Category Archives: Causes of Hair Loss

Beauty, Causes of Hair Loss, Hair Care, Hair Loss Tips

What’s wrong with tight braids?

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black woman standing near green plant
Photo by Matheus Henrin on Pexels.com

For generations African-American girls have had their hair braided because it is a traditional belief that it would help their hair to grow.

Nowadays, there is talk about braids “causing” hair loss. At HairBlues we think it is important enough to investigate what some of the causes of hair loss and braids may be.  Below are tips we found online that may help to ease this problem, which appears to happen more often these days.  Don’t forget to click on the link provided at the end of the highlighted tips to get  detailed information.

♦ Beauty should not hurt! If your head hurts, it’s because your hair is braided too tightly, or you have too much extension hair added. In either situation, this doesn’t bode well for the future of your hairline. Some braiders may tell you to take an aspirin and the pain should be gone by morning, but any pain is an indicator that something is wrong.

♦ Use warm water to loosen them: Take a shower and let the water cascade over your hair. You may need to gently rub your scalp to loosen the braids a little. This is not the time to worry about how much money you just spent and how much time it took to style these braids, so don’t think about that! Concern yourself with loosening up this tight style and saving your hairline.

♦ Remove them: Yes, remove any braids that are causing little bumps to pop up on your scalp. This is not normal and can lead to hair loss down the road, especially if you make a habit of wearing tight braid styles.

♦ Do yourself a favor and see how your head feels when you’re still in the stylist’s chair. Does it hurt while she’s braiding? That’s the time to ask her to ease up on your hair.

♦ Do not return to tight braiders: Some braiders are notoriously hard on hair. Once should be enough to tell you that this is someone who doesn’t care about the health of your scalp. via What Can I Do about Tight Braids.

FYI –Traction Alopecia:By Del Sandeen

Definition: A condition where constant pulling and tension on an area of the hair results in thinning, breakage and/or hair loss. This is commonly seen in women and children who braid the hair too tightly particularly at the hairline or wear the same style over extended periods of time, not allowing the scalp and hair follicles to “rest.”via Traction Alopecia.

 I hope this is helpful !

Beauty, Causes of Hair Loss, Hair Care, Hair Loss Tips

Tips for blow drying your hair

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Ladies – are you blow drying your hair too much? Do you know how much is “too much”? Well neither do we.  However,  have you thought about air drying your hair occasionally, or not washing your hair so often? Below are some tips and great suggestions we found online about what you can do to avoid hair loss by damaging your hair when using a blow dryer.  Don’t forget to click on the links provided to get further details.

♦ As far as blow dryer heat goes don’t use the high heat setting except in the beginning when hair is still very wet, once hair starts to feel mostly dry it’s time to turn down the heat.

♦ If you start to smell hairs burning it’s time to use the cold shot if you have one to cool it. Once hair is damaged from burning or any other way it is permanent.

♦ The only way to really get rid of damaged hair is to cut it off, which you will in time.

♦ If you curl your hair with hot rollers or curling irons you can go old school every now and then and use regular rollers and rags like they used to before all of these hairstyling tools were invented.

♦ One last way to help prevent blow dryer damage is to use hair protectants. There are many on the market these days designed specifically to apply to hair before blow drying for this purpose.
via http://www.infobarrel.com/Does_a_Blow_Dryer_Damage_Hair#ixzz1rEEMzJ00

Read more:  http://www.thehairstyler.com/features/articles/hairstyles/blow-drying-hair-tips-how-to-get-a-style-that-lasts

I hope this is helpful

Causes of Hair Loss, In the Know

Research Gives Hope to Cure Baldness in Future

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Encouraging News!  It looks like that  in  about five (5) years there could be a cure for baldness. I am sure that some of you have heard about the discovery made by Drs. Cotsarelis and Garza,  co-inventors on a patent owned by the University of Pennsylvania describing the PGD2 pathway as a target for inhibiting hair loss. via Perelman School of Medicine Experts Identify Inhibitor Causing Male Pattern Baldness and Target for Hair Loss Treatments.

Although you may not   suffer from total baldness, it is still worthwhile knowing about this possible cure. Don’t be discouraged that the article focuses on ‘male pattern baldness’.  Women will also benefit in the future from this discovery.

Below are some of the Key Points covered in the article:

♦  Significant protein Prostaglandin D synthase (PDG2), also called PGD2, showed up in high levels of men with baldness.

♦  Scientists learned that PDG2 was not in areas of the body which have much more hair.

♦  Scientists concluded that the PDG2 protein impedes hair follicle growth.

♦  Scientist hope to find a way to block PDG2, which could reverse balding, or prevent balding.

I am sure there are special thanks being expressed to the doctors and researchers who have devoted their time and efforts to the balding issue.

You can read more about the research at: http://stm.sciencemag.org/

See you at the next Post! 🙂

APPS, Causes of Hair Loss, Hair Loss Tips, In the Know

Did you know?

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I know you have heard there are APPs for everything, but maybe you hadn’t thought about Hair Loss Treatment being one of those APPS!  I was delightfully surprised to find some interesting ones.  I will continue to search for and Post links to others you may want to look at.  In the meanwhile click on the link below to check out this one.

Hair Loss Treatment Description

Losing your hair? Hair loss is a multibillion dollar industry, however 99% of treatments make no difference. In this Hair Loss Treatment App not only can you discover what treatment options are currently available, but in addition, answer a few simple questions and find out what treatment method is most suitable for you at your unique stage of hair loss.via App Store – Hair Loss Treatment.

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Causes of Hair Loss, Hair Loss Tips

Tip for checking hair loss

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There’s a simple test you can do to help determine whether you are losing hair, it’s just thinning or you are damaging it by abusive hair products or pulling it too tight (which can occur with braiding). Pull on several strands of your hair — do they come out easily at the root? If so, it suggests that the hairs are indeed “shedding” and have gone into what we call an excess telogen phase. via Dr. Judith Reichman | Women’s Hair Loss Project.

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Telogen phase

The telogen phase is the resting phase of the hair follicle. When the body is subjected to extreme stress, as much as 70 percent of your hair can prematurely enter a phase of rest, called the telogen phase. This hair begins to fall, causing a noticeable loss of hair. This condition is called telogen effluvium. The club hair is the final product of a hair follicle in the telogen stage, and is a dead, fully keratinized hair. Fifty to one-hundred club hairs are shed daily from a normal scalp.via Hair follicle – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Causes of Hair Loss

Call your doctor to determine if you have hair loss

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What to Expect at Your Office Visit

A careful medical history and examination of the hair and scalp are usually enough to diagnose the cause of your hair loss.

Your doctor will ask detailed questions such as:

♦ Are you losing hair only from your scalp or from other parts of your body as well?

♦ Is there a pattern to the hair loss, like a receding hairline or thinning or bald areas on the crown, or is the hair loss throughout your head?

♦ Have you had a recent illness or high fever?

♦ Do you dye your hair?

♦ Do you blow dry your hair? How often?

♦ How often do you shampoo your hair?

♦ What kind of shampoo, hair spray, gel, or other product do you put on your hair?

♦ Have you been under unusual stress lately?

♦ Do you have nervous habits that include hair pulling or scalp rubbing?

♦ Do you have any other symptoms like itching, flaking, or redness of your scalp?

♦ What medications do you take, including over-the-counter drugs?

♦ Tests that may be performed (but are rarely needed) include:

♦ Blood tests to rule out disease

♦ Microscopic examination of a plucked hair

♦ Skin biopsy

Click the link to learn more: via Hair Loss – Symptoms, Causes, Tests – NY Times Health Information.

Causes of Hair Loss

Hair Loss

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HairBlues will attempt to help the many women suffering, or beginning to suffer from hair loss.  We will investigate what some of the causes are. We will  look at products which claim to help stop the condition.  We will focus on what the various hair loss reasons are, and generally help you to find solutions for your personal situation.  Hair loss does not belong to any particular ethnic group.  Even though ‘bald‘ is in, many women want to change their look often, and are not comfortable with exposing themselves in this way.  Buying wigs is expensive, and does not work for every head.

Hair Is Tied to Self-Image

Long, short, bouncy, sleek — for most women, hair is far more than a bundle of fiber. It’s an expression of style and personality. Research also suggests hair and self-image are closely intertwined. If an occasional “bad hair day” can make a gal feel low, hair loss can be a distressing sight to face every morning in the mirror.  https://www.emedexpert.com/tips/hair-loss-effects.shtml