delicate sweater in a hot water wash? Hair follicles are even more delicate.” At the very least, once you’re done, turn the cold water on only and do a standing backbend to get your hair in it. Refreshing! If it feels good, you’re on to something.
3. At night, liquefy some coconut oil in a container of hot water and then pour it all along your part. Use your fingers to rub it in, all the way down to your ears. Heat dries cells out. Deep moisture revives, and coconut oil is particularly cooling. Even the hair shafts will start to look better.
You might just get addicted to this scalp massage, which is part of an ancient practice called Abhyanga or self-massage, so start saving old towels for your pillow.
It is worth it – it feels amazing!!!
4. If your follicles are programmed through generations of genetic karma to stop growing, that’s just what they’re going to do. But you can speed up or slow down the process. Remember, the law of karma says that everything we do has an effect. Stress speeds up the process of genetic thinning. Slow it down by de-stressing, especially at the times of day you tend to get really intense and hyper focused (for me it’s 2pm-4pm).
Pick the same time each day to pull yourself away from whatever it is that you are trying to build (the way fire is always trying to climb upwards), and go for a 15 minute walk, or do the Step Out of the River Meditation, or do yoga, or listen to a spiritual teacher. Detach from things for a while. Align with the day/night cycle, the moon cycle, and the digestive cycle.
5. One of the biggest things that stressed me out during the time I couldn’t figure out why my hair was thinning, was that my hair was thinning and I couldn’t figure it out. I read everything. I put scarves on and realized they just made my head feel hot which couldn’t be good. I researched laser guns and cosmetic surgery. And then I found it: Toppik. Toppik is a powdery topical cosmetic-only godsend from above, made of real hair fibers. Sprinkle it on and you can actually forget there’s a problem for a while. Woo hoo! Well, at least you can breathe easy knowing that as long as there are a few hairs in a thin area, you can make it look a lot fuller with a few sprinkles.
I’m not sure about Rogaine or Laser Guns but some people swear by them. I’m going to stick with my coconut oil and meditating every afternoon for now, and getting to sleep before 10 (I didn’t put this one in because it’s so often not a possibility for new moms – but work toward it – it’s worth it).
7. Try supplements like biotin, as well as Banyan Botanicals “Healthy Hair” supplements. Search for the pro’s and con’s of everything you take. For instance, I don’t take DHEA because it’s a hormone produced by the body, and it can throw things even further off balance.
8. Make intelligent, living food for yourself. This probably should have been first. Try and plan out meals so you can go in the kitchen and make them easily.
Once you start these practices, and find a rhythm that works for you, your life will feel different. Each one works on multiple levels, and vanity is only on the surface. We start to feel better about our choices, about our lives – even about having less hair.
Today, my head doesn’t tickle anymore, my life feels calmer, and I’m pretty sure I’ve at least slowed down the fate that my genes are programmed to give me. I love the coconut rub and the meditations and the food I’m eating. It feels good to prioritize the prana, the energy that nourishes my physical body.
